PR can help change the Philippines

Ateneo de Manila University president Bienvenido F. Nebres, SJ, invited Public Relations professionals gathered for the 16th National PR Congress to work together to bring about change in the country.

In his keynote speech at the event organized by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines, Nebres told story after story of lessons learned in Ateneo's 150 years as a university advocating social reform and nation building.

He said the university has found that closing the poverty gap could be achieved if virtuous leaders are able to translate their vision of a better society into making key social institutions work the way they should to help the less privileged.

Nebres cited the example of San Isidro, Nueva Ecija mayor Sonia Lorenzo who was able to convert her town from a fourth class municipality (revenues of P2 million) to a second class municipality (revenues of P16 million) by strengthening public education and improving access to public health services.

As PR professionals, Nebres challenged his audience to be dreamweavers, to tell stories that will give hope and allow people to dream of a better situation for themselves.

A study of countries that came out of poverty in the last few decades found that leaders of these countries, when they were children, read many stories about courage, hard work, and overcoming adversity to achieve success.

"In the Philippines, much of success is still associated with swerte (luck). That is a popular belief, but luck is out of our control. Rather, let us follow the example of China where success is associated with hard work. Hard work is under our control, but society must be set up to reward hard work," Nebres said.

According to him, the elements for success are as follows: leadership where reforms brings concrete results;an engaged community or people; and transformation in the community or people.

And since all social change or transformation requires good and effective communication, PR professionals are key players.

"Leaders see their vision of the future, followers see what they are giving up. They must communicate to find common ground," he said.

"Change comes when institutions work to meet the basic needs of the people--institutions such as the school system, the health system, the job system. They work when they reward hard work instead of patronage. They work if they can show people that they can fulfill their dreams," Nebres added.

Knowing this, PR practitioners should start telling their stories and show leaders and followers how they can cooperate to achieve what needs to be done. -Carla Paras-Sison, APR

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