TACLOBAN CITY- Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico “Mic” Petilla assured members of the media that he is an advocate on press freedom. Petilla made this disclosure during his meeting with the members of the National Press Club (NPC)-Tacloban chapter on May 6. NPC members, headed by Eileen Nazareno-Ballesteros as president, paid their courtesy call to Petilla. The governor stressed he would not put the media in a situation that will compromise its integrity and neutrality. He has been upholding this principle as personal advocacy since his college days where he had the experience to be among the student activists although not hardcore, he said.
Gov. Petilla expressed full support to the cause of the journalists, including the NPC-Tacloban. However, he cautioned that such help should not be violative of any auditing policy, such as imposed in the constitutional mandate on separation of church and state. The journalists, in turn, took the opportunity as well to get the governor’s stand on various issues which among others his political plans on the 2016 elections as well as his desire to improve the living condition of the people of the province, now considered among the country’s poorest provinces after it was devastated by supertyphoon “Yolanda.” The governor said that he would focus on enhanced productivity instead of generating employment.
(EILEEN NAZARENO BALLESTEROS)
