President Marcos has defended Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla's way of announcing class and work suspensions, saying he does not mind as long as the latter gets the message across.

Remulla has been drawing flak online for his manner of announcing important class and work suspension through the official page of the DILG.

In an interview before leaving Washington D.C. on July 23 (Manila time), Marcos did not dwell on the backlash the DILG has been receiving since this week when heavy rainfalls prompted the government to suspend classes and work in government offices.

"Criticize people. Criticize me for the way I speak. But what – that’s the way I speak; that’s the way he speaks," he said.

"As long as he gets the message across, that's what it's for. That's what all of these postings are for and get some information across. And as long as he achieves that, then – he is… He manages to do what he sets out to do," he stressed.

The President also said he won't judge the ways of Remulla, stressing it is out of his purview.  

"I am not exactly a judge of – how do you say? -- literary style. I don't know how you want to put it. So that’s really… I have to consider that out of my purview," Marcos said.

Marcos has also justified the wisdom behind authorizing Remulla to announce class suspensions due to calamities, saying it improves the dissemination of information.

"So that the dissemination of information is better. That is very simple," Marcos said.

"So, pagka ganito, basta’t sinabi na, the SILG will make the announcement and that is what… Wala ng fake news. Iyon na ‘yung katotohanan. Iyon na ‘yung totoo (So, in times like this, the SILG will make the announcement. No more fake news. That's the truth)," Marcos stressed.

The President further said that "it's just to make things clearer" because sometimes people tend to be misinformed by inaccurate posts, which they eventually share.

"So, we’re just trying to improve that system," he said.

Although Marcos has reported that there have been casualties, some injured and missing, due to the continuous heavy rains caused by Typhoon Crising and habagat or southwest monsoon, he believed the government did a good job in its response efforts.

"So, we have been watching it from the start since we have left. We spent most of the morning going through this to try and make sure – mukha naman maganda ang response ng mga teams natin (it seems that our response teams did a good job)," Marcos said in the same interview.

"They have been able to provide the relief goods. They have been able to evacuate as many people as possible as needed to be evacuated," he added.

According to Marcos, there were six casualties, five injured, and eight missing people.

"The main cause for casualties were fallen trees, drowning, and flood currents... The damage to infrastructure, the estimate thus far is at – ang laki talaga (the amount is huge): P4,007,442,667.75," he said.

"But that is the estimate, as of now. As you all know, that is still the immediate. The incident is not yet over," he added.

He also said that 487,964 families are affected; 49,617 people are inside 500 evacuation centers; and there are 2,790 families who are staying outside of the evacuation centers.

Relief goods have been supplied, he assured.

"[W]e are just hoping for it – for the floods to subside, the rain to lessen, and the floods to subside so that we can start, again, the cleanup process," he said.