DAVAO CITY—Only six months after the computer application was rolled out in January, supporters of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte may witness the inauguration of the tough-talking Davao City mayor as the 16th president of the Philippines on Facebook Live.
Incoming Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said he is meeting with Facebook officials for the possible live streaming of Duterte’s entire inauguration at the noon of June 30.
“I’m meeting with the guys from Facebook. They’re flying over and they’re offering, they’re proposing to stream the entire event, the entire inaugural,” Andanar said, noting that Duterte’s presidential campaign was largely fueled by supporters on social media.
And the inaugural will only be the first of similar engagements on social media, Andanar said.
“I will propose to the President that after the inaugural, thereafter, all of the briefings, all of the presidential briefings and announcements should be streamed on Facebook,” he said.
Operations on social media, Andanar said, is part of the “National Communications Strategy” to help inform the public Philippine government activities and programs.
At the same time, the Presidential Communications Office which he heads will continue to pursue plans to privatize the state-owned Intercontinental Broadcasting Corp. but at a much higher price tag.
“I already recommended it to [incoming] Executive Secretary [Salvador Medialdea],” Andanar said in a television interview.
“[IBC-13 is] the last [very high frequency] channel available, and imagine when we go digital, you’ll multiply it by five and you will have five channels already,” Andanar said. “We have to sell IBC-13. The money goes back to the treasury.”
IBC-13 started out in 1960 as a private company owned by businessman Roberto S. Benedicto, a close associate of former President Ferdinand Marcos.
However, the television network was sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government in 1986.
Aside from IBC-13 and PTV-4, the government also has a minority share in Radio Philippines Network (RPN-9).
Andanar said that the privatization of IBC will also help in paying out employees who were part of the station.
“We are working on the privatization of IBC so debt to employees will be paid,” he added.
Andanar also laid out his plans to further improve the flagship government station, the PTV4 as he revealed tapping a two former TV executives to be the new directors of the government channel and revitalizing the Philippine Information Agency to help out in the new government’s communication strategy.
“I promise you, I will do that. The person that I am hiring as (general manager) and person I’m hiring as the news director, in fact, comes from ABS-CBN,” Andanar said.
However, Andanar declined to name the said network executive because of some details that still have to be ironed out.
The PIA, Andanar said, will be the used to feed info to major broadcasting companies. “We will streamline the PIA. We want it to be the news desk of the country,” he said.
Andanar also disclosed that the government station will be further given “editorial independence,” patterning it off to the British Broadcasting Corporation.
