Andanar: Martial law vid taken down because PCOO 'respects opinion of everyone'

After nearly a month, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar has finally addressed the controversial video on martial law released by his agency that was taken down after criticism online.

In a radio interview on Saturday, Andanar defended the video as saying it contained nothing that President Rodrigo Duterte did not say about his declaration of martial law in Mindanao.

“Well it was an animation that was created by one of the graphic artists who would know — one of the teams that will create animations and I asked them, ‘Ano bang naging ano nito, puntos nitong video na ito?’ Wala namang bago dito, kung ano lang iyong sinabi ni Presidente na martial law, wala naman, hindi naman lumabas. Walang sobra, walang kulang,” Andanar was quoted in an official transcript of the radio interview sent to the media.

He added that the video was taken down because of the flak the video was getting online, noting that it showed that the PCOO was receptive to feedback.

“I think what’s important here is ang PCOO is an office that listens to the opinion of other people also, whether — hindi lang iyong kapartido namin, hindi lang iyong mga naniniwala sa amin, maging sa mga tao na hindi naniniwala sa paniniwala namin, nakikinig kami,” he said.

“So when it was — when it was being ano, it was bashed online. Sabi ko, ‘Sige para ano, tanggalin na lang natin para hindi na — as to respect also to the opinion of other people,’” Andanar added.

The controversial video, captioned #DefendTheRepublic, was posted on May 31 before being unpublished

It featured a boy holding a shield “martial law” against silhouettes of armed men tagged as “extremists.”

“Martial law should be the rule of the land. Martial law now,” the video said.

PCOO Assistant Secretary Kris Ablan had told GMA News Online that the video was a teaser for the agency’s Extremism & Martial Law project. —JST, GMA News