MANILA -- Malacañang has announced the appointment of veteran newsman and career government communicator Adolfo Ares P. Gutierrez as Deputy Director-General of the Philippine Information Agency, an attached agency of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO).

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. appointed Gutierrez to the government’s primary developmental communications arm in an order dated August 3, the Office of Communications Secretary Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil announced on Tuesday, August 22. He will replace Nicole Jocelle Managbanag.

“I am thankful to the President and to Secretary Garafil for giving me the opportunity to continue serving the country on a national scale,” Gutierrez said in a statement.

Prior to his appointment, he was the head of the Public Affairs and Information Services Office (PAISO) of Quezon City which he shepherded into a local government department in 2019. As PAISO head from the last term of Mayor Herbert Bautista to the first three months of the first term of Mayor Joy Belmonte, he revolutionized the information service delivery of the city’s public information office by launching the nation’s first LGU-produced weekly online webcast as well as a daily online talk show. He also pushed for the empowerment of LGU PIOs in government’s disaster risk reduction efforts.

Before joining the government service, Gutierrez was a journalist for over 30 years and worked as a reporter, editor, news manager and editorial consultant in print, digital and online platforms, both here and abroad.

His career in journalism started in campus as sportswriter of the Letran Scroll and as the 48th editor-in-chief of The Bedan. While still in college, he joined the defunct Manila Chronicle as correspondent. He also worked with Malaya, the Journal Group of Publications, Cebu Daily News, The Manila Times, GMA News Online. He also worked as sub-editor of Al Nisr Media and Gulf News, the leading English language newspaper in the Persian Gulf region in the Middle East..

Respected by his peers in media, he was twice elected to the national directorate of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and was past president of the Filipino Press Club in the United Arab Emirates. He was a journalism fellow of the Nihon Shimbun Kyokai (Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association) where he wrote a paper about Japan’s ageing society.

He holds two master degrees from the Philippine Public Safety College specializing in public safety administration and crisis and disaster risk management. (PCO)