Publicists of elected officials
A MAYOR got back the public relations man who worked for him when he lost the 2013 elections... Another mayor hired a fresh journalism graduate as his publicist... A broadcast commentator signed on as P.I.O. for the governor. His predecessor still has to be harnessed for another job after her contract expired.
Will they succeed? Depends on (a) how well they know nuances of p.r. work, and how to manage the news to benefit their client, (b) their savvy in preventing or coping with crisis in mainstream and social media, and (c) the amount of trust given the p.r. guy by the boss. Often, the public official is his or her own best or worst publicist.
Repeating the repeat
PRESIDENT Duterte’s fascination with repetition of words was shown in these lines in his July 25 Sona:
-- “Let me repeat my warning to all. I repeat my repeat. My repeat to all: Don’t do drugs.”
-- “He who is the cause of the cause is the cause of it all.”
Those ‘secret servers’
IF Bongbong Marcos relies on proving there were secret servers to establish fraud in Leni Robredo’s win in the elections, it won’t do, according to the VP’s lawyer.
Assuming there were such “secret servers,” they did not affect the results of the election for any position, as they could not add votes to or subtract votes from any candidate.
Results went only to one, the Transparency Server, the lawyer said.
So Bongbong needs to prove not just the existence of the “secret servers” but also their capacity to change the votes.
An easier way, the Robredo lawyer said, is for Bongbong (a) to show one election return that didn’t tally with an authentic copy or (b) to present one ballot for Marcos but was credited to Robredo instead.
How to call them
HAVE the six Cebu City councilors been asked about the title they prefer to be called?
The councilors whom the mayor designated as “deputy mayors” are being given executive functions, making them in effect administrators, on top of being legislators.
Would they want to be called Honorable Councilor (Hon. Con.)? Or Honorable Deputy Mayor (Hon. Dep. Yor)?
One was overheard saying in jest, “OK ra gyud og ‘Mayor.’ I-drop lang ang ‘deputy.’”