president aquino’s drop in ratings – malacanang itself is to blame

a lot of press in the last few days on the performance satisfaction rating survey conducted by SWS (read here : http://wp.me/pnw03-1qs). the press is mostly on malacanang thinking about the ratings drop and what it means.

on one side, it’s refreshing to see that the occupants of malacanang are sensitive to the survey results. it means they are sensitive to the sentiments of the people. and that can only be good as a sensitive malacanang to the sentiments of the people can mean better action at truly serving the people’s needs.  even a marketing or political newbie will tell you that the way to improve the ratings is to serve the people better.

we did not see this kind of reaction from the previous administration of gloria macapagal arroyo. arroyo’s malacanang would have ignored the survey results or attack the results and question the results. arroyo’s administration have always thought everyone else is wrong while they are the only ones right.

the other side of the reaction of the current malacanang occupants is this never ending search for who is to blame for the drop in the ratings. the spokesperson has said previously, media was to blame as it tended to publicize only what is wrong and the bad news while ignoring what is good and the good news.

recent pronouncements puts the  blame on “shyness” of malacanang in publicizing its good deeds. with this thinking, malacanang has resolved to be “more aggressive” in putting in the good news out to the press. that means they will need to learn to be more “kapal moks” , if we are to use their thinking on them being too “shy” to publicize their good deeds.

Valte said the Palace communicators would “maximize the use of all our resources, not only government television and radio … We will be maximizing all resources available to us.”

She disagreed with suggestions that the Palace communication group was to blame for the low ratings, but she said the communicators were taking the survey “as a sign to be really more aggressive in promoting the President” and his programs.

She said this was not for the President’s spokespersons alone to do and that Cabinetsecretaries and their public information offices could also lend a hand.

“It cannot be just a job of three but everybody has to pitch in to make sure the good news [reaches] the people,” she said.

The other day, Valte also said on state radio: “We have a very Filipino trait of being too shy to boast.”

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20110404-329229/Aquino-revs-up-media-machine

who is to blame for the drop in satisfaction ratings on the president’s performance? let us get a run down.

is media to blame?  all communication practitioners should know this – media will put what they think will attract their audience, those that their audience will find interesting or those that they think their audience want.  the news being “good news” or “bad news” practically has nothing to do with it. you can have bad news but if it is not something the audience want, it will not get any exposure. same thing with good news. good news does not guarantee and audience, it can on the other hand pull in boredom. the only barometer media uses in deciding what is printed out there is its saleability or interest value to its audience.

it is this nature of media that makes it necessary for public and private figures and groups to engage communication practitioners to deal with media. their job is to make something interesting enough for media to see it’s value and put it out for the people to read and see.

we have been involved in the past with projects where the topic was seen as boring by media practitioners and the public when we started. after some careful planning and strategizing, we set out to make the topic “sexy” for media to publish and the public to take interest in. to make the topic “sexy” was the exact word used to describe what  we intended to do with the topic. after a few months,  the topic thyat was previously boring and usually out of media became a hot topic of discourse and  attention both by media and the public.

malacanang does not have 1 but 3 groups under its employ to make the topic of “president aquino’s achievement”  to be  seen as “sexy” enough to pay attention to.  that says they have no excuse  for not being able to put across the messagtes in behalf of the aquino administration.

if they blame the poor and weak message release to the public as the reason for the significant drop in aquino’s performance rating, then it is the fault of these three communication gr0ups.  in simple terms, these 3 communication groups have failed in doing  their jobs.

The EO effectively reorganizes the Office of the Press Secretary and is aimed at modernizing the Palace’s communications strategy to better deliver President Aquino’s message to the people.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/08/09/10/aquino-forms-media-communications-group

the primary task of the 3 communications group is to “better deliver president aquino’s message to the people” – the ratings drop due to shyness in delivering aquino’s message to the people means they have failed in their mandate.

aquino’s mandate reorganizing the office of the press secretary does not include “shyness” as an acceptable reason to fail in their mandate.

there is a dedicated press corp that covers malacanang.  media covers the president’s activity 24/7.  many of these media people, specially the major media outlets assign permanent reporters to the malacanang beat at all times and are exclusive to the office of the president.  these reporters are ever present in malacanang. all that malacanang needs to do is hand over to them a press release or call a press conference and the news is out.

of course that does not guarantee publication. the job of the 3 communications group is to make the news interesting enough for media to publish them. if the topic is boring and the write-up is boring, it will not be published. you can have a boring topic but if the write up is interesting, it can get published.

since malacanang seem to be blaming aquino’s drop in rating on the lack or weak message delivery, we wonder if the re-organization that they did, dividing it into 3 parts is the one that is causing the problem. is it possible that when they divided the function into 3 distinct functions, some fell through the cracks.

noynoy aquino needs to learn to shut the fuck up

president noynoy aquino intends to tap the services of senator mar roxas and will probably give him the title of Secretary Of  Troubles whose primary role according to aquino is to be the “chief troubleshooter”.

we have nothing against mar roxas but we have something against president noynoy aquino on this latest development.

bottom line for us is that noynoy aquino needs to learn to shut up. not for good but for some time until everything is sorted out first, packaged properly and words chosen carefully.

this is our main beef –  in this statement of aquino, the president admits there is “trouble” in his cabinet. aquino’s words, not mine. not only that, there seem to be perpetual trouble in his cabinet that he needs to appoint someone to be   “chief troubleshooter” on a going basis.

of course no cabinet, no presidency or even any group is perfect. there will always be differences and yes, troubles.  troubles are  part of the psychology of groups but did aquino have to blurt it out to the public and did he have to say it in this way.

frankly, reading the article, we are having trouble understanding what aquino means.  it could just be an unfortunate choice of words, the word “trouble” in particular, not “chief”.  aquino gave the title “chief troubleshooter”  but in the explanation, aquino said “if something needs more intense attention,  I might task him to do that“.

while “something that needs intense attention” is not necessarily the same as “trouble”  or something troublesome, a “trouble” is always something  that needs “intense attention”. when trouble occurs in a group, intense specially, it needs immediate attention. a group or a cabinet that is troublesome  is never a good thing.

on the other hand, there can be things that need “intense attention” that are not necessarily troublesome. these things could just be of  high importance, not always high trouble.

so, what we are left here is that aquino just might have had trouble accessing a thesaurus and he made an unfortunate troublesome choice of words, the word “troubleshooter” and all he meant was “intense” or “important” projects. or it was a freudian slip unconsciously telegraphing to us that there is intense trouble in his administration?

the solution here is noynoy needs to learn to shut the fuck up.  not only does aquino talk too much, he talks too soon and he has trouble choosing the right words. aquino needs to understand the world of  country presidency is not the world of show business that his sister is involved in. in the presidency, bad press is not necessarily good press.  bad press means bad presidency.

in show business,  bad press or troublesome events in the life of the celebrity gets the celebrity press time and space. and in their world, that is a good thing.  you can dip your foot on mud but you can still remove it and clean it up over time.  your fans forget, and life goes on.

in the presidency, not only does something bad gets etched into your record of accomplishments  or record of troubles, it affects 94 million people and the next 2 million of filipinos added every year.

the other thing that bothers us is this – doesn’t aqiono have enough cabinet members  to perform the function of “troubleshooter of troubles” and “chief trouble shooter of intense sttention”?

a more telling thing – if it is trouble that needs to be fixed, shouldn’t he as president and  biggest dude in the country supposed to be the one to fix them? fixing troubles among cabinet members is one of the key components of  leadership, specially in this thing called president of a country.

if it is not him as president, isn’t that the job of his chief of staff or the executive secretary?

bottom line for us is this – there seem to be no good news on this one  no matter how you look at it. it’s all trouble from all angles. and it is intense.

mr. president. shut the fuck up!

philippine GDP growth 1Qtr 2010 but poverty rate remain high

this is good news – the philippine economy growing with its GDP improving by 7.3% during the current year’s first quarter versus a 0.5% growth same period year ago. it is good news at face value but looking into what happened in the first quarter, it’s an expected growth since this is an election year. first quarter growth was most likely driven by election spending which naturally were expected to peak during that period with the election held in the 2nd quarter.

this phenomenon is a regular occurrence during election time in the country. a similar impressive GDP growth, the highest in the country’s history,  was recorded in 2007 during the election period as well, that time the election for senators.

there are two more sobering points to consider – one is that the country’s GDP growth in most instances pale in comparison to the GDP growth of other countries in Asia.  looking at those numbers, one might say the country’s eco performance may not be that impressive after all.

During the first quarter,

• Singapore’s economy grew 15.5 percent;
• Thailand, 12 percent;
• Malaysia, 10.1 percent;
• Vietnam, 5.8 percent;
• Taiwan, 13.3 percent;
• China, 11.9 percent;
• Hong Kong, 8.2 percent; and,
• South Korea, 7.8 percent.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100528-272446/RP-economy-grows-73

the key question that needs to be asked all the time when looking at impressive GDP growth is the question of sustainability.  country economic data like most other financial numbers go through cycles of peaks and valleys. peaks that are sustainable, that can be achieved over a long period of time is what we want. since this latest eco growth is mostly election spending driven, that means it is not sustainable. the next election is scheduled years from now, not on a quarterly basis.

at around the same the GDP data was released, the government released a different data that we think the government, this time the incoming aquino administration, need  to watch more closely.

this data says the country’s poverty level has remained the same.

GDP growth is a good thing, but what the country needs a lot more of is that the poverty rate of the country to go down. a growing GDP rate and stagnant or increasing poverty rate means the rich is getting richer while the poor remain poor or are getting poorer.

a very large portion of the philippine population is poor where the DE socio-eco class accounts for  at least 83% of the population. reducing poverty in the country will mean affecting a much larger chunk of the population in a very positive way.

the stage is set for the aquino administration.