Adults in the room

With the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 menace staring us in the face, any reasonable person should be ready to cooperate with government to survive this crisis. I think any hesitation is only because there is also fear that this government is run by people who do not think things through.

The President’s first two attempts to win public cooperation could have been more successful if he projected himself with the same sense of purpose and discipline that the Singapore PM did when he addressed his people. Duterte tried doing that last Monday. At least he tried.

But it isn’t just Duterte. His resident clown was talking about eating banana and gargling with salt to fight the coronavirus.

Ok… so maybe we should be used to Duterte and Panelo by now… But we are in a serious situation. They need to act accordingly.

The worse part is having key officials contradicting each other on how the Metro Manila community quarantine is to be managed. Someone said a curfew would be part of it. Then Duterte’s communications man said that’s fake news.

Apparently, MMDA spoke too soon. DILG had to caution that curfew is possible only after city councils pass an ordinance calling for it. All that is academic now because we are effectively on a 24-hour curfew for the next month.

What this crisis needs is a reliable spokesman.

The President didn’t provide details the first time and also last Monday. As a result, there was a deluge of questions from the public about the scope of those directives.

This was something acknowledged by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea who told officials in Malacanang that “I have received a number of them myself, and I am sure each of you also did. In fact, I will have to admit to all of you that, in my experience, no single pronouncement of the President has given rise to so many questions as the one last night…

“Our people want to know if their specific situations are covered by those directives. They ask questions like ‘What is a community quarantine?’, ‘What counts as a mass gathering?’, ‘What if NCR residents have clients or work outside NCR, and vice versa, what if those outside have work here in NCR?’.

“Another recurring question is, ‘If those with work outside NCR will be allowed, what do they have to show to prove they have work, what if they do not work in a company but have clients.

“These are very important questions. Clearly, something has to be done. If we want to elicit the people’s cooperation, we have to clarify these matters. If they do not cooperate, the measures will not succeed. It is that simple. Our law enforcers can only do so much.”

The administration carelessly communicated its moves to address this serious epidemic. The ES made a good point about the need to carefully address the concerns of all our people.

“This virus is the biggest and most urgent problem the government is facing right now, but let us remember that we also have our people’s livelihoods to consider. Any measure that will impoverish them will be seen as a cure worse than the disease.”

It is good to know there is someone within the circle of power who realizes and acknowledges their shortcomings and the importance of doing things right.

Unfortunately, the Palace committed the same mistake last Monday when they announced a Luzon wide enhanced community quarantine. They made the announcement without details hours before the President’s broadcast.

Of course, people panicked. They don’t know what this new directive means. They cannot be faulted for feeling vulnerable. As it turned out, those who cleaned out the grocery shelves were right.

Ideally, such momentous announcements that impact greatly on how people live their lives should have enough details at the outset. The questions of the public should be anticipated and with ready answers. That’s basic crisis communications.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles ably filled in the gap after the President’s announcement. His answers to questions provided the guidance people need to plan their lives.

It is a pity Duterte doesn’t have a capable communications team. Forget Andanar. The job is much too complicated for him to handle. 

It need not be that way. They have a tested hot shot crisis communicator in Greg Garcia, Chairman of BCDA. I don’t think Greg would have allowed Duterte to announce the lockdown without details of how it will be implemented.

Greg is a great comms strategist. He was a legendary communications guru for my generation of corporate communicators. He is, in the words of one of his memorably successful campaigns, subok na matibay, subok na matatag.

Greg can alleviate the frustration we all have now about all the incompetence in Duterte’s comms team. Even if only a temporary special assignment, Greg should be asked to handle this very important and critical job of communicating government’s actions on this coronavirus crisis.

One big problem of the Duterte administration is the impression that aside from a handful of top officials, they have a competence problem. It is aggravated by Duterte’s childish rants now and then. There are many times when investors wonder if there are any adults running the affairs of this country.

Of course, there are adults in the room, notably the economic managers led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia. Now, we know, we can count Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea as one of the adults too.

At a time of crisis like what we have now, we need competent adults, those who know what to do and have the gravitas to convince Duterte to do the right things. Maybe the fumbles happened because Dominguez, Pernia and Medialdea were on self-quarantine the past few days.

They are back and not a minute too soon. The challenges will be great in the next weeks. It is good to have adults around when the President makes decisions affecting us all.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco