Tabar replaces Bañacia as information officer
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has replaced Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office Head Nagiel Bañacia as the city's Public Information Officer (PIO) for “not functioning well.”
Osmeña appointed City Tourism Officer Malou Inocando-Tabar as the new Public Information Officer for the city.
The mayor saw the need to replace Bañacia who is holding the position in a concurrent position for not performing his responsibilities well.
“Because he is not functioning as PIO you know that. You know Nagiel is doing too many things and he's not paying attention to his basic function already,” Osmeña said.
Aside from being the city's PIO, Bañacia was also appointed as the CCDRRMO and the South Road Properties Management head.
On February 21, Osmeña has signed an appointment letter designating Tabar as the new PIO, which is also concurrent to her position as being the city's tourism officer.
“We are just streamlining… Nagiel is not functioning as the PIO, so I put somebody there. I think Malou can do a much better job,” he said.
In an interview, Bañacia agreed with the mayor's statement that he is not performing his duties as information officer well due to other tasks.
“That's true. I'm no longer effective because there are many offices assigned to me,” he said.
Bañacia then expressed that he was happy with the development that Osmeña decided to replace him on the position, saying it is an answered prayer for him.
“I will pray more so that makuhaan pako og responsibility. I'm getting older. And our city needs new blood,” he said.
Tabar told reporters that the PIO position is a challenge for her because she wants to improve the delivery of right information to the public.
“Maybe challenge pud because you have to adapt to the time. Sa among panahon, mura man og karaan kaayo before. Lahi naman karon, kinahanglan na faster and accuracy is very important because we don't want to be creator of fake news so accuracy and kanang efficiency at the same time,” she said.
Among the plans of Tabar as information officer to showcase the services offered in every department in the city so that the public would be aware which office look for once they need assistance.
“To promote more sa mga activities especially sa different departments niya to make the city government feel the presence of PIO kay kanang in this age of social media mura naman og nagiyahay na ba naa accounts ilaha,” she added.
Since last week, Tabar has assumed office as the new information officer after she received the appointment papers on February 22, 2018.