2nd Mindanao Kabisig Congress
Davao City

3rd UNESCO-PPI Child-Friendly Newspaper and Journalist Awards
14 April 2004, Quezon City

3rd UNESCO-PPI Child-Friendly Newspaper and Journalist Awards
4 March 2004, Hotel Rembrandt, Quezon City

Convention of Viscomnet (Visayas Communicators Network)
Bacolod City, 5 August 2003

Unesco Memory of the World (MOW) Workshop
February 2004, Innotech, Quezon City

Communication Task Force Meeting
July 15, 2003, Quezon City

DG Velasco commends NAPC Kalahi Project

DG Velasco cites Kalahi contributions to Strong Republic.

Quezon City (March 20) -- Director General Renato S. Velasco of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) today keynoted the Community Communication Resource Mobilization Workshop organized by the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) at the DSWD Compound here.

Full text of DG Velasco's speech

PIA head urges community participation

by Metropolitan Gazette

EDEN, Davao City (30 Sept) -- Director General Renato Velasco of the Philippine Information Agency urged Mindanao communicators to come up with strategies and doable practices that would encourage community participation.

Velasco was the guest during the opening of the 4th Mindanao Communicators Network Congress and Workshop at Eden Nature Park and resort.

He hailed the leadership of the PIA IX regional director and Mindacomnet president Leon Omoso for focusing this year's congress on "Community Involvement: A Strategy to Sustain the Culture of Peace and Development in Mindanao."

He said communication plays a major role in attaining peace and order and becomes effective with the participation of the community.

"There are many things to write about Mindanao -- the good and the bad -- but I wish to remind each one that telling the truth is what makes a communicator." "The community gauged us based on our credibility and we gain respect by telling what is true," he stressed.

"As we try to improve our system in the Philippine Information Agency more particularly on the information technology we look up to the time that you check and countercheck facts with us," he added.

Velasco said IT makes communication efficient even as he said that community involvement is vital as the government communicates to improve the lives of the people.

The PIA director general said the government also wanted to improve the system of handling complaints from the public especially those coming from ordinary citizens.

PIA, he said, is setting up GAWIN call centers to cater to these concerns and refer the problem to concerned government agencies for action.

As head of PIA, he reminded the staff to be creative and resourceful, to do more with less and to help reinvent PIA so it will have focus on what it should do.

Lastly, he urged the communicators to anchor its programs with PGMA's mission of building a strong republic through effective governance, vigorous and full enterprise economy, democratic representation and vibrant civil society.

Attending the congress were government information officers from Regions IX, X, XI, XII, and XIII and the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao.

The congress is also being sponsored by the San Miguel Corporation and the Mindanao Economic and Development Council. (PIA/pdb)

PIA to be 'crisis' call-center

by Raj Padilla, Panay News

ILOILO CITY (24 Sept) -- Victims of inept and sluggish officials and employees of various national government agencies all over the country can now heave a sigh of relief.

Starting next month, a revitalized Philippine Information Agency will see to it that their unacted complaints would get the attention of concerned higher officials based in Manila.

"Our PIA offices would assume the role of a call center on a daily basis, like the 911-type. Through this, we believe we can help people get what they want from the government. In other words, we are converting PIA as a go-to agency," the PIA director-general Dr. Renato Velasco said.

"After we have received their call, it would be PIA's responsibility to follow up the status of their request or complaint with the concerned government office," Velasco said. This is all part of Malacañang's plan to make the most of its information arm which used to play a very prominent role years ago.

Calling it by the acronym, GAWIN (Government At Work Interagency Network), Velasco said this scheme was already there long before he assumed office.

"GAWIN was conceived during the time of President Ramos. It has been dormant for the past five years already," he said.

Velasco said through these call centers, they would get to know the most frequent-called problems of the community; consolidating these in the process for the President's perusal.

"With this, the President will be timely and accurately get informed about the most pressing needs of the ordinary citizens," he said.

Velasco is confident that they can run things smoothly next month. He said the needed technology is already in place and that the dry run is drawing to a close.

He, however, admitted that many of their people in their regional offices need more training to be able to harness the benefits of modern information and communication technology.

"There's hope in further strengthening our regional offices. There's need for some restructuring. We need to re-tool some of our people," velasco said.

The average age of people working with PIA is 45 years old.

Many of them were carried over from the defunct Department of Public Information and the National Media Production Center during the Marcos regime.

Velasco assumed the PIA helm only three weeks ago. Before PIA, he worked full-time as the President's speechwriter and head of a policy studies group in Malacañang. Velasco is a native of Ilocos and Bulacan./PN