By Tom S. Noda
Computerworld Philippines
March 9, 2010

Failing to achieve a permanent entity status, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) is now setting up policies that will guide the country’s next president to advance on ICT developments.
 
“What we really want to do in the remaining months is to put in place the policies that will guide the next administration,” said Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua, chairman of CICT, in an exclusive interview with Computerworld Philippines.

CICT is coming off from an advocacy loss in the Senate recently, with the death of the bills mandating the creation of the Department of ICT (DICT) and Cybercrime Law. And since it remained only a commission under the executive order of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the next president can easily do away with CICT. Arroyo’s term is scheduled to end on June 10, 2010.

Roxas-Chua said it’s up to the next administration if it wants to follow or not the policies CICT is now crafting.

“We want to leave these policies so that developments will continue. At least, we won’t have to worry about the longevity or permanent nature of CICT,” he explained, adding that historically, parts of CICT have been going in and out like its separation and reunion with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and Telecommunications Office (Telof).

Roxas-Chua said CICT’s focus remains consistent on the cyber services and business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, e-government (e-gov), capital development, and also infrastructure development.

However, he said CICT should come up with a new flow chart or new structure so as to fully indicate the other agencies that were brought under it like the NTC and Telof. As a commission, he shared it was “difficult for CICT to create a comprehensive ICT plan.”

Appointed by President Arroyo in 2007, Roxas-Chua said CICT has achieved a lot of its targets when it comes to projects implemented and advocacy for ICT based on awareness. However, a lot more developments could have taken place if CICT was a department.

“I think we could have done more if we had a stronger entity. One of the challenges we had was we didn’t have the infrastructure component until this year,” Roxas-Chua said.  “NTC and Telof were only brought back to us in early 2009 and so we weren’t able to accomplish anything in the first year and a half.”

CICT is now reportedly trying to catch up with its universal broadband strategy and other issues being tackled by NTC.

Roxas-Chua said if only CICT was a department, “all ICT projects of government would have been cohesive — aligned with the central national ICT platform.” 

Yet Roxas-Chua reported CICT is doing well when it comes to projects among schools and is now in the process of connecting many of them by providing broadband connectivity. It is now on the stage of procuring satellite connectivity for schools that have no available alternatives.

And on the e-government side, he said CICT is strengthening its e-government fund guideline by working with the Canadian government which is helping them revamp the guidelines, for the latter to become more efficient and hopefully translate to more successful IT projects in government.

Roxas-Chua added CICT will be rolling out the new batch of computer laboratory and will also promote the country as the “offshoring destination of choice.” The commission’s officers plan to go to Germany, Australia, Singapore and in the US soon to promote the Philippines.

“The industry grew to about 20% last year. So hopefully this year with the recession finally coming to an end, it will be back to a normal run rate of 25%,” Roxas-Chua said.  

President Arroyo recently reported that revenues from the country’s BPO sector is expected to exceed US $9 billion this year compared to its record of US $7 billion revenues in 2009.

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By Tom S. Noda
Computerworld Philippines
January 28, 2010

Supporters of the pending Senate Bill 2546 which intends to create the Department of ICT (DICT) said the interpolation request of Sen. Mar Roxas is the only thing that’s holding the bill’s enactment into law.

And with only three legislation days left, image of the longtime dream for the government department starts to fade.

Indeed, the senator’s request was to interrupt, to speak about the pending bill, but many didn’t expect that such interruption will keep the DICT bill hanging.

CICT chief Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III, accompanied by the bill’s supporting groups recalled on Wednesday that Roxas registered to interpolate on the bill since September 2009 along with Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago. The female senator already gave her piece a few days after registration but Roxas remained silent on the issue until last Wednesday’s session.

The House of Representatives passed HB 4300 for the purpose of a DICT two years ago in 2008.

For their 6th straight session day in the Senate since the sessions resumed last Jan. 18, CICT officials and the bill’s supporters could only share deep sighs – as each session would end with almost no development on the pending bill.

Together with CICT, the supporting groups that religiously attend the Senate sessions were the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P), Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) and the CIO Forum (CIOF).

The bill’s supporters expressed doubt on the senator’s reason in postponing his interpolation on the bill, since months have already passed and there is still no word from him on the issue.

Roxas was present during the senate session’s roll call on Wednesday but immediately left, missing anew his chance to interpolate on the DICT bill which he requested himself last year.

OPEN FOR ADJUSTMENTS
Chua told Computerworld Philippines that CICT is open to adjust some of the clauses in the pending bill if Roxas has any objections. Yet the problem stems from having no discussion on the matter at all.

“We’re open for any adjustments or removal of clauses in the bill, but first of all, we need to know what they are. We need to discuss,” Chua said, noting the DICT bill is in the period of interpolation anyway.

Proposed since 2001, critics of DICT’s creation described it as “redundant” and a “bloat to the bureaucracy.”

Chua, however, claimed that most of CICT’s budget today goes to the salaries of employees, yet the commission’s function is almost like a department, as it caters to “half of the communications function” of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC). CICT recently regained power over the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) as ordered by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

If DICT is approved, it will take over the National Computer Center (NCC), Telecommunications Office (Telof), and the Communications Planning Service division.

HOPE LINGERS
Chua and supporters of the bill said they plan to push for DICT and Cybercrime bills until the last session day of the Senate’s legislative calendar, which will most likely be on Feb. 5, as it marks the beginning of the campaign period for national elections.

The CICT chief said with only three session days remaining, he’s asking for the “full presence” of DICT supporters, as the two ICT bills will have to be approved on 2nd and 3rd reading and reconciled with the House versions in a bicameral conference within that span of time.

“Many bills were tackled today but unfortunately, our bills were not among them,” Chua said Wednesday. “It’s looking pretty bleak, but we’re not giving up yet.”

Chua said if the ICT bills don’t pass in the Senate, it will all be back to zero in the lower house in Congress in the next administration.

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By Tom S. Noda
Computerworld Philippines
January 22, 2010

A “ray” of hope still shines for the legislation of the pending cybercrime and Department of ICT (DICT) bills in the Senate, and it’s no other than Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III, chairman of the Commission on ICT (CICT) – as he remains optimistic of the approvals, despite only six session days remaining for the legislative calendar.

Chua reported that while the DICT bill interpellation was postponed until Monday, the Cybercrime bill was finally introduced on Thursday. He vows to continue pushing for the approval of the bills until the last session day in the Senate.

The CICT chief is overwhelmed by the support coming from different ICT groups in the country and expects them to rally behind him again on Monday’s session. Groups present in the Senate last Thursday came from the leadership and members of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P), Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) and the CIO Forum. CICT’s commissioners were also present to respond to interpellations.

“We hope more groups will continue to support us in the last six remaining session days.  Each bill will have to be approved on the 2nd and 3rd readings and reconciled with the House versions in a bicameral conference within that span of time,” Chua said.

Since Jan. 18, Chua vowed to attend until the last session day of the Senate and has been calling for public support especially through his Facebook account, where we would regularly post developments at the sessions.

Chua expressed fears that if the ICT bills don’t pass in the Senate, lawmakers would have to start from scratch in the next administration.

CICT’s existence is said to be “fragile” since it was only created through an executive order (EO) by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2001. The next president can easily remove it if it does not become a department.

Arroyo, in her last state of the nation (SONA) address last July, called for DICT’s creation in order to further improve the local BPO and tourism sectors in the Philippines. It is a development that has been clamored for almost eight years already.

Senator Edgardo Angara recently told Computerworld Philippines that the conversion of CICT into a government department is “a must” in order to have focus on the issue of policy direction of related government agencies such as the Department of Science and technology (DOST), Telecommunications Office (Telof), National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), and National Computer Center (NCC).

According to a recent study by research firm Ovum, the creation of a DICT in the Philippines could rally the local ICT economy around a maximum of four capability areas, they are medical and legal transcription, engineering, software-as-a-service (SaaS), including building businesses around open source technology.

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By Tom S. Noda
Computerworld Philippines
October 28, 2009

To achieve its goal of bringing the local Internet café industry to a higher level, an advocacy group called I-Café Pilipinas (I-Café) is proposing the creation of a national law that will increase the entry barrier among Net café businesses in the Philippines.

Ed Zafra, chairman of I-Café, claimed that increasing the entry barrier of Net cafes will solve “many industry ills,” pertaining to quality of establishments, software piracy, IT security, user education, including the practice of right norms or etiquettes of users while inside a public net café.

“If we could only raise the entry barrier on Internet cafes like a drugstore, where an owner needs to become a licensed pharmacist first in order to operate the business, it will solve a lot of problems when it comes to licensed software, IP codes, and quality of Net café establishments, which are hard to implement in the national level,” Zafra said.

Zafra said although there are many talented IT graduates and employees in the country today, only a few are “licensed” IT professionals.

According to Zafra, local government units (LGUs) can be deputized to implement the law and regulate the booming industry.

Zafra said although Net café figures in the Philippines appear only about 12,000 to 15,000 in popular search engines like Yahoo!, he reported that there are around 30,000 to 40,000 Net cafes in the country today, both legal and illegal with average PC units of 10 to 400 units.

Functioning as a national advocacy body like Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) or Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), Zafra said I-Café is a group of partners and affiliates but no individual memberships. One of its missions is to serve as the guiding body for the creation of local government laws related to the Net café industry.

“I-Café Pilipinas was created to do collaborative work with the existing internet café associations on the different areas in the country and to motivate those internet café owners to form one establishment in areas where there are none,” he said, noting the organization will not function as a regulating body that would impose rules and fine its affiliates.

I-Café was formally launched last Oct. 21 at the National Computer Center (NCC) in the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman Quezon City, supported by the Commission on ICT (CICT). Its vision is to bring the advances of ICT to the remotest community in the Philippines with the Internet cafes as access points.

According to CICT chairman Ray Anthony-Roxas Chua, Net cafés in the Philippines can turn into community e-centers, a government project which is now being implemented to educate the public about the benefits of ICT.

Chua said by turning Net cafes into community e-centers, there is a lesser need in building new establishments since the infrastructure exists already and what is needed is for it to function as a learning center.

“The popularity of Internet cafes shows us the readiness of our people to use the Internet, and the CICT joins I-Café Pilipinas in looking for ways to improve our service for our people and in addressing the digital divide,” Chua said. “We are also looking forward to the further development of this national organization which would become the unified voice for the Internet café industry.”

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By Tom S. Noda
Computerworld Philippines
July 27, 2009

“Let us have a department of ICT (DICT)!” was President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s clear command in her last state-of-the-nation address (SONA) on Monday to sustain and improve further the local BPO (business process outsourcing) and tourism sectors in the Philippines.

Speaking over a live nationwide TV broadcast at the House of Representatives, president Macapagal-Arroyo directly dedicated her message to congressmen, for the country to finally have a DICT. It is a development that has long been clamored for in the past seven years.

The president gave the order after stressing how the local BPO sector in the Philippines performed well against global recession. She said unlike the electronics industry, the BPO sector proved to be resilient with the ongoing global economic crisis.

“In the past if the electronics sector grew, today we’re creating wealth by developing the BPO and tourism sectors as additional engines of growth,” Macapagal-Arroyo said. “Electronics and other manufactured exports rise and fall with the state of the world economy but BPO remains resilient.”

She noted that with earnings of $6 billion and employment of 600,000 “the BPO phenomenon stays eloquently of our competitiveness and productivity.”

The president cited that from year 2008 to 2009, the Philippines remained to be “the only country among Asian economies that didn’t shrink.”

“According to Moody’s [Manual], our state of the nation is a strong economy,” Macapagal-Arroyo said.

She added her administration is the only one in Philippine history that invested three times more than any administration on technical and skills training, benefiting present professionals on the voice and non-voice BPO work such as medical transcriptionists.

The president also included in her SONA that her administration is now taking action on calls against telecommunications firms about the missing cellphone loads of subscribers.

“I am asking the national telecommunications commission to take action on calls against missing cellphone loads,” she said in Filipino.

However, the president expressed celebration with the 2010 automated poll project of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which was legislated by congress almost 10 years ago in December 1997 through the enactment of Republic Act No. 8436 or the Election Modernization Act, authorizing Comelec for the first time to use an automated election system.

“The 2010 automated polls. We got it! Thank you Congress!” the president said.

Macapagal-Arroyo’s DICT request to congressmen signaled her approval for the transformation of the current Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) into a full-blown department, manifesting a command to congress to approve the pending DICT bills. CICT’s existence is only under the executive order (EO) of the president.

Senator Edgardo Angara, head of the Congressional Commission on Science and Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), said in past interviews that the conversion of CICT into a government department is a must in order to have “focus” on the issue of policy direction of related government agencies such as the Department of Science and technology (DOST), Telecommunications Office (Telof), National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), and National Computer Center (NCC).

CICT chairman Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III, earlier denied that there would be a “bloating of the bureaucracy” once the commission becomes a department, saying there will just be a merger of existing agencies.

“We’re not even asking for an additional budget. But what we’re expecting is a synergy of the agencies to focus on areas that needed attention,” he said.

Roxas-Chua said another concern on why CICT needs to become a department is that the commission’s existence is fragile since it only relies under the president’s order or EO.

“We’re only under the president’s EO and the next administration can always dispose us anytime they want to,” he said, adding there is less than a year to go before the 2010 national elections.

He added CICT currently lacks people for its projects due to rationalization, and Telof with its 4,000 employees will certainly be a big boost in their manpower needs.

“The Telof with its 4,000 people also has regional offices, but due to the advancement of mobile technology their relevance is slowly decreasing,” Roxas-Chua said.

According to a recent study by Ovum, the creation of a DICT in the Philippines could rally the local ICT economy around a maximum of four capability areas such as medical and legal transcription, engineering, software-as-a-service (SaaS), including building businesses around open source technology.

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