Cebu City to Relaunch Smart Infocast Program

To beef up its communication efforts, the Cebu City Government is reviving its Infocast program with Smart Communications.

The city will re-launch later this month the Infocast program upon the initiative of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO).

Greg Senados of the Cebu City Public Information Office said Smart Infocast is a web-based communications solutions that allows the city to send warnings, advisories, preparedness tips, and important announcements to over 25,000 subscribers daily.

He said this will be launched on March 29 with members of the barangay disasters, health, department heads and members of the Cebu Association of City and Municipal Public Information Officers (CAOCAMPIO).

However, beginning March 19, the program has already been operating. Atty. Mary Jane Paredes, corporate communications head of Smart, said that in Cebu province, those availing the program are Cebu Provincial Government, Carcar City, and Danao City.

Smart Infocast is the mobile network’s support to disaster risk reduction efforts of the Philippines particularly with the Office of Civil Defense (OCD). It was initially laid out in 2012.

Currently, the Infocast has more than 800 users and 2 million subscribers. Other provinces and cities that use Smart Infocast include Aurora, Batangas, Quezon, Albay, Southern Leyte, Bohol, Cebu, Iloilo, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro and General Santos.

The government agencies who also availed of the Smart Infocast feature other than OCD are Philippine Information Agency (PIA), Department of Science and Technology(DOST), Department of Education (Deped) DRRM office, Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), Department of Health (DOH) and Philippine National Police Maritime Group (PNPMG). (rmn/fcc/PIA7-Cebu)