Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Jose Ruperto Martin Andanar led the groundbreaking ceremony of the P300-million Visayas Media Hub (VMH) on February 24, 2022 in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City. | Mary Rose Sagarino
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — The construction of the first-ever Visayas Media Hub in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City is expected to start after the May 9 election.
Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Jose Ruperto Martin Andanar led the groundbreaking ceremony of the P300-million Visayas Media Hub (VMH) on February 24, 2022.
Visayas’ first facility will soon serve as the main broadcast center in regions 6, 7, and 8.
It will house People’s Television, Inc. (PTV), that will serve as one of the locators of the project and other PCOO agencies such as the Philippine Broadcasting Service (PBS), Philippine Information Agency (PIA), Philippine News Agency (PNA), and Radio Television Malacañang (RTVM).
The construction of VMH which is one of the flagship projects of the Duterte Administration aims to promote sustainable communication.
“The mindset should be one of sustainable communication which means we are future proofing our information platforms of the government by also adopting an algorithm-based mindset so we must be investing in algorithms,” said Andanar.
Andanar said the project would complete the broadcast revolution as Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao would all be having a media hub.
The luzon media hub is located in Quezon City while the Mindanao media hub is placed in Davao City.
PCOO assistant secretary Kristian Ablan said the construction would start after the May 9 election.
“Maabutan po tayo nang campaign ban magkakaroon po tayo nang procurement short of award and then after the elections matapos na ang ban we could start the construction,” said Ablan.
Ablan said the completion would take 6 to 12 months.
The PCOO has partnered with the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the local government of Mandaue.
The VMH will be built at the 5,000 square meters lot of the DICT in Wireless Subangdaku- Innovation Hub Zone.
Andanar said the P300 million would only be for the construction of the media hub, and the equipment among others also had budget allocation.
The project is included in the 2022 national budget under the “Build Build Build” program of the Duterte administration.
The VMH will include a 4-storey building with roof deck, broadcast complex, TV studios and optional radio booths, automated master control system, transmitter and satellite uplink system, TV broadcast IT system, news graphics system, digital transmitters, among others.
Andanar is confident that the project would push through no matter who would be the next president as it had already been in the General Appropriations Act.
He said they would be having a proper transition explaining to the next government the reasons, the vision, and principle behind the project.
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