I read that in the training of members of the Aquino cabinet on how to deal with media,  public relations practitioner Carol Espiritu stressed the importance of credibility.

How does one achieve credibility? By telling the truth.

Never lie to media. You may be able to get away with it for a few hours or a day but it would be discovered later on. You can’t fool all the people all the time.

That’s what happened in the press conference of Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo last Wednesday. He  cited two cases as legal justification for his recommendation to extend for three months the stay  of 21 political ambassadors of Gloria Arroyo: Mendoza vs Quisumbing, 186 DCRA110 and Topacio vs Angeles, 76 Phil 12.

The quote was “When a public office is placed on a hold-over status, it means that his term has expired or his services terminated but he should continue his office until his successor is appointed or chosen and has qualified.”

Romulo probably has been used to members of the DFA press corps who swallow hook, line and sinker his pronouncements. But for some of us who have covered the foreign affairs beat and have written a lot of articles about the Foreign Service Act, know that that provision does not apply for the issue at hand because the foreign service is governed by the Foreign Service Act.

Why didn’t he cite from the Foreign Service Act? Because there is none.

A lawyer in my blog, SaxnViolins, checked the cases cited by Romulo and found out that the first one involved employees of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports. The other, I understand, involves members of the board of a government corporation.

SnV said: “In the case of Mendoza, the Supreme Court held: A typical provision in all these challenged executive orders is the “hold-over” status of every single employee of the departments as a result of the implementation of the reorganization. One such provision would be section 24 of Executive Order No. 117 reorganizing the DECS.

“In the case of Topacio Nueno, the law allowing hold-overs states:  Election for the members of the Board shall be held on the date of the general trienial election, and elected members shall take office on the sixteenth day of October next following their election, upon qualifying, and shall hold office until their successors are elected and qualified.”
  
SNV  said, “Clearly, the President cannot declare hold-overs. Hold-overs are allowed if enabled by law.” This jibes with what we have been saying that the extension is illegal because the President has no power to extend the appointment made by his predecessor that has already been terminated. There was nothing to extend. Therefore, the stay of those 21 ambassadors in their posts after noon of June 30, 2010 is illegal.

We learned that Wednesday morning, before the presscon, members of Romulo’s staff were scrambling for legal justifications because they were expecting the question. That was all that they could come up with. Nothing from the Foreign Service Act.

By giving that provision that he knew (if he didn’t know, that’s worse) was not applicable to the case being discussed, he was lying to media. That’s a violation of the cardinal rule in media relations.

Another tip to cabinet members on dealing with media: don’t ignore media queries. Respond to calls.

My fellow reporters and I were comparing notes about our problems with Aquino’s officials in the first two weeks of his presidency and we have one common complaint: Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda ignored our calls and text queries.

Maybe the number of calls that he got was overwhelming, he just couldn’t cope with them without a deputy spokesman. Or maybe, he decided to be selective which calls and queries he would answer.

Lacierda should realize that if a reporter calls or texts him, it’s not a social act. They are not doing it because they are his fans or they want to have a tete-a-tete with him. They are calling him because they need information. Trabaho lang.

They should learn from U.S. embassy spokespersons who never ignore calls. They may not give you answers to your queries but they respond. That way, they know what issues and concerns they need to address.

Government officials are mistaken if they think that if they don’t answer, the reporters won’t write the story. Wrong. We will write the story without the government side. Government then loses by default.

                                                
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