Presidential Communications Office

Also known as: PCO · Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) · Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) · Presidential Communications Group · Tanggapang Pampanguluhan sa Komunikasyon (Filipino)

Government

Definition

The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) is the principal communications arm of the Office of the President of the Philippines — the office that conveys the Chief Executive’s messages to the public, crafts and coordinates the messaging system of the Executive branch, supervises the government’s news and broadcast services, and handles the accreditation of media covering the Palace. In its present form it was created by a chain of reorganizations: the Office of the Press Secretary of the post-1986 era was renamed the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) by Executive Order No. 4, s. 2010, reverted to the Office of the Press Secretary by Executive Order No. 2, s. 2022, was renamed the Presidential Communications Office by Executive Order No. 11, s. 2022, and was structurally reorganized — under a Secretary with Cabinet rank assisted by five Undersecretaries and fourteen Assistant Secretaries — by Executive Order No. 16, s. 2023. (LawPhil — EO No. 4, s. 2010, LawPhil — EO No. 11, s. 2022, LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023)

Under Executive Order No. 16, six units stand under the PCO’s direct control and supervision: the News and Information Bureau (seat of the Philippine News Agency), the Presidential Broadcast Service–Bureau of Broadcast Services (operator of the Radyo Pilipinas radio network), the Presidential Broadcast Staff–Radio Television Malacañang (RTVM), the Philippine Information Agency, the Bureau of Communications Services, and the Freedom of Information Program Management Office. Four corporations are attached to it for administrative supervision: People’s Television Network, Inc. (PTV-4), the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC-13), the APO Production Unit, and the National Printing Office. The office is headquartered in the New Executive Building of the Malacañang compound in Manila. (LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023, Presidential Communications Office — About)

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	Presidential Communications Office
Wikidata	Presidential Communications Office (Q7241419)
DBpedia	Presidential_Communications_Group
ProductOntology	GovernmentAgency
Wiktionary	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	N/A
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	“Presidential Communications Office” Philippines state media government messaging press office
ConceptNet	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

PCO
Office of the Press Secretary (OPS)
Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO)
Presidential Communications Group
Tanggapang Pampanguluhan sa Komunikasyon (Filipino)

Examples and Analogies

The Palace press office: in function the PCO is the Philippine counterpart of a presidential press office elsewhere — the single desk through which a head of state speaks to the press corps, accredited journalists receive access, and administration messages are disciplined into one line. (Presidential Communications Office — About)
A holding company for state media: the office can be read as the parent of a small media conglomerate — a wire service (Philippine News Agency), a radio network (Radyo Pilipinas), a production unit and archive (RTVM), a public-information machinery (Philippine Information Agency), and stakes in broadcast companies (PTV, IBC) — all managed from Malacañang. (LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023)
The renamed constant: the machinery has carried at least three names since 2010 — PCOO, OPS, PCO — while its core work of newswire, broadcast, and press relations continued largely unchanged. (LawPhil — EO No. 2, s. 2022, Wikipedia)
Verified organizational data:
Lineage: OPS (post-1986) → PCOO (EO 4, s. 2010, signed July 30, 2010) → OPS (EO 2, s. 2022, signed June 30, 2022) → PCO (EO 11, s. 2022, signed December 29, 2022; reorganized by EO 16, s. 2023, signed February 13, 2023)
Direct-control units: News and Information Bureau; PBS–Bureau of Broadcast Services; RTVM; Philippine Information Agency; Bureau of Communications Services; FOI Program Management Office
Attached corporations: PTV Network, Inc.; Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation; APO Production Unit; National Printing Office
Headquarters: New Executive Building, Malacañang compound, Manila
Official portal: pco.gov.ph

Usage Scenarios

1. Presidential Coverage and Broadcast

The Presidential Broadcast Staff–Radio Television Malacañang produces the official audiovisual record of presidential events, on which state media and accredited outlets draw; it was returned to PCO control by Executive Order No. 16, s. 2023 after a period under the Presidential Management Staff. (LawPhil — EO No. 2, s. 2022, LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023)

2. Government Newswire Operations

The News and Information Bureau runs the Philippine News Agency, the state wire service whose dispatches carry official announcements to newsrooms nationwide — the government’s version of a news agency like Reuters or AFP, distributed through pna.gov.ph. (LawPhil — EO No. 2, s. 2022, Presidential Communications Office — About)

3. State Broadcasting

Through the attached PTV Network and IBC-13 and the Radyo Pilipinas radio services of the Presidential Broadcast Service–Bureau of Broadcast Services, the PCO operates the government’s television and radio outlets, which air public-affairs programming and carry live presidential addresses. (LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023, Wikipedia)

4. Malacañang Press Briefings and Media Accreditation

The office convenes the regular press briefings of the Palace press officer with the Malacañang Press Corps and administers the accreditation of journalists covering the President, including foreign correspondents. (Presidential Communications Office — About, Wikipedia)

5. Public Information and the FOI Program

Through the Philippine Information Agency and the FOI Program Management Office, the office carries government information to the regions and administers freedom-of-information operations for the Executive branch. (LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023)

Strategies

Single voice for the Executive: EO 16 defines the PCO as the primary office for engaging the citizenry and mass media and the crafter of the Executive branch’s messaging system — a deliberately centralized model intended to keep departments speaking one line. (LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023)
Reorganization as policy tool: successive administrations have used executive orders to rename, split, or merge the office — PCOO with a separate strategic-planning office in 2010, reunification under a Press Secretary in 2022, a five-area structure in 2023 — each redesign encoding a theory of how presidential messaging should be governed. (LawPhil — EO No. 4, s. 2010, LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023)
Attached-corporation model: keeping PTV, IBC, APO, and the National Printing Office as attached GOCCs under an Assistant Secretary for government corporations lets the PCO supervise broadcast and printing assets without absorbing them into the civil service. (LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023)
Spokesperson absorption: abolishing the separate Office of the Presidential Spokesperson in 2022 returned the duty of explaining the President to the press-secretary tradition, concentrating accountability in one principal. (LawPhil — EO No. 2, s. 2022, GMA News)
Digital-first services: the EO 16 structure assigns a dedicated functional area to Digital Media Services, reflecting the migration of presidential communication from press releases to platforms. (LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023)

Security and Safety Measures

Media accreditation: control of accreditation for journalists covering Malacañang, including foreign correspondents, functions as both access management and a security screen for proximity to the President. (Presidential Communications Office — About)
Custody of the presidential record: RTVM’s archive of official events is the state’s evidentiary record of presidential acts, protected by its status as a PCO-controlled staff unit. (LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023)
Institutional continuity across reorganizations: each reorganization order carries transfer, funding, and personnel-entitlement clauses so that functions, records, and staff survive the change of letterhead without interruption. (LawPhil — EO No. 2, s. 2022)
Transparency obligations: the office publishes a Citizen’s Charter, transparency reports, and financial documents, and administers the FOI Program Management Office for Executive-branch disclosure. (Presidential Communications Office — About)
Printing oversight: supervision of the National Printing Office and the attached APO Production Unit places government printing — from official forms to sensitive documents — under PCO control. (LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023)

Historical Context

The office descends from the Office of the Press Secretary established in the Corazon Aquino restoration — created by Memorandum Order No. 32 in 1986, expanded by Executive Order No. 92 later that year, reorganized by EO 297 (1987), and streamlined by EO 293 (1996). In 2010 President Benigno Aquino III signed EO 4, splitting the machinery: the OPS became the Presidential Communications Operations Office while a separate communications development and strategic planning office took messaging strategy, the two together styled the Presidential Communications Group; in 2020 the Duterte presidency reconstituted the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson and folded the strategic-planning office into the PCOO. (Presidential Communications Office — About, LawPhil — EO No. 4, s. 2010, Wikipedia)

On his first day in office, June 30, 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed EO 2, reorganizing the PCOO and its attached agencies back into the Office of the Press Secretary and abolishing the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson, whose functions, personnel, and equipment were absorbed; RTVM went to the Presidential Management Staff and the Philippine Information Agency was strengthened under the Office of the President. EO 11 of December 29, 2022 then renamed the office the Presidential Communications Office, and EO 16 of February 13, 2023 reorganized it — returning RTVM, the Philippine Information Agency, and the other bureaus to PCO control and fixing its five-area structure. Dave M. Gomez, appointed July 10, 2025, serves as the office’s Secretary, with Undersecretary Claire Castro as Palace Press Officer. (LawPhil — EO No. 2, s. 2022, LawPhil — EO No. 11, s. 2022, LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023, PCO — Gomez appointment)

Challenges and Controversies

Serial Reorganization and Institutional Churn

The office has been renamed or restructured at nearly every change of administration since 2010 — PCOO in 2010, OPS in 2022, PCO months later, a full reorganization in 2023 — a pattern critics describe as churn that consumes reorganization funds and staff energy, and defenders as each President’s prerogative to design his own communications machinery; the identical core functions performed throughout make the debate one about governance stability rather than necessity. (LawPhil — EO No. 4, s. 2010, LawPhil — EO No. 2, s. 2022, LawPhil — EO No. 16, s. 2023)

The Abolition of the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson

EO 2’s abolition of the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson ended the post-2010 arrangement of a separate figure explaining the President, returning the duty to the Press Secretary’s office; subsequent practice — press briefers and press officers of varying rank under the PCO — has kept alive the argument over whether the President is best served by one accountable communicator or a dedicated spokesperson, a structural debate renewed with each leadership reshuffle at the PCO. (LawPhil — EO No. 2, s. 2022, GMA News)

State Media Purpose: Mouthpiece or Public Broadcaster

The PCO’s supervision of PTV, IBC-13, Radyo Pilipinas, and the Philippine News Agency places it at the center of the standing Philippine debate over state media: whether these outlets are instruments of administration messaging or proto-public-service broadcasters serving the public regardless of who holds office — a tension that recurs in coverage decisions, budget priorities, and the treatment of critical news, and that intersects the wider concerns documented in this wiki’s entry on press freedom in the Philippines. (Presidential Communications Office — About, Wikipedia)