DAVAO CITY, Feb. 8 (PIA)- The revival of the Mindanao Communicators Network or MINDACOMNET will boost the efforts of development communication in the region particularly in projecting an accurate image of Mindanao.
The revival of the communicators network was jumpstarted with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) and the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) to re-establish the Mindanao-wide group of information officers coming from the public and the private sectors.
“This will greatly help and will have a high impact on development communication here in Mindanao. The PIOs (Public Information Officers) of each locality, local government or the provincial government they will be giving out accurate information, giving out the stories of Mindanaoans,” Secretary Maria Belen Sunga Acosta, MinDA chairperson said.
Sec. Acosta said the stories and the information of each PIO will no longer be contained in silos or within their specific limited areas but will be spread throughout thus disseminating an accurate picture of the region where there is peace, progress and development.
She said that MinDA has been carrying out its development communication initiatives through social media but the MINDACOMNET revival will bring it to a different level.
“This MOU with the PIA mas maganda ang magiging collaboration, for example in workshop and capacity building because planning is the strength of MINDA we can help with the planning and the workshop side, and we can gather them (PIOs) here in Mindanao,” Sec. Acosta said.
Sec. Acosta said there is really a need to bring out a message that Mindanao is peaceful, stable, ready for investments and businesses.
For his part Director-General Ramon Lee Cualoping said the PIA has allocated part of the agency’s budget to the regions to strengthen the development communicators’ network in each locality.
“This year in the PIA we have allocated some resources into strengthening the development communicators’ network in each region, these are networks of information officers of local government units and national government agencies together with the PIA and of course MinDA,” Director-General Cualoping said.
The MOU signing held today (Feb. 8) at the Mindanao Media Hub was attended by officials of the MinDA led by Sec. Acosta and the PIA led by DG Cualoping. Also gracing the event were local development communicator partners that included Fe Maestre, head of the information office of the Davao de Oro provincial government; Rhoda Hernandez, station manager of PTV Davao; and Che Palicte, Davao bureau head of the Philippine News Agency.
DG Cualoping said the revival and the push for development communication in Mindanao will help address the negative perception about Mindanao.
“The biggest problem in communicating Mindanao is the public perception, that is the biggest hurdle we have to face and overcome. Ang important is to put context in everything that we do, Mindanao has lots of potential, lot of things have happened,” Cualoping said.
“On the part of the PIA we will do everything that we can para maintindihan (to be understood), if it’s just information material there is no context, there is need for the people to understand them, by putting it into context, dig deeper, telling the story of Mindanao to the entire world, they will know the real story of Mindanao,” the PIA head added.
DG Cualoping said that communicating the story of Mindanao will be one of PIA’s flagship programs putting Mindanao at the forefront coming from the perspective of Mindanaoans.
MINDACOMNET is network of government and non-government public relations and information officers, which was founded in 1999 to serve as a mechanism for the promotion of the National Government’s peace and development efforts in Mindanao. (PIA/RG Alama)
