IT rantings from the Philippines.
Melvin G. Calimag is currently the executive editor of an IT news website in the Philippines. Melvin has been covering the local IT beat for the last 13 years. He is currently a board member at the IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (CyberPress), and also serves as a charter member with the Philippine Science Journalists Association.
Since that fateful day in July when President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III thoughtlessly dissolved the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and created a replacement agency called Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO), I have yet to hear a single significant project or policy pronouncement from the country's supposed main ICT body.
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is in the news once again with its bold--and perhaps naive--proposal for a government broadband network or GBN, a new version of the ill-fated national broadband network (NBN) project that rocked the previous Arroyo administration.According to DOST secretary Mario Montejo, the new broadband initiative, with an estimated cost of 800 million peso (US$18.
The local ICT industry was stunned at the end of last month when Pres. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III issued Executive Order (EO) 47, which downgraded the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) into a mere attached unit of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
First, allow me to apologize to the readers of this blog as I have not been able to post entries in the past few months. I actually have a number of "legal" excuses, but I wouldn't make the trouble of narrating them here.
The year 2010 was particularly fruitful for the Philippine BPO (business process outsourcing) industry with some noteworthy feats achieved by the sector, foremost of which is the top ranking it got in the IBM Global Location Trends Report that put the Philippines ahead of India in the voice BPO category.The report came out in October but it was only in December when the major dailies picked it up during IBM's inauguration of its new facilities at the UP-Ayala Techno Hub.
The double-edged nature of ICT, particularly social media, came into full view in the last few weeks here as a triple whammy of sorts led the Philippine government to be bombarded with criticisms from the public.It's been more than a month now since the first blunder surfaced on the national scene involving the plagiarism charge hurled against Supreme Court (SC) associate justice Mariano del Castillo.
I hope the readers of this blog would indulge me as I try to narrate my experience in a recent trip to the U.S.
If not for the widely publicized hostage-taking incident involving Hong Kong tourists here last August, the Philippines would have been in celebratory mood for achieving a "scintillating" 7.9 percent growth in the second quarter of 2010, from just 1.
About four weeks ago, during the time when Philippine Airlines (PAL) was hogging the headlines after a huge number of its pilots deserted the carrier for other airlines, I was notified via e-mail of a discounted miles promo being offered to the company's frequent flyer members.I was attracted instantly by the offer since the package gave out selected foreign trips at 70 percent lower than their usual mileage requirements.
After appointing a new chair for the CICT (Commission on Information and Communications Technology), the country's new president, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, appears ready to pump new life to the local economy, particularly the IT and BPO sector.The selection of technology lawyer Ivan Uy as the new CICT chief has been warmly received by the ICT community--an indication that the government and private sector can work in unison over the next few years.