CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Central Luzon organized social media communications workshop for information and public affairs officers and artists of various national government agencies and local government units in the region.
The training-workshop is part of the initiatives under the Strategic Communications Cluster of the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict 3 (RTF-ELCAC 3).
PIA Regional Director and RTF-ELCAC 3 Strategic Communications Cluster Head William Beltran said the training primarily aims to capacitate all member agencies of the RTF-ELCAC, including those in the provincial, municipal, and city task forces of ELCAC, on how to properly produce online materials on the government’s anti-insurgency and anti-terrorism efforts.
“We all know that this is a priority program of our President because we in the government, particularly the present administration, believe that insurgency, particularly at the local level, is actually a miniature terrorism or at least it is a parcel of terrorism,” Beltran said.
The director also encouraged all participants to treat the training and the advocacy to ELCAC as their personal contribution towards human race, adding that in the long run, whatever they do today in terms of advocacy will contribute greatly to a better, safer, and productive future for all the next generations to come.
For her part, Presidential Communications Operations Office Undersecretary and National Task Force-ELCAC Spokesperson Lorraine Marie Badoy stressed that the task of government communicators is crucial in the fight against terrorism and insurgency.
“What are government communicators? What are we? We are the voice, especially of those who do not have a voice, those who have been silenced. Therefore, our role as storytellers is very important,” she said.
More than just passing on traditions and values, Badoy said the most important job of storytellers focuses on healing by reminding people who we really are.
“What do the communist-terrorist groups do? They wounded us so deeply. I really think that our job is sacred— to heal our country. I’m really happy that we are learning how to tell our stories better because they tried to make us forget who we are. We really need to remind our people who we are. We are not the type of people who will let your child go there. We are very family-oriented, we love our children, we will kill for our children. We really love our families,” she said.
Among the topics discussed during the four-day training workshop include guide to basic terminologies, clarity of writing a piece, the right attitude of an RTF-ELCAC writer, photography, and editing social cards using Photoshop.
Mentors and facilitators of the training-workshop are from the Integrated Communications Operations Center of the NTF-ELCAC.