Worst person for the job

At the mention of the words presidential spokesman, there is never any ambiguity that follows. What the words mean is that whoever is designated as presidential spokesman speaks for the president. Unless the president explicitly contradicts his spokesman, whatever the spokesman says is considered the president's.

But a presidential spokesman is not just a deliverer of presidential messages. His demeanor, even the manner in which he delivers messages on the president's behalf, demands the highest standards of class, grace and professionalism, traits that must necessarily reflect the leader of the land.

This is where the land has a little problem with the presidential spokesman. The presidential spokesman who goes by the name of Edwin Lacierda possesses none of the above traits. He does not have the class, grace and professionalism demanded of the person chosen to speak for the president.

Where other presidential spokesmen have class, grace and professionalism, Lacierda is crass, gross and amateurish. He picks a fight with critics, insults the president's detractors, and goes down to the level of two-bit propagandists hacking for out-of-the-way politicos.

Just take the latest example of Laciarda's tantrums. Instead of calmly explaining how and why the allegations of former senator Francisco Tatad could not have been true that President Aquino met secretly with pork barrel scam suspect Janet Lim Napoles, Lacierda bitched.

He called Tatad a liar and his source for the story a fishball vendor outside the gates of Malacañang. That is not the way a presidential spokesman is supposed to behave. If the president is accused of wrongdoing, his spokesman has to sound cool and convincing in arguing his case.

But if the spokesman chooses to rant and rave and otherwise look miserable and agitated, the only message the public derives and understands from such a chaotic display is that the president must be guilty as alleged, thus causing his spokesman to panic.         Nowhere in the world can you find anyone holding as lofty and as respectable a position as a spokesman for the president allowing himself to disintegrate into such a disorganized and incoherent putty as Lacierda. Calling anyone, even a critic, a liar whose source is a fishball vendor is a no-no for presidential spokesmen.

As a mirror image of a president, a presidential spokesman must be calm and collected at all times. He must always endeavor to answer every issue in a clear, concise, and understandable manner. Where he has no ready answer, he must be quick and nimble, not to ignore but only to sidetrack.

The best and brightest presidential spokesmen see every criticism as a chance to challenge it, in a manner that is best for the interest of the president than if the president were to do the answering himself and make a fine mess of it. This is precisely why there are presidential spokesmen.

A presidential spokesman is the number one public relations man in the country. Nothing less is expected of him. He is there for the president at every twist and turn. He explains the president, he defends the president, he promotes the president.

He must be a positive person all the time. If he cannot win over everybody and make them friends of the president, the least that is expected of him is not to make any more enemies of the president than he already has or can handle.

If Lacierda cannot measure up to the exacting demands of his office as presidential spokesman, then he better resign. And if he is still up to picking a fight with presidential critics, he can always go and buy radio airtime. There he can pick a fight with anyone he likes.

But for as long as he chooses to remain and be the presidential spokesman, Lacierda must learn to keep his cool. He must learn to contain and restrain any urge for him to jump into the gutter. Nobody is as close to being the president than he is. He needs to act the part.