CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin M. Andanar highlighted the importance of strengthening the link between government and media.
During a meeting with the local media in Pampanga, he said PCOO is exerting its efforts in order to strengthen its advocacy on media policy, media engagement and media solutions.
“As a PCOO secretary, I ensure engagement with the media because this is our way of soliciting suggestions and finding out the issues faced by the media in their respective localities. It is important to know their issues so we know how to address them collaboratively,” Andanar said.
As part of ensuring the general interests of the media, the secretary then cited the issuance of Freedom of Information and the Presidential Task Force on Media Security as the first two administrative orders issued by the Duterte administration.
“These two administrative orders which we champion paved the way for the Philippines to be delisted from the world’s top countries dangerous for journalists. This happened last year, nine years after the Maguindanao massacre,” he said.
In addition, he also mentioned the efforts of PCOO in establishing the Office of the Global Media Affairs, as well as its smooth relationship with the international media which led to the facilitation of foreign press coverage during the return of Balangiga bells and the Bangsamoro Organic Law plebiscite.
Andanar also mentioned about the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which he facilitated in behalf of the Philippines with the countries of Myanmar and Thailand.
“These MOUs are similar with the ones we have with China, Hungary, Russia, Cambodia and South Korea. These led to continuing education or executive courses for media men and women in the country which are not only limited to government media but have been expanded to private media as well so that they have the equal opportunity to learn from these countries,” the PCOO exec said.
Copies of a manual called “Handbook on Personal Security Measures for Media Practitioners”, which was published by the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, were also distributed during the meeting.