Bago Information Officer I Ace Balboa (second from right) with his Hall of Fame award from the Philippine Information Agency with PIA Negros Occidental Information Center Manager Lorenzo Lambatin Jr., Region 6 Officer-In-Charge Jemin Guillermo and Director-General Undersecretary Ramon Lee Cualoping III (l-r) at the awarding rites.*Bago PIO photo
The Bago City Information Office and its information officer received the Hall of Fame awards from the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) in Western Visayas for their exemplary contributions in the field of development communication (DevCom) during the Regional Year-End Conference of Information Officers held in Iloilo City on Wednesday, December 28.
Both were hailed as hall of famers for winning in their respective categories for three consecutive years and for their remarkable performance in the dissemination of timely, relevant and accurate information.
Bago Information Officer I Ace Balboa, who has a master’s degree in Development Communication from the University of the Philippines Open University and has completed the academic requirements for 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.
In his response on behalf of the awardees, Balboa underscored that in this day and age, the importance of having an information officer and an information office cannot be denied.
Balboa recalled that the past three years of the pandemic had tested their mettle as government workers assigned at the information office.
“We were also working 24/7 just like other coronavirus disease (Covid-19) frontliners,” he said, adding that “just like other frontliners, we also exposed ourselves to possible infection as we also need to be in our office physically and give real-time situationers and updates on COVID-19 within our respective localities.”
Winning in 2020, 2021 and 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic era “means really so much to me because it shows that our little contribution to the whole-of-nation approach against COVID- 19 is also being recognized”, Balboa said.
Meanwhile, The Citybridge, the official Facebook Page of Bago City, also bagged the third place in the Best Facebook Page category.
It is the sole LGU in Negros Occidental to make it to the top three. The first and second places went to Iloilo City and Antique Province, respectively.
In her letter to Bago City Mayor Nicholas Yulo, PIA – Western Visayas Officer-In-Charge, Jemin Guillermo, congratulated the mayor and expressed her appreciation to the local chief executive for his robust partnership with the agency in making development communication a vital part of the government’s thrust.
Balboa thanked PIA-Western Visayas for the honor its bestowed on him, and also cited the hard work and dedication of his staff.
Bago City was the lone LGU in Negros Occidental that won the top prizes in this year’s regional search.