THE Presidential Communications Office (PCO) is eyeing the regularization of its more than 100 contract of service (COS) personnel by the end of the year, Secretary Cheloy Garafil yesterday told senators during the budget hearing on her office’s proposed budget for next year.
Garafil said by next year, the PCO will no longer have COS personnel.
The PCO has 250 plantilla items, of which 191 are already filled while 59 are still unfilled.
“There are a total of 111 COS personnel who we also aim to be regularized through the ongoing re-organization process. The PCO has already submitted to the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) a proposed new structure. Should it be approved, there will hopefully be no more COS positions by 2024,” said Garafil during the Senate hearing on the proposed P1.79 billion budget of the PCO for next year.
She said the newly-organized PCO Proper requested for a P919.9 million but only P495.77 million was approved by the DBM. The approved budgets for PCO’s attached agencies total to P1.29 billion.
Garafil asked the Senate finance sub-committee tackling her office’s budget to grant the PCO an additional P410.7 million to cover its operations and for the programs, activities, and projects of the agency’s new media operations cluster.
TROLL FARMS
During the budget hearing, Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito asked Garafil if the Marcos administration has continued to employ the 1,479 Palace personnel earlier alleged to be hired as trolls of the Duterte administration.
Garafil said: “For the record, Mr. Chair, wala po kaming troll. No troll farm, no troll army…Mr. Chair, meron lang po kaming 363 employees sa PCO (For the record, Mr. Chair, we have no trolls. No troll farm, no troll army…Mr. Chair, we only have 363 employees at the PCO).”
Ejercito said the PCO should help stop the proliferation of “fake news.”
“After waking up and before going to bed, we can read the news using our cellphones. It’s true that information is at our fingertips (but) not everything we read is true or beneficial. Fake news is widespread that harms our countrymen, especially our youth,” Ejercito said.
“In such cases, we expect the PCO to lead a campaign that will ensure that the news and the information we receive are correct and true. News and information also serve as a medium of communication between the government and our people,” he added.
In an interview after the hearing, Garafil said it has been the advocacy of the PCO to fight the proliferation of fake news by launching a media literacy campaign aimed at informing the public how to spot real and fake information.
