CEBU CITY — Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar on Tuesday led the second regional town hall meeting here, as part of the Duterte administration’s continuing efforts to bring government services closer to the people.
“You can confront the top officials of the line agencies in a constructively critical conversation for the public services that you, the people, expect to be delivered. The bureaucratic web of problems and glitches can expeditiously evaporate, with dialogue, and direct resolutions,” Andanar said during his speech held at the Cebu Provincial Capitol Social Hall here.
The Dagyaw 2019: Open Government and Participatory Governance Regional Dialogues encourage participation in dialogues between government agencies, the public, and other stakeholders. This initiative likewise aims to solicit ideas and stories that would help, not only in crafting new landmark reforms, but also in further strengthening existing measures.
“Dagyaw, or bayanihan, in the language of our origins, is the name we have chosen to underline the concerted cooperation of the major pillars of our reformed governance. These are: the people, the lead persons of the executive departments, and the president,” Andanar said.
“This is the triumvirate convergence of the objective of dagyaw, which is simply, the participation of the people in governance,” the PCOO chief added.
The word “dagyaw” is a Hiligaynon term for “bayanihan,” which exemplifies the concept of “togetherness.” It is envisioned to be one of the main government campaigns that will provide avenues for productive, valuable, sincere, and visible engagement between government and the people at the local level.
“This is participatory democracy in action, where the seated spectators are the people themselves, all of you,” Andanar told the town hall meeting participants.
In his speech, Andanar also highlighted the results of the recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey. The survey showed President Duterte’s public satisfaction rating reaching a new record-high in the second quarter of 2019 in which 80 percent of Filipinos are satisfied.
Andanar emphasized the importance of freedom of information, which opens for the people the documents and data of the entire executive departments except those involving highly classified national security matters.
Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Department of National Defense Undersecretary Cesar Yano, Department of Tourism Assistant Secretary Roberto Alabado III, representatives from the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department of Budget and Management attended the The Dagyaw 2019 Cebu City town hall meeting. DBM Assistant Secretary Rolando Toledo moderated the forum.
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