• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
An ordinance consolidating the supervision of the social media accounts of the departments in the local government of Bacolod City under one social media manager was recently approved by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod on third and final reading.
The ordinance authored by Councilor Jason Villarosa said it is the purpose of this ordinance to consolidate all social media accounts of the City of Bacolod and create a centralized command center through the Public Information Office (PIO), which will take over or continue the management and administration of various social media accounts already created by several departments of the City of Bacolod, regardless of any change in administration in the future.
The ordinance to be known as the “Bacolod City Social Media Presence Ordinance” provides for the creation of the Official Bacolod City Social Media Presence Council, to be headed by the City Mayor.
The City Mayor, through the Office of the PIO will have authority to access all social media accounts of Bacolod City, whether already launched or to be launched, the ordinance said.
The chairperson of the Committee on Information, Communications and Technology will monitor the interactions associated with the official social media accounts and recommend to the City Mayor the necessary steps, reports, and findings of any interaction as supervised by the aforesaid chairperson, it said.
The social media accounts created by the departments in the City of Bacolod will be owned by the city. Should there be any unauthorized deletion of data, whether it be the credentials or important data maintained in the social media accounts or official pages, the Council shall, after proper investigation, apprise the City Mayor of the incident and recommend necessary reprimands or disciplinary actions against the violator, the ordinance added.*