Bago City Information Office bags PIA awards anew

BACOLOD City – The Bago City Public Affairs and Information Office has reaped anew several awards during the Western Visayas Information Officers’ Yearend Conference and Awards 2023 of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), a validation of its dedication and commitment in pursuit of upholding development communication through excellent information dissemination across various platforms.

Adding to the city’s long list of accolades this year, its Public Affairs and Information Office bagged the Second Place Best Facebook Page and Second Place Best Special Publication awards.

The Citybridge is the official Facebook Page of Bago City Government.

It is the sole LGU in Negros Occidental to make it to the top three. The first place went to Iloilo City Government while Iloilo Science and Technology University and Capiz Provincial Government Communications Group bagged the third place.

Its winning special publication, on the other hand, is the Bawal Bastos sa Bago brochure, a localized information and education campaign (IEC) material of the Safe Spaces Act or the Bawal Bastos Law.

The recognitions were received by multi-awarded Information Officer Ace Balboa from PIA Director General Jose Torres Jr., PIA Deputy Director General for Strategic Communication and External Affairs Katherine De Castro and PIA-Western Visayas Regional Director EnP. Cheryl Amor in rites held at Citadines Amigo Iloilo in Iloilo City today, December 21.

Last year, Balboa and his office both received the Hall of Fame awards from the regional line agency mainly for their contributions to the field of development communication.

They were hailed as hall of famers for winning in their respective category for three consecutive years and for their remarkable performance in the dissemination of timely, relevant and accurate information.

For this year, they are exempted to join in these categories.

Balboa, who is a master of Development Communication degree holder from the University of the Philippines Open University and has completed the academic requirements in his doctorate degree in Development Studies from the University of St. La Salle-Bacolod, first won as Best Performing Information Officer in the region in 2020.

He again topped the search among all information officers both for local government units (LGUs) and national government agencies (NGAs) in 2021 and 2022.

Humbled and grateful Balboa thanked the PIA for once again recognizing Bago City in its annual regional awards.

“This is a clear manifesto of what our LGU is remarkably doing to our public in the fields of information dissemination, education and communication,” the award-winning information officer said.

He added that “rest assured that the Public Affairs and Information Office, as the information arm of the city, will continue to innovate and come up with various programs, strategies and services on development communication to provide timely, relevant and accurate information to the Bagonhon community.