Duterte to netizens: Be a #partnerforchange

 

MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATED) How will you become a partner for change?

As part of his inauguration on Thursday, June 30, President Rodrigo Duterte, through the official Twitter account of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO), sent out automated “personal messages” from President Rodrigo Duterte to Filipinos on social media.

The PCDSPO tweet featured a graphic of the president with the lines: “Be a partner for change. Let us build a better Philippines, together.” It also starts with the citizen’s name to add a personal touch. 

 

The message comes a few hours after the PCDSPO launched a video inviting everyone to the inauguration of Duterte on June 30.

Promoting the hashtags #PartnerForChange and #PresidentDuterte, PCDSPO encouraged everyone to tune into their televisions or watch the livestreams of the event. 

Marking the first day of the “social media-elected” president, the online gimmick is a first social media initiative from the government. (READ: Can Rodrigo Duterte lead the nation towards promised change?) 

On Thursday morning, PCDSPO’s official Twitter account posted a tweet instructing how to get the message. One just has to tweet using the hashtag #PartnerForChange to receive the message. 

Change is here! Use the hashtag #PartnerForChange to receive a personal message from #PresidentDuterte himself.

— PCDSPO (@pcdspo) June 30, 2016

Tweets containing the hashtag immediately get a reply with the photo by the PCDSPO. Many netizens have started posting tweets using the hashtag, showing their support to the new president.

There are also some tweets mentioning Vice President Leni Robredo and their hopes that the two will be able to work together in rebuilding the nation.

The hashtag trended on Twitter as more people expressed their optimism towards the new administration.

 #PartnerForChange – Curated tweets by MovePH

No filter?

Others, however, noted that the PCDSPO failed to filter its automated responses. Twitter user Yves Gonzales pointed out that the public office should have set up a profanity filter for its autoresponder. 

This is after netizens trolled the social media gimmick and used funny to outright offensive Twitter names that were reflected in the graphic images pushed by the government social media account. 

Lesson #1 Day 1 for President Duterte’s Communications Office, ALWAYS setup a profanity filter for autoresponders. pic.twitter.com/qC4tOSGPjy

— Yves Gonzalez (@doblezeta) June 30, 2016 

Meanwhile, Twitter has quickly responded to address this issue.

” While there have been a handful of inappropriate uses of the auto-reply system, we have taken quick action to investigate and remove them from Twitter’s platform,” Twitter said in a statement.

The social media network added that, within a few hours, thousands of Filipino netizens engaged with the #PartnerForChange campaign as their way of celebrating the inauguration of the 16th president of the Philippines.

What can you say about the personal message of President Rodrigo Duterte? Share your thoughts on X! – Rappler.com  

Ysh Nacino is a BA Journalism student from the University of the Philippines – Diliman. She is an intern for Rappler.