The news about the possible appointment of a Public Relations (PR) Man by President Bongbong Marcos Jr. to be the new Presidential Communications Office (PCO) secretary is a welcome development for PR practitioners.
From the time of the first Aquino Administration in 1986 to the current second Marcos Administration, all the press secretaries and heads of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) and PCO were mostly former traditional media professionals or who had started their careers as journalists.
Dave Gomez might be the first PR practitioner to lead and manage the government public information infrastructure if the president replaces current PCO head Jay Ruiz. Although Gomez started his career as a journalist, he is considered more as a PR Man being embedded in the corporate world as in-house PR counsel for almost a quarter of a century. He is the Director for Communications of PMFTC Inc., the local affiliate of Philip Morris International (PMI).
PR professionals are trained and disciplined to craft and convey the core messages of a particular product, service, institution, personality, or cause. They are experienced in dealing with various internal and external stakeholders without losing their composure and are prepared to manage crisis situations. In addition, they will never get tired in promoting, enhancing and, sometimes, defending the reputation of their principals.
Albert Alba, a former journalist with 20-year experience who has been practicing PR in the last 17 years in the UAE, recently wrote on LinkedIn about the similarities and differences between a journalist and a PR Man:
“As both journalism and PR thrive on compelling narratives, there is further common ground in their mission: to communicate clearly, to build narratives based on truth, and to offer value to audiences. The difference lies mainly in that in PR, communication is being delivered through the perspective of a brand or organization.
While in journalism, the responsibility is to the reader, in PR, your responsibility is to multiple stakeholders: the client, the target audience, the media, and internal teams. Learning to balance expectations without compromising integrity is both the art and challenge of the profession.”
Journalists are bearer of news, either a pleasant or unpleasant incident or event which had recently happened. PR professionals are bearer of messages that assure people of ‘good things’ and ‘good times’ to come.
President Marcos has nothing to lose as his reputation is not very encouraging. A Pulse Asia Research survey conducted in March showed that he has only a 25% approval rating, with 53% of Filipino adults disapproving of his performance. Majority of the Filipino voters in the Gulf Cooperating Council (GCC) have expressed their dissatisfaction by not voting for the administration’s Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial candidates last May.
Let Gomez run the PCO which is the ‘lead communications arm of the government, and the primary source of the administration’s messages for an informed and empowered citizenry’. Let’s see if this potentially new bearer of ‘good news’ will be able to convey the ‘good things’ and ‘good times’ to come in the last three years of the Marcos Administration.
As Overseas Filipinos, what do you want to hear from the PCO?
Note: The columnist is a 24-year resident of Dubai and is currently working as Head of Corporate Communications of a global energy logistics company. He is a former Filipino Community Leader and is now active with a global Catholic movement promoting the renewal of Christian family life. He can be reached atartlosbanos@gmail.com
