"Who is this operator making sweeping claims?"
Public relations basically embark on the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization to win the support of the public on a particular issue or initiative.
With environment projects deemed as controversial, media operators are usually paid handsomely for their ability to talk with sense, while calibrating on which information to disseminate or hold on to.
However, this unwritten rule seemed furthest from the mind of a media handler who instead of creating an impeccable image for his corporate clients, has been bragging about his alleged connections to some of the most powerful people in the country.
In fact, the multi-billion reclamation project that was recently awarded to his principals is now under intense scrutiny by some anti-graft and corrupt offices.
This, after he went around town boasting to anyone who cared to listen about his “prolific” portfolio as a PR operator, bragging that it was him who “helped” his clients to seal the deal by using his connections with the government.
According to this operator, there is no way to stop the multi-billion Manila Bay reclamation project citing two reasons.
First and foremost, he claimed that it was a “done deal” after hundreds of millions in pesos representing what appears like more of an advanced SOP, were transferred to Palace go-to conduits.
Although in fairness to him, there is truth to his claims that his principals had already secured a ‘Notice to Proceed’ and ‘Notice to Mobilize’ for the projects from the Office of the President.
He also bragged that not even massive daily protests by big environment organizations could delay the project because all decision makers were already sold into it.
This cunning media operator was also claiming that the biggest names and organizations in the media industry are already in their pockets, hence, no one would dare assail the flaws of the project.
Wow! The nerve of this man to make a sweeping claim is something for the entire media industry to stand up to.
I did some research and I learned that three big-ticket reclamation projects were indeed already awarded by the government.
If you wish to know who this operator is, here are some clues.
He isn’t in any way related to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
He was fired as public relations man of a government project for his failure to properly liquidate millions of pesos worth of media budget.
He also used to work for a big multi-national company engaged in beauty and household products.
But wait, there’s more. He alone couldn’t do such a trick. He’s got a partner whose name sounds more like that of a teenage star from German Moreno’s That’s Entertainment.
This other operator is the subject of several newspaper column pieces sometime in 2019 for dubious schemes.
What he did then was to approach narco-politicians to whom he offered help in the form of striking out their names on the dubious list – at cost.
With the kind of media handlers that this corporate giant has, they were clearly putting the multi-billion reclamation project in jeopardy because of their unsavory reputations.
