Jeck Conlu’s relationship with the press

“The world for our law enforcement community has changed dramatically: everything from filling out paperwork to relationships with the community and how they think the narrative is in the media.”

—Rahm Emanuel

By Alex P. Vidal

ONE of the only few government officials who has maintained a good public relations with the press is Jeck Conlu, currently the chief of the Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO) in Iloilo City.

Conlu has been in the news even before the May 13, 2019 Philippine general election because of his active role in ensuring the smooth flow of traffic in the local and national roads, and in preventing the mushrooming of illegal squatting and illegal structures in the metropolis.

Because he was always mentioned in the print, broadcast, TV, and Internet media, there were speculations Conlu would be running for city councilor in 2019.

To the relief of those who see him as a potential threat, Conlu did not seek any elective public office and remained in the PSTMO after the local election.

Because he chose to be apolitical during the campaign period, Conlu never earned the ire of feuding politicians and, thus, earned the trust and confidence of Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas.

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His position is supposed to be a “hot seat” or the hot bed of complaints from public transportation drivers, pedestrians, vendors, and other people affected by PSTMO’s task to put order in public.

But we have not heard of any Tom, Dick, and Harry from within his office sharpening their knives against Conlu’s management style; or drivers, pedestrians, and vendors protesting against the way he implemented the mandate of his office.

In other words, Conlu is the Real McCoy in as far as quality public service is concerned.

Why I am writing about this very unassuming city hall appointed official? 

Conlu was the only public servant to remember and greet members of the Fourth Estate during the World Press Freedom Day on May 3. 

In his Facebook account, he tagged 33 Facebook friends, including this writer, and greeted them: “My utmost praise and respect to our brave vanguards of free speech, truth and justice. I would like to personally thank our journalists, broadcasters, writers, reporters and all the people behind the camera, newspapers, and radio waves. Happy World Press Freedom Day! From Jeck Conlu and the Iloilo City PSTMO Family.”

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The 33 recipients of Conlu’s greeting may represent all the reporters and media workers who struggle everyday to keep our democracy alive and continue the torch of press freedom burning in the time of #COVID-19 pandemic. 

World Press Freedom Day is the special day for all members of the working press. The day was very meaningful for those who belong in the Fourth Estate.

It was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993, following the recommendation of UNESCO's General Conference. Since then, the 3^rd of May, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, is celebrated worldwide as World Press Freedom Day.

The day also acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom; it’s also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. 

It is an opportunity to: celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; assess the state of press freedom throughout the world; defend the media from attacks on their independence; and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

For a low key public figure like Conlu to remember and greet a sector, considered as the public servants’ partner in the nation building, during the sector’s special occasion speaks of a positive prognostication in the relationship between the government officials and the adversarial press.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Over acting Grace Poe

“When politics is no longer a mission but a profession, politicians become more self-serving than public servants.”
-- Emmanuel Macron

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- We don’t see anything wrong if Jeck Conlu, head of Iloilo City’s Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO), will seek an elective position in the May 2019 elections.
As a matter of fact, Conlu, a decent and very professional guy, isn’t hard to sell.
He is currently one of the most active and diligent department chiefs Iloilo City can always be proud of.
If Conlu has become a trailblazer in the PSTMO, imagine what more can this public servant do if he is a city councilor or vice mayor.
Here is one public servant who is always visible in public, always available when the taxpayers seek his assistance, and always accessible to mass media.
This could only mean one thing: Conlu is not suplado (snobbish) and is a typical public servant worth the taxpayers’ money in the mold of former Mayor Mansueto Malabor and former Councilor Benjie Gengos.
If Jeck Conlu’s name will be included in the surveys, only fools will forget to put the dotted lines on his name in the choices for the top five city councilors in the survey sheet.
Iloilo City Mayor Jose “Joe III” Espinosa III and Iloilo City lone district Rep. Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas should start wooing Jeck Conlu, a real asset in the legislative branch.

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Our country will further slow down if we continue to have OA (over acting) public leaders like Senator Grace Poe.
This woman senator has done nothing except to hold unproductive and useless “Senate committee investigations” these past years.
Each time there was a controversy ripe for publicity, Poe would call for a “committee investigation” where she would pretend to be sympathetic in a certain cause and deliver a melodrama spiel ala movie script of her foster mother, Susan Roces.
After garnering a huge publicity for her failed 2016 presidential bid in the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs hearing on the November 27, 2015 foiled raid by a group of thugs led by the late drug lord Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr. on Aksyon Radyo station in Iloilo City, Poe’s committee has done nothing concretely.

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None of the personalities identified in the raid was arrested or hauled to court as a result of that terrifying attempt to intimidate employees of that radio station.
Odicta was only “neutralized” after President Rodrigo R. Duterte was elected and fulfilled his campaign promise to eliminate illegal drugs and kill the drug lords.
In her latest publicity stunt, Poe sought for a “full blown” Senate investigation in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) runaway incident when thousands of passengers got stranded and flights were cancelled after a Chinese airline recently veered off.
Poe blamed the airport’s “seeming broken systems of regulations” saying it was a “jolting wake-up call” that caused an “airport paralysis.”
“The slow actions on the issue is something perverse about an absent administration by inefficiency, lack of compassion for citizens and people, and anathema to the country’s quest in good public services, tourism, investments, human resources, and similar sectors,” the lady senator bewailed.
She has scheduled an inquiry into the issue on August 29.

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Is there a need for the Senate to join the fray even after Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade has taken over the management of the investigation of the incident and called it an “eye-opener” for airport authorities?
Tugade said the incident was “a reminder for us to take a second look at the processes, procedures, and protocols of concerned agencies, as well as airlines, so that we may all improve in the future.
“I am sorry. We did our very best to address the situation,” added the secretary after the NAIA has been ordered closed temporarily.
It seems that a Senate hearing at this time is too premature and unnecessary when NAIA authorities are still scrambling to remedy the situation and put everything into order.
Politicians like Poe should at least wait and give Tugade, et al ample time to solve the problem in their own capacity before grandstanding politicians like Poe will dip their fingers and earn pogi points at the expense of other fellow public servants.