PIA chief asks Mocha Uson to resign

The chief of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) on Friday publicly asked Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson to step down from her post following her failure to attend plenary deliberations on the budget of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO).

PIA director general Harold Clavite told GMA News TV program "State of the Nation with Jessica Soho" that Uson's absence at the agency's budget hearing was only the latest of the former singer-dancer's "blunders" as an assistant secretary.

"[The] Filipino people have now seen what a Mocha Uson could do to governance," Clavite explained. "I think what she has done has really tarnished the brand and image of the President and his government."

The PIA, which serves as the country's main development communications arm, is an attached unit of the PCOO.   

Advocacy groups, netizens, and other officials had previously urged Uson to quit government.

In August, she drew widespread flak for co-hosting a supposed federalism awareness segment with pro-Duterte blogger Andrew "Drew" Olivar, who performed an inappropriate dance while chanting, "I-pepe, i-pepe, i-dede, i-dede... ipederalismo!"

The pair was in hot water again little over a month later for another online video where Olivar pretended to be a hearing-speech impaired person using sign language. — Margaret Claier Layug/DVM, GMA News