SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union - Some 60 barangay officials and employees from 40 barangays in the coastal town of Luna, La Union underwent news writing training at the Magallanes Barangay Hall in this town on Jan. 30.

The training aims to equip the participants with skills in writing in order to share accomplishments and activities for the different programs they will be implementing this year to their constituents, with the end goal of securing the support and participation of the latter.

The training includes hands-on workshop on headline writing, composing lead paragraphs, and the drafting of supporting sentences in the body of the news story.

The news training is a convergence effort of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) La Union, the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Region 1, and the PIA La Union Information Center.

Olivia Mae N. De Guzman, Municipal Local Government Operations Officer (MLGOO) of Luna town, said that the activity forms part of their initiative to launch newsletters for all the 40 participating Barangays for the current year.

“This training aims to equip participating barangay personnel with writing skills they will need to produce news content through their own newsletters and through their Facebook pages too,” De Guzman said.

Angelica Alagna, secretary of Brgy. Nalbo Norte and one of the training participants, said that the additional learnings she gained from the training shall help her as she embarks on fulfilling her tasks in her barangay for the rest of the year.

“Nagkaroon ako ng additional knowledge to become a successful news writer ken makatulong met kanyami atoy as secretary (I gained additional knowledge to become a successful news writer and this will help us in our jobs as secretary),” Alagna said, reflecting on her learnings from the one-day news writing activity. (JCR/AMB/MJTAB/CCMT, PIA La Union)