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Iloilo vice governor Rolex T. Suplico seems to be enjoying the national spotlight with the series of “exposes” he’s unloaded lately against the Arroyo administration.

First, he received unprecedented media publicity when he joined Joey de Venecia in foiling the government’s deal with the Chinese company, ZTE, for the supply and installation of a $329 million national broadband network.

Suplico didn’t mind sitting down for 10 to 12 hours at length during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings on the ZTE controversy even if his statements were limited to just one liner remarks to questions that didn’t have much bearing on the scandal.

Suplico got what he wanted: by sitting right beside Joey de Venecia, then Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos and Romulo Neri, he was always in the camera frame for national TV networks and press photographers.

The scrapping of the ZTE deal didn’t end the tirades of Suplico, though.

Just last week, Suplico was back before the national TV cameras to denounce an alleged bribery effort of the Arroyo administration to secure the support and cooperation of congressmen, governors and mayors.

Suplico said he got the information from his former colleagues in the House of Representatitves. In short, tsismis.

One can sense that Suplico’s adventures for publicity hounding will not end there.

It is also clear that he is not acting alone.

Somebody, or a powerful group, is orchestrating all of these, and Suplico is merely a mercenary who is glad to receive so much publicity to carry out a sinister agenda.

Meanwhile, as people are wondering what would be next for Suplico’s antics, his constituents are left staring at the ceiling of his office each time they visit his at the Capitol.

With his busy schedule in Manila, Suplico is spending less and less time to fulfill his duties as vice governor of Iloilo.

Politicians have come to rely on public relations people to handle their media concerns and build a positive image before the public.

“Leave it to the experts” is a common expression being mouthed by politicians who fear the repercussions of bad publicity.

It is also the product of the dominant role of media in public affairs as person-to-person inter-action has become impractical. It is the era of the sound-byte on television and the few seconds on fame on the morning radio news and one or two paragraphs in print media.

The task of a PR person is a critical and sensitive one.

The PR person must possess complete familiarity with the terrain and know the individuals who wield the strongest influence on vast audiences.

The PR person must also have quick and sound judgment.

There is one PR person in Iloilo who has been trying to build her career in this lucrative industry but can’t seem to understand that the work necessarily taints her objectivity and credibility.

That person masquerades as a newspaper reporter for two newspapers to earn her keep as a supposedly bonafide journalist. At the same time, she makes use of her access to media to advance her business as a PR person.

Unfortunately, the conflict is so apparent that she is failing in both aspects.

Her work as a journalist continues to fall under the category of “trash” while her PR business can best be described as “struggling” even after being in the industry for many, many years.

She has been in the forefront of the propaganda campaign against Governor Tupas and promoted the candidacy of known Tupas political enemies.

Tupas has never felt threatened in any of the elections in which he took part, a testimony of how bad the propaganda against him has been handled.

If she can take a word of advice, this blog would suggest to her to focus on just one line of work.

PR lady Florence Hibionada, who continues to disguise herself as an independent, investigative journalist, has written article in The News Today <http://www.newstoday.info>  that is an example of sloppy, bad writing.

The article is entitled “Capitol SP ‘accepts with reservation’ requests from guv’s aide” and landed on the front page of today’s edition of The News Today.

She writes that “Numerous referrals and indorsements in the Sanggunian Panlalawigan (SP) now hangs though “accepted with reservation.”

What does she mean by that? Hanging in a clothesline? Hanging from a noose? And by the way, there should be no “s” in the word “hang”, since she made a reference to “numerous referrals and indorsements.”

The next paragraph only succeeds in murdering the English language.

She says the “SP as a matter of course have (sic) the respective concerns calendared in the regular sessions. Yet with no SP resolution as of now on the legal status of Mejorada, all and any communication (sic) remains (sic) as such —hanging and accepted with reservation.

This kind of writing is an editor’s nightmare. If such bad and sloppy writing made it past the editor’s desk, then I can imagine the article in its original form!

That’s not all.

“Mejorada is the only choice of Governor Tupas for the position of Provincial Administrator.”

I have only one word for this kind of writing — STUPID!

How many choices can a governor make for the position of Provincial Administrator?

“His re-appointment though came under fire after failing to get the SP nod.”

Her writing is not only lousy, but she also can’t get her facts straight. What re-appointment is talking about? Does she know of a re-appointment that was submitted to the SP? How can the SP give its approval when there is no re-appointment?

There are more examples of bad writing that masquerades as objective reporting.

But this one is a classic: “Mejorada assumes (sic) the post of the Provincial Administrator complete with all the authority openly and publicly displayed.”

How else is authority exercised? Keep it in the closet? Or give instructions and directives in whispers?

Hibionada also tries to make it appear that members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan are placed at the “mercy” of Mejorada.

Is that the complaint of the board members?

Nobody seems to have raised a howl of protest among board members.

Hibionada violates a cardinal rule of journalism in which reporters attribute opinions to their sources, whether named or unnamed.

The truth is that Hibionada wrote a demolition piece to paint an ugly picture of Mejorada as provincial administrator. She is carrying out the wishes of her principals, politicians who have an ax to grind against Mejorada.

It is sad to see a nice newspaper like The News Today allowing itself to be used by Hibionada for her public relations business. A PR woman like her should be honest enough with herself to admit that her writing is biased, slanted, and worse, bad and sloppy.

The next time she writes about Mejorada, she should devote more time to edit her article and make sure those stupid mistakes and lousy writing do no show up in her work.

The plot was simple and straight-forward: Make use of a bench warrant issued by a QuezonCity Regional Trial Court against a staunch critic of TESDA director general Augusto Syjuco and put him in jail for a few days.

That, in the minds of Syjuco and his cohorts, was the game plan last week when he carried out what was to be his latest dirty trick in his personal war with Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel “Boy” Mejorada.

It was a perfect plan to harass, intimidate and embarrass Mejorada. The only hitch was that it lost the element of surprise.

Hours before law enforcement agents were supposed to serve Mejorada with the bench warrant, a barrage of telephone calls already swamped him with tips about his impending arrest.

Mejorada was surprised.

As far as he knew, he had posted bail for the libel case filed against him by Rep. Judy Syjuco, wife of the TESDA director general, and the real congressman in the second district of Iloilo.

The libel complaint stemmed from the expose made by Mejorada on the disappearance of P6.2 million of Nokia mobile phones which were supposedly delivered to the Office of Rep. Syjuco in Sta. Barbara, Iloilo in July 2006.

When he checked with the court, he found out that a notice of hearing had been sent to him at his address in Barangay Amparo, Pavia, Iloilo, only to be “returned to sender” by the post office purportedly for its inability to locate Mejorada.

That reasoning was absurd, because Mejorada’s position and stature made it impossible for the post master not to know that he could be located at the Provincial Capitol.

At once, Mejorada’s lawyer, Atty. Jonar Pueblo, whipped out a motion for reconsideration which was sent to the  RTC in Quezon City.

Mejorada left the capitol at around 4:30 p.m. for the weekend, not knowing that agents of the National Bureau of Investigation were already in the premises to serve him with the warrant of arrest.

Syjuco’s sinister plot was foiled.

He did not have the satisfaction of seeing his arch-enemy in handcuffs and languishing in jail.

Last Friday, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court heard the motion for reconsideration, and despite the strong objections of Syjuco’s lawyers, granted the request for the lifting of the bench warrant.

Now, Mejorada can fly as free as a bird once more without having to look over his shoulders for trackers and pursuers wanting to slap him with the bench warrant and put him in jail.

As he told reporters, “justice has triumphed once more!”