MANILA – Malacañang stated on Thursday that it will not meddle with Press Secretary-designate Rose Beatrix “Trixie” Cruz-Angeles’ plan to allow vloggers to attend in presidential events and Palace press briefings.
According to Acting presidential spokesperson Martin Andanar, he will leave it to Cruz-Angeles to respond to questions about the accreditation of vloggers.
“The plan to grant press credentials to bloggers in Malacañang is an internal decision of the incoming administration. Any reaction or queries on the matter should therefore be best answered by the next administration’s Press Secretary-designate,” he said.
This is not the first time a sitting president’s administration has attempted to accredit vloggers and other social media personalities.
The PCOO accredited vloggers or social media personalities in 2017 with at least 5,000 followers to join presidential events through Department Order No. 15.
“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,” the order read.
A social media practitioner refers to “a person that maintains a publicly-accessible social media page, blog or website which generates content and whose principal advocacy is the regular dissemination of original news and/or opinion of interest” under the order.
Cruz-Angeles on June 1 noted that she would push for a policy that would accredit vloggers to cover Malacañang events, including the activities of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
“We are pushing for the accreditation of vloggers to be invited to some of the briefings, especially those conducted by the President-elect,” she said.
Cruz-Angeles added that she would also be reviewing the existing policies on media coverage.
According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), while democratizing access to government by way of vloggers is “commendable in principle”, they were concerned that it may likely benefit pro-Marcos vloggers.
“Wider access is good, but must not be at the expense of institutional media, which has been sidelined during the campaign as false information spread rapidly online, many of which have been traced to the same network,” the NUJP said.
