BY JOHNNY DAYANG
Since the pandemic shook the world, a crucial issue that has been overlooked, intentionally or otherwise, is the tracking government fund and services using the wonder of electronics.
Particularly in the delivery of social amelioration aids, following state funds for COVID-19, monitoring of overseas grants and remittances, or the unbundling of fiscal anomalies, an efficient technology is an essential tool and therefore should take a front seat.
The formation of the Department of Information, Communications Technology (DICT), a creation of Congress and touted as the answer to the country’s obligation to keep in stride with global electronic advancement, has hardly addressed the deficiency.
Since DICT’s creation under Republic Act 10844, signed on May 20, 2016, by President Benigno S. Aquino, there has been reluctance on the part of the Duterte leadership to fully exploit the agency’s potentials, giving rise to suspicion anything associated with the past administration should not be glorified. Underscoring this skepticism was the installation of an acting DICT secretary. The President had to wait for Sen. Gregorio Honasan, a Davao resident by virtue of owning a house at the posh Ladislawa Subdivision, until his term in the Senate expired.
In recent times, DICT has been hogging the headlines a few times. When the issue about the third telco players were under scrutiny, it was at a forefront to give clarification on issues affecting interconnectivity. It was also on the lead when the issue of slow wi-fi connection.
Overall, however, DICT, which should be counted as the missing piece in the bureaucratic jigsaw puzzle, has not been up to par in performance. Maybe this has something to do with very scant publicity. But the truth is that it has not been actively connected to the public like the way the National Bureau of Investigation has been uncovering and dismantling online scams.
While it is true we do not have access to the inner developments happening inside the DICT, the public should be told as a matter of transparency what has transpired to the publicized national Business One Stop Shop, the free countrywide public wi-fi connectivity, the national ID system, and, next week, the gloomy blended learning of the education department.
Given the agency’s status, it should redeem itself from the low scores it has so far earned. For a country touted as the next Asian economic miracle, with more reason that the DICT must improve the country’s ranking in the world of connectivity.
But first and foremost, the Duterte leadership must accept the fact that the DICT is not the invention of President Aquino; it is, in fact, the initiative of Congress.
