New military chief sends first tweet

Chief Lieutenant General Jessie Dellosa

MANILA, Philippines—It’s not just celebrities and news personalities who are now using the popular micro-blogging site Twitter, even the new chief of the Armed Forces is tweeting out his thoughts.

Armed Forces Chief Lieutenant General Jessie Dellosa opened his Twitter account, @CSAFPDellosa Friday morning.

His first tweet read: “This is the official twitter account of the Chief of Staff, AFP. Thank you to the first followers.”

As of 2:35, p.m. of Friday Dellosa had 61 followers just hours after he opened the account.

In a separate statement, Dellos said that it was his children who encouraged him to open an account on Twitter.

“I was curious on what it can do to help the organization to reach out to our soldiers in the field. This is their direct access to me,” Dellosa said.

“I have realized that social media can be a very effective feedback mechanism not only to address the concerns of our ground units but also to help spread the developments brought by our IPSP Bayanihan Campaign,” he added.

The IPSP Bayanihan is Internal Peace and Security Plan Bayanihan which is the military’s peace and security campaign.

AFP spokesman Colonel Arnulfo Burgos Jr. said that Dellosa’s opening of a Twitter account is part of the military’s advocacy campaign and its mandate to reach out and be accessible to the public. Burgos added that the military chief is a “people-oriented commander.”