President of KBP now City Hall’s info officer

Saturday, October 2, 2010

A BROADCASTER was appointed head of Cebu City Hall’s Public Information Office (PIO), which the mayor wants to strengthen to provide accurate and useful information.

Mayor Michael Rama announced yesterday the appointment of Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) Cebu City Chapter chairperson Carlo Dugaduga, who he said started reporting for work last Sept. 24 yet.

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City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete said the appointment was signed last week, before the ban on hiring of government officials and employees started.

The PIO is the last coterminous position to be filled under Rama’s administration.

Rama said he is confident Dugaduga can make a difference in the PIO, with his 22 years of experience in the broadcast industry.

Dugaduga said he will first evaluate the structure of the PIO before he starts to introduce changes and carry out their tasks.

“We will start by building up a databank of necessary information so we can provide them to the public,” he told reporters at City Hall yesterday.

Rama said he wants the PIO to provide accurate and useful information to the public, particularly the media and the different offices in City Hall.

Among the plans for the PIO is to come up with a radio and television program that will feature the City’s different projects and activities, and a newsletter that can be distributed within and outside City Hall.

The PIO will also be tasked to deal with the media, and arrange news conferences with the department heads and other city officials.

It will also gather information from the barangays that may be useful to the public.

Dugaduga said he decided to take the post since it would allow him to continue giving service to the public, this time in a different setting.

“I feel that 22 years of service in the broadcast industry is long enough. This is a new challenge for me but still with the same purpose, which is to continue serving the people by providing information. The only difference is I moved from a private company to government service,” he said.

Dugaduga, 41, was manager of dyXR Aksyon Radyo, which closed recently, before he joined City Hall.

In 1998 and 2009, he was arrested and jailed overnight for libel charges, one of them the complaint filed by Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez Jr. against him as station manager of dyXR. He said he has not been convicted yet.

Dugaduga also said the case will not affect his job.

“I don’t think the case will affect my job because I have not been convicted yet; the libel complaints are still pending in court. Taas pa kaayo na nga process. Granting without admitting that I can be convicted, that can still be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court,” he added.