Army pursues public affairs training
President Benigno S. Aquino III’s order last week for departments to designate spokespersons to answer the concerns of media and the public bore fruit at the Defense establishment with the Philippine Army (PA) now aggressively pursuing its public affairs training program for soldiers in the field.
The potential field spokespersons from the PA met and interacted with the Malacañang Press Corps in a dialogue that was arranged by Assistant Press Secretary Rey Marfil, who also acted as the emcee for the dialogue held at the New Executive Building Briefing Room.
The PA young officers are undergoing training on communications to provide them with the skills to elucidate the government’s programs and plans in the countryside.
Last Thursday afternoon, the PA Public Affairs Course Class 12-2010 --of 53 trainees divided into three groups to make the rounds of press corps in the different government departments—met with past and present officers of the MPC to personally learn about media practices and media psychology.
These future spokespersons will be deployed in the field after graduating from their public affairs courses.
Questions like how do we deal with media and how do we best answer controversial issues were answered individually by former MPC president Sammy Julian of Panay News, Lilia Tolentino of Angel Radio, current MPC president Mia Gonzales of Business Mirror and Rose Miranda of Abante, all actively covering the Palace beat.
While most of the army trainees were visibly nervous in dealing with palace reporters for the first time some managed to ask interesting questions that were deftly answered by the media panelists.
In turn they got tips like “always do your homework before facing media, otherwise find a way of excusing yourself out of an issue in a diplomatic manner.”
Do not discriminate if a media person will interview you writing on a banana leaf or if you are “ambushed” in a hotel lobby or even on a street, Julian said.
Gonzales told them to make sure “to coordinate with each other so you speak with one voice and avoid contradicting each other.”
The MPC members also asked the participants to establish rapport with media and to always be diplomatic in dealing with them. “Make sure to be accessible always and keep the answers simple.”
Since you are in the field but you have other superiors over you, “make sure to clear with your higher-ups as to the limit of issues that you are free to discuss with the media since you have a chain of command to follow and your superiors might have a different view of the issue at hand.”
“Sometimes, treat media to lunch, snacks or dinner or even drink with them. That helps in establishing rapport and deepening relationships,” Julian added.
“Always have a big reserve of patience. Bawal ang pikon as you might end up being in the news the next day,” warned Miranda.
Palace assures customers: Electric rates to go down next month
Malacañang this morning said the 44 centavo per kilowatt hour increase in electric power rates is just temporary and will go down next month, upon completion of the rehabilitation of the San Jose power plant.
The assurance was made by Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda during an interview with Radyo ng Bayan, citing his conversation with Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras earlier.
“Hopefully next month we will have lower prices of electricity,” Lacierda said.
Lacierda said Almendras told him that power produced by the San Jose plant is cheaper but “since we need to renovate it to ensure the long-term efficiency in operation, we have to shut it down for now.”
Power distributor, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange that its generation charge rose by 44 cetnavos per kwh because of the higher prices of wholesale electricity spot market (WESM).
Almendras told Energy reporters Friday that he talked to the operator of WESM, the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. to provide government details of the current power trading.
Asked what government would do should fuel prices rise once more in the coming days, Lacierda said “I will consult with Secretary Almendras about this.” The Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) law allows for power rates to rise according to fuel price increases.
$434-M MCC grant affirms US confidence on Aquino gov’t -- Malacanang
The grant of $434 million of Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) funds to the Philippine government is a “confirmation of confidence on the programs and advocacies of President Benigno S. Aquino III,” said Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda.
In an interview with Radyo ng Bayan, Lacierda said even US Ambassador Harry Thomas has cited his government’s confidence in the sincerity of the Aquino administration in pursuing poverty alleviation and fighting corruption.
The MCC development grant, he said, will be used to strengthen poverty alleviation programs such as the Conditional Cash Transfer, building of more schoolbuildings, expanding the (KALAHI-CIDDS) or the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan- Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services and in building a major road infrastructure in Samar (one of the poorest provinces of the country), ensuring good and honest governance and in eradicating corruption.
The MCC Board of Directors said in a prepared statement last Thursday that the grant to the Philippines is spread over five years for the Samar road project in Samar, a rural development program and computerization of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
Lacierda said the BIR modernization program is ongoing, even as the agency is strengthening its tax collection efforts by running after tax cheats and cleaning its ranks of misfits. The same mandate was given to the Bureau of Customs to run after smugglers.
