Republic of the Philippines

PHILIPPINE MODEL CONGRESS

Metro Manila

SEVENTH CONGRESS
Regular Session

Bill No. ______

Introduced by DELEGATE MIAH TERRENZ PROVIDO

AN ACT
IMPLEMENTING PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
ACCOUNTABLE TO PUBLIC POLICY AND ORDER THROUGH IMAGES AND
ACTIONS IN THE INTERNET BY PROVIDING A CODE OF CONDUCT AND
ETHICAL STANDARDS FOR ACCURATE AND CONSISTENT INFORMATION
DISSEMINATION FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Public policy is essential in running the national government and should be enforced
to the local administrative level. It is important that a consistent and coherent policy is in
conjunction with regards to our national policy as well as to foreign policy. It is also
imperative to translate the government policy and strategy to nation-building to the citizens
for a transparent and coherent stance.

In this digital age, where information dissemination should be held critical, it is essential for
all stakeholders to be critical and assertive in facts through investigating assertions and
opinions of different views in the internet. With the rise of fake news, government officials
should be at the forefront on its goal to create a moderately prosperous society that should
adhere to the concept of truth, liberty, and critical thinking. This Act should also empower
intellectually capable citizens that adhere to an effective and democratically-engaged system
of governance.

Moreover, government compliance and discourse should be in the forefront of policy making
and be the forebearer of reform. A call for specific and comprehensive policy should be
adhered and prioritised in order to hasten institutional integrity and efficiency of officials
who may reflect on constitutional values and core ideals of the nation. With this, government
officials are accounted into their office whereas they are expected to become models of good
and transparent conduct by becoming to be employees with the intent of serving the public.

These officials should adhere to an objective and critical account who are free of bias and
political ideology in the goal of a moderately prosperous society. Nonetheless, a code of
conduct and ethical standards adhered towards the accurate and consistent information
dissemination in the world wide web should be placed into law where public officials and
government employees should be held accountable in their actions and professional
approach in social media be enforced.

The passage of this bill is urgently sought.

MIAH TERRENZ PROVIDO

 Republic of the Philippines
PHILIPPINE MODEL CONGRESS
Metro Manila

SEVENTH CONGRESS
Regular Session

Bill No. ______

Introduced by DELEGATE MIAH TERRENZ PROVIDO

AN ACT
IMPLEMENTING PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
ACCOUNTABLE TO PUBLIC POLICY AND ORDER THROUGH IMAGES AND
ACTIONS IN THE INTERNET BY PROVIDING A CODE OF CONDUCT AND
ETHICAL STANDARDS FOR ACCURATE AND CONSISTENT INFORMATION
DISSEMINATION FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE

Be it enacted by the Philippine Model Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. – This Act shall be known as the “Public Officials’ Online Policy of
2018”.

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. – Pursuant to Section 6, Article II of the 1987 Philippine

Constitution, the State adopts and implements a policy of full public disclosure of all its
transactions involving public interest, subject to reasonable conditions prescribed by law wherein:

1. social media serve as an avenue in providing opportunities for the government to

communicate, interact, and engage with the public in matters of public interest.
2. a need to establish a code of conduct for a safe and productive use of social media by
government officials in disseminating consistent and accurate information.
3. establish the use of social media to foster productive, responsible, accountable, accurate,
transparent, and consistent information dissemination while taking into consideration the
officials’ right to privacy and freedom of expression.

SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. – As used in this Act, the following terms are defined as follows:
(a) Public Officials include the elected and appointed officials and employees, regardless to
whether they are under permanent or temporary working condition, and career or non-
career service but not limited to military and police personnel.
(b) Government includes the national government, local governments, and other agencies or
branches of the Republic of the Philippines but not limited to the government-owned or
controlled corporations, and their subsidiaries.
(c) Online means to controlling or being connected to the internet.
 (d) Internet, also known as, World Wide Web refers to an electronic communications
network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around
the globe.
(e) Social Media covers the computer-mediated technologies with the creation and
dissemination of ideas and expressions via different platforms and vitrual networks.
(f) Social Media Account refers to an agency or an individual’s account or page on any given
social media platform.
(g) Social Media Platform refers to any internet-based applications or sites that allow users
to share information and promote hollistic interactions.
(h) Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) refers to the
department that will lead in implementing and evaluating this Act.

SEC. 4. Social Media Guidelines- Every public official and government employee shall
observe the following standards of online account conduct when they are online in the internet:

(a) Elected persons and employees of public office should identify themselves as public
officials by disclosing their affiliations in their respective online accounts. Whereas, they should
follow the modern english alphabet as their form of language in their accounts. Pseudonyms are
likewise prohibited.

(b) All social media accounts of public officials and employees should be kept public but
interaction with “friends” and “followers” should be managed properly to maintain
professionalism.

(c) Officials and employees are not allowed to curse, share obscene posts, rant about
political views or any official government related issues on any social media networking sites.

(d) Public officials and employees are also not allowed to use their office or position to
harass, bully, or intimidate other officials-especially private individuals.

(e) In light of professionalism, officials are not allowed to respond to critics in any social
media platform wherein the name of their office and the state can be held accountable to their
actions.

(f) Integrity and objectivity, being a requirement for the conduct of service, of officials
should know how to differentiate opinions from facts by ensuring that their social media persona
follows the code of conduct under RA 6713, wherein officials must be courteous and in good
faith at all times.

(g) Social media accounts are highly suggested to be engaging and informative to the
public. Whereas, the account should contribute with context and provide links from sources that
are deemed necessary.

(h) Social media accounts are discouraged from providing personal informations, such as
but not limited to: home address and telephone number, that may lead for scam artists or identity
thieves to use.

(i) Public officials and employees may use a disclaimer in their profile accounts, or to any
publicly accessible bio, as to pointing out their views as an individual when publicly
commenting on content that is related to their office which may identify them as an official or
employee.

(j) In light of being professionals, public officials and employees should be as accurate as
possible by verifying information through factual citations from credible, reliable, and validated
sources; check grammar, spelling, and punctuation; and quick in admitting mistakes and
correcting inaccuracies.

SEC. 5. Set of Standards to Evaluate Public Officials’ and Government Employees

Compliance– To maintain a healthy and productive social media environment, public officials
should adhere to a set of guideliness to ensure their compliance to this bill.

(1) The DICT is tasked to lead in ensuring proper use of social media whereas, the evaluation
and adoption of the guidelines written in this Act will institutionalize a conducive and
accountable online social environment.
(2) DICT shall identify specific and relevant performance metrics to determine if the social
media initiative has met with the standards of this policy.

SEC. 6. Prohibited Acts. – In addition to acts and omissions prescribed in the Constitution and
other existing laws, disclosure and/or misuse of confidential information by the public officials
and government employees should not use or divulge confidential and classified informations that
is officially known to them by reason of their office and not made available to the public for either
further private interests or advantage to anyone but not limited to prejudice to the public interest.

SEC. 7. Penalties. – In the rules and regulations to be implemented pursuant to this policy,
the Secretary of DICT and the Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government
(DILG) shall prescribe the appropriate administrative sanctions to public officials and government
employees who shall fail to comply with the guidelines under this Act.

SEC. 8. Appropriations. – The amount necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act is
hereby authorized to be appropriated in the General Appropriations Act of the year following its
enactment into law and thereafter.

SEC. 9. Implementing Rules and Regulations. – Within 90 days from the effectivity of this
Act, the DICT, the DILG, and the Civil Service Commission shall promulgate the necessary rules
and regulations for the implementation of this Act.

SEC. 10. Separability Clause. – If, for any reason or reasons, any part or provision of this Act
shall be declared unconstitutional or invalid, other parts of provisions not affected thereby shall
continue to be in full force and effect.
 SEC 11. Repealing Clause. – All laws, decrees, orders, rules and regulations or other issuances
or parts thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed, revoked, or
modified accordingly.

SEC 12. Effectivity Clause. This Act shall take effect 15 days after its publication in the
Official Gazette or in any two (2) newspapers of general circulation.