Malacañang probes release of wrong seat plan for ASEAN gala night

Presidential Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar on Sunday said he has ordered an investigation on the release of information that President Rodrigo Duterte was supposed to sit beside US President Barack Obama and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during the ASEAN gala dinner in Laos last week.

Andanar told radio dzBB in an interview that the information on the seating arrangement during the gala night was not supposed to be made public. He said the Presidential News Desk, which is under his office, released the information.

"Nagkaroon ng konting problema. Yung ating Presidential News Desk was overzealous on releasing information, particularly the seating arrangement of the president without even checking the facts," Andanar said.

He denied giving the go signal for the release of the information.

"I take full responsibility for that ‘boo-boo’ but I’d like to assure that I’ve already ordered an investigation doon sa Presidential News Desk kung bakit ganitong klaseng impormasyon went out without my approval," he added.

He said he ordered Undersecretary Enrique Dandan to manage the Presidential News Desk and investigate what he called an "unintentional mistake."

"We take the problem seriously. I ordered Usec. Enrique Dandan to look into it. Usec. Dandan now is the person looking over, managing PND, what happened there. But from my office I’d like to say that we regeret what happened and I take full responsibility for what happened," he said.

Not a laughing matter

The PCO announced on September 7 that President Rodrigo Duterte would sit in between Obama and Ban at the ASEAN gala dinner in Laos.

“Presidents Duterte and Obama will be seated next to each other, which expectedly, will focus all cameras on them to deliver to the world the encounter of the two. Incidentally, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is also seated on the other side of President Duterte,” it said in a statement.

However, Duterte was seated away from Obama and Ban during the gala dinner. The Philippine leader was instead flanked by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Andanar noted the release of seating arrangements between leaders is exclusive to concerned parties and should be released to the media until the event.

"It’s not a matter to laugh about. It's very serious because yung mga seating arrangements na ganito, it should be exlusive. It should not be released to the media until the day na mangyari yung event na yun," Andanar said.

He then recalled a question he received from the international press on the supposed seating arrangement before the gala dinner.

"Ako ay natanong ng international press at ng ating kasamahan sa [Malacañang Press Corps], I remember saying these words, that 'it's difficult to speculate the seating arrangement but I assure you that they will be eating and drinking together.' Kasi if you will ask me I will never release such information," Andanar said.

Andanar added that the host nation drafts the seating or talking -- slots for leaders' speeches -- arrangements and change it without notice.

source:gmanews