WHEN President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte assumes office as president, I hope he will succeed in fulfilling his promises for the sake of our country and our people. And it will help him succeed if he becomes more PR conscious and aware of the importance of having a good image for the nation’s leader in gaining public acceptance and support for his administration’s policies and programs.
I don’t mean that he should change his real persona as a strong and proactive leader as he has already proven in Davao City. That image is already imprinted in the minds of our people, and was instrumental in his winning the elections by a wide margin over his opponents.
Rather, he should show the more positive and engaging dimensions of his character. I believe he already has these, but he has not shown them much because he probably thought these may be perceived as signs of weakness by his criminal enemies.
These dimensions include his apparently deep and abiding faith in God, his love and devotion to his late parents (the video of his praying and weeping before their tombs elicited much admiration and sympathy) and his sorrow and compassion for victims of heinous crimes.
He must also put more on display his sense of humor, better if self-deprecating. He is good at mimicry, in doing impressions of pompous and self-important people. But he must desist from telling sexist, green and cruel jokes.
It would also be good for his image to be seen relaxing and enjoying his love for karaoke singing, which is shared by nearly all Filipinos. He should also smile more and scowl less.
He must conduct himself with more gravitas and dignity. This will include being more diplomatic in his language, eschewing the use of invectives. He should also wear formal attire more often. He need not wear a suit if he finds it uneasy to do so. But it would be good for him to wear a barong Tagalog during important local and international events. Such will not only be an aesthetic, but a patriotic statement on his part.
When Duterte becomes President, he will represent and personify the Filipino people before the world. He becomes, in effect, the Philippines top PR man. Thus, he will do well to put his natural PR skills to use, and listen to advice from PR experts.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the UK based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier organization for PR professionals around the world. Max Edralin Jr. is the PR Consultant of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and Rene Nieva is the Chairman of Perceptions, Inc.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.com.