President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed LiCAS.news editor-at-large Jose “Joe” A. Torres Jr. as the head of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), authorities announced on May 23.
“The appointment of Torres, known for his exceptional investigative reporting and work in new media, is expected to strengthen PIA’s mission of disseminating information about government programs, projects, and services to the Filipino public,” PIA said in a statement.
Torres is one of the founding editors of LiCAS.news, a Church news agency based in Bangkok, which was established in 2019. He was managing editor and Manila bureau chief of the Union of Catholic Asian News from 2010 to 2019. He served as member of the editorial board of Radio Veritas Asia in 2018.
“I am grateful to President Marcos for the opportunity and the privilege to serve the country in these trying times of misinformation and disinformation,” said Torres.
In a phone interview, Torres told LiCAS.news that his focus is how to “bring the government and its policies and programs closer to the basic masses to allow them fully participate in the democratic process.”
The PIA serves as the country’s primary information arm, with a network spanning 16 regional offices and 78 provincial information centers.
The agency’s mandate is to empower Filipinos by providing them with accurate and timely information, enabling them to actively participate in the nation’s democratic processes.
Torres started his journalism career as a writer for the alternative news service Philippine News and Features in the late 1980s.
In the early 1990s, his groundbreaking reporting, later published into the book “Into the Mountain: Hostaged by the Abu Sayyaf,” shed light on the activities of the notorious bandit group in the southern Philippines.
Throughout his career, Torres has worked for various media outlets, both in the Philippines and abroad.
He served as a sub-editor for Saudi Gazette, the national newspaper of Saudi Arabia, as an investigative reporter for the now-defunct Isyu newsmagazine, and wrote for The Manila Times, The Philippine Post, and The Sunday Paper.
Torres joined ABS-CBN’s online platform in 2001 and established GMA News’s online presence in 2005. He also set up the online version of the tabloid Remate in 2009.
Torres received a citation in the 2004 International Tolerance Prize for his article on Filipino Muslims titled “Troubled Return of the Faithful.” His piece “The Making of a Mindanao Mafia” was awarded the 3rd Prize in the Jaime V Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism in 2004.
He was chairman of the Philippine Center for Photojournalism and currently holds a board member position at the National Press Club of the Philippines.
Educated in Philosophy at the University of Santo Tomas, he later took up units of Theology at the Ateneo de Manila University. Torres honed his journalistic skills by obtaining a diploma in multimedia journalism from the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism in 2012.
Torres is a member of SIGNIS, a Catholic lay ecclesial movement in 100 countries for professionals in the communication media, including press, radio, television, cinema, video, media education, internet, and new technology.
He was a recipient of the US Embassy’s Fellowships for Professional Development through the International Visitors Program in 2005 and was a fellow at the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993.
