Perhaps in an effort to highlight its significance, this relationship between media and good governance even served as the theme for the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day in 2005. In the said event, the twin issues of transparency and accountability with media acting as the fulcrum were stressed as integral to good governance.

In practical terms, everything boils down to perception and this is precisely where a high appreciation of the importance of media comes into play. In selling a product or an idea, promotion is indispensable in an age where being silent about good deeds is long gone.

Even foundations set up by captains of business and industry or big corporations in the United States have realized that keeping quiet about their humanitarian or altruistic works is no longer advisable – or in keeping with the changing times where so many things are competing for our attention. Such foundations have now subscribed to the belief that spreading the good news about their good deeds is more rewarding in the sense that they are more inspired to do better.

Similarly, a musical artist is driven to perform better with every round of appreciative applause. In the same vein, but not necessarily expecting any applause, the Rotary International has also come to realize that there is nothing wrong about drum-beating its good deeds. Interestingly, the Rotary International realized this at the threshold of its centennial anniversary celebration in 2005.

It is no wonder then that today’s business entities, big or small, have developed a keener sense of appreciation of the role of media in corporate governance and are more actively making sound bytes concerning their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs purportedly designed to benefit the communities wherein they operate.

Undoubtedly, in a developing economy like the Philippines where government resources are admittedly scarce, the benefits that can be derived from the CSR programs of the business sector are always welcomed.

In light of the foregoing, I can not help but feel that when it comes to purveying information to media establishments the private sector is quicker on the draw than its public counterpart. This, in a real sense, shows the need for a proactive government information machinery.

Let me illustrate. The subject of food security has been written about in this column on several occasions and the feedbacks I have received so far have all emanated from various agri-based private organizations. The issue of food supply has many twists and turns, especially the labyrinthine journey of agricultural produce from farm to market.

We all know that the distribution of agricultural produce such as rice, vegetables, poultry, meat and fish are bought by traders and middlemen at low farm-gate prices but the same are retailed and sold to the consumers at much higher prices.

In a bid to address this situation, farmers’ groups and cooperatives have exerted efforts to close the gap or the price differential between farm gate and retailing by setting up "bagsakan ng bayan" (community food terminals) where farm products are sold by the farmers or producers themselves. The rationale underlying this program is to make our agricultural workers earn more while our consumers save more.

I happened to catch recently an interview with Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap by Tina Monson-Palma of Talk Back touching on the same issue. It was a pleasant surprise for me to find out that the Department of Agriculture is making headway in this regard. Sec. Yap is a good communicator but he should be effectively backstopped by his department information officials.