Ex-PIA chief Torres is new PTFoMS head

Former Philippine Information Agency (PIA) director general Jose Torres Jr. has been named as the new executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS), Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Cesar Chavez announced Thursday. 

Torres replaced Paul Gutierrez, whose term as PTFoMS chief expired last September.

Torres, a former editor-in-chief of GMA News Online, was replaced by former Tourism Undersecretary and People's Television Network Inc. general manager Katherine Chloe de Castro as PIA director general last month.

PTFoMS, established in October 2016 by then-President Rodrigo Duterte through Administrative Order No. 1, is mandated to protect the life, liberty and security of media workers.

Back in April, PTFoMS, under Gutierrez, disputed a United States State Department report on human rights practices that Filipino journalists continued to face harassment, threats of violence, and violence. —Llanesca T. Panti/KBK, GMA Integrated News