ENDEAVOR
On Aug. 23, 2010, barely 55 days after he began his six-year term, then President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III administered the oath of office to several senior government officials, including yours truly, at mid-afternoon. It was not until 12 hours later, at around 2:30 a.m., that I took leave from him in front of the Quirino Grandstand at the Luneta.
That was in the aftermath of the tourist bus hijacking incident that began at around mid-day outside Fort Santiago in Intramuros. By some uncanny coincidence, the passengers of that tourist bus took the same route that our Dr. Jose Rizal walked, from his jail cell to Bagumbayan where his monument now stands, on the site where a firing squad from the Spanish Guardia Civil executed him.
That day I remember vividly, as a day in the life of a press secretary – on which occasion I gained many insights on the burden of public service and the crucial role played by mass media in shaping public opinion.
Days later, I joined PNoy at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig, headquarters of the Philippine National Police National Capital Region Office (NCRPO). The bus hostage taking was reenacted – and it had, of course, a happier ending. Viewing the demonstration a few hundred meters away from a parked bus, PNoy and his delegation witnessed how an elite squad skillfully executed the rescue of hostages with clockwork precision.
First, there was a loud bang – and in that split second when the hostage- taker was distracted; the bus was stormed; the passenger-hostages were rescued. Indeed, hindsight trumps foresight, as it provides the clearest of vision of what and what not to do.
Alas and alack, Presidents and Cabinet members are not uniformly gifted with prescience, even if they may possess an abundance of native intelligence and a wide range of skill sets that would serve them in good stead in tackling the weighty problems of governing a country like the Philippines.
The experience of having served not one, not two, not three, but six past Presidents of the Philippines, is a rare qualification attributed to newly appointed Secretary Cesar Chavez of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), the same office I was privileged to head for the entirety of the Aquino III administration, from 2010 to 2016.
I first met and got to know Cesar when he joined the DOTC Action Center, an initiative of then Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Oscar Orbos. This office attended mostly to requests for assistance from the public, related to their day-to-day needs, or to emergency situations that may be addressed by tapping government resources.
Orbos became executive secretary in December 1990, on the eve of the outbreak of the Iraq-Kuwait war, also known as Desert Storm. Replicating the DOTC experience, Orbos opened a Malacañan Action Center and this was soon transformed into a call center that offered free long-distance calls from Manila to all points in the Middle East where overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were deployed, thanks to an unsolicited offer made by then PLDT President and CEO Antonio ‘Tony Boy’ Cojuangco. That was a few years before mobile cellular phones were introduced.
Cesar Chavez was among the Action Center stalwarts who facilitated public access to the unprecedented service. The free call-up service reassured spouses, children and family members that our OFWs were away from the line of fire and were able to carry on their work without interruption – except those situated within or near the combat zones.
The chairmanship of the then nascent National Youth Commission (NYC) was Chavez’s next significant government role. The NYC sought to channel the energies and talents of the Filipino youth toward nation building, leveling up from their involvement in the Kabataang Barangay at the grassroots level. This was followed by a long stint as news and public affairs anchor at DZRH, the flagship radio station of the Manila Broadcasting Company (MBC) where he teamed up with popular radio announcers Joe Taruc, Rey Langit and Deo Macalma.
Next time I knew, he had become the chief aide to Manila Mayor Francisco ‘Isko Moreno’ Domagoso who started his term like a house ablaze, parading billboards of housing projects, health centers, public playgrounds, and public markets that were being built, remodeled, or repurposed. After the Covid-19 pandemic came and went, the 2022 national elections popped up, then lo and behold, Isko Moreno was a presidential candidate.
Despite Isko Moreno’s loss at the polls, Chavez re-emerged as undersecretary for railways at the transportation department. When lawyer Trixie Cruz Angeles resigned as PCO secretary, Chavez was eyed as the likely new press secretary, but he opted out, preferring to stay on at the DOTr, driven by, in his own words, “a vision to make Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. the infrastructure President.”
As the new press secretary, he steps into office fully prepared and focused on his role in the President’s official family. When asked by reporters about his marching orders to Secretary Chavez, the President replied: “Only one: Tell the truth.”
When Chavez was asked if, aside from him as press secretary, there would also be another individual serving as presidential spokesperson, he said: “The best spokesperson, salesperson of this government, of this country, is still the President.” After 27 months as Chief Executive, President Marcos has honed his skills at parrying pointed questions on the issues of the day. Yet, truth be told, the burdens of office are such that presidents are also well served by competent spokespersons.
Having been a field reporter and news program anchor, Secretary Chavez is indeed more than sufficiently prepared; in fact, he is abundantly equipped with all the skill sets needed in his tough assignment. To boot, he enjoys the goodwill and respect of reporters and journalists who regard him as one of their own. We wish him every success.