ON AUGUST 10, 2017, Secretary Martin Andanar of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) wrote a communication to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to support a program of which public information officers of local government units (LGUs) from the province going down to the barangays will undergo “Journalism/Reporter Training.”
This training program initially a step to expand information dissemination for transparency, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) is tasked for the said training. Four months later, on December 12, 2017, DILG Officer-in-Charge Catalino Cuy issued Memorandum Circular No. 2017-165, agreeing Andanar’s proposal and directed all LGUs to support the training program.
The memo stated that the agencies of government value the right of the people to information on matters of public concerns and that the Duterte administration espouses for a fully informed citizenry which said to lead to people empowerment and “suppression of corruption in government.”
“The access to and exchange of information is extremely crucial in our society today as we deal with the extensive use of media in obtaining and utilizing news materials from every reliable sources.
Consequently, this has also changed the face of journalism as everyone is able to report and post in the internet just about anything.” The memo adds.
Recently, newly appointed undersecretary Martin Diño reiterated this program in a radio interview over dzBB, adding that there will be around 42,000 “barangay reporters” to be recruited or deployed, which was a bit erratic as the DILG memo said that LGUs would “appoint” Public Information Officers, not PCOO or DILG recruiting or deploying such personnel.
Nevertheless, such move may give a positive outlook for more job options especially for college graduates whose majors are into communication and allied fields. But how are these PIOs or “reporters” being treated on their job titles is still a big question that left unanswered, questions like:
What would be the qualifications of LGU PIOs or reporters? In Provincial and city/municipal levels, there’s already an established information and system for its information offices. It’s the barangay levels that need more training in to incapacitate in choosing the right person for the job, especially it should not be influenced on personal connections and nepotism.
What would be their working status? Will they be “contractuals” or “job orders” or will they be permanent government workers with items and benefits?
And most important of all, what does PCOO and DILG mean about “Journalism” training? How do they define “Journalism?” Obviously, this is not the journalism that exposes anomalies in government spending and making corrupt officials accountable. If a PIO or reporter did that even to the barangay level, I doubt they would still stay longer on their posts.
Journalism, even in journalism and communication schools, is a constant debate for every scholars and practitioners who subscribed to different schools of thought. Journalism is anchored on truth, and it is adversarial, something that common people would not appreciate and see this as a plot to destabilize governments, when all it wanted is to present to the public of government being answerable to their actions and to the people and they must do it right.
Perhaps what PCOO and DILG is trying to say that they would train PIOs and “reporters” on Strategic Communication Dissemination, a more euphemistic term for “developmental propaganda.” So they can change the title based on their objectives, and definitely it’s not “Journalism” training.
If you ask, what “authority” do I have to say this? Let’s just say I had the practice and academic requirements (and a lot of mistakes to learn in the past) to give an insight about these things.
(nefluczon@gmail.com)