Echaves: Spins and jokes

PHOTOS and videos of Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar in the first month of the Duterte presidency showed a fresh-faced, personable, good-looking and towering man, ready and committed to take on the world.

Lately, we see him feeling the heavy weight of his office. Will he last in government?

Nothing in his academic credentials--two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Australia in film and media studies, and in social and political studies--and his media experience--manager of a TV station, news anchor, radio commentator--quite prepared him for a quirky president.

He and presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella dish out presidential directives in the absence of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Unless, of course, when their boss delivers these himself impromptu, sometimes because he deviates from the prepared script (which he complains is too long, like the first State of the Nation Address), or because the exhibitionist machismo kicks in.

But we know the drill. There will be cussing, ranting, the dirty finger and expletives delivered bilingual. In Taglish for local consumption, and in English for international consumption and braggadocio.

So, it’s not surprising when in an interview with Philippine Star’s Domini Torrevillas, he admits that his job is “very challenging,” given a boss who “does not want to be preempted,” or when presented a speech, may read “some parts, but does not follow it.”

So, then, the verbal blunders begin, after which the President’s apologists scramble with rehashed spins.

Spins like the ranting was really meant for someone else.

Because of the obscenity-laden rant against him, US President Barack Obama decided to cancel his scheduled meeting with Duterte. An official statement from Duterte’s office then claimed that the S.O.B. was really meant for the journalist who raised the possibility of questions about extrajudicial killings.

Fortunately, Obama merely responded by saying he heard Duterte’s “a colorful guy,” a remark illustrative of the Obama family’s standard approach to below-the-belt rantings: “When they go low, we go high.”

Spins like the cussing was provoked by political opponents who originally started he issue.

On Duterte’s recent faux pas about Hitler, listen to Abella’s spin: "The President's reference to the slaughter was an oblique deflection of the way he has been pictured as a mass murderer, a Hitler, a label he rejects…It is a matter of record that the reference to Hitler did not originate from the President. Days before the May presidential elections, the President’s opponents introduced this issue to gain political mileage.”

So, Duterte just wanted to remind everyone at the Masskara Festival in Bacolod City that he was likened to Hitler? Ergo, he’s willing to kill 3,000 drug addicts, even if he’s not like Hitler?

Spins like half-baked apologies. Sorry to the Jewish community, but not to the “stupid lawyers” from the European Union or the UN Commission on Human Rights…(expletive).

Spins like Duterte was “just joking,” according to Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco.

Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director for Human Rights Watch asked, “Does (Duterte) want to be sent to the International Criminal Court? Because he’s working his way there.”

Careful, guys. The joke might be on your bossing.

(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)

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