Editorial: Covering the new administration

ONE can hardly be at ease thinking about the recent moves of the PNoy administration.

Among these is media relations.

Of course, some kind of “reformatting” has to be done given the nine years of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s reign.

Reports say the President’s people will be made to undergo a seminar on how to handle the media.

This is something new, though not necessarily innovative, since past presidents may have also ordered similar training on media handling in their time.

But it should have been done discreetly and not openly announced.

The trigger, it appears, is the encounter between two PNoy people with media the past few days.

Testing ground

Note that during the first six days of the new administration’s existence, it has already experienced its first “politically inspired” killing of an activist involved in the last elections.

It seems like an initial baptism by fire of the Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III presidency, a kind of testing the grounds to determine how good he is in making good his commitment and standing by his word.

Recent policy issues, indeed, will test his managerial mettle.

For instance, there is the question regarding his policy on gambling.

Recall that under the Arroyo government, the illegal numbers game jueteng, along with some others, appeared to be protected by legal tolerance.

At the same time, legalized national gambling such as the lotto and its local equivalent called small-town lottery are government-sponsored.

Another policy issue that has been raised is that on the nation’s military defense.

The Philippines has long been perceived as a country with very poor military preparedness based on the amount of money appropriated in the annual budget.

In fact, this republic has been dependent for its military equipment on dole-outs from the United States, such as military hand-me-down planes and firearms.

Commitment

It is certainly a challenge for the nation’s media people to cover an administration that is for change and intent on doing what is right.

This is a commitment by PresidentAquino that he is willing to lay his life on, as well as the name of his forebears.

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