Press Release
July 6, 2011

SHED LIGHT ON ICT PLAN TO DISPEL DOUBTS - ANGARA

Senator Edgardo J. Angara said Malacañang ought to clarify the government's information and communications technology strategy after it reorganized the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) into an office under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Angara noted that the decision was announced a mere day after the CICT launched The Philippine Digital Strategy (PDS) 2011 - 2016.

"PDS is the result of significant collaboration between the government and the private sector, with the CICT in the lead. This decision puts the guiding framework of the ICT industry up in the air. The government needs to chart a clear course from here on and explain it to all stakeholders," said Angara.

The PDS, the country's roadmap on ICT, outlines potential Public-Private Partnerships (PPP's) in developing e-Government, providing Internet access to all, supporting the continued growth of the information technology and business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry, and delivering ICT training. It supports the transformation of the CICT in a full-fledged department as envisioned when the commission was first created in 2004.

"Many of the recommendations made in the PDS involve the CICT as a lead agency. Which agencies will now take the lead in implementing our ICT strategies?" asked Angara.

Angara, the chair of the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering, has been pushing for the passage of a bill that will create a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

During the Fourteenth Congress, the said bill was passed by the House of Representatives but did not make it through the Senate on Third Reading.

The Senate Committee on Science and Technology chaired by Angara has been conducting public hearings on the DICT measure, which he refiled this Fifteenth Congress.

On June 30, President Benigno Aquino III signed Executive Order (EO) 47 which reduces the cabinet portfolio of the CICT by renaming it the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) under the DOST.

EO 47 also orders the DOST to submit a rationalization plan within three months that will pave the way for a new ICT strategy.

"But what happens from now until then? We cannot leave the industry in a state of uncertainty," said Angara.

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