By Gideon C. Corgue
ZAMBOANGA CITY – A few days after they assumed their posts as director-general and deputy
director general of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), the two young
executives made their first regional visit in Zamboanga City recently.
DG Harold Clavite, 39 years-old and a former digital
communications officer of UNDP in New York, USA and DDG Angelo Villar, 29, former political
affairs officer of the Senate of the Philippines visited the city upon the
invitation of the Mindanao Communicators’ Network (MCN).
Clavite and Villar were
invited as guests during the re-launching of the Kapihan program dubbed “Frontera
Noticias – Kapihan na Garden Orchid” organized by PIA9, local press and MCN on
August 3 at the Garden Orchid Hotel here.
DG Clavite said they made
a visit to the region to have a complete understanding of the organization and
its people.
“This is our first
regional visit and we gather information by getting a glimpse of what is going
down here and if the heart of the staff are in the right place,” Clavite
announced.
The information centers
(ICs) from the provinces of Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Del Norte, Zamboanga
Sibugay, Basilan and Zamboanga City presented a 2-minute video on the best
practices of the ICs especially the advocacy campaigns of the agency.
“It’s amazing to see the
videos from the different ICs. We are glad to work with experts on the ground despite your
manpower predicament. I commend you for the hard work, commitment and dedication
that you’ve been pooling into PIA,” Clavite proudly said.
He vowed to strengthen the
regional and provincial offices through trainings to upgrade their skills, adding
that workers are the pillars of the organization.
“I am impressed that PIA
exists in all provinces in region 9 to better serve the people,” DDG Villar
said.
“We are very optimistic
and excited as to where we can bring the agency since we rely mostly on the
support of the people,” Villar added.
Meanwhile, Clavite said he
vows to implement a very important project which is to improve the website of
the agency.
“Our
goal is to improve the website of PIA where people can have an easy access to
information and find everything they need to know in a single portal,” Clavite concluded.