BCPO enhances linkage with media
By Jennifer P. Gaitano
BUTUAN CITY – The Butuan City Police Office (BCPO) headed by Police Lieutenant Colonel Rommel Villamor, officer-in-charge, enhances its knowledge and skills on media engagements, with the aim to have a good working relationship and build stronger partnership with media.
“It is really important that we build good relationship with the media since they are our partners in information dissemination efforts and in return, they also serve as our watchdogs – letting us know of the situations happening around us, especially on matters that concern peace and order and security of the community,” said Villamor.
Police Major Riza Torotoro, chief, Public Information Office of BCPO also highlighted that every week they conduct media briefing which they call “Police Hour”, which serves as an avenue where they could discuss with the media partners the updates and accomplishments of the five police stations under BCPO, and be able to get their commitment to help deliver relevant information to the general public.
“With this enhancement skills seminar on media relations, we, in the BCPO, want to capacitate our information officers in the different police stations, for us to improve how we deal with the media and how we can better engage with them in our activities. We recognize the efforts and initiatives of our media in helping us relay significant messages down to the grassroots,” said Torotoro.
During the said seminar, the representatives from the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Caraga and Butuan City Public Information Office, served as the resource speakers.
The participating police officers learned about media relations, the role of spokesperson, and how to respond to top questions from the media during press conferences, press briefings and interviews, among others. They also underwent practical exercise in the afternoon session with the presence of some media personalities in the city. (JPG/PIA-Caraga)
