UPDATE: PIA Director General urged Mocha to take a leave of absence Statement from PIA On the heels of PCOO Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson’s latest blunder on the Administration’s campaign to push for federalism, a public apology from the PCOO official is paramount. Along this line is a call for her to take a leave of absence to reflect on these matters. This is not only a seeming insult to our profession in communication and public information but also degrading to the women and mothers in our communities. I have served alongside PCOO and all its attached agencies under the good leadership of Secretary Martin Andanar, and as far as I'm concerned, Ms. Uson's actions since her appointment have time and again proven to be in poor taste—a display of an utter lack of judgment and have maligned our profession as government communicators. I speak out on this issue to give value to the massive man-hours my office, the Philippine Information Agency, had spent on providing capability and capacity building trainings, seminars, and workshops to all our stakeholders in public information on the ground; to give value to the hard work of PCOO’s attached agencies. My stand on this issue defends the integrity and intelligence of all government information officers, volunteers, and partners— many of whom women and mothers— across the nation, who are continuously working very hard to positively influence the Filipino public to make them responsible sharers of information and be able to contribute to the significant change the public information infrastructure of this country so badly requires. As a public servant and being part of the PCOO family, I take great offense in Ms. Uson’s actions, which continuously damages the rectitude of my communication and public information agenda. I can no longer let her obscure and vilify my honest work in helping the President, this government, and this country, as well as the efforts that we have painstakingly and patiently put into place under my leadership in PIA for the past two years. We have been sitting idly by for too long, and it is about time that someone speaks up and hold erring officials accountable for repeatedly tarnishing the reputation of our government. With this, I respectfully urge Ms. Mocha Uson to take a leave of absence to think and reconfigure all her strategies putting into consideration the code of conduct and ethical standards that all public officials should adhere to. HAROLD E. CLAVITE Director-General Philippine Information Agency

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