15 November 2005
OPINION: Gary Teves: Calm, credible voice amid confusion & chaos
AFTER ALL
Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr.
THERE are authorities and there are authorities.
In times that try men’s souls, there are persons who emerge to take control, keep a group or nation together and bring on a calm sense of optimism among people of diverse persuasions amid all the confusion and trouble.
In this mold fits the late Ninoy Aquino, Phivolcs Director Rolando Punongbayan, former PCGG chair Haydee Yorac and possibly now, Finance Secretary Gary Teves, he who was plucked from his ensconced post at the Land Bank of the Philippines to become the country’s Finance Secretary just when all hell seemed to break loose over in the department. And from all indications, he’s been steering the ship (DoF) well.
We’ve never met this guy personally but watching him say his piece on television about issues concerning his turf – to include a “talk show” with President GMA herself a few weeks back – with such smoothness, sincerity and humility, no frills at all -- makes one wish Mike Defensor and Luis Villafuerte take some lessons from him on the fine art of public speaking, not to mention public defending.
But perhaps, such suave, serene, even-voiced discourses come naturally for Teves; it’s in his character. Not even when he was being accused, wrongfully a year back about some misdemeanor or the other did this man lose composure in public. In fact, by his own humble appearance and soft repartees, he was already able to acquit himself before the audience without reaching the investigation point.
If there’re clear plus points for the administration in its current battle against the odds, Teves should be out front among them. He is holding a super sensitive portfolio that calls for the assuaging voice of a priest, the firm resolution of a judge and the demeanor of a doctor, clinically analyzing a delicate situation without showing any clear emotion that could be interpreted by the patient and his relatives either way – good or bad.
No wonder, in his term at the Land Bank, he carried that public institution to greater and greater heights it had become now the envy of financing institutions.
Nope, this is by no means a PR job for the man; it is completely unsolicited. In fact, he doesn’t need it; he is his own best PR man.
* * *
Lest a recent incident during a “private visit” of the President to Rosales town gets a reprise, with all its unfortunate implications, maybe it’s best for local media friends to remember that everything during such “private visits” is purely a hit or miss affair, so to speak, insofar as getting an audience or interview with the Top Lady of the Land is concerned.
Precisely, the Philippine Information Agency, which usually coordinates coverage of presidential presences, and other attached media agencies to the Office of the President don’t get alerted at all on such visits and would thus discreetly keep their distance even when present.
But where those in the President’s immediate company have preference to bring in their own media friends who tag along, by reason of, well, simply being the host at the site, some “livable or practical arrangement” can perhaps yet be made – subject to the usual security and protocol considerations.
Private media’s need or yearning for a scoop in the President’s more intimate moments with friends and relatives is of course understandable. It is their raison d’etre. It is this prime and only reality that the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) – of course in consultation with the President herself and the Presidential Security Group (PSG) -- might want to address satisfactorily, without being too abrasive about it, the next time around.
The only non-negotiable condition being that there be no cameras brought in – to protect the “privacy” of the occasion. Which is what a “private visit” is really all about, correct?
Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr.
THERE are authorities and there are authorities.
In times that try men’s souls, there are persons who emerge to take control, keep a group or nation together and bring on a calm sense of optimism among people of diverse persuasions amid all the confusion and trouble.
In this mold fits the late Ninoy Aquino, Phivolcs Director Rolando Punongbayan, former PCGG chair Haydee Yorac and possibly now, Finance Secretary Gary Teves, he who was plucked from his ensconced post at the Land Bank of the Philippines to become the country’s Finance Secretary just when all hell seemed to break loose over in the department. And from all indications, he’s been steering the ship (DoF) well.
We’ve never met this guy personally but watching him say his piece on television about issues concerning his turf – to include a “talk show” with President GMA herself a few weeks back – with such smoothness, sincerity and humility, no frills at all -- makes one wish Mike Defensor and Luis Villafuerte take some lessons from him on the fine art of public speaking, not to mention public defending.
But perhaps, such suave, serene, even-voiced discourses come naturally for Teves; it’s in his character. Not even when he was being accused, wrongfully a year back about some misdemeanor or the other did this man lose composure in public. In fact, by his own humble appearance and soft repartees, he was already able to acquit himself before the audience without reaching the investigation point.
If there’re clear plus points for the administration in its current battle against the odds, Teves should be out front among them. He is holding a super sensitive portfolio that calls for the assuaging voice of a priest, the firm resolution of a judge and the demeanor of a doctor, clinically analyzing a delicate situation without showing any clear emotion that could be interpreted by the patient and his relatives either way – good or bad.
No wonder, in his term at the Land Bank, he carried that public institution to greater and greater heights it had become now the envy of financing institutions.
Nope, this is by no means a PR job for the man; it is completely unsolicited. In fact, he doesn’t need it; he is his own best PR man.
* * *
Lest a recent incident during a “private visit” of the President to Rosales town gets a reprise, with all its unfortunate implications, maybe it’s best for local media friends to remember that everything during such “private visits” is purely a hit or miss affair, so to speak, insofar as getting an audience or interview with the Top Lady of the Land is concerned.
Precisely, the Philippine Information Agency, which usually coordinates coverage of presidential presences, and other attached media agencies to the Office of the President don’t get alerted at all on such visits and would thus discreetly keep their distance even when present.
But where those in the President’s immediate company have preference to bring in their own media friends who tag along, by reason of, well, simply being the host at the site, some “livable or practical arrangement” can perhaps yet be made – subject to the usual security and protocol considerations.
Private media’s need or yearning for a scoop in the President’s more intimate moments with friends and relatives is of course understandable. It is their raison d’etre. It is this prime and only reality that the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) – of course in consultation with the President herself and the Presidential Security Group (PSG) -- might want to address satisfactorily, without being too abrasive about it, the next time around.
The only non-negotiable condition being that there be no cameras brought in – to protect the “privacy” of the occasion. Which is what a “private visit” is really all about, correct?
