PIA@25: Using information for nation building

QUEZON CITY, Feb. 2 (PIA) -- “To provide efficient flow of public information required by the people to assist them in making decisions to improve the quality of their life.”

This was the mandate of the Philippine Information Agency when it was founded in 1986 after the EDSA revolution, according PIA director general Atty. Jose A. Fabia.

The agency celebrated yesterday its 25th founding anniversary, which was attended by President Benigno S. Aquino III who launched the new PIA website and text blast information programs, and inaugurated the PIA Art Gallery .

"For the first time, in the history of the Philippines, the role of information and communication in nation building was recognized in the supreme law of the land," Fabia said. "Information and communication will be used for nation building under the auspices of democracy where the government informs the people of its policies, programs and projects and for the people to be given a voice in governance through constant consultation and effective feedback mechanism."

PIA has been active in promoting projects under the present administration, Fabia said.  Among these projects were the Pantawid Pamilya, Pantawid Pasada, Kalusugan Para sa Lahat, Re-Greening Program, Puerto Princesa Underground River, Renewable Energy and Alternative Energy, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, Anti-Drug Mule Campaign, Anti-Human Trafficking Campaign, Consumer Welfare and Protection, K-12, among others.

According to Fabia, the PIA also conducted in-house surveys to measure how government programs are perceived by the people.

He said there are about 29 million internet users in the country today, based on Nielsen study, and PIA intends to inform them “on what their government is doing for them.”

The new website of the PIA features the five cabinet clusters: Good Governance, Economic Development, Human Development, Security Justice and Peace, and Climate Change.

The PIA also partnered with the two largest telecommunication companies, SMART and Globe, for its PIA text blast—a strategic info campaign which targets specific programs and members of the population.

Fabia also underlined PIA’s efficient use of building space by installing the PIA Art Gallery. The gallery, he said, is a venue for emerging artists, students, and indigenous groups to showcase their creative talent.

He also turned over digitized information culled by PIA and the  Presidential Communications Operations Office on the Aquino presidency to the Presidential Museum and Library of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office,.

“The overall goal is the document everything about the Presidents of the country,” said Fabia. "This is to endure that tracing back the past leaderships through the recordings and documentation, we wil be able to understand our own history as a country and a nation.

By Precie Catherine C. Cuarto (RDA/PCCC/PIA-GHQ)