Update
MANILA, Philippines – China is donating P15 million worth of equipment to the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) as the administration “aggressively” rehabilitates government media, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said.
Andanar said Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua has “committed” to give the donation after PCOO submits a proposal.
He said Zhao gave the commitment during their conversation at the State Banquet of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad in Malacañang on March 7.
The equipment, he, would include laptops, desktops, microphones, audio consoles, among others, which would be used for the operations of the state-run Philippine Broadcasting Service (PBS) and Philippine News Agency (PNA).
“The PCOO Organization is honored to be a constant recipient of donations and scholarships from the embassy of China since 2016,” Andanar said in a Viber message.
“The act of goodwill is very timely because we are aggressively rehabilitating our government media agencies,” he added.
Andanar said the “government must rehabilitate its public media agencies so that it can efficiently and effectively deliver the government’s message to the public. It is the mandate of the PCOO to implement this objective.”
“We aim to improve our dilapidated radio stations in the provinces and retool our PNA Reporters nationwide in the next few months,” he said.
In February, China also donated computers, camcorders and teleprompters to the Philippine Broadcasting Service and the Philippine News Agency.
China also provided scholarship programs for government media officials who want to study in China. /muf
READ: PCOO: China to train PH gov’t media