President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has vowed to continue vlogging during his presidency to keep the public posted, as well as solicit advice from them through various social media platforms.
In his latest vlog uploaded on his official Youtube account on Saturday, Marcos said he has decided to continue posting videos on social media so as not to limit the dissemination of government information to mainstream media.
“Kaya ipagpapatuloy talaga namin ang vlog na ito. Every so often nang 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,” he said.
[We will continue vlogging. Every so often, we will explain the things that we are doing so that you will hear the news not just to media outlets but straight from the horse’s mouth, as they say.]
Marcos also expressed gratitude to netizens who keep visiting his official account on social media sites such as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok.
Responding to netizens’ comments, Marcos said the simple liking and sharing of posts on his social media accounts are already a “big help” for him.
“Mula sa aming mga vlog, sa mga album at sa mga mensahe na pino-post namin, lahat po iyan ay hindi magiging matagumpay kung wala ang inyong suporta,” he said.
[We will not be successful, without your support, starting from our vlogs to the albums and messages we are posting.]
As of press time, Marcos has 2.59 million followers on YouTube.
Marcos said vlogging will serve as a bridge between his administration and the Filipino people.
“Ipagpatuloy natin iyang lahat at lalo pang pagagandahin para hindi mapatid at hindi masayang itong nabuo na nating ugnayan at samahan,” Marcos told his followers online.
[We will continue what we have started and make room for improvement to maintain our good relations with you.]
Marcos also assured his fellow Filipinos that he would give his best to exceed their expectations.
He said he would exhaust all efforts to give them a comfortable life.
“Kayo po ang naglagay dito sa amin. 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,” Marcos said.
[You have brought us here. We will do everything so as not to fail you and make you feel that we are unable to fulfill our promises.]
Press Secretary-designate Beatrix Rose “Trixie” Angeles earlier said giving social media personalities access to Palace coverage is one of the administration’s priorities to raise public awareness of the policies and programs of the incoming Marcos administration.
“We have to acknowledge that the world is changing. The technology is there. We could not ignore that. We have vloggers who have millions in their following. Can’t we allow their participation in governance?
That is what we’re looking into. We’re balancing it,” she said in an interview with UNTV’s Get it Straight on Friday.
Cruz-Angeles reiterated that her communications team would assess if it is the “right time” to give social media influencers access to Malacañang and if they need to learn a “certain language” in delivering information to the public.
She said stakeholders, including media practitioners, will be consulted about her plan to implement the existing policy of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) that allows vloggers to cover Malacañang events.
“There are people who are opposed to the very idea. It’s important to hear their opinions,” Cruz-Angeles said.
She said she wants social media personalities to cover events that will be attended by President-elect Marcos Jr. and other Palace officials to counter opinions against the incoming administration that will be based on “wrong information.”
“There will be very loud opinions that are based on the wrong information. So now, there are vloggers who would counter that based on facts,” she said.
Acknowledging that vloggers are not part of mainstream media, Cruz-Angeles said she would make sure that the information that will be picked up by the online personalities will not be taken out of context.
“It will be a priority kasi 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 with,” Cruz-Angeles said.
August 8, 2017, Andanar issued Department Order (DO) 15, establishing a provisional social media practitioner accreditation system handled by the PCOO’s Social Media Office.
Under DO 15, accreditation can only be issued to Filipino social media practitioners who are at least 18 years old and who have at least5,000 followers on any social media platform.