The propaganda war
and its implications

It was intriguing. The military reportedly expressed fears of the efforts to revive the communist propaganda tool, the local tabloid daily, the Visayan Courier. Even Presidential Assistant for Western Visayas Rafael Coscolluela cited the military insecurity over the issue, pointing out that it can snow under the propaganda tool with a lot of information by the government public information arm. Correct, even assuming that the Courier was a propaganda tool of the Communist Party of the Philippines, it has only a limited circulation. At most, 5000. And that is already an exaggeration. The other neutral outlets of government information number vastly more than that plus radio and television media.

In short, the military virtually confesses that it fears being outclassed and outmaneuvered by a bunch of amateurs who dabble also as journalists on the side.

Look now. All that one has to do is ask government agencies and instrumentalities how much development projects they have introduced into a given area. The water here may not be drinkable but, at least, they provide water for washing to the rural folks. And for farmers.

We don't have to go far. How many kilometers of roads and bridges have the military engineering battalion put-up in both Negros provinces. But what about the New People's Army?

And the military can call on the information offices of provincial, local and national government offices to supply them with the necessary information that could be dumped on neatral media to counter the communist propaganda which thrives on specific hyped issues.

Military psy-ops officers should not only focus on what is being dished out" by their opposite camp. They should the ones to pick out the subject for public discussion so they can educate the people on what is being done for them and what has not been done by the other side.

Not only that. They also have a lot of non-government organizations, mostly apolitical or democratically-oriented, to help out with their projects on uplifting the plight of the less privileged segments of the population.

Look at the problem of communist propaganda. In the Soviet Union, the Communist Party had almost total control of the media. Nothing else but community propaganda was approved for dissemination to the public. But even that failed to stem the collapse of communism.

The whole problem boils down to a lack of appreciation of what propaganda is and its limitations.

There are a lot of myths about propaganda. And the worst is that a "lie repeated a thousand times soon becomes the truth." Perhaps, it should become clearer if the phrase "unless corrected and exposed as such" is attached to it.

Thus, Presidential Adviser Lito Coscolluela had a point. Why should the military fall prey to the specter of a tabloid as propaganda tool of the Communist Party? In short, that's a virtual admission that the psy-ops of the AFP does not measure up to the level of CPP/NPA propaganda.

Which is also a myth. Compare the AFP resources to that of the CPP/NPA. By all the rules of logic, the communist are outclassed and could be drowned out by the AFP counter-propaganda machine.

The problem is - how come that the perception is that a tabloid can intimidate the AFP with all the resources of government behind them.

Every LGU is by itself a counter-propaganda machine. So with the barangays. Each has its own funds and projects which are, by themselves, a testimonial to what government is doing for local residents. So with the provincial government. And each branch of the various departments of the national government plus the other ancillary offices, such as the GSIS, the SSS, the Land Bank of the Philippines, etc.

All that is needed is for the AFP to encourage these agencies to come out with their plans, projects and programs and their accomplishments. Compare these with what the CPP/NPA have done to a particular area. And, voila (you have the insurgents totally snowed under.

But, of course, if the AFP psy-ops operation is misused to glorify individual soldiers or officers, that's a complete different story. Still, that still towers over what the CPP/NPA can dish out.

The problem is that the psy-ops officers seem to have developed a jaundiced view of their work. And the reason for this is obvious. PIOs of the AFP often are dumped officers. They consider their assignment as a hard-rock post with no possible advancement at the end. That was one reason why, while serving as adviser to the Secretary of National Defense, I suggested that they professionalize the public information officer's post and put it on record as just another combat assignments.

Thus, those assigned to such a position need not begrudge it. A successful PIO can earn promotion as fast as any assigned to a company or platoon.

One does not necessarily need extra creativity to be able to run rings around the communist. All that a PIO must do is coordinate with the various civil government offices around to be able to come up with counter-propaganda. Say, for example, if a municipal project involved a village whose population had hardly a drop of potable water for generations. All that should be done is to point out that fact. And explain the medical implications of a deep well. And how many people are benefited by it, plus the children.

I hope our military officers can go over the press releases of the provincial government during the Martial Law years. And they can see how the provincial government managed to stem the red tide by doing nothing but just highlight the truth about what the government was doing for the people in the countryside and the urban centers.

Nothing can beat the truth.

***

I just received word that former Bacolod Capitol Lions Club President Rene Cagayanan had died yesterday. His remains are now at the Alisbo chapel in Mandalagan.

Rene, a land surveyor, proved to be one of the most successful stewards of the club. He had recently been bed-ridden. But he deserves a salute from every Lion, especially members of the Bacolod Capitol. He was a towering figure during his presidency.*

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