PCOO: 'No favorites' in accreditation of social media personalities

MANILA, Philippines — The Presidential Communications Operations Office on Thursday said it welcomes both supporters and critics of President Rodrigo Duterte to the pool of bloggers and social media personalities it will accredit to cover the president.

“That's precisely why we came out with an interim and probationary social media accreditation policy, just to show that the Palace is open both to supporters [of Duterte] and those critical of him because, without the policy, then it’s on a case-to-case basis, and those critical of him would say: ‘O, You're playing favorites,’” PCOO Assistant Secretary Kris Ablan said at a televised press briefing.

Ablan said the interim and probationary social media accreditation policy issued by PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar under Department Order No. 15 will still go through several changes over time.

“It's imperfect. It’s something new, it's a new territory. We are pioneers in this we will see these social media bloggers will go,” he added.

On August 8, Andanar signed Department Order No. 15 which allows adult social media practitioners and bloggers with at least 5,000 followers to cover Duterte’s events. The number of followers required has been adjusted from the original 1,000 considered last February.

"The purpose of this order is to provide an interim system of accreditation for social media participation in the coverage of special events attended by the president, in order to generate news and information for the citizenry through social media platforms," Andanar said.

Andanar said the social media applicants will be cleared by Presidential Security Group while PCOO Assistant Secretary Esther Margaux “Mocha” Uson will review the accreditation.

Ablan said the bloggers are required to regularly write news as original content. 

PCOO hopes those accredited will 'behave properly'

Asked about any ruling on profanity and fake news, Ablan said there is no specific provision regarding that yet but he said those who will abuse their accreditations will be banned.

“Hopefully, once they get accredited they realize the importance of the accreditation they received and they behave properly,” Ablan said. 

During the recently held ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, a number of bloggers, including social media personality Bruce Rivera, were accredited to cover the event as media. 

Andanar said they went through the same vetting process as those from the mainstream media.