EJAP President Neil Jerome Morales; friends in the media: good evening and welcome to the DOF.

Although our venue tonight is a workplace, I hope that shoptalk will be kept at a minimum.

In that spirit, I have even purged my remarks of the familiar lines from the boilerplate PRs that our communication team regularly blasts to you.

Because to repeat them tonight is like preaching to the choir.

Speaking of choir, ask any politician what his ideal press coverage is, and he will answer that it is the kind that sings nothing but hosannas to him.

In short, a hallelujah squad.

But I am a Recto, and from my grandfather to my father, we believe that public interest is better served by a press that is fair and free and fights, than one that fawns upon and flatters.

However, please do not take it as a signal for you to grab your pitchforks and start skewering me.

Fairness is all I ask, nothing more, nothing less.

Call us out if we are wrong, and on times we have done something good, write about our wins — just the facts, no add-on praises needed.

Because if you do your work, you help us with ours, as the feedback your reports trigger is crucial in improving policy.

I am a believer in the power and utility of critiques – the ones based on facts and not on fiction – because they can polish the rough edges that may hurt the many stakeholders who are impacted by what we do.

This is not Fortress DOF that is impervious to what is happening outside, where tabletop simulations ignore realities on the ground.

But it does not mean that I am not cut out to do hard decisions.

To those who still doubt, they have to examine how I fared in many legislative skirmishes that I happily waded into in the House and the Senate.

My decisions were never dependent on where the political wind blows.

I am no fan of safe harbors. I believe that to move forward, one must sail against the wind.

When I entered this building I deposited my political habits at the door, foremost of which is my reluctance to engage the press, face-to-face, regularly.

You may not believe it, but in my 18 years in the Senate, I never called for one official press conference. In 18 years. But I did answer all your questions.

It is an attitude that probably ran against convention because senators are supposed to live by the dictum that the price of incumbency is eternal publicity.

But in a nation that must be constantly assured of its economic health, in a world that continuously monitors it, I know that I cannot be a hermit SOF.

So guys, girls, like it or not, you have to bear with my presence. We’re all in this together.

While an SOF is a dealer of hope, he must be a teller of truth. He owes the country not only his hard work, but more importantly, his honesty.

Besides, there is no wiggle room here for spin, as numbers do not lie, and if they’re bad, you cannot browbeat it so it can take another shape. You can only promise to do better.

So one of these days, when you report that a glass is two-thirds empty, I will vigorously, factually insist that it is one-third full.

My friends:

A week before I assumed office, as I was being prepped during the whirlwind of briefings for the hard labor that await, I was told that as SOF, I have three constituencies to serve.

Malacanang, a constituency of one. The market, which I should not rattle. The masses, which should never be incited in anger.

Pagkatapos ng isang buwan, napansin ko may kulang, may pang-apat na M pala –media.

As I preach the gospel of a brighter Philippine economy and how we intend to turn this optimism into a daily reality for every Filipino, I realized that I cannot do it without you.

Fact is, the SOF, the highest-paid casual in the DOF, relies on the DOF press corps, private individuals, in conveying messages to the people.

You are the guardians of context and perspective. You shape how our people understand the world around them.

And if in the process, you will write something that does not fit into our message, then you will hear no qualms from me because “a public official who complains about the press is like a ship captain who complains about the sea.”

In closing, I would like again to congratulate not just the officers and members of EJAP, but this venerable organization itself for its service to the nation.

Maraming Salamat.