The good news according to Atty Lacierda

As part of their program to set columnists straight, Atty. Edwin Lacierda and company e-mailed us an electronic newsletter entitled The Good News. If that is their version of the Good News, it is easy to see why they are having a difficult time getting across through media. My colleague on the op/ed page Cito Beltran dismissed it last Monday saying he does not feel like giving a lecture. But I feel like an old, somewhat crabby editor who wants to educate a cub reporter on what makes news and how to write it.

What is the Good News that Atty. Lacierda says we columnists are ignoring?

First, is a full color photo of P-Noy with Bong Naguiat of Pagcor handing over a giant check worth P864,000 to the executive director of the Hydrocephalus Foundation. Nice. It will help 24 children. But it is hardly the earth shaking news that front page editors and columnists look for. It also begs the question why only 24 children are being helped by the gambling agency normally not shy about throwing millions to politicians.

It would have been more interesting if the report gave relevant background information: how prevalent is the malady in the country? Is there a general program of government to help such children? Do the children fully recover? In other words, we need context for the Pagcor donation… not just a pampa-pogi photo release.

Second, is a report that the BIR surpassed last year’s collection for the 1Q. Again, we need context. What is the total goal for the year? What percentage of the total goal did the 1Q collection cover? How much of the national budget will be covered by BIR collections, how much will be borrowed?

A subsequent release from Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima I first caught on Twitter provided some context to the Good News item… strong fiscal performance was a result of an 18.22 percent increase in revenue collections for the first four months to P461.4 billion, cut expenditures by 11.6 percent to P461.35 billion in large part due to a 17.98 percent reduction in interest payments.

The P22.4 billion reduction in interest payments is due to DOF’s Liability Management Program, which stretched maturities on loans to as long as 25 years. That P22.4 billion in savings from interest payments is enough to fund the entire CCT program for the year, which was given an allocation of P21 billion in the 2011 budget. Now… that’s providing context absent in Lacierda’s Good News release, thanks to Secretary Purisima.

Third, is a report that good governance will save P6-7 billion in DPWH. It says they have saved P1.1 billion on right of way costs. It also promised that thickness of roads will be increased from eight to 11 inches. There was the promise to pave 100 percent of national arterial roads by 2014. There were more promises on the bridges to be built or repaired. There were a few paragraphs on increased transparency in DPWH procurement and the involvement of civil society in its budget process.

I, for one, truly appreciate the miracle in good governance that Babes Singson had done at DPWH. I know how difficult the task is and I am aware that he is doing all that even at great risk to his own life. But again, the Good News report as it is written is boring… invisible. The jaded reader, assuming the report gets through the more cynical editor, will say those are all promises yet to be delivered.

Again, CommGroup should give context… give examples. It is obvious that building a road to a thickness of 11 inches is better than the usual eight, but what is the world class standard?

If Lacierda took time to ask Secretary Ping de Jesus who built NLEX, he would have found out that Secretary Babes’ plan is a big thing. I asked Ping and he said NLEX has 12 inches stabilized sand, 10 inches cement-treated base coarse (lean mix), four inches of binder coarse (asphalt) and two inches wearing coarse (asphalt overlay). NLEX is the only highway in the country I know that had absolutely strict quality control during construction.

Hopefully, Secretary Babes is also testing the quality of the cement. Secretary Ping, as head of the private sector company that constructed NLEX, ordered the Australian contractor to redo 20 kilometers of NLEX for failure to pass quality tests. I have never heard DPWH require a local contractor to do that even when the finished infrastructure is obviously substandard.

Back to Secretary Babes’ good governance… give examples of places where the new good governance measures have made it possible to deliver a better road, bridge or school building. The CommGroup has an army of writers in its regional offices that can provide such details.

Also, as I told Secretary Ping de Jesus last week, the public’s patience while the new administration went through a learning curve is just about over. They are now one year on the job. People no longer want to hear about how difficult it was to clean up after Ate Glue. Nor do people want to hear about more project studies and more plans to do this and that. People want to hear actual accomplished projects or at least, progress reports of projects they thought were low hanging fruits last year.

Fourth, is a report that they have begun drafting a Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-economic Reforms to be presented by the Peace Panel in the talks with the CPP-NPA-NDFP. Nice but the report lacks immediacy. Why is that important? And by the way, what is the current status of the talks?

Fifth, is a report that Pagcor busted a casino gambling syndicate. Pagcor was also reported to have generated revenues of P8.37 billion for the FQ, a 10 percent increase from the P7.61 billion last year. Again we need context. Pagcor may have earned more now in absolute terms than a comparable figure under Ate Glue’s Genuino. But what is the industry growth rate against which we can benchmark that growth?

What was the goal, to begin with? I have heard reports that Naguiat failed to reach a self imposed goal because he focused on cutting costs (normally a good thing) but he neglected marketing which is essential for the usually spectacular growth rates in the gambling sector. Maybe Pagcor should really just be privatized.

As for busting a gambling syndicate, that’s a police story broad sheet columnists don’t usually bother with unless the culprits involved have links to powers that be.

Sixth, is a report that DepEd has improved its financial housekeeping… only 12 percent of the P1.6 billion cash advances remain unliquidated. Nice. But again context. Given the size of the DepEd budget, we would be more interested in knowing how the new leadership is preventing the usual anomalies on procurement of textbooks and instant noodles.  

The thing Atty. Lacierda and company should realize is that they are talking from the exalted perch of Malacañang. When we look at Malacañang, we are looking for policy directions… big picture stuff. We are also looking for clues that P-Noy is walking the talk of his daang matuwid. P-Noy set the bar so high and with it the expectations not just of columnists but of the public.

Whoever taught Journalism 101 to Atty Lacierda during his undergrad years as a CommArts major in La Salle didn’t do a good job. It is obvious that he is unable to evaluate a story from the perspective of the editors. He will not survive an afternoon’s news story conference.

Atty. Lacierda and the rest of the amateurs in the CommGroup must know how to instruct their writers how to write more interestingly. Even a dull economic report can come to life if a writer knows how. Atty. Lacierda and company must never forget that their Good News must compete with a lot of other stories for scarce space or time in the newspapers and the newscasts.

Atty. Edwin Lacierda and company will have to do a whole lot better than the first edition of their The Good News if they expect to get their message across not just to the gatekeepers in media but to the general public. And yes, there’s a direct route to the public that bypasses the columnists through Social Media but using it means Atty. Lacierda and company must be ready to engage more than they seem to be comfortable with.

Talk

 Always remember that talk is cheap… unless it is a lawyer talking.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. He is also on Twitter @boochanco