President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. has pledged to resume vlogging or the use of video blogs to connect with and ask for advice from the public.
In his YouTube video on June 4, Marcos said that the decision to continue vlogging was driven by the goal of enabling the public to have news sources beyond the press.
“Kaya’t ipagpapatuloy talaga namin ‘yang vlog na ito. Every so often mayroon tayong paliwanag doon sa ating mga ginagawa para hindi lamang sa pahayagan ang inyong nagiging balita, kundi pati na from the horse’s mouth, ika nga… (So we will continue vlogging. Every so often, we will explain what we are doing so that you will hear the news not just from the press but straight from the horse’s mouth, as they say),” Marcos said.
With 2.6 million followers on YouTube, Marcos thanked his subscribers who have supported him on his official accounts on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok.
Marcos also said that his administration will do its best to fulfill its promises and intentions for the government.
“Kayo po ang naglagay sa amin dito. At talaga naman, gagawin namin ang lahat nang hindi naman mabigo at masabi na nasawi kami doon sa aming naipangako at nais gawin dito sa pamahalaan (You brought us here. We will really do everything so as not to fail and so that it will not be said that we are unable to fulfill our promises and intentions in government),” Marcos said.
Social media personalities and the Palace
Incoming Press Secretary Beatrix Rose “Trixie” Angeles stated that one of the incoming administration’s priorities is giving social media personalities access to Palace coverage. This would be to raise public awareness of the Marcos administration’s policies and programs.
“Kailangan din nating i-acknowledge na nagbabago ‘yung mundo (We have to acknowledge that the world is changing). The technology is there. Hindi natin kayang i-ignore. Merong mga vlogger (We could not ignore that. We have vloggers) who have millions in their following. Hindi ba natin sila puwedeng isama, makilahok sila sa governance? So, ‘yun ang una nating tinitignan. Binabalanse natin (Can’t we have them join and allow their participation in governance? That is what we’re looking into. We’re balancing it),” Angeles said in an interview with UNTV’s Get it Straight on June 3.
She added that her communications team will assess the “right time” to give social media influencers access to Malacañang, as well as if the influencers need to learn a “certain language” in delivering information to the public.
Angeles said that stakeholders, including media practitioners, will be consulted about the implementation of the Presidential Communications Operations Office’s (PCOO) policy related to allowing vloggers to cover Malacañang events.
On August 8, 2017, PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar issued Department Order (DO) 15, which established a provisional social media practitioner accreditation system handled by the PCOO’s Social Media Office.
Under DO 15, accreditation is limited to Filipino social media practitioners of legal age and who have at least 5,000 followers on any social media platform.
By having social media personalities who can cover events attended by President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and other Palace officials, Angeles said the practice can counter opinions against the administration that will be based on “wrong information.”
Angeles acknowledged that vloggers do not belong to mainstream media. She added that it will be important that the information gathered by social media personalities will not be taken out of context.
“It will be a priority kasi (because) our job is to deliver the information. We want to make sure that there are people who will help us deliver it, people who we are assured we already have an audience,” Angeles said.
Photo Credit: Facebook/BongbongMarcos
