ONE OF the most influential persons in the Arroyo administration is not a member of the Cabinet. Neither is he a member of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's family. He doesn't even have an official title or office, but as the President's "personal publicist," Dante Arevalo Ang wields formidable clout.

No single Cabinet official, for instance, probably could top the number of persons Ang has placed—or claims to have had a hand in placing—in different government agencies. He also instigated the creation of the National Anti-Crime Commission, an anti-crime superbody that encroaches into the functions of the Department of Justice, the Department of Interior and Local Government, the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of National Defense. The talk even is that he had broached the idea for the commission directly to the President, and had it mulled over by other government officials before the heads of the departments concerned got wind of what was going on.

As the person responsible for Arroyo's public image, Ang has to be involved, or can choose to be involved, in anything that affects the President. Since everything that the President does affects the country, Ang is an important man to this country's 75 million people, even if most Filipinos haven't the slightest idea who he is.

The 59-year-old Ang, however, is not a complete unknown. In political and media circles, he is acknowledged to be one of the country's savviest and slickest spinmeisters. He has also had several other successful careers as a radio talent, advertising boss, broadcast station executive and publisher. He nearly managed to add "press secretary" to that list earlier this year, but was thwarted at the last minute. Then again, there are those who say his not having clinched that spot has not diminished his power one bit - but that's getting ahead of the story.

As Ang tells it, a few hours after Arroyo was sworn in as the 14th Philippine President on January 20, her brother, Diosdado 'Bubuy' Macapagal, Jr. asked him to be the new press secretary. The offer was reiterated by Arroyo herself the following night at her La Vista home. Ang did not need any convincing. After all, the Malacañang job would just be a continuation of his working relationship with Arroyo, whose media concerns he has handled since her Senate days.

But then came Monday, Arroyo's first day at the Palace. The new President showed Ang a memorandum from some members of civil society groups objecting to his appointment. Among the reasons cited was his having handled the public relations account of SGS (Societe Generale le Surveillance), an international certification and testing firm that is collecting a huge amount from the government, and his involvement in the campaign for charter change by the Estrada administration.

Ang says he was aware of the need for Arroyo to please the many forces responsible for her unelected presidency, so he told the President the very next day that he was freeing her from her commitment to him. He then suggested that Noel Cabrera, a veteran newsman and press undersecretary in the Estrada administration, be considered for the post. Ang now says, "When the civil society objected to my being press secretary, I recommended Noel Cabrera because I know him to be a competent, honest, a person of integrity and respected by his peers."

But that wasn't the end of his suggestions for the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS), the primary communication arm of Malacañang. He recommended broadcaster Serge Remonde as press undersecretary. (Remonde has since transferred to IBC-13, a government-run network.) Subsequent movements in the OPS such as the appointment of veteran publicist Butch Pajarillo as press undersecretary and Carmen Suva's promotion from assistant secretary to press undersecretary for media relations were also Ang initiatives.

He proved as indefatigable in making recommendations for various positions in media organizations run or owned by the government. As a result, Teddy Berbano and Benjie Defensor, editors of his newspaper, Kabayan, now also manage the sequestered Journal Group of publications that include the high-circulation tabloid, People's Journal. In addition, Ang facilitated the appointments of at least five journalists as directors in either sequestered or government-controlled corporations. These include Manila Standard editor-in-chief Andy Del Rosario (who has also been nominated as ambassador to Hungary) and DZRH's Deo Macalma in RPN-9; Today columnist Alvin Capino in the Bases Conversion Development Authority; and Manila Times columnist Julius Fortuna as director in a Petron subsidiary. Ang also says he recommended the retention of Malaya columnist Horacio 'Ducky' Paredes, an erstwhile Erap loyalist, as director of a subsidiary of the Philippine National Oil Corporation.

In addition, the young publisher of the country's number one tabloid says Ang offered him a directorship in the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation. But the publisher declined, citing the incompatibility in interests of media and government. Ang himself justifies recommending journalists to government positions by saying, "These people can serve as watchdog. I want these people to watch over the shoulders of government officials." Besides, he says, his recommendees go through a committee set up by Malacañang to screen candidates for government positions.

That may be so, but some of those who have been at the receiving end of his offers say that whenever he sounds out a journalist for a post, he gives the impression that he can swing the appointment. Once, he even allegedly told a prospective recommendee, the editor of a newspaper perceived to be critical of the Arroyo administration, who wanted to know exactly in which agency the supposed directorship was: "I can't say yet, but if you agree, we can easily find one." The editor declined the offer.

Similar proposals were spurned by Arroyo critics like Tribune publisher Niñez Cacho-Olivarez and Malaya columnist Jonathan de la Cruz. But Ang denies making such offers to journalists to influence their writing. He says, "Why don't you look at the columns of Paredes and Capino? They continue to be critical of Gloria."

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PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM