The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) organized its first “Media and Information Literacy Campaign: Maging Mapanuri Conference” on Wednesday in Makati City, advocating for media literacy and accountability to its participants.

In her message, PCO Undersecretary for Digital Media Services Emerald Ridao emphasized the need for personal accountability in order to effectively fight misinformation.

“I hope that we also hold ourselves accountable because each and every one of us here, if we do not fight the problem, we are a part of it,” she said.

She further encourage them to remember ways to verify information that the participants consume, especially coming from the internet and social media platforms.

These included three-key steps, namely ensuring that the source of the information is credible, identifying the purpose of the information, and its timeliness.

Ridao further encouraged participants to intergrate the knowledge they have gained during the conference.

“I hope that you take what you learned here today and you make it part of how you consume information and media every day,” she said.

“As one it feels like you can’t really make a difference, but united we can all forge the future that we want for ourselves and our children—A future where the truth stands above all else. A future where we don’t have to be afraid about the information that we’re consuming. And with your vigilance, hopefully together this future can be realize,” she added.

The MIL Campaign summit coincided with the observance of Communications Month, the PCO’s anniversary, and UNESCO’s Global Media and Information Literacy Week.

Other resource persons during the event included Ivan Mayrina of GMA7, Atty. Yves Gonzales of Google, Atty. Toff Rada of Tiktok, Katherine Jane Nagpala of UNACOM, Monrawee Ampolpittayanant of X Southeast Asia, Richelle-Sy Kho of PAMIL, and Melinda Tormes-Quinones of MIL for ASEAN Network. |PND