Steer a president

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

A wild guess that could be true, the reason why the countryside does not seem to move on is because local issues are hidden away from the President by people who are supposed to connect him with the communities.

As President, he should be provided with information about local issues confronting certain communities by any means available so that he is not put on the spot and be called as a president who is not knowledgeable about problems surrounding his administration.

The best and simplest manner of informing or misinforming a president is through media networks – via newsprint, radio, television and social media. If his people under him take all of these away from the President, you know what happens next.

Take the case of Boracay. If its cesspool condition did not catch the attention of President Duterte, I am sure the open drainages could still be polluting the island’s waters until now.

 That also means, Boracay’s environment problem was never mentioned to then President Noynoy. Otherwise, if he knew it, he could have ordered the island’s closure and clean-up, just like Duterte did.

            Who else can open up a crucial local problem with the President other than his cabinet, his advisers, consultants and people under the office of the Presidential Management Staff?

Another case is President Duterte’s drug war. The Philippines has around 689,251 elected government officials including 18,083 national and local positions from the President down to the last councilor of a city or municipality.

There are 41,948 barangay chairpersons with an equal number of SK chairpersons; and 293,636 barangay councilors with an equal number of SK councilors.

Of these figures consisting of public officials, the President said a percentage of them are directly or indirectly linked with drugs, either as members of a syndicate, drug pushers or merely users.

The President could not have simply guessed the percentage or number of elected officials or the identity of narco-politicians benefiting from the drug trade. Certainly, he was informed by people close to him.

The situations above are brought to light to demonstrate the relationship of a president with the media. The argument then comes following situations where the President happens to meet locally-based members of the media.

              In the past, prior to Tita Cory’s reign, the President’s men or whoever was in charge sets schedules for interview with the press, radio and television outfits. In addition, the secretary or minister of information doles out news releases to media outfit representatives.

The situation for the local press changed after a spat between the late Louis Beltran and then revolutionary president Tita Cory.

From that time, all questions had to pass through a team under the president’s communications group that will sanitize the questions to be asked to make sure that the President is not embarrassed on the spot.

That is still alright. But for a Malacanang team to provide members of the local press the questions to be asked in a press conference arranged for the President of the republic is going beyond an honest to goodness process of gathering truthful information. It is a “moro-moro” press conference to make the President look good.

Protecting the president from embarrassment by telling the media about what to ask is not moving a community forward. That is hiding the real issues about a local community from the President. 

That style of setting up press conferences with the President is usually arranged through the concerned regional line agencies. But, the situation of government workers below the hierarchy ladder is understandable. They have to comply.

But there are plenty of available means that the President’s men can employ so that a pre-arranged press conference ends up with both sides happy and satisfied. The President’s men through their people in the line agencies will have to spend extra effort to diagnose local problems.

Submit the issues to the boss in Malacanang, and certainly with that, the President with his very wild imagination, has a solution and an answer in his mind to any media question.

I admire President Fidel Ramos when it comes to meeting the local press. The questions are not collected prior to the conference, especially when it is an abrupt meeting.

He does not get embarrassed with unfamiliar questions asked because he simply tries to answer to the best of his knowledge after a minute of briefing.  

For Duterte, it appears like he does not know what his people below him are doing when it comes to arranging town meetings and press conferences. The style of moro-moro and sanitized questions in local press conferences is passé.  

This must change. And change must start from people around Duterte, including us. If they cannot change their style then they must at least allow the President to change them, including the information secretary.

There is no point staying in their highly-paid jobs if they cannot satisfy the communities that they are supposed to connect with the President.