Remonde: From reporter to Cabinet secretary

The story of Cerge M. Remonde is a modern-day Horatio Algiers story – if not better. From reporter, he rose to Cabinet Secretary, particularly as head of the Government Mass Media Group. The story includes growing up an orphan and working himself through school to possessing the admiration and trust of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

As head of the mass media group, he supervises the National Broadcasting Network (NBN) Channel 4, Radio Philippines Network (RPN) Channel 9, Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) Channel 13, Bureau of Broadcast Service (BBS), Bureau of Communications Services (BCS), and the Philippine News Agency, a wire service. In addition, he does other important and sensitive errands for his boss.

He accompanies the President on her trips to the provinces and abroad. She calls him up anytime of the day and night. In turn, he protects her image and that of the government, especially during the last few weeks when her decisions and declarations came under attack, and her once-perceived loyal governors deserted her.

Cerge helped the broadcast networks under his supervision turn around, financially, and through programming that emphasizes the positive and good government programs and people who believe in the capabilities of the President. Cerge himself hosts a forum over the government TV and radio stations to interview people in government and the private sector.

Cerge deftly demonstrates grace under pressure. I once watched a TV talk show where he was at the receiving end of chastisements from other members of an invited panel. He kept his cool and simply smiled as he made his point peaceably throughout the program.

Cerge is a dark, swarthy man with the charm of the Cebuano and media practitioner with a nose for news and developing good relations with his news sources.

Those are good enough reasons why he holds the distinction of being both the first provincial-based broadcast executive elected as national chair of the Kapisanan ng mga Broadcasters ng Pilipinas (KBP) and the longest holder of that office for six consecutive terms.

Because of his outstanding leadership in the Philippine broadcast industry, he was elected chair for two consecutive terms of the umbrella organization of the Philippine media and advertising industries which is the Advertising Board of the Philippines (ADBOARD).

He was born in Argao, a town 68 kilometers south of Cebu City, on Dec. 21, 1958. He was barely a year old when his father died, so he grew up in the care of his mother and relatives. He served as altar boy, and his ways endeared him to priests and bishops. His ambition in the elementary grades was to become a priest, but when he was about to enter the seminary, "I found out I liked girls."

But he remained to be religious, he said. His commentaries in his six-day column in the Sun Star carried the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. A devotee of the Sto. Nino, he participated in the fluvial procession held every third Sunday of January, which began at dawn of Saturday. He was the only media person allowed to be on the Galeon de Trinidad, the boat carrying the Senor Sto. Nino; all the other passengers were bishops.

He was a working student while earning his bachelor of arts (magna cum laude) at the University of the Visayas. He took law units at the Gullar Law School of the UV. (Later, he would take postgraduate studies in Israel, Japan, and the US.)

His acquaintance with the President began when she was still a senator, and Cerge was writing a column six days a week for the SunStar and was on the air 6 to 9 in the morning Monday to Saturday over DYLA, the city’s biggest station, his forte, public affairs, which was why, he said with his beguiling smile, "I was popular." The senator would drop in at his studio when she visited the southern city, and they were asked to be ninong and ninang at the christening of media persons’ kids.

How Cerge got to Malacanang is "somewhat mystical," he said. On the third Saturday of January 2001, he sensed that something important would break out. At that time, People Power II in Manila had become intense. "I felt something was going to happen. I never thought of entering government service, but for the first time in my life, I was praying that if my services would be needed by government, thy will be done. I felt I was communicating with the Sto. Niño."

After the procession, Cerge, went home for a change of clothes, and was moved when he saw Vice-President Macapagal Arroyo on television, taking her oath as president. "Tears welled down my face. My feeling was, here’s a very small woman taking her oath to be responsible for the country. I had tears of joy that Erap was out, and that Gloria was taking her oath, but I felt sorry for her."

That afternoon, he got a call from the Office of the Vice-President to attend the flag-raising ceremony at Malacanang on Monday morning, in his capacity as chairman of the KBP. Cerge said he could not fly to Manila the next day because of the Fiesta Senor, but said he will be in Manila in the afternoon of Monday.

In Malacañang Monday afternoon, he was met at the door by the President. She made beso-beso, and Cerge told her, "Wala nang beso-beso kasi presidente ka na. I told her, ‘If you need my help, I’ll just be a call away.’ Gloria said, ‘Basta baya ha?’ " Three days later, he was in the Palace as head of the government mass media group.

Cerge is actually one of a three-man presidential communication group. Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye is overall in charge of communication matters in Malacanang; Usec. Renato Velasco takes care of programs of the bureaucracy (like the PIA), and Cerge, the broadcast/TV networks and the PNA, a wire service.

Cerge is the one who accompanies the President on her trips. Cerge said it’s the President’s prerogative to choose whoever she wants to go with her, but he thinks he’s been chosen because, "No. 1, I’ve been with media for a very long time, and No. 2, I represent the Visayas and Mindanao, it’s like I’m an officer on attendance."

He said that after his appointment, Channel 4 and Radyo ng Bayan have improved their programming and focus on public affairs. "We’re trying to improve the capability for government media to be an effective alternative to biased media. How do you fight lies by preventing the truth?"

"Personally, I believe Gloria won the election," Cerge said. As President, "she has outstanding values – No. 1, she’s very intelligent. No. 2, she’s very hard-working. No. 3, she’s very religious. She arrived at a time when the country was a social volcano. The political culture was really damaged. She inherited a bankrupt government, a bankrupt treasury. Now," he said, "We’re over the political hump."

The opposition has been asking for Gloria to step down, he said, "but what assurance can we have that things will be better?"

And who would the opposition replace GMA with? "They can’t even agree on who will take her place. They’re only united to replace Gloria. That is the total recipe for disaster."

Cerge said, "If we can just set aside politics for the moment, we can do best for the country. Let’s wait for 2010, instead of destabilizing our country."

He continues to write weekly column for a nationally-circulated newspaper, and he hosts radio/TV interviews for Channel 4 and Channel 9 and Radyo ng Bayan (DZBB).

Cerge said he has been entertaining the idea of going back to the private sector – at the opportune time. He likes the story line – of his "journey from reporter to Cabinet Secretary and back."

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