Nayong Pilipino chief is new Palace deputy spokesperson

Malacañang on Wednesday named Nayong Pilipino executive director Charito Planas as its newest deputy spokesperson.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita made the announcement during a regular media briefing in Malacañang. Planas, a former Quezon City vice mayor, will replace deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo. In December, Fajardo announced that she has quit her post to focus on her other job as presidential assistant for Central Luzon. In accepting the appointment, the 79-year-old Planas thanked President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and praised her "unmatched diligence amid criticisms." As the new deputy presidential spokesperson, Planas vowed to eliminate the public's negative perception of the Arroyo administration. "What I see in the entire country is negativism and when you are negative wala na... I am an advocate of (a positive attitude). You can fly high with being positive," she said in an interview on Wednesday. One on one Planas also lamented the negativism dominating the media, saying she plans to sit down and talk with each reporter covering the Malacañang beat. "Ang minds nila [ng media] negative na, kaya wala nang nakikitang positive [The media is a negative-thinker, so there's no place for a positive attitude anymore]... [but] remember Jesus Christ is positive," Planas said. With the addition of Planas, President Arroyo now has five official spokespersons, according to Ermita. He said he was confident Planas would be able to "project" government projects in a way that these would be appreciated by the public. Arroyo supporter Planas said she has always been supportive of the projects of the Arroyo administration. The Nayong Pilipino Website quoted Planas as admitting that sometimes she took a stand that conflicted with that of the Arroyo administration. But she added, "I believe in the continuity (of a bureaucracy). Also, nothing can substitute experience. And President Arroyo has the experience." A known champion of environmental causes, Planas is credited for the rehabilitation of the 26-hectare Quezon Memorial Circle, which had been neglected by the local government for decades. The original Nayong Pilipino theme park - or the Philippine Village - in Pasay City is the site of a number of miniature replicas of the Philippines' famous landmarks packed inside a 45-hectare land. In late 2007, the Nayong Pilipino Foundation opened another theme park on a 3.8-hectare portion of the former site of the Expo Pilipino complex in Clark Field in Mrs. Arroyo's home province of Pampanga. In Wednesday's briefing in Malacañang, Ermita allayed fears that the appointment of Planas - chairman of Nayong Pilipino sa Clark Expo - was meant to boost further Arroyo's chances of winning a House seat representing Pampanga province's Second District. The controversial Expo Pilipino was built under the administration of former President Fidel Ramos to celebrate the centenary of Philippine independence. In 1999, however, the park closed during the term of Ramos' successor, former President Joseph Estrada, after the Senate's blue ribbon committee found proof of graft in the project. - Mark Merueñas/LBG, GMANews.TV