Palace Com Group sets in place ‘feedback mechanism’

Malacañang’s new Communications Group has started to hit the ground running on its bid to promote a two-way communication stream between the government and the public through a “feedback mechanism.”

Herminio “Sonny” Coloma, who introduced himself yesterday as “member” of the Presidential Communications Group, said the government will be setting up official Web sites and official accounts in social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, where the public can raise issues and concerns to the Office of the President.

“Our objective through this new Communications Group is to implement a two-way communication (system) that not only comes from the President or Malacañang. We are really going to strive to get the inputs, opinions, suggestions, and proposals of our citizens so they can actively participate in governance,” Coloma, speaking in Filipino, told reporters in the first news conference he hosted aired live over the state-run radio dzRB yesterday.

He further said all government broadcast agencies and media outlets such as the Philippine Information Agency, Philippine News Agency, National Broadcasting Network, Radio Philippines Network Inc. (RPN-9), Intercontinental Broadcasting Corp. (IBC-13), National Printing Office, etc., will basically remain under the new Communications Group but their systems will be fortified in line with the new structure.

“Stay calm because we really have a great task ahead of us that we need to do in the aspect of communications. We really need to help each other out to do that – that is our appeal to our colleagues. Let us help each other out because the role we have to play in the communications is vast and deep,” Coloma said, addressing the employees who are working in various government media agencies.

He also reiterated the previous clarification made by presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda that the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) was not dissolved and was only reorganized by virtue of the authority vested upon President Benigno Aquino III, hence the creation of the new Presidential Communications Group.

In effect, Coloma said the OPS remains despite its new name because the Com Group is still serving its basic functions which are to deliver public information and make the people through various media entities aware of the government’s activities.

“There were just some changes in the order of its organizational units. But in terms of the functions, all the elements that are present in the Office of the Press Secretary remains so it is not correct for us to think that this will be abolished,” he explained, still in Filipino.

Coloma moreover said provincial broadcast bureaus are expected to actively participate in the feedback mechanism but the national government is expecting local government units to provide the necessary response to the public’s concerns if they are limited to a certain locality.

Furthermore, he said all agencies attached to the Executive branch are being encouraged to come up with their own internal organization that will follow the feedback mechanism established by the Office of the President thereby allowing every department attached to it to respond effectively and efficiently to the concerns of the public.

“We will encourage them (government agencies) and help them to establish a communications infrastructure or a template for communication that will be extended to the entire Executive branch wherein our citizens can readily address their concerns and the authorities, in turn, can swiftly provide solutions to such problems. That is what we will do but we do not necessarily deny those agencies and various other departments their primary responsibilities to determine the concerns of the people they cover,” Coloma said. –Aytch S. de la Cruz, Daily Tribune