Crisis PR

Will someone please tell President Arroyo to get a new spinmeister. It took several days before she finally admitted that an American public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller, had been hired to burnish the country’s image abroad. And no, the PR firm was hired not by her friends in the business community, in coordination with Cito Lorenzo and Tom Alcantara, but by Malacañang itself. The cost to taxpayers is $800,000 a year, the President disclosed in New York, "to enhance the global image of the Philippines."

Why the very delayed admission? My guess is someone failed to do their homework (as usual), so Malacañang had to scramble for proof that other presidents had also hired PR firms, among them Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada. Also, President GMA probably wanted to bask longer in the glow of her Time cover story without fueling speculations in this rumor-mad country that a PR firm had a hand in the article. 

She and her underlings should have known that there’s no way you can hide stories about PR and lobbying contracts in this country, especially those with a company described on the Internet as a "global perception management firm." The late Ferdinand Marcos was found out during the twilight years of his presidency. He hired the lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, incidentally a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller.

Well, President GMA must have had a great time in New York, since she finally mustered enough confidence to admit the hiring of Burson-Marsteller. The firm replaced two that were hired by Erap, she said. Two for the price of one! In the land of ukay-ukay, everyone must recognize a bargain when he sees one.

Best of all, the President gushed about Burson-Marsteller, "They’re delivering!… We might as well be transparent. It’s for the whole country."

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It would’ve been better if the Palace became transparent about it as soon as the story broke. The belated admission simply smacks of damage control.

Defending a multimillion-peso government PR expense is always tough in this country, where many people don’t even know what a lobbying firm does. Crisis PR luminaries or publicists here are viewed with suspicion, especially if they’ve handled some controversial clients. Black, Manafort represented Philip Morris and was retained by Dow Chemical in the furor over breast implants. The lobbying firm was also said to be a favorite of repressive regimes.

In Washington late last year I joined several Asian journalists in interviewing the head of one of the most successful lobbying firms in the US capital. We asked him if they accepted any client who can afford their fees, even if the client or the client’s product posed a threat to society. The lobbying firm did its best not to accept such clients, he said with a straight face.

A lobbying firm with a social conscience seems like an oxymoron. Even our American guide said as much when the interview was over.

The thinking in this country is that if the product or the person stinks, no amount of crisis PR can serve as deodorant. Look where Marcos and Erap ended up.

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So far, President GMA seems mighty pleased with Burson-Marsteller. She did land on the cover of Time. With all those heads of government in New York for the World Economic Forum, she was interviewed by CNN, CBS, the International Herald Tribune. She met with the editorial board of The New York Times.

But she should be prepared for debates on whether the country really needs a PR firm. The economy is doing well: the stock market is rebounding, the peso is stable, investors seem bullish about the country. The week started with Moody’s Investors Service upgrading its credit outlook on the Philippines from negative to stable. Did Burson-Marsteller also have a hand in that?

My thinking is that the PR firm simply came in at the right time, when anyone seen as an ally of the United States in the war on terror generally gets good coverage in the western press. Why, even Pakistan, long seen as a major sponsor of Islamist terrorism, whose people are believed to have helped Osama bin Laden escape from Afghanistan, is getting good press these days.

It’s President GMA’s luck that she’s in the United States at the same time that the Americans are opening a new front in the war against Bin Laden and al-Qaeda in – where else? – the Philippines. President GMA can say over and over that this is not America’s war, but that’s not the way it’s playing out in the United States.

Oh well, if Burson-Marsteller’s benefits to the Philippines are debatable, at least the firm has been a boon to the image abroad of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.