5,000 social media followers required to cover Duterte

Have at least 5,000 followers “on any social media platform” and cover President Duterte.

This is one of the requirements set by Malacañang for an “interim” accreditation scheme for “social media.”

Under Department Order No. 15 that Secretary Martin Andanar of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) issued on Tuesday, applicants must also be Filipino and at least 18 years old.

“The purpose of this order is to provide an interim system of accreditation for social media participation to cover special events attended by the President, in order to generate news and information for the citizenry through social media platforms,” Andanar said.

Social media of different political persuasions can apply, he said. “There is no discrimination and one’s political belief is not the measurement of access.”

Mocha Uson

Andanar said the PCOO’s Social Media Office (SMO), headed by Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson, would handle the applications, which will be “free and voluntary.”

The SMO was created on July 14 to handle the “dissemination of information through social media platforms and actively engage the public as part of participatory governance.”

The order defines a social media practitioner as one who “maintains a publicly accessible social media page, blog or website, which generates content and whose principal advocacy is the regular dissemination of original news and/or opinion of interest.”

An application will be reviewed by the SMO within three working days.

“The (SMO) shall conduct a test run of this policy for a period of six months upon effectivity of this order, subject to review and/or revision at the end of this period,” Andanar said.

“Unless expressly specified, accreditation is understood to be on a per event/activity only,” he said. It would be “subject to the clearance of the Presidential Security Group,” he said.

“Accreditation is nontransferrable and cannot be sold. Individuals with accreditation must ensure that their accreditations are not used by others,” he said.

Those who abuse their privileges will have their accreditation canceled and will be banned from covering the President.

Engaging content

Andanar said it would develop “engaging, creative, innovative content” for regularly scheduled posts, “which enlighten the citizens and promote brand-focused messages.”

The SMO will act as overall coordinator for social media messaging “vis-a-vis PCOO’s attached agencies.”

It will also analyze social media campaigns with “tracking systems to gather visitor data and determine efficacy and areas for social media campaign improvement, subject to the availability of resources,” Andanar said.