PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday said government is functioning properly as he dismissed recent events as political noise.
The President also rejected talks he is conducting a “loyalty check” with his recent command conferences with the Amed Forces and the PNP.
Marcos’ predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, last month asked the military and the police to intervene to “protect the Constitution” as he said there was a “fracture” in government. Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, has also been criticizing Marcos since she resigned as education secretary in June this year. She has also been lashing out at the House of Representatives where several committees are investigating her alleged misuse of funds of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.
The President, in an interview in Malacañang, said the government continues to function amid the “noise.”
“Oh, we’re quite stable. I mean, the government is functioning properly. Although there’s a lot of noise, that’s all it is. It’s all just noise,” he said when asked about the state of the country.
Marcos also said he is not conducting any loyalty check, as perceived by some sectors, because of the recent command conferences with the military and the police institutions.
He said he heard about the loyalty check only from media reports. He said “in the military, in the police, we don’t have that.”
“I do not understand that term because I don’t know how you conduct a loyalty check. At least not when you call a command conference,” he said.
Marcos last week convened the Joint National Peace and Order Council (NPOC)-Regional Peace and Order Councils (RPOCs) which discussed among others, the 2025 midterm elections, the regional and national peace and order situation, and campaign against Philippine offshore gaming operators.
The President also told reporters in Malacañang that he would be more “open” and accessible to the media next year, amid the spread of fake news, disinformation, and false information.
Marcos acknowledged the administration has been giving “structured” statements, responses and releases to media.
“Sometimes there is a tendency — and I will admit to this — there is a tendency for us to try and structure the releases, the news, and the opinions or the responses very, very closely. And that’s because we don’t want to get it wrong. However, I think there is still a space for us to be a little bit less structured,” he said.
He said the administration would now leave it to the media to discern what is important and true.
The President expressed confidence that the media would be able to determine if any of the statements or issues are part of the actual policies of the administration, or not, and eventually help inform the public about it.
“I leave it to your better judgment. I leave it to your experience to try and determine what is important and what is not. And what are the things that have been said that really matter. And the other things are just considering issues,” he said.
The President said whenever he watches the news, he would think some issues have to be answered and would prepare answers, but would hold issuing any statement.
Marcos reiterated the importance of the media especially in reporting the truth and informing the public of what the government has been doing, trying to accomplish, and its policies and decisions and how they were reached.
