Legal suits to follow Uson's 'belated' resignation, critics say
MANILA, Philippines — Former Presidential Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson stayed with the government for a year and five months until she offered to step down. But critics said that her resignation has come too late since damage has already been done to the Presidential Communications Operations Office.
Opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros said that Uson’s resignation is “an extremely belated gesture rendered insignificant in the face of gross incompetence, state-sponsored vulgarity and the proliferation of fake news.”
Hontiveros said that Uson has already tarnished the reputation of the communications arm of the government during her stint. “She has not only successfully planted the seeds of untruth inside the government, she has made sure it bore fruit to sow confusion and poison the public’s mind,” added the senator.
Uson announced that she is stepping down during the Senate hearing on the 2019 budget of the PCOO. She called her resignation a “sacrifice” to ease the way for the passage of her former office’s budget, which has been deferred by the House of Representatives due to her absence.
The House of Representatives has deferred deliberations on the PCOO budget due to Uson’s absence. The former Palace communications official has just arrived from New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
Rep. Carlos Zarate (Bayan Muna party-list) said that Uson’s resignation is “long overdue.”
“Government service, while it is about trust, it is also about accountability. And that is what is sorely lacking from her. She’s an enabler of impunity, be it for fake news or tokhang killings or killings and displacement of the Lumads, and many more,” Zarate added.
Rep. Teddy Baguilat (Ifugao), meanwhile, said that President Rodrigo Duterte is “ridding himself of excess baggage as it tries to shore up its plummeting image due to incompetence and insensitivity.”
Uson vows more attacks
Uson, facing the reporters after she was excused from the hearing, said that she would ramp up “attacks” against critics, which she had been doing even when she was a government official.
Sen. Nancy Binay took this in stride, as she quipped: “Naku naman sa pinagdaanan ko, ano. Parang, hindi ba, na-black and blue na nga ako, hindi na nga nawala eh, nag-stay na iyong black.”
(Isn’t it that from what I have been through, isn’t it that I’m already black and blue [from bruises]? The color black event stayed.)
Binay said that criticism is part of the job. She added that Uson is free to do whatever she wants “for as long as no government funds are being spent.”
Uson's stint with the PCO is marred with controversies such as excessive foreign travels and using her Facebook account that boasts of more than five million followers to post fake news — a term often used for propaganda and misinformation made to look like legitimate news articles.
The spread of fake news has been widely seen by experts as a major global threat with its reported ability to manipulate elections and imperil democracies.
Suits to follow
Lawyer Barry Gutierrez, spokesperson of Vice President Leni Robredo, said: "There have many times in the past that Uson showed that she does not understand and she was unprepared to serve the country. She is not a loss to country when she resigned.”
Gutierrez reminded Uson that her resignation does not extinguish her liabilities for “all the lies she spread and her badmouthing.”
Group Let’s Organize for Democracy and Integrity (LODI), meanwhile, said that they intend to "hold Uson accountable for her acts of graft and corruption as an assistant secretary. She will made to pay for her crimes, regardless of her future plans."
Uson is facing at least three suits over her controversial posts and statements before the Office of the Ombudsman.
READ: Complaint filed vs Mocha, blogger friend over 'sign language' video
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