SEPTEMBER is Public Relations Month as declared in Presidential Proclamation 1357 signed by then-Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The proclamation identifies the holding of PR-related activities like staging a National PR Congress and other related activities to honor the profession.
As a fitting tribute to the art and science of public relations, PR Matters features one of its pillars, Maximino Edralin, who generously shared nuggets of wisdom culled from his long, accomplished practice. This column thanks The Central Banker, the magazine of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, for the interview material.
Manong Max, as he is fondly called, is a former president of the Public relations Society of the Philippines and Gawad Panday awardee, the highest PR honor bestowed by the organization to an individual. He has the distinction of having had probably the longest and the most varied experience in journalism and the practice of public relations in the country today.
He is a familiar face in the BSP where he currently serves as a consultant on PR. At 86, he still has a straight gait and—read this—he does not take a single maintenance drug. He started young. Having had to work to be able to go to college, he got a job straight from high school in 1949 as a messenger boy and janitor in a newspaper, the Philippines Herald. He worked during the day and went to school at night. But he was a curious fellow and he immersed himself in the editorial department trying to find out what reporters were doing when not doing errands for the publisher. As luck would have it, he was soon promoted to proofreader and later to a news reporter himself, all after four years in 1953 at the young age of 22. It was a welcome news, but the tradeoff was he had to give up schooling. Fast forward, he would be known later as the only college dropout to become a vice president of a bank. But that’s going ahead of the story.
The young reporter acquired early celebrity status when in 1955, he and four other journalists were sentenced to jail for contempt of court while reporting on a celebrated murder case involving the most powerful member of the Cabinet of President Quirino, Oscar Castelo. They were released on a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, but the case resulted in an amendment to the Sotto Law or press freedom law so that today—thanks to them—reporters cannot be forced to reveal the source of their information unless the issue involved the security of the state. His last assignment was to cover Malacañang during the presidency of Diosdado Macapagal. In 1963 he switched careers to go into public relations.
In PR, Manong Max successively became the information officer of the Department of Trade and Industry and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in Bangkok. He was subsequently asked to join the PR guru, Jose Carpio and an old newspaper colleague Oscar Villadolid. Together, they formed the Public Information Office of San Miguel Corp. They are remembered for initiating the formation of the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) in 1971 to prove to the Communists who were then poised to seize power that business had a social conscience. PBSP, which gave birth to corporate social responsibility, endures to this day under the leadership now of Manuel V. Pangilinan. Manong Max stayed the longest time running the public affairs office of Citibank, retiring as vice president in 1995 after 22 years. From regular employment, Manong Max went into PR consultancy on the invitation of many organizations, as distinguished from colleagues who needed to bid for accounts. In the year 2000, his country head in Citibank, Rafael Buenaventura as then the new BSP governor, invited him to become a public relations consultant, a position he holds to this day, now under Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr.
How does Manong Max define public relations?
One standard definition of public relations is that it is a conscious effort to motivate and influence people, primarily through communications, to think well of an organization. That definition sounds forthright and simple but it takes great skill on the part of the PR professional to make it happen. A basic requisite, like every salesman knows, is to know the product he is trying to sell—in our case, the BSP—the institution itself, as well as what Governor Espenilla and his management team are trying to accomplish. He must be familiar with the means available to him to get the job done, which are called PR tools to get the message across, like the media to begin with. Also, what do reporters need and what does it take to get their understanding and cooperation? There are the old tools like advertising as well as the new kid on the block, the problematic social media.
The PR professional must possess not just writing and speaking skills, which are basic, but most of all, persuasive ability as his publics are not that easy to motivate. PR is sometimes referred to as the “engineering of consent” with good reason. He needs persuasive skills and credibility in dealing with management because he also has a counselling function to enable our big bosses to look at the PR aspects in making decisions. After creating the desired image and reputation, the work continues because the need to protect that comes occasionally.
Why is PR important in a government office like a central bank?
PR is important in every government office to enable people to know what the government is doing for them, but even more so in a central bank that is tasked with functions that affect them directly like price stability. The public should not only understand, but must be made to develop confidence in the government’s ability to ensure the stability of the money in their hands and in the banks. Anti-money laundering, for example, is an issue that needs to be explained repeatedly for the public to understand government’s limitations in going after the money launderers.
What are instances of good PR in government?
I am a great admirer of the way the BSP has been going out of its way to undertake initiatives outside of its core functions to make its usefulness felt in the community. I am referring to financial inclusion and financial literacy. I like that we encourage banks to allow children to open savings accounts as low as P100 to encourage savings and involving the Department of Education in the process.
Another initiative is the meetings we have been holding with OFW beneficiaries on ways to make productive use of their money. We are teaching them microfinance and access to credit and get them to become entrepreneurs. These are good PR initiatives, if we can call them such. They do good both to bolster BSP’s image as a good corporate citizen and for the betterment of the poor OFW beneficiaries who are prone—as we have seen—to spend their money to build expensive houses. We see little of the $25 billion they receive every year in productive investments.
I have my own little story to tell in this connection. When I joined BSP as a PR consultant in the year 2000, Governor Rafael Buenaventura had two black Ford Expeditions for his use. Then, we saw the change of administration from President Estrada to President Arroyo. When the new Secretary of Finance Alberto Romulo arrived for the first time at the DOF building in the BSP compound, the story on page one of the newspapers was a nice feature about a low-key finance secretary driving his own old Toyota Corolla. I saw a possible problem there and I brought it to the attention of Governor Buenaventura. He saw the problem, too, and assured me he would handle it. This was early in the week. On Monday the following week, I saw the governor coming in a different car, a Terrano, a brand-new car—yes— but not as an attention getter as a Ford Expedition. I asked the driver what happened. He said the Expeditions were now in the garage.
This was a good quiet response of the governor to a potential ugly PR problem. Imagine the governor and the new finance secretary going to the same party and then some enterprising photographer would take a picture of the secretary’s old Corolla and the governor’s Expedition parked side by side. I could see the naughty caption comparing their lifestyles. I would rather not talk about “bad” PR examples. They involve friends of mine.
What are the pitfalls of PR? How can government agencies practice good PR?
An institution takes some risks when it undertakes do-good projects intended to cover up a failing or bad PR. Government agencies would benefit from good public relations if they have a correct understanding of what PR is and are ready to support good PR initiatives. I remember being consulted by the Office of the Press Secretary during the administration of President Estrada. I recommended the revival of the organization of government PR officers called PROP as a first step. This is the government counterpart of PRSP. They looked at PR as only media relations, which is wrong. PR, as we have seen by now, defines the public image of an organization.
Where do you draw the line when dealing with the media in relation to PR?
There is normally a healthy respect for each other between the media representatives and the Individuals, and institutions they cover. The media people would feel and be resentful if there is any pressure being used for them to get certain information printed. Also, we would be sensitive to undue expectations coming from them. Yet it is perfectly normal for us to show our appreciation for what they are doing, in whatever ways we deem appropriate, because they are indeed our partners in our desire to win public understanding and confidence. Or else, it becomes artificial and it would show. There must be a genuine liking for the job, for the one reason that you don’t count the hours when doing PR work. Aside from knowing the job, you must like people and be likeable, as well.
How can individual BSP-ers be PR persons of BSP?
They must know what PR is all about—basically building a good image and reputation—and be aware that they have a role to play by doing a good job and setting good examples in the office and outside of it. They must endeavor to know the BSP, if they have not done so yet, and could do this by reading every issue of The Central Banker with a desire to know what the BSP is doing.
In addition, I would encourage them to spend time to visit the fifth-floor display of the former governors and the brief descriptions of what they have done. They would then be so conversant about the BSP and in effect, be our ambassadors of goodwill—yes, PR persons in fact.
PR is great performance that brings great results, and Manong Max clearly demonstrates that adage.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier organization for PR professionals around the world. Bong R. Osorio is a communications consultant of ABS-CBN Corp., SkyCable, Dentsu-Aegis Network and government projects, among others, after retiring as vice president and head of the corporate communications division of ABS-CBN.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.com.