A PARTY-LIST lawmaker on Wednesday said Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar owes an apology to the European Union (EU) for his vulgar remarks against them.
"I think Andanar should apologize for such rude remarks and clean up his mouth as well as his office, which is in disarray," Akbayan Partylist Representative Tom Villarin said in a statement.
During a meeting in London with the Overseas Filipino Workers, Andanar said some officials of the EU are noisy because they lack sex.
Villarin said it's highly unbecoming of a Cabinet secretary in charge of official communications to degenerate into "political debauchery."
"I don't think Filipinos deserve to be represented in such debauchery and perversity. It's what we call now as andanarspeak - nagpapaandar ala Dutertespeak," said Villarin.
Opposition lawmaker Ifugao Representative Teddy Baguilat appealed to Andanar to focus on his job as Secretary of PCOO, particularly on handling the Philippine News Agency (PNA), which earned criticisms after a series of blunders earlier this year.
"Sana pagtuunan naman nya ng pansin ang tungkulin nya bilang Communications Office chief para di pumapalpak ang management ng PNA," he said.
[Hopefully, he will focus on his role as Communications Office Chief so that his management of the PNA will not fail.]
The PNA was recently criticized for attaching a wrong photo in its story about the Department of Labor and Employment's pay rules for 2018 holidays. It found itself in another blunder when it reported a story from the Xinhua News Agency that called the arbitral ruling that favored Philippine's claim to the South China Sea ill-founded.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier ordered EU officials to leave the country for allegedly lobbying for the country's removal from the United Nations.
The EU denied Duterte's claims and distances themselves from those groups critical to the president specifically in the administration's war on drugs. (SunStar Philippines)