Assalamu alaikum wa Raḥmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

A pleasant morning to my fellow public servants and all our government communication practitioners. Let me take this opportunity to thank all of you for ensuring that the Filipino people are well-informed about the programs, projects, and reforms that we implement in the government.

In my years as a public servant, I’ve always been an advocate of transparency because I recognize the role of communication in nation-building. This is where all of you come in. Each of you here helps build a transparent and credible government that the public trusts. And this is vital in nation building.

In line with this, how can we, government communicators help strengthen transparency, credibility, and public trust?

First, in terms of transparency, we begin by strategizing how we can convey our messages in a way that is easily understandable to all Filipinos. We communicate with the ultimate goal of being understood by the man on the street. Through comprehensible content, we help our people see clearly the functions and decisions of our respective agencies. And with this understanding, we foster transparency which in turn helps increase our credibility and foster public trust.

As we become more transparent, more citizens will know what we are doing. We become more credible to speak of national development, socioeconomic progress, sustainability, and inclusivity, among others. Our messages become backed with pieces of evidence and concrete results in every text, photo, or video that we publish. So let us be proactive in sharing our projects and programs that serve our people.

With increased transparency and credibility, we gain public trust. By having these three, we become successful in encouraging dialogues that can truly create reforms and align the government with our people. I believe that with continuous constructive dialogues, we can truly achieve our Agenda for Prosperity where no Filipino is left behind.

To this end, we are also promoting the Philippine Open Government Partnership or PH-OGP which provides a platform for interface between the government and the citizens—another platform or avenue for transparency and public participation.

We also have our Fiscal Openness (FO) Working Group that leads the preparation and development of the DBM Fiscal Openness Action Plan and monitors the country’s performance in the Open Budget Survey (OBS) conducted by the International Budget Partnership. Further, we have operationalized the DBM Civil Society Organizations Desk to harness CSO participation by responding to their request for information and addressing their budget-related queries.

So as you write on the National Government Rightsizing Program and the Full Devolution that you will learn about today, let’s report on it with transparency, credibility and public trust in mind.

The NGRP is a major strategy for achieving bureaucratic efficiency, which, as you know, is a stated objective in the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028. The bill has already been passed in the House of Representatives and has been forwarded in the Senate for deliberation.

On the other hand, full devolution aims to further capacitate our Local Government Units to be at the forefront of public service delivery in their respective provinces, towns, and municipalities. As you may all know, the President has directed us to further study the matter so we will again sit down and identify which specific programs, activities, and projects can be carried out by which level of governance. As information officers, it is our responsibility to get the right message across—that the national government is working closely together with the LGUs to ensure the welfare of all citizens.

With your words, points of view, and even the channels you use, you are influencing, encouraging, and creating change.

And so, I call on all information officers to remember that every word is powerful, and your words, in particular, start conversations capable of spurring change. Let us all be wise and communicate with the goal of building the nation. Let us work together in empowering the Filipino people, and increasing their trust and confidence in government.

Maraming salamat po. Assalamu alaikum Wabillahi Tawfiq Wal Hidaya, Wasalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu.