Or “utusan, sundin, palakpakan,” (USP), the supposed Palace communications strategy for improving the administration’s ratings.

The USP is intended by President Marcos’ handlers to address criticisms of limp and indecisive leadership. Members of the Cabinet are expected to be the main purveyors of this message: when it comes to issues, it is the President who takes strong, decisive action for the benefit of the Filipino people.

As with any communications strategy, the effectiveness is largely dependent on the messenger, and not all messengers are productive. This, it seems to me, is the key to understanding why members of the Cabinet are behaving the way they are and why some are more successful at it than others.

Exhibit A is Secretary Vince Dizon of the Department of Public Works and Highways, whom Palace-watchers say is the current fair-haired boy of the Chief Executive. Dizon understands the assignment. A hyperactive series of inspections, the filing of complaints, and testimony in court about ghost flood control projects by Dizon delivers not just necessary headlines but also the expected impression of sustained action behind the sound bites. The logic goes along the lines of: if Dizon looks good, then Marcos looks good, handshakes and back pats all around, please.

Exhibit B is Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda, who has turned himself into a living warning against giving up the scientific method in exchange for clout chasing. As a result, he has acquired an uncanny knack for triggering a backlash whenever he tries to make a grab for the headlines.

Just recently, he managed to run afoul of some civil society groups with the announcement that his department would issue a circular to force social media platforms like Facebook, X, and YouTube to allow only users who possess verified identities.

Who knows where such genius ideas come from, but in the case of Aguda, a case can be made for his first getting wind of the idea (of mandatory user verification, that is) when radio anchors Anthony Taberna and Gerry Baja asked (check it out, the YouTube timestamp is at 1:16:14, or 7:37 a.m. on the DZRH clock) if there ought to be more stringent identity requirements in order to open social media accounts. Aguda, as if seized by the Holy Spirit, ran with the idea and ordered the drafting of a policy to impose mandatory verification; he even proclaimed that accounts which lacked verification should be deactivated after a certain period.

Actually, it wasn’t the Holy Spirit that seized him; what supposedly moved Aguda was the President—not just moved, but ordered—since he said he was fulfilling the President’s instructions to him to make cyberspace safe for all Filipinos against the scourge of evil trolls, artificial intelligence bots, and online scammers. Enforcing mandatory verification would make it easier for the government to go after bad actors, he said, though the DICT chief was (again!) short on details such as how a mere department order is supposed to bring the social media giants to heel and join his quest or at least cobble together some sort of universal procedure to adopt in terms of verifying user identity.

When department factotums (Aguda was conspicuously absent) held a Jan. 22, 2026, consultation to discuss DICT’s draft policy with digital democracy advocates, rights groups, and other stakeholders, they received a thorough drubbing. Those present flatly opposed the measure. They pointed out gaping holes in the draft policy, the lack of a legal basis for certain measures and portions that would amend particular laws, not to mention the impact on broader privacy issues.

Critics have taken to traditional and social media to raise the troubling implications of the proposed policy on freedom of speech, citing the potential harm that mandatory registration could cause to activists and rights defenders.

The result was a retreat, with Aguda trying to save face days later by saying that social media verification would likely be voluntary, walking back his previous sworn quest to rid social media platforms of all baddies. The self-styled white knight of Pinoy cyberspace does not realize (perhaps as a newbie to government) that ending up with egg on your face is not a good look, especially if you keep attributing your ill-advised statements and half-baked pronouncements to “utos ng Pangulo.”

How often have we heard that the Palace (especially the first lady) keeps a close eye on the progress (or lack of it) of its schemes? With Cabinet revamp scuttlebutt refusing to die down, watchful eyes and ears reporting to the President cannot have failed to take note of the disparity in the performance between these two alter egos when it comes to the much-vaunted USP strategy. What ought to be maddening to the Palace crowd is that the DICT is too serious a department to have to engage in amateur headline-grabbing when serious work could have resulted in serious results.