SAN PABLO CITY, Laguna (PIA) -- In a bid to effectively communicate the city government's programs and initiatives, the San Pablo City Information Office (CIO) organized a communication training for 61 Barangay Information Officers (BIO) on Tuesday, January 9.

Enrico Galicia, head of the San Pablo CIO, said the training aimed to educate and equip IOs with the necessary skills to communicate national and local government programs, projects, and services within their respective communities.

Topics covered during the training included effective communication strategies and community relations, basic photojournalism, crisis communication, handling public feedback, and basic video editing with key resource persons from the San Pablo Colleges and the Philippine Information Agency Laguna.

Galicia expressed optimism that, through the training, the BIOs would serve as co-catalysts in spreading truthful and timely reporting of government programs and services.

For the BIOs, the training not only serves as a tool to enhance their knowledge and capabilities but is also vital to fulfilling their sworn responsibility to their constituents.

“This is a big help because social media is the fastest way to communicate with people, especially in our barangay. This is a big help for me because I have gained a lot of information on how to manage and react to feedback and questions from our fellow barangay residents,” said Crizel Malaborbor, BIO designate of Barangay Concepcion.

Malaborbor added that she is willing to share the knowledge with her fellow barangay officials to promote the advocacy of responsible information dissemination.

“We're just starting from scratch since we don't have any ideas yet as new appointees. So far, the first thing we did is to post our daily events in the barangay and coordinate with various agencies to hold seminars, not only for us but also for the people in our barangay. Aside from talking to our constituents, we utilize Facebook to spread information in our barangay,” Malaborbor explained.

Ardion Guia, a Sangguniang Barangay member of San Roque, appreciates the initiative of the San Pablo CIO and its partner organizations in improving the capabilities of information officers.

“Through programs and seminars like this, we can be more active and can engage more with the community. We aim to improve ourselves through these initiatives, and by doing so, we hope to encourage them to unite for the City of San Pablo,” Guia said.

Guia sees the training as a welcome development for their barangay, noting that the youth have become more active and engaged in government projects because they can readily access information through the BIOs. Guia was a youth volunteer and served as BIO before becoming a councilor.

“The youth are actively looking for more information and updates because they have become more engaged with our government. I’ve observed that there is a growing number of them getting involved in local governance and civic engagement,” Guia said.

He also vowed to assist the government in spreading accurate, timely, and high-quality information that inspires collective action and engagement from the general public.

Since the inception of Barangay Information Officers' Network in June 2023, the BIOs have been the city government's partners in the delivery of proper, relevant, and timely information on the programs, projects, activities of the city government among its community members.

The San Pablo CIO said more capability development programs are underway this year to enhance the knowledge and skills of the BIOs. (Christopher Hedreyda/PIA-Laguna)