Sugbo TV, Sugbo News to be rebranded, depoliticized

Cebu Provincial Board Member Arleigh Sitoy yesterday said Sugbo TV and Sugbo News will be renamed aside from undergo a major reformat to shift the emphasis to programs and information that promote Cebu, instead of a few personalities.

He clarified that the cable TV show and newsletter, which used to prominently feature Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, has been “laid to rest”.

In an interview, Sitoy said officials have not “abolished” the two province-owned media arms but have “laid it to rest” to let it “remain in our history books as a reference for scholars who want to know how not to govern the provincial government.”

Sitoy said new titles will be used as part of the effort to “depoliticize” the programs and that a new pool of reporters was hired and did initial coverage of the Sinulog last Sunday.

He said there will even be “less exposure” of acting Gov. Agnes Magpale.

“We’re not into propaganda. We’re trying to fix the problem. We want to totally fumigate the institution itself and depoliticize it.”

Last Monday, Sitoy made a privilege speech in the PB withdrawing his earlier sponsorship of ordinances to institutionalize Sugbo TV and Sugbo News.

He said he would rather strengthen the Public Information Office (PIO). Although there were earlier reports that his daughter would run the TV show and newsletter, Sitoy yesterday said no decision has been made yet about the choice of a PIO to handle print and TV production.

Sugbo TV, a 24-hour cable program, and Sugbo News, which had monthly or semi-monthly issues until it paused last June 2012, was temporarily shut down by Acting Gov. Magpale soon after a six-month susension order was served on Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia last Dec. 19, 2012 by the Office of the President arising from an administrative case for grave abuse of authority.

The work contracts of the Sugbo staff expired on Dec. 31, 2012 but less than five of the 35 personnel chose to stay and renew the arrangement.

All consultants contracts also expired on Dec. 31, including those of media consultants under the Office of the Governor.

Sitoy is expected to introduce another ordinance in next week’s PB session to establish the Public Information Office.

He said that the Sugbo TV, a cable TV channel and Sugbo News, a newsletter better “remain in our history books as reference for scholars who would want to know how not to govern the provincial government.”

The public information program of the Capitol, Sitoy said should be depoliticized and reformatted to promote the provincial government and not even Acting Gov. Agnes Magpale.

“We’re not into propaganda… We’re trying to fix the problem,” he told Cebu Daily News.

“We want to totally fumigate the institution itself… We want to depoliticized it,” he added.

Sitoy said they have hired reporters for both the print and tv production that have initially done coverage on the Sinulog festivity last Sunday.

He also said that they will also be covering the Suroy-Suroy sa Sugbo program which has a scheduled ‘southern getaway’ today visiting at least nine towns.

They will have an airing of the new tv production in the first week of February but according to Sitoy, they are yet to thresh out problems with the staff and programming.

As part of the institutionalization of the Capitol’s public information program, the Provincial Information Officer will have to be appointed to supervice the print and tv productions.

Sitoy will be filing an ordinance on the institutionalization of the PIO in next week’s regular session.