NESTOR B. RAMIREZ
With the heightened awareness of disaster management and prevention, many barangays in the city have already installed public address systems within their areas of jurisdictions not only to air important public service announcements but primarily to give residents direction in case of emergency.
One barangay that equipped themselves with the public address system is barangay Kamagayan, a small but densely populated area in the heart of the city.
Unlike the others, Kamagayan maximized the use of their equipment with daily programming similar to that of a commercial radio station tackling developmental issues like health, senior citizens, child welfare, hygiene, sanitation, livelihood and other things that concern the constituents.
The programs are anchored by volunteers from the barangay and communication and journalism students of the University of San Jose Recoletos (USJR) that provided the volunteers with skills training and basic broadcast rules and principles.
Since its soft launching last week, programs are only aired one hour every morning but as soon as the volunteer broadcasters from the barangay are ready to handle their program on their own, it is envisioned that the barangay radio station will air the entire day from sunrise to sundown.
The project started last October when the idea was pitched to the barangay officials who readily signed a memorandum of understanding with USJR president Rev. Fr. Cristopher C. Maspara, OAR to provide training and basic equipment to enhance the existing facility of the barangay.
The series of seminars were then held from the month of December and culminated in February.
The operation of Radyo Kamagayan is closely patterned after the laboratory campus radio of USJR and the web based Radyo Recoletos of the Recoletos Communication Inc. of the Province of St. Ezekiel Moreno.
The general objective of the project is to make the residents of the barangay knowledgeable about the information that they need to know to be able to respond adequately to the daily challenges of life by formulating the right decisions for their greater benefit.
The establishment of Radyo Kamagayan is foreseen to provide the residents with the right source of information and entertainment through the traditional audio broadcast and bring well-meaning private groups and the government closer to the community.
With the apprehension that Radyo Kamagayan would be used to push for certain individual’s interest or to the advantage of incumbent barangay officials, it has been made clear during the training that programs would strictly be developmental in nature.
Program anchors are strongly warned never to use the facility to campaign for their respective candidates especially that it is already the election season in the barangay.
I believed that the best and most effective way to counter disinformation and misinformation in this time of uncertainty is to be innovative in spreading the right information to the grassroots level so that they could not be easily persuaded to believe the fake news.