Positive trends in public and media relations

The creation of a network of government communicators in Region XI through Communication for Development (C4D) unfolds many challenges, especially in public and media relations. With this, the mainstream media can also benefit from this formation because ideally it has to gain easy access to non-privileged public information. This setup practically puts on hold the usual practice of tossing the poor mediaman from the security guards to utility workers before he could reach the boss of the office.

C4D is, by the way, introduced recently to all public information officers in the region by the National Economic and Development Authority – Regional Development Council (NEDA-RDC XI) and to co-anchor in the program is the Philippine Information Agency (PIA).

There are schemes among government offices to avoid unscrupulous reporters. Chiefs of offices took it as a warm approval to all appointed layers of security in the office if a reporter cannot make his breach. Excuses for interviews are today, effective strategies to make reporters just fade away like bubbles and chiefs hope these animals in the media don’t come back another day. These reporters may refer to the extortionists type or “mangungkohay” in our lingo.

Meanwhile, the uncalled-for protocol and red tape have deprived the people of vital information, especially on matters of public concern. Non-disseminated programs and projects of the government to the public due to poor media linkages have hampered growth and development. It consequently wasted people’s money. People were not able to participate in government programs because of sheer ignorance. People don’t know in the first place, where our government poured in its money and resources.

On Communication for Development as briefly cited by PIA regional director Efren F. Elbanbuena: “Knowledge and information are essential for people to successfully respond to the opportunities and challenges of social, economic and technological changes. But to be useful, knowledge and information must be effectively communicated to people”.

Communication of government programs to the beneficiaries is not possible without a channel. That is why there has to be a mouthpiece as a pre-cursor to effective public-private participation. This cannot be done by press people in the government alone. Private media with its far-reaching influence is set to solve this riddle. As in the news for government service, the truth should be laid down in the table. It is only in interpretation of the facts which the public and private media may differ.

The constitutional guarantee on free speech, expression and of the press cannot even be invoked here because these can only be employed as empty words if the government will speak to no one, except to itself. This country has a free enterprise and wide marketplace of ideas which nobody can bar, even the contents of this column. Your opinion is your freedom. I have mine, too. But again, the thrusts of government must attain the highest degree of popularity.

It was observed however that there were already many attempts in the past to form the public press as a network. With the past failures, one can just ponder on what strategies to employ today to prioritize erasures of political biases which are counter-productive and highlight instead a target focus on developmental reporting. With the prototype being embraced in the concept of networking, the Communication for Development  (C4D) among information officers in the bureaucracy sets in and is devised to address the issues on poor media relations, among others.

For a start, the Social Contract of President  Benigno Aquino III signed as Executive Order No. 43, will be the common assignment for everybody. This contract talks about fighting corruption, job and resource generation, education, public health, equal justice, decisive execution of the laws, food security, capability building, gender equality, Mindanao peace policy, urban planning alternatives, and care for the environment.  

In C4D, as Mr. Elbanbuena pointed out: “We were told that the major cause of poverty is lack of money, but we say that the more common reason is lack of knowledge”. This is the rule and I therefore put period to that.