By Maharlika Manalo
Cyber wellness and responsible use of the internet is now an active campaign of government as the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Region 4A engages media in the Southern Tagalog region.
PIA-4A launched earlier this week the #CyberREADi Regional Campaign during its Special Edition of Kapihan sa PIA held at the Activity Area of City Mall in Calamba City.
Over 50 local media and information officers around Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) participated in the media forum.
PIA 4A Regional Director Ma. Cristina C. Arzadon said the event served as a starting point of all the activities to be implemented around the region to promote cyber wellness and responsible use of internet and other social media platforms among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) communities.
Arzadon was thankful for the presence and support of the local press and government information officers who have been PIA 4A’s partners in popularizing the #CyberREADi campaign.
“The words represented by the letters in R-E-A-D-I are actually the core values of media and information literacy. It stands for Responsibility, Empathy, Authenticity, Discernment and Integrity. That is what Cyber and Readiness mean,” Arzadon explained.
The #CyberREADi Campaign is under the ASEAN-Japan Media and Information Literacy for the Youth Project championed by PIA and InfoCom Media Development Authority of Singapore and financed by the ASEAN-Japan Integrated fund.
Azardon said that Philippines was the first to launch #CyberREADi and other ASEAN states will also launch the same.
All ASEAN member states have made the commitment to launch the campaign using the concepts and materials that PIA developed with the help of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication Foundation.
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) IT Officer Fleur-de-lis A. Nadua, DepEd IT Officer Rey M. Valenzuela, and Laguna SK Federation Chief of Staff Kimberly D. Mayuga served as the Resource Speakers and shared the best practices of their respective agencies together with Arzadon. (PIA Calabarzon).