CH partners with Smart for info dissemination

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government has boosted its strategy in communicating with its constituents by partnering with Smart Communication to disseminate advisories, announcements, preparedness tips, important information, among others.

With the partnership, the city government has 25,000 free text messages to be delivered to subscribers through text messaging.

The receiver would know that the text message came from the city government for the message would include the city’s name.

The “Infocast” program was created upon the suggestion of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office so the public would be updated on important matters in the city, specifically on preparedness tips.

CCDRRMO head as well as Public Information Officer Nagiel Bañacia was happy of the partnership.

“It is part of our program on warning system. Maybe, except for a few, everybody has a cellular phone. It is the best way to communicate directly to the people to forewarn them about any incident or eventuality,” he told The FREEMAN.

Yesterday was the launching of the partnership with the members of the barangay disaster and health units and department heads of the Cebu Association of City and Municipal Public Information Officers (CAOCAMPIO).  Aside from the Cebu City government, there are other local government units that also availed of the Smart Infocast, knowing that it would fast-track the dissemination of information to the people. They are Carcar City, Danao City, Aurora, Batangas, Quezon, Albay, Southern Leyte, Bohol, Cebu, Iloilo, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro City, and General Santos City.

There were also  government agencies that also availed of the Smart Infocast features,  including the Philippine Information Agency; Department of Science and Technology; Department of Education; Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration  (Pagasa); Department of Health (DOH); and Philippine National Police Maritime Group. (FREEMAN)