Press Secretary Trixie Angeles-Cruz (Photo from a video posted on Facebook)
MANILA, Philippines —The Office of the Press Secretary is seeking more funding for the state-run media to give their workers a just and “humane” salary.
During Monday’s Senate committee hearing on public information and mass media, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles admitted that the pay of those working in the government media is “very, very much below the industry standard.”
She mentioned workers’ salaries at the People’s Television Network or PTV 4.
“Ang budget ng PTV nanggagaling sa GAA (General Appropriation Act) bukod po sa nabebenta natin sa advertising,” she explained.
(The budget of PTV comes from the GAA aside from our sales from advertising.)
“In other words, I will turn this into a plea na sana po ay madagdagan ng budget ang ating mga estasyon lalong lalo na po ang PTV4.”
(In other words—I will turn this into a plea—I hope there will be an additional budget for our stations, especially for PTV4.)
According to the Press Secretary, they envisioned PTV4 as the primary channel for news and information, thus, the need to further improve its services.
But Cruz-Angeles said, “Even if weren’t aiming to be the primary channel for news, para ano lang, just to be humane na mabigyan po ng nararapat na sweldo at least man lang iabot natin sa industry or government standards.”
(In any case, it is humane that they are paid a fair wage even if they are not aiming to become the primary news channel.)
“Sa nakikita ko po kasi sa ngayon, kahit sa government standards hindi na po yata umaabot,” she said.
(From what I see, it’s not at par with the government’s standards.)
She said there are still many vacancies in state media as they could not recruit more people to join them.
“So sana po maalala ito pag nanghingi na po kami ng budget namin,” Cruz-Angles further said.
(I hope this will be remembered when we ask for our budget.)
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