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Central Government, Policy

Philippine president pushes for govt IT dept

By Robin Hicks | 29 July 2009

Gloria Arroyo, President of the Philippines, has made an appeal to local lawmakers to pass a bill to establish a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), a bill that has been pending in the national legislature for five years.

Members of Congress who oppose the DICT bill said it would create additional bureaucracy that would add further strain to the country’s budget.

However, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), the government’s coordinating body for ICT-related initiatives, said the DICT would not need any additional funding since it would be a single aggregator for all IT and communications government agencies.

Aside from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the Telecommunications Office (Telof) which are now under the CICT, the DICT is expected to integrate other agencies from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Ray Roxas-Chua, the CICT Chairman, said that although there is limited time left before the current administration ends its term, the Arroyo government is still hoping that legislators would approve the DICT bill.

In her annual televised speech delivered to convened members of Congress, Arroyo said: “Let’s have a department of ICT.” It marked the first time the Philippine president, who currently has less than a year in office after coming to power in 2001, included the ICT agenda in her address.

The President has also highlighted the need to push through with plans to introduce automated elections next year.

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