The government has boosted its war chest to communicate President Duterte’s programs and policies with the public effectively next year amid evolving communication trends.
Under the proposed 2017 national budget submitted to Congress, the Presidential Communications Operations Office and its attached agencies will have a combined budget of P1.2 billion to attain its information dissemination and communication goals.
The proposed budget of the PCOO proper, led by Secretary Martin Andanar, has increased to P234.9 million in 2017 from P214.44 million this year. The office, which has been renamed Presidential Communications Office by Andanar, manages government-owned media entities, coordinates, and cultivate relations with private media, among others.
Except for the National Printing Office, all bureau supervised by Andanar will have higher budget allocation next year.
The budget proposal of the Philippine Information Agency has reached P336.77 million in 2017 up from P318.16 million this year.
The Bureau of Broadcast Services’ budget also jumped to P317.42 million from P286.15 million this year.
The News and Information Bureau will receive P131.90 million next year, higher than P114.98 million allocated this year. The bulk of the budget will go to media operations services such news stories on presidential activities, transcript of speeches and interviews, news monitoring reports, with P95 million. (Genalyn D. Kabiling)