Unified hashtag #walangpasok launched

MANILA, Philippines – A unified hashtag to monitor class and work suspension announcements was announced by Malacañang Wednesday, August 15. The hashtag #walangpasok will be used by government agencies and media organizations, to make it easier for people to keep track of announcements on the social network Twitter.

To make use of the hashtag, log on to your Twitter account and type in the hashtag #walangpasok in the searchbox. You’ll get real time tweets about class and work suspensions from organizations who have agreed to adapt the hashtag.

The initiative is spearheaded by the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson (@govph) and the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (@pcdspo) and as of the time of launch, also had commitments for use from the following media organizations: @rapplerdotcom @philippinestar @inquirerdotnet @gmanews @ancalerts @News5AKSYON @DZMMTeleRadyo and @BusinessMirror.

Rappler supports the unified hashtag initiative and will begin using the hashtag effective today. 

Starting today we will use the unified hashtag #walangpasok to announce class suspensions. A joint effort by media orgs & the@pcdspo.

— Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) August 15, 2012

Malacañang is also calling on LGUs and schools to adapt the hashtag in the interest of “faster, and more reliable, tracking and dissemination of alerts.” As of 5pm the University of the Philippines System (@upsystem) has also agreed to use the hashtag.  – Rappler.com