PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has appointed one of his godsons his adviser for creative communications, the presidential palace said on Monday.
Filmmaker Paul D. Soriano, who took his oath before the president, had agreed to get a peso as his yearly salary, it said.
Mr. Soriano, who directed a political ad promoting Mr. Marcos during the presidential campaign, will advise Mr. Marcos and help agencies including government-owned and -controlled corporations enhance their information campaigns.
Mr. Marcos and his wife First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos were wedding sponsors to the filmmaker and his wife, actress Toni Gonzaga. His dad and the first lady are first cousins.
Observers said the move bodes ill for Mr. Marcos’ rightsizing push, but that was before the palace said something about his pay.
“This particular appointment seems to be a political accommodation,” policy analyst Michael Henry Ll. Yusingco said in a Facebook Messenger chat. “It doesn’t seem consistent with the president’s commitment to rightsize the National Government.”
Creating positions for political allies “bloats our central bureaucracy even more,” he said.
In his first address to Congress in July, Mr. Marcos said rightsizing the bureaucracy was among his top priorities.
Maria Ela L. Atienza, who teaches politics at the University, said Mr. Marcos was filling his inner circle with “a lot of people he thinks he can trust” because there is no solid principled party behind him.
“He has to put relatives, allies and even former allies and cronies of his father around him.” — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza