Malacañang, struggling to raise people’s awareness on the Duterte administration’s federalism drive, has assured the release of standardized materials suited for the dissemination of information on the Consultative Committee’s (Con-com) proposed federal Charter.
Sought for comment on the report that Con-com is considering to tap Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) for the Con-com information drive, Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. said on Monday: “Anyone is welcome to disseminate [information].”
“Of course, we seek to come up with standardized dissemination materials so that no one will deviate from the messaging. We are [also] developing materials for disseminators, and we are formulating a module to train first the trainors, and we are developing a module for dissemination so that anyone who will follow the module can disseminate properly,” Roque said.
Con-com Spokesman Conrado I. Generoso said they are seriously considering to tap Uson, saying the controversial actress and blogger would be a big help to promote federalism on the account of her huge social-media following.
“We’re just exploring ways she [Uson] could help. She has a wide audience. If she can write about federalism a few times, we would reach a great number of people,” he told the BusinessMirror in a text message.
Generoso added he is planning to schedule a talk with Uson “maybe within the week” right after the completion and presentation of the communication to Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea and other Palace officials.
Asked if the involvement of Uson has the go-signal of Con-com Chairman and former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, Generoso said they have been talking about this months ago, not just about her involvement, but also about other people who can help, and other ways to extend the information reach on their proposed federal Charter.
Con-com and Malacañang both admitted earlier that there is a need to boost the federalism information drive since recent surveys showed low public awareness on the proposed federal system of government.
Uson, who runs the “Mocha Uson Blog,” has been an object of public criticism for allegedly spreading “fake news” on social media.
The Con-com submitted the draft constitution on federalism to the President on July 9. But the Chief Executive “requested” the Con-com to revise the transitory provisions to include a ban for an incumbent president to seek reelection and for elections to be held for transitory president and transitory vice president after the proposed Constitution has been ratified by the people.
The Con-com released the final and official copy of their proposed constitution publicly on July 17.