PCOO reminds staff to be ‘mindful’ on social media after Uson’s federalism cheer

Lorraine Badoy, Mocha Uson and Drew Olivar. Photos: Badoy and Uson’s Facebook accounts.
Lorraine Badoy, Mocha Uson and Drew Olivar. Photos: Badoy and Uson’s Facebook accounts.

Better late than never?

Lorraine Badoy, the Undersecretary of the embattled Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), sent a memo on Monday to the PCOO’s staff to remind them to be “mindful” of their actions on social media or when dealing with members of the press.

Badoy’s memo was sent following people’s complaints over PCOO Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson and pro-Duterte blogger Drew Olivar’s federalism cheer, which Uson posted on her Facebook account earlier this month.

In the cheer, Olivar chanted “I-pepe” while touching his crotch, to refer to the vagina; and “I-dede” while touching his chest, referring to a woman’s breast.

Pepe is a colloquial word for “vagina” while dede means breast.

It is unclear if Badoy is directly referring to Uson, who has been harshly criticized by netizens for her participation in the federalism cheer.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer received a copy of Badoy’s memo, which reads: “As the Chair of the PCOO’s Gender and Development, the undersigned [Badoy] would like to remind you along with all officials and employees of our role in creating a positive impact towards gender issues and portrayal of women in the media since we play a crucial role in raising public awareness and shape public opinion.”

It adds: “Hence, please be mindful of the content you post or share on your personal social media accounts, as well as other publications and press releases your office may publish.”

Undersecretary Badoy also reminded the PCOO’s staff of Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, which states that government officials must perform their duties with “the highest degree of excellence, professionalism, intelligence and skill.”

Until today, Uson and Olivar have not apologized for the controversial cheer.

Shortly after receiving criticism for what netizens called a “lewd” cheer, Uson wrote a non-apology on Facebook which reads: “Our game show, which was in the spirit of good fun, has no intention of making light of [the campaign for] federalism. Our goal is to encourage our followers to discuss federalism because this was one of the things promised by our president [Rodrigo Duterte].”

In an interview with ANC’s Headstart, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made it apparent that he had no plans of defending Uson.

He said: “I think a big chunk of the population have expressed disagreement with what she’s doing and if she continues to ignore these, she will become irrelevant.”

The PCOO is known for its numerous public gaffes, which include calling Norway “Norwegia” in a Facebook post and the numerous grammatical errors in the IDs it distributed to members of the press.

It remains to be seen if Uson and the rest of the agency will step up in light of Badoy’s memo.



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