‘No secret group for GMA in 2004’

Malacañang belied yesterday reports that President Arroyo’s campaign handlers have put up a "shadow media task force" commissioned to allegedly "manage the manufactured clamor for her to run" in the May 2004 elections.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye told The STAR he was not aware of any such "media task force" composed of former journalists, public relations practitioners and private sector communications experts.

"I don’t know anything about that," Bunye said. "(The President) is not running."

"What we would do is to anoint somebody (as the party’s presidential bet) at a proper time," he quoted the President as telling the Lakas members.

Bunye recalled that the President likes to quote her favorite passages from the works of the late Chinese Premier Mao Tse Tung whenever she is asked by her partymates who she will anoint as her successor: "Let a thousand flowers bloom and let those flowers make known their intentions and we will evaluate and choose at a proper time."

The STAR gathered from reliable sources that the "media task force" would supposedly conduct clandestine operations to project a groundswell of the Filipino people’s clamor for Mrs. Arroyo to reconsider her Dec. 30 decision not to seek a full six-year term in 2004.

"In the task force are Rod Reyes, Greg Cendaña, Tony Abaya, Bobi Tiglao and Dante Ang," a source told The STAR.

Reyes had brief stints as press secretary during the administrations of former Presidents Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada. Cendaña was the chief of the propaganda machinery during the reign of ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Abaya is a private communications expert and husband of Ramos’ presidential spokeswoman Annabelle Abaya. Tiglao, a former journalist, now serves as Mrs. Arroyo’s chief of staff. Ang is a personal friend of the President and is a public relations practitioner and owner of the Manila Times group of publications.

"The task force is funded by Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation)," the informant said.

Reached by The STAR last night, Tiglao laughingly dismissed the reports. "That’s preposterous! It’s not true. Ang labo niyan. Wala ’yan. Kalokohan lang ’yan (That is improbable. That’s nothing. That’s a joke)."

However, Bunye announced that Mrs. Arroyo has formed an informal communications advisory group (ICAG) to help "package" her administrations programs and projects over the last 17 months of her tenure.

In his regular daily press briefing at Malacañang, Bunye said the ICAG, which includes him, met with the President for over two hours at the Palace yesterday.

"I think there was an article about the media group and we would like to clarify that the media group was formed... after the Dec. 30, 2002 speech of the President," Bunye said.

"Of course, with the announcement of the President that she’s not running, we had to refocus our communications plans (which) will revolve around rallying support for the President’s reform agenda. For this purpose, she has formed the ICAG," he said.

During the first ICAG meeting, Bunye said, the President reiterated her Dec. 30, 2002 declaration to them "that we should just focus on these legislative and economic reforms, pro-poor and major infrastructure projects which would be implemented during this administration."

"The ICAG would evaluate the programs and how to package and make them better understood and communicated to our people, especially if these (things) are controversial," Bunye added.

The ICAG, he said, will be headed by Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, with the following members: Tiglao, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Avelino Cruz, Press Secretary Hernani Braganza, presidential adviser on ecclesiastical and media affairs Dodie Limcaoco and former trade undersecretary Tomas Alcantara.

Also part of ICAG are Abaya, Social Weather Stations (SWS) pollster Jun Laylo, former health undersecretary Mario Taguiwalo and Bubut Quicho.

"There is nothing sinister about this group and this group will assist the President in rallying support" for the Arroyo administration’s most urgent programs, Bunye said.

"We just have to come out and be pro-active in our projection of what the President is doing," he added.

Ang, who once served as the President’s public relations consultant, is not part of ICAG but will be tapped on a case-to-case basis, Bunye said.