'NEWSWORTHY'

Andanar defends PTV airing of pro-Velasco gathering in QC

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar on Tuesday said the gathering of congressmen supportive of newly installed Speaker Lord Allan Velasco at the Celebrity Sports Plaza in Quezon City was aired and covered by its attached agencies because it was deemed newsworthy.

"The People's Television operates as a government-owned and controlled corporation. We strive to catch up with the private media," Andanar said as he faced the Senate for the deliberation on proposed P1.59-billion budget of PCOO and its attached agencies for 2021.

"We cover everybody. We do not side with any political course, so I am assuming that the GM (general manager) decided based on the newsworthiness of the story," he added.

People's Television Network Inc. General Manager Katherine Chloe De Castro explained that the Radio Television Malacañang’s (RTVM) coverage of the gathering outside Batasang Pambansa on Monday was just cross-posted in PTV-4's social media account.

"To make sure that we appeared as fair, we also cross-posted the presscon of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano. What we did was we sent a reporter to cover Cong. Lord Allan Velasco and another reporter to cover Speaker Cayetano," she said.

"It's always balanced. We strive to be fair, we don't do angles, we don't do twists, we just report events the way they are," she added.

Cayetano and Velasco, both allies of President Rodrigo Duterte, are having a conflict in their term-sharing deal in the House of Representatives. They both claim to have the numbers in the lower chamber.

On Monday, at the Quezon City gathering, 186 congressmen voted to declare Velasco as the new Speaker, but Cayetano said it was a fake session.

Velasco's election as Speaker was ratified by the chamber on Tuesday. Cayetano, meanwhile, tendered his irrevocable resignation as House's top leader.

Duterte — who brokered the gentleman's agreement last year between Cayetano and Velasco — summoned the two to a meeting in Malacañang on Tuesday ahead of the special session, which he called so that the deliberations on the proposed national budget for next year can continue.

Before that, on October 6, Cayetano suspended the session until November 16 after passing the national budget bill on second reading. —KBK, GMA News