MANILA, Philippines - Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Lt. Gen. Jessie Dellosa now has a Twitter account, which the AFP says is a first for its top brass.

“He is the first AFP chief to have a personal Twitter account. This is in support of the AFP’s advocacy campaign to promote transparency, and even before, when he assumed command, kilala na siya bilang people-oriented commander,” AFP spokesperson Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos said.

Dellosa’s Twitter account is @CSAFPDellosa. His profile says, simply, “your soldier.”

He had 118 followers and three tweets as of posting time.

The first tweet was to announce the creation of the account and assure netizens of authenticity.

In his second tweet, he said thank you to a new follower.

In his third, he said that his Twitter account is “not only for our soldiers but to reach out also to the people I serve.”

Dellosa said that it was his children who encouraged him to embrace social media.

“I was curious on what it can do to help [the AFP] reach out to our soldiers in the field. This is their direct access to me. I have realized that social media can be a very effective feedback mechanism,” he said in an interview.

According to Burgos, tweets on @CSAFPDellosa would come from Dellosa himself. Though his staff would also have access to the account, they would be posting “with guidance” from Dellosa.

Key officers have not yet been told to set up their own personal Twitter accounts, Burgos said. However, he noted that many officers and solders are already active on the social networking site.

“Malalaman natin sa kanya kung [personal or official announcements ang] magiging laman ng account niya. Kaka-open lang, e. I-follow na lang natin,” Burgos said.

The creation of the account was generally received well by netizens.

One user (@mikelimpag) took the chance to suggest that Dellosa boost the armed forces’ teams in the United Football League, and another (@mannyneps) said he wants Dellosa’s “Twitter experiment” to work.

(with report from stringer)