FOR the past couple of days, not a few critical comments have been posted on social media against Mayor Benjamin Magalong in the way he has been handling the Covid-19 pandemic in particular and management of city government affairs in general.
Quite understandably social media such as Facebook and Twitter have become outlets of various types and categories of information and opinion, critique and praise, credible and wild accusations and speculations, allegations, and disinformation (fake news), as well as rants and raves against some person, group or entity for such purposes as only the one who posted it can ever truly understand and discern.
In fact, similar to an author of a book or a radio announcer many of those who maintain Facebook or Twitter accounts have adopted pseudonyms reversed names or nicknames, and even fantastic and weird avatars if only to hide their true persona and thus maintain a faux third person character to which they can wholeheartedly attribute their messages without feeling unnecessarily exposed or vulnerable to push backs.
For the City Mayor and his managers in the city government, using social media to provide credible and factual information in order to promote transparency with respect to government action and service has its limitations. For one the local government must see to it that its social media account on Facebook or Twitter, or other types of such apps will have a clear designation and identification for proper attribution of its content (e.g. Public information Office-City of Baguio, Sangguniang Panlungsod Baguio, etc.). Another is that the information posted must be factual, in other words, it actually happened or is about to happen at a more or less definite time. Finally, the information posted must be supported by actual data that can be reviewed and evaluated in the future.
Now if one wishes to be entertained and amused with whimsical and fantastic stories about everything else in this world, or those who simply want to momentarily get away from the doldrums of the real world through the internet then official government Facebook or Twitter accounts is not the place to visit.
However if one would like to be informed about what is going on in the community or more specifically how the city government is doing its best in balancing the various interests of the people in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic then a sure-fire way of having a better grasp of the situation would be to visit the official city government Facebooks accounts I gave as an example above and to continuously monitor any pronouncements from the city government thru the 4th estate (media).
A very clear illustration of how the city government and the city mayor has been providing factual and credible information with regard to the Covid-19 is the latest report from the UP OCTA Research Team which by the way based its findings on the data from the Baguio City Health Service Office (HSO). That report provided an accurate picture of the Covid-19 situation in the city and how it has progressed in the past several months up to the present.
The City Mayor in a subsequent post through social media confirmed the validity of the data and further provided clarifications that adequate control systems are in place, and a very high degree of situational awareness and effective management of the situation is being aggressively implemented. In other words, the city government knows where the cases are, where the outbreak is occurring, and the means to contain and manage such an event. He further added that a big factor towards the effective management and control of the Covid-19 spread in the city is a cooperative community and a good team behind him.
It must be noted that the data that the mayor provided an explanation for and the basis for the UP OCTA research team report actually came from his own team that has been with him in the frontlines during the very start of the pandemic. This is the transparency that is needed and the credible information required during this time and the mayor did not mince words nor shirked from his duty of truthfully informing the public about the Covid-19 situation in Baguio.
In his post Mayor Magalong made a final note which says, "Don't worry. We remain on top of the situation with the various types of control systems in place." To those not in agreement with what the mayor said then by all means try to contribute something better, meaningful and productive instead of just whining and griping on social media.