The rambunctious, energetic, and investigative foreign media in the Philippines has lost former Far Eastern Economic Review senior correspondent Rigoberto Tiglao when he became press secretary and spokesman of President Gloria Arroyo last year.

After more than a year on his job, Tiglao, who recently became Arroyo's chief of staff, arduously believes that media should make room for metamorphosis, so that the press can become a perfect venue for nation-building and nationalism.

"My framework has changed. It is not a matter of being an apologist. I've realised that particularly with President Gloria Arroyo, we're out to build a nation," he said after arriving from a six-month stint as a researcher at the Kyoto University's Centre for Southeast Asian Studies. Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyii was also a recipient of the same grant.

Newspapers, he explained, serve as a meeting point of all sectors. "Sectors are communities, and any person can't meet all of them. The press is the next best thing for anyone to meet all these communities," Tiglao said, adding: "It is sad that newspapers are trying to divide nations instead of building them."

He noted that tough criticism could better shape the country's democracy. "Some media entities should provoke nationalism."

"Globalisation takes away barriers of countries. Nationalism plays a role in making a country respected globally," he reasoned out, adding that his new sense of information was influenced by Arroyo.

"She has a real vision of creating a strong country. She is out to build a real strong state and a strong sense of nationalism. This vision has to be articulated and repeated," he said.

Friends and associates might be disturbed and disappointed with Tiglao's metamorphosis, but they admit that he is not an ordinary spokesman and that he can make a difference in his post.

He is credited for the ongoing creation of a war-room for the president, to help her during crisis and for her projection.

"It is like a situation room, or Malacanang's centre of power where data is available at the flick of a finger. It's made like a newsroom where data is available. This must be institutionalised, not only for the current president, but for future presidents," explained Tiglao.

On May 1, 2001, when the presidential palace was almost besieged by protesters who supported former president Joseph Estrada (who was then about to be arrested for the plunder case filed against him), the defence department and the police monitored the event in suburban Quezon City. Major players came to Manila's presidential place, with tons of papers.

"At that time, the president used cell phones to coordinate with her subordinates. Everyone met at the dining room. In the excitement of everyone, papers were left behind unsecured," recalled Tiglao. That state of chaos will soon change with a war-room which is almost completed.

When asked how much he has changed as a former journalist, he said: "At first, I would itch for a story (with all the data available to me), but concern for a story has become a concern for a long term thing."

He did not say if the long-term thing means eventually writing an analysis on the seat of power, where he is right now.

When asked how quickly he adapted to the demands of his post, he said: "I had to adopt quickly because I had no time to adjust." At that time, Estrada was to be arrested for the $78 million plunder case filed against him by the government.

Working with Arroyo is not like walking in the park, considering that she has to finish the last four years of Estrada's term, after his ouster by protesters in January 2001.

"She's a task master. Everyone here feels a lot of pressure, that they cannot be sitting idle too long," said Tiglao who, as a journalist, could handle pressure well. "But my sense of background of events in the country is my forte," he said.

"Some say I am too belligerent, but I have to express to decisions of the president," he said of his critics, who also include members of the leftist intellectuals at the University of the Philippines, his alma mater.

Recently, New People's Army spokesman Gregorio Rosal forcefully said Tiglao should be hanged for being avidly pro-U.S. like Arroyo.