For the new Cabinet of President P-Noy, important factors in their success will be how they deal with the media and how they manage their departments.

The training given to the P-Noy Cabinet on media relations is a welcome initiative. Knowing the roles that media has to play will prevent hurt feelings when media does its duty to report fairly and objectively significant matters affecting the Cabinet.

A good relation with the press does not mean that media will take it easy on any of the public officials. However, it sets the ground for clarity in communication ensuring the right message is conveyed to the public.

When I began my stint as governor of the Board of Investments under then BoI Chairman and DTI Secretary Joe Concepcion during the Cory administration, I remembered how available Joe Con was to the press. We always had regular press briefings and were ready to be interviewed by both local and foreign media. The industry consultations and workshops that Joe Con was so fond of was rich material for the reporters to work on and ensured that they had an abundance of articles for their papers.

Later as DTI Undersecretary and BoI vice chairman and Managing Head, I followed the practice of my predecessor, Tommy Alcantara who always had a stack of press releases and news leads for the weekend reports of the media. He also had very good working relations with the media, always there to give them a helping hand and inviting them to his Mom’s residence for dinner and other socials. I also heeded the advice of a seasoned media practitioner who told me to keep in mind the message that I wanted to share with the public and to maintain my focus even in the ambush interviews. Sometimes one stumbles as when asked what would happen to a matter that our department had sent to Malacañang for decision, I replied, “Anything can happen in Malacañang.” That was the head for the stories next day to the Palace’s chagrin.

The most important lesson I got was from former President Fidel V. Ramos’ marching orders for us to always respond to news and opinion items on our departments. This meant getting a summary of the day’s news and columns early morning and responding to them before noon with a report to the Office of the President. I would have to listen to the early morning broadcasts and call the anchors to clarify or expand on the issues. This emphasized not only the importance of the media; it also highlighted our commitment to full information to the public.

In the area of management, it is necessary that those cabinet members have full control of the men and women working with them. I remember asking a new secretary why he accepted the position when he had an undersecretary who had direct access to the Palace and in fact got orders from there. His reply that his undersecretary handled the political side which he did not want to have anything to do with revealed the weakness of his position. Eventually, the machinations of his undersecretary created a scandal and he had to bear the consequences because of command responsibility.

There will also be an avalanche of recommendations from politicians. One should have in place a management recruitment and development system with third party participation (in our case in DTI, we used an educational institution to administer the exams and a panel interview) to handle these requests. We would always thank the endorsers and tell them we hoped the applicants would pass the placement process which had been there before us and had ensured quality staff for the department.

In case, they do not make it, we would welcome additional recommendations.

Team building and group planning sessions also resulted in a cohesive and united department geared to meeting both the public’s needs and expectations.

Looking at the P-Noy cabinet, I am positive that they will be successful in dealing with the media and managing their departments.

Business Bits. Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante’s statements as reported in the papers that he would cooperate with any legal investigation of the (fertilizer) scam and “bringing the P728 million issue to its full disclosure is good for our country” is a welcome development. We hope others involved will follow Joc-Joc’s lead.