How can we be human even as we pursue excellence? Can humanity and excellence go together? We know how it is to feel powerless. With the pandemic, we did not know what hit us. We were worried about ourselves, our families and our future. But slowly we stepped out of this dark cloud and as we looked after our individual concerns, we also learned to work with others, and discovered how to be a community again. From being helpless, we started helping; from being hopeless, we became bearers of hope; and from the desperation we saw around us, we became a force of action.
Thus was born the community pantries and all sorts of donation drives. Everyone started pitching in, even through small gestures such as checking up on a struggling friend or showing up every day like what our medical frontliners, journalists, couriers and delivery workers, educators, OFWs, construction workers, guards and all other unsung heroes do. Amid the dark clouds of the pandemic, the Filipino spirit has stood – and stands – strong. By looking after each other these past months, we put humanity first even as we also try to thrive in our other goals and pursue excellence.
To us in the public relations industry, this is what purposeful PR, especially in times of crisis, is all about. It is about contributing to the positive in the world. Yes, we remain true to our mission of helping brands and organizations bring their message across, but with the community in mind and by serving the common good.
Tonight, we are more than happy and proud to shine the spotlight on brands and agencies that have taken this to heart. Allow me to be the first to thank you, our nominees for tonight, for pursuing excellence while keeping humanity first. You continue to prove that we can use PR to empower even more Filipinos and make a difference in society. When the day comes when we finally shed off our masks in victory, may we remember the lessons we learned. May we keep in our hearts how we have been united toward a common goal and how all these have brought out the best and human inside all of us.
Norman A. Agatep is the President of the Public Relations Society of the Philippines