There should be a law on PR/ lobbying

With the controversy surrounding the Agile issue, the time has probably come for our legislators to put up a law requiring any foreign or local lobby group, civil society or environmental organization that wants to influence policy or legislation on specific issues to register with the Department of Justice. They must clearly outline their specific purpose, what they want to do, who they represent, how much money would be required and spent, who are the people that would be involved, etc. In short, they should lay their cards on the table for all to see. And there’s nothing wrong with lobbying as long as these groups clearly define their purpose and tasks.

Lobbying is no less than a legitimate and respectable business in the United States. More specifically in Washington, the number of registered lobby firms and think-tanks has grown from 7,200 to 9,200 between 1997 and 2001, approaching a ten-to-one ratio over the cadre of elected members of the US Congress. The Center for Responsive Politics pegged the number of employees working in lobby firms somewhere between 18,000 to 20,000 registered lobbyists as of the year 2000. On the whole, in fact, there are more than 60,000 employees, including secretaries, messengers, writers and other members of the staff in these lobby firms. Lobbying has become Washington, DC’s largest private sector employer, accounting for one-sixth of the private workforce, some of them even belonging to the academe. That’s about one out of every six people working in the private sector. In 1998, according to a columnist of the New York Times, about US$1.42 billion was spent on Washington lobbying alone. Much of lobbyist spending in the US was geared toward influencing and improving policies covering taxation, finance and the real estate industry. More lobbyists are registered with Congress to lobby on taxation issues more than any other issue. In fact, there’s even a joke among US senators that if they do not get more than 10,000 emails in a day from lobbyists, then they’re over the hill. Way back 1964, there were already 31 lobbyists for every Congressman. The sector has grown so big and successful through the years that if the lobbying industry in Washington DC would stand as its own economy, it is said that it would be larger than the economies of 40 nations. Not all of them, of course, do lobbying work in Capitol Hill and US Congress. Much also is spent in trying to influence officials at various regulatory agencies and other executive branch decision-makers.

Colombia is one country that has benefited from lobbying. If not for the successful lobbying efforts in the US Congress for socio-economic and military aid, Colombia would still be under the mercy of the big-time drug cartels. But because of the successful lobbying for US aid, Colombia was able to substantially contain the problem. Israel has about 10 lobbying firms working in the US Congress to lobby for economic aid, military assistance and policy changes. It is obvious that Israel is the most successful in terms of influencing policies and improving bilateral relations with the US.

It is but appropriate for funding and financial assistance agencies like USAID, CIDA and JICA to have representatives who will make sure their financial assistance to the country is being appropriated accordingly and wisely. If Agile is protecting the interests of the USAID, then I suppose there is nothing really wrong with it, as long as its activities do not run counter to the interests of the country. Besides, I do not see anything wrong when a lobby group lobbies for aid and assistance, or for the improvement of some policies in government as long as it would rectify chinks in the policy and professionalize government service. In fact, lobby groups that work along these lines should let the public know of their activities and projects. There’s nothing clandestine about helping a country improve its standing or image among nations with viable solutions to problems. It’s clandestine if the objective of these so-called "lobby groups" is to betray or topple the government or affect policies that would compromise national security. This should be singled out as a covert operation, no less than a conspiracy theory. But we have too much of these coup rumors and toppling-of-government-scenarios already, to the point that for many, it has become an open secret – for some, even a joke. And we don’t even need to look very far because some of those who push for this are even in government.

Again, to allay the fears of many, it would be better to put up a law that would require lobby groups and other organizations involved in lobbying to be transparent about their activities. Because of the three-million-strong Filipinos in the United States it is but right that we establish our own lobbying effort in the US so we could advance the country’s interests in the US.

In fact, Bobby Romulo’s group hired the services of the Washington-based PR-lobby firm Burson-Marsteller with a supposed contract for US$ 1 million of taxpayers’ money. Hopefully, this has served the national interest and not the personal interests of this group.

On the other hand, local public relations groups should also be registered with the Department of Justice since some of them are involved in dubious activities like demolition jobs and character assassination, and most especially those that have the habit of feeding libelous and wrong information to the media. Firms such as these should be held liable for their unscrupulous actions. This practice should be contained because legitimate lobbying and other communications activities, when used in the right manner, could be very helpful.

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This character Victor Agustin has the nasty habit of writing true stories fed to him based on pure fiction. No wonder there’s a long line of people ready to file libel char-ges against him. Maybe he should just call his column Cock n’ Bull instead of Cocktales.

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