Biliran Province State University, through the School of Arts and Sciences, in collaboration with ABS-CBN and the Philippine Association of Communication Education (PACE), brought the first hybrid Pinoy Media Congress (PMC) Digital Caravan to Visayas, March 12.

223 students and journalists from BiPSU attended the on-site activity held at the BiPSU Gymnasium while approximately more than 400 participants from different schools in Visayas took part in the digital caravan via Zoom.

Dr. Derek B. Alviola, ADCEP Philippines President, said that not even a pandemic could hamper ABS-CBN and PACE's goal of raising media literacy in the country.

"This pandemic will not stop us from doing the PMC," Dr. Alviola said. "In fact, this digital caravan we're doing right now allow us to reach to more communication schools all around the Philippines by setting Digital Caravans in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao."

He also expressed his gratitude to BiPSU University President Dr. Victor C. Cañezo, Jr., for accepting the challenge to host the Visayas leg of the first hybrid Digital Caravan of PMC .

"PACE is equally grateful to Biliran Province State University, to Mr. President Dr. Victor C. Cañezo, Jr., for welcoming us in your campus to make this event more special because we have an actual face-to-face event here in Biliran on watching us live in the BiPSU Gymnasium," he added.

Moreover, the said caravan convened some of the renowned media experts in the country including Jacque Manabat, Senior Multiplatform Journalist in ABS-CBN; Mark Lester del Mundo Chico, Assistant Professor at College of Development Communication of University of the Philippines Los Banos; and Pia Bacungan-Laurel, Sales Head for New Media and International Co-Production.

Speakers were virtually present to discuss a variety of topics such as responsible use of social media as a digital tool for information dissemination and digital communication.

ABS-CBN Reporter Jacque Manabat reminded the participants that as journalists and future mediamen, they should always use social media responsibly and not to engage in any cancel culture.

"You have to be very responsible, be responsible sa lahat ng ipo-post mo. Kapag mali, well, you retract it, you apologize kung mali naman talaga. You use it wisely dahil powerful ang social media, lalo na may cancel culture 'di ba?  Huwag naman tayong sumama sa cancel culture ," she said.

Meanwhile, Pia Laurel, whose talk centered on how to battle piracy of contents in the present times, emphasized that as piracy becomes more active, content creators should be more diligent and cautious.

“Actually, that’s one of the things that we actively do in the ABS-CBN especially as content creators," Pia said. "We actually have the team that, ‘yon talaga ang ginagawa nila magbantay ng mga pirated content nakikita natin online. It’s also very well true because our partners are also very proactive in reporting piracy. So. It’s really hard, alam niyo naman ang pirates magbaba ka ng isang website, wala pang ilang minute makakagawa sila ng panibago, but we’re very diligent sa binabantayan naming, itong sa piracy.”

Different schools which participated via Zoom include Leyte Normal University, Visayas State University, Samar State University, University of San Jose-Recoletos, Cebu Normal University, Cebu Technological University, Advance Central College, University of San Agustine,  University of Antique, University of Eastern Philippines,  Southern Leyte State University, DepEd Leyte, Eastern Visayas State University, Palompon Institute of Technology, West Visayas State University and DepEd Biliran.