VP Robredo "purveyor of fake news," Palace official says
A Malacanang official accused on Tuesday Vice President Leni Robredo as "one of the primary purveyors of fake news."
Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Undersecretary Lorraine Marie T. Badoy made the statement during the hearing of the Senate committee on public information and mass media about fake news.
"Just to make it clear that misinformation, lies and all these misleadings do not come exclusively from Duterte camp. Neither do they come from just officials that are identified with the government," Badoy said.
She cited an instance when Robredo painted a "gloomy picture of the country" with the international audience.
Contrary to Robredo, Badoy said "all the numbers" about the economy were "fantastic" and most Filipinos were hopeful under the Duterte administration.
Senator Grace Poe, committee chair, responded, "Well, that's her (Robredo's) opinion and I guess the number will speak for itself as you said."
In the same hearing, Poe raised the possible conflict of interest on what PCOO Assistant Secretary Margaux "Mocha" Uson has been doing - a blogger and a government official.
"It’s very hard to separate her own personal opinion from that of the PCOO. Have you ever considered, and I will ask this and I hope you will answer in all candidness that since her own private blog is also a way of expressing and communicating, that this indeed (is) overlapping with her official functions? Perhaps even using government time to be able to fulfill her work in her blog,” she asked PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar.
Andanar said he has called Mocha's attention in some controversial posts that she made on her personal Facebook account, which has five million followers.
But he added that Mocha has her own "specific market," such as those outside the country and the Classes C,D, and E.
He also said Uson is "accountable to the law from whatever she's saying. She's not exempted." Celerina Monte/DMS
