The Press Office will seek to highlight what the government has achieved and “get its point across” to the public in the next five months, incoming Press Secretary Crispulo J. Icban Jr. said Wednesday as he visited Malacañang for an informal meeting with Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) officials and staff.

Taking a leap from the world of journalism to government service, Icban, who has been a newspaperman for more than half a century and served as editor-in-chief of the Manila Bulletin in the last seven years, visited Malacañang on Wednesaday for an informal meeting with other OPS officials and staff, including a quick tour of the Palace.

He is set to take his oath as acting Press Secretary on Monday.

Asked what he intends to do as head of OPS, the government’s communications and information arm, to shore up the President’s ratings, he said, “The ratings are the results of certain events in the past. In the next five months, we will work to get to the public what has been achieved. The past will take care of itself. Ultimately, history will judge the President,” he said.

“What we are trying to do now is to project that part of the administration that has not been prominently projected.”

Icban, who will take a leave of absence from the Manila Bulletin, said he may not be as visible to the press as his predecessors and will take on a more active role as communication facilitator.

“I will try to help you get the news and, at the same time, I will try to help the administration get its point across. I don’t know how hard that will be, but we will all have to try,” he said.

With Icban when the Malacañang Press Corps interviewed him were Undersecretary Butch Junia and Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar.

Icban was appointed to fill the position left suddenly by the untimely death of Press Secretary Cerge Remonde last January 19.

A former reporter of the Manila Times who rose to become news editor, he joined the Manila Bulletin two years after the Times was closed down by martial law. He also hails from Pampanga, the home province of President Arroyo.

He said he has known President Arroyo for a long time. Her father, former President Diosdado Macapagal was a godfather at his wedding in 1957, along with then Manila Times Editor-in-Chief Joe Bautista.