MANILA (AFP) - – Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Monday launched a website that allows the public to directly air complaints against authorities as part of his vow to promote transparency and crush corruption.
Aquino's estimated 1.8 million followers on Facebook were urged to participate in the website, www.president.gov.ph, which can be accessed via other networking sites such as Twitter, Friendster, YouTube and Multiply.
"The new media infrastructure has been developed to provide a feedback mechanism so people can stay connected with the president and government," Aquino's spokesman Herminio Coloma said.
"(This) is a commitment of the national leadership to rebuild trust in government and ushering in a new era, a new culture of governance."
He said a platform by which the country's millions of mobile phone users would be able to send their concerns to the website via text messaging was also being developed.
Government agencies will be able to monitor all concerns and complaints aired over the website, and Aquino himself would regularly consult it.
"He will visit it everyday in the same way he did during the campaign when he kept himself abreast in sentiments in FB (Facebook)," Coloma said.
Aquino's volunteers deftly used Internet social networking sites to promote his anti-corruption message, helping him to win the May election by a landslide.
The new website, however, will not only be limited to supporters.
Critics are also welcome to post their comments and will not be blocked, Coloma said.
"We welcome a diversity of views. There will be a democratic and spirited exchange of idea. Let a thousand flowers boom, as the saying goes," Coloma said.
Within hours of the site being launched, hundreds of people had posted comments on a wide range of topics, from alleged corruption at Manila's airport to the plight of Filipino workers overseas and calls to legalise marijuana.
