Martin Andanar
“It’s a tough job,” Martin Andanar said about being secretary of the Presidential Communications Office, whose primary role is to put President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration in a good light. “I did not know it was this difficult,” the tall (6’2”), 42-year-old, personable communications man elaborated, “The president is one guy that doesn’t fall within a box. He does not want to be preempted. You give him a speech, he reads some parts, but does not follow it.”
“That,” he said, “makes my job very challenging.”
Andanar and Ernesto Abella head the Presidential Communications Office. Andanar supervises the operations of government’s news and information agencies, television and radio stations including Philippine Information Agency, Philippine News Agency, PTV-4 and PBS Radyo ng Bayan.
Abella is presidential spokesman; he is the primary source of presidential directives in the absence of President Duterte. When Abella is not available, Andanar serves as spokesman.
Andanar was appointed days before Duterte was installed as president. He was not a kabarilan or kamaganak of the former Davao City mayor. They had not even met personally. But as a radio commentator on AksyonTV and host/ anchor at TV 5, Andanar kept saying that the prevalent riding-in-tandem crimes and graft cases would not be happening had Mayor Duterte been in control in Manila. His words of praise fell on the right ears; before long, he was hailed to his eminence’s office in the southern city. The meeting resulted in an exclusive first ever media interview on March 15, 2015 with the maverick executive. At the time, Digong had not made up his mind about running for president.
Their next meeting was on August 1st, 2015, in Cagayan de Oro city (Martin’s hometown) when both Digong and Martin were godfathers at a friend’s child’s christening. The mayor was now asking him for possible vice-presidential names, but Martin requested that these would be off-the-record.
What is to be on record is his being friends with former President Noynoy Aquino. Martin has a car repair shop, where repairs were made on Noynoy’s cars, including the one he used in Congress.
Another “causal relationship” between Digong and Martin is his being married to the niece of former Senators Manny and Cynthia Villar. Martin’s wife Alelee is the daughter of Las Pinas Mayor Nene Aguilar, brother of Senator Cynthia Villar. They have two children.
The senators’ son, Mark, was appointed secretary of public works, but his appointment is believed by some observers as not based on the Aguilar- Andanar relationship, but on Duterte’s picking his men based on his own assessment and his closest associates’ recommendations for government positions.
As a media man, Martin covered Digong’s barnstorming tours, but he had no inkling what lay ahead of him. He was planning to go on his own, leave broadcasting, and set up a fiber-optic business. After the presidential election, he was in Thailand when he received word that he was the president-elect’s choice for press secretary. On June 30, Digong and Martin assumed their positions.
Martin was born in Palanan, Makati, near the St. Martin de Porres church. His father, Wencelito Andanar, is a former undersecretary at the Department of Interior and Local Government. Martin was a sickly boy, and when his mother’s prayers for his health were answered, she named him after St.Martin. He had his elementary and high school education at Xavier University in CDO. He obtained two bachelor’s degrees (film and media studies, and social and political studies), at the University of Australia.
When he was doing broadcasting, he took advantage of scholarships abroad, such as at Georgetown University for public policies; Northern Illinois University, National University of Singapore, and Harvard University Kennedy School of Government for an international business program. He also attended Asian Institute of Management. He said at a dinner.
He was news anchor, radio commentator, podcaster, audio blogger, voice-over artist and comedian. He last worked for TV 5. He headed the former head of News5 Everywhere, the online news video and audio portal of TV 5, and former anchor of Aksyon sa Umaga and Punto Asintado on Radio5 92.3 News FM And AksyonTV, sister stations of TV5. He was also a voice-over talent of News5, Aksyon TV, and Radyo 92.3 News FM. In 2004 and 2008 he won the 18th and 22nd Star Awards for best male newscaster on television.
Neither Abella nor Andanar are subject to confirmation by the Commission on Appointments.
Armed with determination to do a good job, to his dismay, Andanar went under fire for committing one communication gaffe after another. News reports list “miscommunication” on the coverage of President Duterte’s declaration of a state of lawless violence, a premature announcement on the seating arrangement at the ASEAN summit gala dinner, and the Official Gazette’s controversial Facebook post commemorating the 99th birth anniversary of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Andanar admitted PCO’s mistakes, attributing them to the “overzealousness” of staffers. He took full responsibility for the PCO’s lapses.
He told our media group he was “naïve” to think that the job would be dandy, only to find out that society “makes big small mistakes, turning them into political issues.” What he really wanted, “from my heart, is to serve, to improve the agencies under me,” and communicate to the public the programs of government.
A difficult task for him is dealing with social media. Social media is free to write, he tells reporters covering the Malacanang beat. As all government media persons aspire, only good things about the boss should come out. Critics and opinion columnists have not all been kind to the policies, actions and words coming out of Duterte’s mouth.
A pain in Andanar’s neck was a