Palace: Anyone is welcome to join pro-federalism campaign

"Anyone" can join the government's planned P90-million information campaign about President Rodrigo Duterte’s push for federalism, Malacañang said Monday.

"Anyone is welcome to disseminate. Of course, we seek to come up with standardized dissemination materials so that no one will deviate from the messaging," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque told reporters.

Roque gave the statement after the Consultative Committee (Con-com) that reviewed the 1987 Constitution said it is looking at tapping Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson for the campaign.

Con-com spokesperson Ding Generoso said Uson "would help increase awareness" about the federal form of government if she can write about it in her newspaper column and in her popular blog, which has over five million followers on Facebook.

Uson, however, is facing a complaint from youth leaders at the Office of the Ombudsman for supposedly spreading disinformation online.

Roque has said an initial amount of P40 million has been identified for the information drive, P10 million of which will be used by the Presidential Communications Operations Office for the production of materials.

The government may also tap the P50 million in savings of the Con-com which will end its operations next month.

"We’re developing materials for disseminators, and we are formulating a module to train first the trainors. And we’re developing a module for dissemination so that anyone who will follow the module can disseminate properly," Roque said.

The information campaign was prompted by survey results showing that three-quarters of Filipinos had little to no knowledge about federalism. — BM, GMA News