MEDIA SUMMIT. Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar gives the Cebu media a glimpse of the "Duterte Legacy" in a five-minute audio-video presentation in a hotel in Cebu City on Wednesday night (Jan. 29, 2020). Andanar said a media summit, which is part and parcel of the Duterte Legacy series of regional summits, will be held in Cebu this year to tackle media welfare and security. (PNA photo by John Rey Saavedra)
CEBU CITY – Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar on Wednesday underscored media welfare and security as among the success stories that will be inculcated in the “Duterte Legacy”.
Andanar said the "Duterte Legacy", a communications strategy, was formulated by the PCOO to inform the Filipino people of the achievements of President Rodrigo Duterte in the last three years or since he assumed office, through a series of summits in 18 regions across the country.
It was launched on Jan. 17, 2020 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
“What is important here is to bring to the public the accomplishments of the Duterte administration. Non-performing agencies will be kept of their toes to work harder for them to be included when we bring those stories of our successes to different regions,” Andanar told Cebu media practitioners in a gathering here after showing them a five-minute audio-video presentation on the Duterte Legacy.
The people, he said, should know that the Chief Executive has signed the Universal Health Care Law, the Malasakit Center Law, the free irrigation program for farmers who have below eight hectares of farmland, the free tertiary education, expanded maternity leave, the additional assistance to senior citizens and additional retirement pension of Social Security System members.
Andanar also cited the economic cluster of the Duterte Cabinet that has successfully brought down the poverty incidence from 23 percent to 16 percent which, he said, means 5.9 million Filipinos have been lifted up from poverty.
“We can tell the people through the Duterte Legacy summit our big chance to achieve the 14-percent target,” he said.
Andanar also underscored the policy of the administration in ensuring justice to victims of media violence, citing the Dec. 19, 2020, guilty verdict handed by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court against the Ampatuan family of Maguindanao after 10 years of waiting.
He said the incident that killed 32 journalists can be a good springboard in discussing media practitioners’ “economic vulnerability" which can be addressed through a media summit.
“The PCOO along with Presidential Task Force for Media Security (PTFoMS), we are advocating for the passage of the Media Workers’ Welfare Act in Congress,” he said, as he commended ACT-CIS Party-list Representative Niña Taduran for filing House Bill 2476 in the 18th Congress.
He said a media summit he promised last year will be held in Cebu this year to elicit inputs from workers of newspapers, televisions and radio outfits here.
“Once and for all, we should be able to put a stop to the killings of media practitioners by also solving the one big problem that we have. Our biggest problem is the economic vulnerability,” Andanar said. (PNA)
