REFLECTION PAPER ON PA 207

ARTICLE: DIGITALIZATION OF THE ECONOMY posted by ZYDIE ROMERO

from TUNOG PROGRESO ONLINE

Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua, says the government is

continuously planning and implementing reforms to achieve economic digitalization. According

to him, Filipino people must have access to technology ad internet to reach this goal. The

National Economic Development Authority has already expressed that in order to reach the

government’s goal of economic digitalization, our fellowmen must have the access to

technology and internet. With regards to this goal our government has allotted 6.7 Billion for

free Wi-Fi program all over the Philippines. This project was assigned to the Department of

Information and Communications Technology in partnership with the Philippine International

Trading Corporation as the procurement agent.

The program seemed very promising however according to the commission on Audit,

this program has failed even with a very huge amount of budget allotted. According to them,

only 15 percent accomplishment was made as it was tainted with irregularities. Reports claim

that around P489,566.00 for kick off meetings were unnecessary, P398 million budget from

Department of Science and Technology were also noted as received with irregularities based on

invalid obligations. Another half million is questioned to have been paid for performance

security refunds for other projects and is also deemed irregular. Due to this discovered

anomalies, the Commission on Audit has ordered a halt on payments of expenditures related to

project and asked that unused funds be returned. As per DICT the funds were used with due
diligence and receipts were justified. They also claim that advises from the Department of

Budget Management on the proper utilization of trust funds were sought.

Al in all the free WI-FI program of the DICT has activated 3251 out of the target 22,034

public WI-FI hotspots all over the country. A mere 15% at that. In addition, it has been reported

that suppliers were not compliant with certain stipulations of the contract. With this a very

questionable event was made and the end result is dismaying. Overall there has been a very

slow implementation of the free Wi-Fi program by the DICT, PICT and UNDP which ultimately

fails the aim of the government to provide a faster and more convenient access to internet for

the whole country.

My stand on this is that, no matter how big and promising our set goals are for the

betterment of the country and for the improvement of our systems, the achievement of these

goals will primarily be influenced by factors such as the implementing agencies, the budget and

of course the greed in between which in other words is corruption. The program “Pipol Konek”

would have been a major step forward for our country towards economic digitalization. It could

have greatly increased the accessibility of people to global knowledge and improve global

competitiveness. I t could have helped a lot of us to cut down on our daily internet expenses

since the program is free of charge. The could have been a lot of ease for students, workers and

citizens on project makings, transactions and even access for transparency to public

information.

This program could have helped open the eyes of many towards modernization and

development. Such a very promising project supposedly. But why is it that this project is a fail?
Who should be blamed for this? Was there an action done against the people who has let down

this project? Why it was not continued? Will there still be a continuation to this project? Will

the Filipino people still experience free Wi-Fi in the future? These are the questions that linger

on my mind right now.

Because of this delay and anomaly in transactions, the programs that are supposedly

beneficial and can make a big impact on the development of the country’s economy has not

been put into place. The main victim on cases like this are the supposed beneficiary which is the

Filipino people. One big question is that, are the people responsible for this delay held liable?

Are they being investigated? And is there any sanction given? For me, cases like this that has a

national impact should always be given attention and since it has failed, the people behind

must be held accountable. It is the citizen’s money that has been wasted, it is the people who

were deprived of the service they deserve.

At the end of the day, it will be the people who will suffer the consequences of a failed

program. It is the people who will lose their investment on taxes. The higher government may

have good intentions and goals but along the way to implementation, there should be reliable

people to manage and in this case, it was a fail. I just hope that economic digitalization will still

be pursued in the future with better and more reliable personnel to manage. I also hope that

people who made mistakes and could possibly committed corruption be held responsible and

be sanctioned. Philippines is still far more from its aim of total development, with added crisis

on health and finance plus calamities. Our country needs unity cooperation and we all need to

step up especially the people in office and in public service. We hope for the best and hopefully

we can attain our goals to progress.