I think that your 'regional head' has no idea what he is talking if he truly said that PUB3 will hire more applicants than PUB2.
I see the statement as being 'ridiculous' because it is not true in any way.
The FAA is hiring roughly 2,000 'trainees' in the fiscal year 2009 and isn't going to 'pick and choose' what PUBATs get what number of TOLs. They will base it on your desired location, your AT SAT score, your work experience, your education, etc. If 2,000 applicants (former military, veterans, OTS, CTI, etc.) meet the criteria by the end of the year 2009 and all want to go to different places that need controllers, then they will 'push' these people through and not 'jump' to another PUBAT on the chance that there is someone there who is more qualified. To sum up, if well qualified enough people happened to apply in PUBAT2 and other announcements that aren't OTS (during the same time period of roughly April-August), then they will get the majority, if not all, of the spots for the fiscal year 2009 and people who applied in later OTS PUBATs will have to wait until the next fiscal year for their chance to work for the FAA.