PRESIDENTIAL Communications Secretary Martin Andanar clarified Friday that the "fafda" gaffe was an "accidental tweet" by one of his staff.
In a text message to SunStar Philippines, Andanar said the word "fafda" does not mean anything.
"It was an accidental tweet made by Angel Abella, one of our Twitter administrators. It doesn't mean anything so she deleted it right away," the PCOO chief said.
Andanar said Abella deleted the tweet right away.
"I immediately wrote a memo to all of our social media admins to be more careful," Andanar said.
He cautioned his social media staff to "be more circumspect and diligent in handling the official social media accounts of the PCOO."
"Let this memorandum serve as a warning to everyone concerned. Any future similar incident shall be dealt seriously," he added.
At 1:07 p.m. Friday, the Presidential Communications posted "fafda" on Twitter. It had garnered 21 retweets and 29 likes before it was taken down seven minutes later.
If searched on Google, Fafda is a street food that can be found in Gujarat, India. It is a crunchy Gujarati snack made with gram flour, turmeric, and carom seeds.
The presidential communications chief is in the media spotlight lately after a series of gaffes committed by the Philippine News Agency, one of the offices under his supervision.
Andanar has kept a low key presence with media since the latter part of February this year following allegations of a supposed bribery of Senate reporters to cover a press conference of confessed Davao Death Squad leader retired SPO3 Arturo LascaƱas. (VLA/Ruth Abbey Gita/SunStar Philippines)
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