When Heart becomes reputational collateral

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December 16, 2025 | 12:00am

Reputation today no longer moves in straight lines. It travels across relationships, households and associations, often without permission and rarely with nuance. In a highly polarized environment, reputation is no longer judged solely by what a person does. It is increasingly shaped by who that person is connected to. Truthfully, proximity, not action, now shapes public trust. This shift has profound implications for how public figures, business leaders and institutions manage their reputational capital.

This is where reputation becomes collateral.

The public experience of actress and fashionista Heart Evangelista offers a timely and instructive illustration. She is not a policymaker. She does not vote on national budgets, sit in legislative hearings or decide the direction of public policy. Her professional domain is fashion, art and culture. Yet during moments of political controversy involving her husband, Former Senate president Francis Escudero, she is periodically drawn into public scrutiny.

Not because of action. Not because of evidence. But because of proximity.

From a reputation management perspective, this distinction matters. Using the Reputation Capital or RepCap framework otherwise known as the Jabal Formula, which treats reputation as a form of strategic capital built on trust, credibility and resilience, moderated by risk, Heart’s case shows how modern reputations are increasingly tested by association rather than conduct.

Trust remains the foundation. In Heart’s case, trust is largely intact. Among fashion audiences, cultural communities and brand partners, she is generally perceived as authentic and professionally independent. The public largely understands that she does not exercise political power and does not benefit from political decision making. However, trust today is rarely absolute. It is contextual.

Trust becomes situationally fragile when political controversy and luxury visibility intersect. At those moments, lifestyle content is no longer read as neutral or aspirational. A dress is no longer just fashion. It becomes symbolic. It becomes a proxy for privilege. This is not an accusation of wrongdoing. It is an emotional response shaped by timing, mood and public frustration. The suspicion is not factual. It is symbolic.

Credibility, on the other hand, tells a different story. Credibility is where Heart’s brand remains strongest. Credibility asks a simple but powerful question. Is this person’s influence legitimate?

Markets answer that question faster and more honestly than social media ever will. When reputational risk becomes real, brands quietly step back. Endorsements are paused. Invitations dry up. Editorial tone shifts. None of these signals have emerged in any sustained way. At least, that’s how it appears to be so. On the contrary, her continued presence in both luxury and mainstream brand campaigns indicates that her professional value continues to be seen as earned rather than borrowed.

Attempts to frame her influence as access-based rather than merit-based appear periodically online, especially during politically charged moments. But they do not persist. They do not harden into dominant narratives. Credibility, once established and reinforced by consistent work, is difficult to dislodge without evidence.

Resilience is perhaps the most revealing pillar in this case. Over multiple controversy cycles, the pattern has been consistent. Attention spikes. Commentary intensifies. Opinions harden briefly. Then the discourse moves on. There is no long-term collapse in relevance. There is no sustained loss of opportunity. There is no permanent damage to professional standing.

This tells us something important. The brand absorbs pressure and returns to equilibrium. That is the essence of resilience. It is not about avoiding criticism. It is about surviving it without being redefined by it.

The vulnerability lies elsewhere. It lies in risk.

Risk is not about guilt. It is about exposure. In Heart’s case, risk rises predictably when three conditions align. First, political controversy involving her husband reaches peak visibility. Second, she is highly visible in public or on social media. Third, the broader public mood is sensitive to issues of inequality, power and privilege. When these conditions converge, interpretation shifts.

Neutral content is reread through a political lens. Silence is reframed as indifference. Presence is questioned. Even absence is interpreted. This is not a failure of communication. It is the cost of visibility in a politicized environment where symbolism often outweighs substance.

This is where restraint becomes misunderstood. Silence is often criticized online as evasiveness or lack of empathy. In reality, restraint can be a strategic form of reputation management. Over explanation would blur professional boundaries. Performative political commentary would undermine credibility and invite further scrutiny. Engaging emotionally with symbolic criticism risks amplifying narratives that would otherwise fade.

Staying anchored to one’s professional domain allows controversy to pass without redefining identity.

The RepCap lens makes this dynamic clear. Heart’s trust, credibility and resilience remain strong. What fluctuates is risk. And risk, unlike trust or credibility, can spike quickly and unpredictably. It is the most volatile variable in the reputation equation.

This is the broader lesson for business leaders, executives and public figures. Reputation today is rarely destroyed by a single issue. It erodes when risk is repeatedly mismanaged. When visibility is mistimed. When professional domains are blurred. When symbolic narratives are allowed to substitute for facts.

Reputation is no longer just about building goodwill. It is about insulating value. It is about understanding when to speak, when to step back and when to simply stay the course.

In an age where politics contaminates nearly everything it touches, the most strategic response is not always louder engagement. Sometimes it is discipline. Clarity of role. Consistency of work. And the patience to let noise exhaust itself.

In the reputation economy, discipline is not avoidance. It is capital.

*Dr. Ron F. Jabal, APR, is the CEO of PAGEONE Group (www.pageonegroup.ph)  (www.pageonegroup.ph) and the founder and president of the Reputation Management Association of the Philippines (www.rmap.org.ph). Please correspond to [email protected] or [email protected]