Secretary Andanar bags Outstanding Filipino Luminary Awards 2021 for National Government Service
MANILA - The Episcom group has hailed
Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar
as a recipient of the Outstanding Filipino Luminary Award for National
Government Service this year.
This year’s Outstanding Filipino Luminary
Award bears the theme “Inspiring the
Filipino people amidst the pandemic”, which honors and highlights the
valuable contribution of the leaders, the civic movers, and innovators that
have propelled the country’s economy and inspired their fellowmen during this
pandemic.
Secretary Andanar on Friday expressed his
gratitude for the award given to him.
“I am humbled by the recognition that the
Episcom group has given for the works that my department and I have worked for
in order to serve and inform the Filipino people,” he said.
“This is another opportunity that I will
be sharing with my PCOO family who has been as enthusiastic in attaining such
overwhelming improvement in government media in the past 5 years. Thank you
very much,” he added.
According to the group, Secretary Andanar
was given the award “for being the catalyst of effective media through his
current undertaking as the Head of PCOO.”
“His clear-cut approach in communicating
the real status of the whole-of-government programs and efforts have bridged
the information gap between the Filipino people and its civil servants,” the
award-giving body said in its official social media page on Thursday.
Shortly after his assumption into public
office, Secretary Andanar championed the institutionalization of the Freedom of
Information through Executive Order No. 2 signed by the President in September
2016.
Among other game-changing initiatives he
also spearheaded was the creation of the national communications policy that
harmonized government media operations and messaging. The said policy also
birthed the Laging Handa Crisis Communication that is now being extensively
used amid the pandemic.
Along with PCOO Undersecretary Joel Egco,
they pushed for the welfare of the media which created the Presidential Task Force on Media Security.
Secretary Andanar also stressed
empowerment for provincial government media, and satellite offices through the
successful construction of a Mindanao Media Hub, Government Strategic
Communications Academy among others.
The awarding ceremony will be at the
Conrad Manila Hotel on September 24, 2021.
Secretary Andanar will be joining fellow
awardee and public servant PDEA Director General Usec. Wilkins M Villanueva,
who was cited as the leader who championed the implementation of the Barangay
Drug Clearing Program (BDCP), the main framework of the agency’s anti-drug
strategy.
