MS. MORATO: And live, we have Secretary Martin Andanar via Skype sa Bangkok, Thailand. Good evening, sir.
SEC. ANDANAR: Hello, good evening Pia at magandang gabi sa lahat ng nakikinig at nanonood sa’yo dito sa Radyo Pilipinas Uno pati sa PTV, at ganoon din po sa mga nakikinig at nanonood sa atin sa pamamagitan ng ating mga social media pages. You can hear me loud and clear, Pia?
MS. MORATO: I’m getting there sir. I’m trying to hear you loud and clear. I hear you vaguely, but I’m trying—I think we’re fixing it a bit, but okay.
SEC. ANDANAR: Welcome to our show, alam ko naman na kayang-kaya mong gampanan ang pagiging anchor ng Radyo Pilipinas.
MS. MORATO: Maraming salamat po sa tiwala.
SEC. ANDANAR: At as you all know, ngayon po ay [choppy line] ASEAN dito sa Bangkok, Thailand, it’s the 34th ASEAN. At si Presidente Duterte at iba pang mga Pangulo ng iba’t ibang ASEAN countries ay inaasahang dumalo sa meeting na ito. As a matter of fact, bukas po ang umpisa ng napaka-hectic na schedule ni Presidente. Mayroon pong courtesy call bukas ng hapon ang mga CEOs ng Thailand, ito po’y mula sa top business groups dito po sa Bangkok; makikipagkita po sa ating mahal na Pangulo.
Then after that, at 3:30 in the afternoon magkakaroon po ng ASEAN Leaders Interface with representatives of ASEAN Inter-parliament Assembly. Tapos after that, by 3:50, mayroon pong ASEAN Leaders Interface with representatives of ASEAN Youth; sunud-sunod po, napaka-hectic po ng schedule. Then after that, mayroon ding ASEAN Leaders Interface with representatives of ASEAN Business Advisory Council; tapos mayroon pong 34th ASEAN Summit Plenary. And then mayroon pong gala with the ASEAN Leaders, tapos mayroon pong meeting with His Excellency Widodo.
MS. MORATO: Sir, your schedule is so jam packed and may nabasa rin ako at talagang we’re really inviting more investments from Thailand as well. Is that right?
SEC. ANDANAR: Yes, yes. Kasi bukas, iyon po ‘yung unang meeting ni Presidente Duterte sa mga business community; iyong mga big time na mga negosyante po dito sa Thailand. At alam ninyo, mayroon ding mga iba pang mga industries na gustong pumasok sa bansa natin tulad po ng real estate, mula dito sa Thailand. So we will see, we will see kung ano po ‘yung mapag-uusapan at kung ano po—siyempre makikita po natin kung sino ‘yung mga negosyanteng nandoon at malalaman natin kung ano iyong mga interest nila sa ating bansa.
Isa rin sa mga mahalagang puwedeng mapag-usapan din during this time will be… iyong welfare po ng ating mga workers at migrants, at ine-expect po ‘yan ng DFA na mapag-usapan dahil alam naman natin na our country is a country of Overseas Filipino Workers at numero uno po ‘yan sa interes ng ating Pangulo na mapangalagaan po ang ating mga OFWs.
And by the way, ang PCOO din naman ay naging abala din dito. Kaninang umaga ay nagkaroon po ng press conference na minanage (managed) ng PCOO, ng Office of Global Media Affairs at nandoon po si Secretary Mon Lopez para po i-update ang ating mga reporters kung ano po ‘yung mga dapat i-expect ngayong ASEAN sa Bangkok, Thailand.
And then last night, ako naman ay naging abala dahil kinausap ko po ‘yung Asahi Shimbun, ito po ay isang diyaryo mula sa Japan. Mayroon po silang mga gustong gawing istorya sa Pilipinas and they’re asking for our assistance. And then the day before that, I was at the national broadcasting service ng Thailand, ito po ‘yung NBT and this is part of our Memorandum of Understanding na mayroon po tayong exchanges and communications between Thailand and the Philippines, at iyon po ‘yung unang exchange na nangyari after we signed the document early this year, so maganda po ‘yan.
Basically Pia, you have already experienced one of the benefits of having Memorandum of Understanding noong tayo’y nagpunta sa Cambodia—
MS. MORATO: Yes, sir.
SEC. ANDANAR: Yes. We were invited by the government of Cambodia para um-attend po doon sa fake news conference at doon po sa Digital Asia Media Summit; at iyon po ‘yung mahalaga doon. Mayroon pong exchanges na nangyari sa mga bansa, and this is what happened a couple of days ago noong tayo po ay nagpunta sa NBT, ang national television network ng Thailand para po pag-aralan ang kanilang technology; and how do they do things here, some of the best practices we learned. At the same time, they go to our country to learn also the best practices that we have in the Philippines.
MS. MORATO: Yes. Sir, do they have the same concerns like we do? I’m sorry, I can’t—I lost you sir, sorry.
SEC. ANDANAR: Oh yeah sorry, please go ahead.
MS. MORATO: Do they have in Thailand now, just the way it was also in Cambodia? Do they have the same concerns like we do when it comes to fake news?
SEC. ANDANAR: Oh yeah. In fact, that is also an adopted topic of Thailand from us when we initiated the roundtable discussion on fake news in 2017, followed by Singapore in 2018; this year by Thailand, ah yeah, as the Chairman of the ASEAN 34th. At kausap natin iyong Public Relations Department ng Thailand, and you know, we continued to communicate with them, continue to work with them para nga magkaroon tayo ng isang maganda at magkaroon tayo ng isang solusyon na hindi lang po Pilipinas kundi iyong buong ASEAN mismo.
You know, let me just add to what I’ve learned sa naging exchange natin with the national broadcasting service of Thailand. Ito pong kanilang digitalization, advanced na po sila, iyong Thailand sa kanilang digital television. Tayo po sa Pilipinas ay nagsisimula pa lamang, mayroon tayong—well, PTV already has a digital station, digital channel and plus two standard channels. Pero iyong Thailand ay buong Bangkok, buong Thailand na ay naka-digital na. But I can say that we are on the right track, kasi what they are doing is what we are also doing. But it’s good to be able to see how they rolled it out, kasi marami rin silang mga provincial stations dito.
MS. MORATO: We had such a wonderful image and my experience in Cambodia when we were together, I’m sure it’s the same where you are now sir, that they love the Philippines. It’s more fun talaga.
SEC. ANDANAR: Well you know, there’s so many things in common that we have with Thailand. At alam mo, makikita mo talaga kung gaano sila umasenso from the ‘80s. Dati-rati ay halos pantay lang tayo ‘di ba?
MS. MORATO: Yes, sir.
SEC. ANDANAR: Makikita mo ngayon, talagang grabe iyong infrastructure nila at grabe iyong kanilang mga turista. Ito naman iyong goal din ng Pilipinas, na umayos iyong—gumanda iyong infrastructure sa Build, Build, Build at dumami rin iyong ating mga turista; as we see, year-on-year ay tumataas iyong ating mga tourists. At of course, na mag-improve din iyong halaga ng ating Piso. Dati iyong Baht saka iyong Piso, halos parehas lang ‘di ba? Ngayon ang taas na ng halaga ng Baht at iyon nga dahil sa development, dahil sa turismo. At iyon ay dapat tingnan natin kung papaano tayo matuto sa kanilang experience.
And I think pagdating naman sa pagkain, pagdating naman sa tao, pagdating naman sa, you know, sa hospitality, hindi rin tayo matatalo. Pagdating naman sa mga beaches, iyong mga lugar, iyong magagandang lugar ay napakaganda ng mga tanawin sa Pilipinas; in fact we have so many islands, 7,100 islands.
And I think with our cooperation sa ASEAN, sa Association of South East Asian Nations, we will able to learn the good practices of the other ASEAN countries. We can adopt it in the Philippines na para din naman ay humabol tayo sa tourism.
MS. MORATO: Yeah. Ang sipag ninyo nga sir eh, you’re really going around getting to know each and every one of them. It’s a very personal… you know, getting-to-know relationship.
SEC. ANDANAR: Well, one of the goals of the PCOO is to strengthen the Office of Global Media Affairs. Bukas nga ng umaga, alas nuwebe, mayroon akong meeting with the ASEAN for the International Press dito para mapag-usapan din iyong kung ano ‘yung mga puwede nating i-assist sa kanila, kung ano ‘yung mga gusto nilang malaman tungkol sa Pilipinas; they have stories that they want to produce, the Office of Global Media Affairs is here to help them.
At ako naman ay right, front and center with JV Arcena as the initiator of this division, Office of Global Media Affairs. So tuluy-tulo lang tayo, ang importante we keep on engaging the media because that’s what we do.
MS. MORATO: Thank you so much, Secretary Martin. Any last words, what can we expect when you come back?
SEC. ANDANAR: Well, there’s so many things happening tomorrow and I will get as much information as I could probably contribute to Radyo Pilipinas Uno. Maraming mangyayari bukas, I can feed the news; I can feed the behind the scenes… baka gustong malaman ng Radyo Pilipinas. Salamat sa—
MS. MORATO: Thank you so much sir, that’s so exciting. We’re really looking forward to it. Thank you so much.
SEC. ANDANAR: Thank you.
MS. MORATO: Thank you so much, Secretary Martin Andanar. Thank you so much sir, thank you so much. Okay, that was Secretary Martin Andanar via Skype sa Bangkok, Thailand.
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Source: PCOO-NIB (News and Information Bureau)
