GOV’T TO SHOWCASE SERVICES, CONDUCT DIALOGUES VIA “DAGYAW”

          CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Aug. 6—In line with the continuing efforts on bringing government closer to the people, a regional town hall meeting, dubbed “Dagyaw”, is set this Thursday, August 8, at Barangay Nazareth Gymnasium, this city.

           With Dagyaw 2019 being envisioned to be one of the main government campaigns that will provide avenues for sincere and visible engagement between government and people at the local level, said activity intends to communicate good governance reforms of the Duterte Administration.

           A total of 800 stakeholders are expected to attend the activity, composed of representatives from civil society organizations, academe, business groups, public sector unions, peoples organization, local media, and regular citizens.

“This platform is deemed necessary by our national government in order to achieve direct connection to the public, especially that this will give an opportunity to our citizens to have a direct interface with our government senior officials,” Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) 10 Regional Director Arnel M. Agabe said.

           He added that Dagyaw is an avenue to promote and disseminate information on the open government and participatory governance initiatives of the national government. With this, said activity will also provide a one-stop shop of frontline government services and national programs down to the region .

           Focus areas for Northern Mindanao are discussions on violent extremism, health, and general development.

           “This is one way of making the government be felt; na ang ato-ang national government mao ang makapaminaw sa atong mga issues ug mahatagan kini og kaangayan nga mga aksyon [that our national government would directly know our issues, and take necessary actions on it],” RD Agabe said.

           With this, ARD Yvette Tolentino-Sunga said that Dagyaw could also boost the campaign in Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC), saying that this is good tool in the “propaganda war” in line with the operationalization of EO 70, otherwise known as the “Whole-of-Nation Approach.”

           Moeover, Philippine Information Agancy (PIA) 10 Regional Director Erlinda Olivia P. Tiu encouraged the public to join the regional town hall meeting saying that, “This is is very special activity where you see good governance in action.”

           The word “Dagyaw” is a Hiligaynon term for “Bayanihan” which exemplifies concept of “togetherness”. Dagyaw 2019 is aligned with and support the pre-SONA, SONA, and post-SONA preparations and activities, spearheaded by the DILG, Department of Budget and Management, and the Presidential Communications Operations Office.