RTVM coverage of Velasco’s ‘election’ as Speaker not partisanship -PCOO

The Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) defended the Radio Television Malacañang’s (RTVM) coverage of the gathering of lawmakers who “elected” Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Velasco as Speaker on Monday.

PCOO Assistant Secretary Kris Ablan said there is nothing partisan about covering the event in Quezon City, which was livestreamed on the PCOO Facebook page.

“The RTVM coverage posted this morning on our social media accounts does not reflect the PCOO’s position on the present political situation in the House of Representatives or any partisanship on the matter,” he said.

Ablan said the RTVM team was initially at the Batasang Pambansa Complex to prepare for the resumption of deliberations on the proposed 2021 national budget.

However, the assigned crew was informed to transfer to the Celebrity Sports Plaza instead and "upon getting to the venue, RTVM covered the activity," Ablan said, adding it was Deputy Majority Leader Bernadette Herrera-Dy who made the request for coverage.

RTVM executive director Demic Pabalan also gave a similar explanation.

“Our technical crew is in the House to cover the budget hearing. Crew were told to go [to Celebrity Sports Plaza] instead,” he said.

Ablan said the PCOO and RTVM "simply complied to the request for coverage, with the promotion of factual information and transparency, especially on tax expenditures that concern all the Filipino taxpayers, in mind."

Velasco’s “election” took place a day before the start of the special session of Congress called by President Rodrigo Duterte for the House to resume the deliberations on and approve the P4.506-trillion national budget for 2021.

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano has slammed the Quezon City gathering as a “fake session” and warned those who “try to burn this House down” that they were in “for one hell of a fight.”

Velasco and Cayetano are parties to the term-sharing agreement brokered by Duterte in July last year.—AOL, GMA News