In her 9th State of the Nation Address (SONA), last July 27, 2009, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cited the status and improvements of the nation in terms of different fields. One of which is related to Information and Communications Technology. Some of the areas related to ICT that can be identified are the following:
1.) TelecommunicationsIn Telecommunications, the president addressed to Telecommunications Commission to resolve the problems concerning dropped calls and unreasonable cell phone load vanishings.
“Sa telecommunications naman, inatasan ko ang Telecommunications Commission na kumilos na tungkol sa mga sumbong na dropped calls at mga nawawalang load sa cellphone. We need to amend the Commonwealth-era Public Service Law. And we need to do it now.” she said
A dropped call pertains to an irregularly disconnected call. A call attempted but dropped before six seconds after the called party answers should not be considered a call. A dropped call was caused by network congestion and system failure.
It is better to work out with the aforementioned problems because consumers have the right to accept the right services from their producers. Even if we say, it has just a little impact for whatever the telecommunications companies do regarding the load services, whether continuing to have the unreasonable load balances or pricing the load at high cost, people would still continue to allow it because of no other choices. In our world today, we can’t deny the fact that information communication has become a necessity except for those that is still having a simple life (others may call it as in far in civilization.) The point is consumers should have the services they really deserved.
On Thursday, the NTC issued stricter rules on the drop-call rate of the telecommunication companies, or telcos, in a bid to protect consumers. In a Memorandum Order 03-06-2009, the regulator said the drop-call rate for telcos should be improved to 2 percent, or two dropped calls for every 100 calls, from 5 percent. The agency would also issue separate guidelines for the expiration of the load and pulse billing. The commission is also proposing a call rate of three seconds per pulse, from one minute charging, whether postpaid or prepaid. Currently, telcos charge on per minute basis, costing P6.50 per call (Amojelar, Darwin , The Manila Times)
2.) Latest Technology for Natural CalamitiesAs a country belonging in the Pacific Rim of Fire and is a path of possible typhoons, PGMA also cited the latest technology and its benefits for the preparation and proper action with regards to the upcoming typhoon.
“Latest technology enables to anticipate natural calamities when that is possible; to extend immediate and effective relief when it is not…” she said.
Provincial and municipal governments across the country are being urged to take the initiative and use their powers to forcibly evacuate residents during a natural disaster, Glenn Rabonza, chief of Manila’s Office of Civil Defence (OCD) told IRIN.
"We are a hazard- and disaster-prone country simply and unfortunately because of our geographical location. We get about 20 or so typhoons a year, about seven of them potentially destructive," Rabonza said.
Early warning, forecasting and monitoring systems have been improved, with weather trading facilities in Subic, Tagaytay, Mactan, Mindanao, Pampanga.
The government also hopes to complete an updated "mapping of flood and landslide prone areas".
Early warning, forecasting and monitoring systems have been improved, with at least 10 new radars installed in the typhoon-entry zones in the eastern Bicol region to alert the populace.
The government is also trying to emphasize "disaster mitigation and pre-emptive evacuation", mainly because many poor residents often ignore government warnings to leave disaster-prone areas, including riversides, slopes, hills and illegal mining operations, said Rabonza.
Some of the Projects and Programs for Natural Disaster Mitigation includes:
• Installation, Repair and Maintenance of Telemetering Multiplex System for Flood Forecasting and Warning Covering Pampanga, Agno, Bicol, Cagayan (PABC) River BasinsThis pertains to the provision of regular preventive and corrective maintenance of the PABC river basins telemetry/multiplex telecommunication network consisting of various electronic equipment, gauging instrument, supporting electro-mechanical equipment including maintenance of physical facilities for effective transmission of real-time rainfall and water level data for flood forecasting.
• Typhoon Warning and Weather Services, including the Operation of Meteorological Communication and Regional
• Forecast Centers and the Provision of Numerical Weather Prediction Techniques and AnalysisThis is concerned with the continuous 24-hour real-time monitoring of the changing events in the atmosphere for the purpose of issuing weather forecasts and warnings on typhoons and other severe weather phenomena. This involves the reception of regular 3- hourly synoptic observational data from within and outside the country, including weather satellite and radar observations; plotting and analysis of the 6-hourly surface weather charts and the 12-hourly upper air charts at five different levels; prognostication of the synoptic situation and processing of data for objective forecast techniques using super computers and videographic display systems; and finally, the dissemination of warnings and weather forecasts to PAGASA field stations, shipping and airline companies and the general public through the tri-media and other electronic means.
• Flood Forecasting and Warning and Hydrometeorological Service
The activity is concerned with the continuous monitoring and assessment of the watershed conditions of the Pampanga, Agno, Bicol and Cagayan river basins as well as the Pasig-Marikina-Laguna Lake Complex through the operation of the telemeterized rainfall and water-level gauging stations, for the issuance and dissemination of appropriate flood advisories and warning/bulletins to forewarn the affected areas and population. This also includes the conduct of hydrometeorological investigations and related studies for water resource management and flood forecasting and damage/disaster mitigation.
• Operation and Maintenance of Flood Forecasting and Warning System for Dam Operation Project I Covering Pantabangan and Angat DamsThis involves the continuous monitoring and assessment of the meteorological and hydrological condition of the Angat & Pantabangan dams reservoirs for the issuance of flood bulletins/warning information.
• Upgrading of the Flood Forecasting and Warning System in Pampanga and Agno River Basins (JICA Grant)This project will upgrade the flood forecasting and warning system in Pampanga and Agno river basins and major reservoirs/dams in Luzon to be able to deliver appropriate, accurate and timely flood advisories and warnings that will enable the policy makers and the threatened communities to plan and to act accordingly. The major impact of this project will be the reduction of human casualties and damage to properties through the provision of flood warnings which will include the visual extent of inundation or height of flooding.
• Establishment of Early Warning and Monitoring System for Agriculture and Water Resources (KOICA Grant)
The proposed project aims to improve agricultural productivity of rice, corn and coconut through the establishment of a Community-Based Climate Information and Early Warning and Monitoring System (CBCLIMS). The project will be implemented in agricultural areas within river basins that are prone to extreme climate events. Since a agricultural areas suffer from floods and droughts, the early warning and monitoring system will both address mitigation measures from these extreme climate events. Once considered and supported by the Korean government, the project will showcase the importance of using climate information in mitigating hydro-meteorological disasters resulting to increase agricultural production.
(http://www.dost.gov.ph/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=141)
3.) Automated Elections As voting is concerned, the highest exercise of democracy and the advent of fundamental political reform, Automated Elections is financed and supported.
“As the process of fundamental political reform begins, let us address the highest exercise of democracy...voting! In 2001, I said we would finance fully automated elections. We got it, thanks to Congress.... “she cited.
When the country will go with Direct Recording Equipment (DRE);
The DRE system requires the installation of a computer or specialized equipment with a touch screen, mouse or keyboard that the voter uses to input his or her choices. After the voter completes the voting process the choices are printed out for audit purposes. It is estimated that 2 to 4 DRE units will be needed per precinct.
At the close of voting, a button is pressed and an Election Return (ER) is printed in each precinct. Results are transmitted electronically to the City/Municipal Board of Canvassers (CMBOC) and National Board of Canvassers (NBOC). As required by law, the NBOC transmits data to the various interested parties. All data at the CMBOC are transmitted to the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOC) and to the NBOC.
Advantages:
• There is an on the spot tally of votes at the precinct level
• Canvassing at the city/municipal and provincial levels is almost instantaneous
• The DRE can include an automated voter validation system
• If all precincts are connected, national results can be produced within one hour after the close of voting
• There is less work for the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI)
• There will be no ballot box stealing as the ERs are conveyed electronically for canvassing
Disadvantages:
• The cost is too expensive, estimates have it at around P17 billion
• Logistics can be a terrifying if you consider that about 750,000 units will be deployed to 250,000 locations (precincts)
• Thousands of technical personnel will be required to install and support
• Costs and logistics of BEI training could be stunning
• 40 million voters need to be trained on the use of the DRE
• There is a high probability that voters will doubt vote-counting that they do not see
• Some DRE models have no printing options
Another one is the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR);
With the OMR option, voters mark pre-printed ballots which are then put into ballot boxes. The ballot boxes are then transported to the city/municipal tabulation center. The ballots are fed to the OMR, the votes scanned and tallied. ERs are then printed and signed by the BEI. The CMBOC tabulates the ERs and prints out the Statement of Votes (SOV) and the Certificates of Canvass (COC). The ERs, SOV and COC are sent to the PBOC and NBOC, which transmits the data to the various interested parties. The PBOC canvasses the COCs and produces the provincial COC and SOV. The PBOCs transmit all data to the NBOC.
Advantages:
* Ballots are pre-printed and voters simply mark choices
* Voter training is minimal
* There is automated tally of votes at the city/municipal level
* There is less work for the BEI at the precinct level
* Cost is not prohibitive – about P1.3 billion for the equipment (if we are to accept the contract amount of the winning bidder in 2003)
Disadvantages:
* Tallying is done at the city/municipal level. Ballot boxes leave precincts without voters knowing results at the precinct level
* Ballot box switching is possible
* Tallying is internal and voters will not be able to trace to the source
* There may be cases where more entries are marked in a ballot than are allowed. It will be difficult to fairly resolve issues arising from this situation.
* On the other hand, there may also be cases when there are less markings on the ballot. It is very easy to add markings in such cases.
* To achieve high quality readability, it is currently required that the ballot paper be of thicker substance and should not be folded. This means new ballot boxes will need to be designed and produced, adding to the cost.
4.) Department of ICT It is expected to boost the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector, one of the cited engines of the growth of the country.
“Kung noong nakaraan, lumakas ang electronics, today we are creating wealth by developing the BPO and tourism sectors as additional engines of growth. Electronics and other manufactured exports rise and fall in accordance with the state of the world economy. But BPO remains resilient. With earnings of $6 billion and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon speaks eloquently of our competitiveness and productivity. Let us have a Department of ICT.”
Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a form of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider. BPO that is contracted outside a company's country is called offshore outsourcing. BPO that is contracted to a company's neighboring (or nearby) country is called nearshore outsourcing. Given the proximity of BPO to the information technology industry, it is also categorized as an information technology enabled service or ITES. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_outsourcing)
“With earnings of $6 billion and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon speaks eloquently of our competitiveness and productivity. Let us have the Department of ICT,” said the president in her SONA 2009.
Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III, chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications, has noted the importance of the creation of DICT since many nations are slowly vying for a piece of global outsourcing and off shoring market which means a lot of competition, the DICT enables competitiveness.
“We really need a department that will handle the off shoring sector as well as other legislation such as cyber crime bill and the data privacy bill.”
After the abolition of ITECC, the council resulting from the merged National Information Technology Council and the Electronic Commerce Promotion Council, the CICT was created under Executive Order 269.
The CICT was formed to handle ICT policy while waiting for Congress to create DICT. DICT is expected to do more effective coordination and implementation of the national ICT programs.
Under the proposed bill, DICT will assume the communications-related powers and functions of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) and will absorb the following agencies: Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) currently under the Office of the President, the National Computer Center (NCC) under the DOTC, the Telecommunications Office of the DOTC, and the Communications Planning Service division of the DOTC.
Senator Edgardo J. Angara, chair of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology favored for the creation of the said department.
"For instance, the Digital Village project which will enable rural farmers to use the Internet to access information on prices of goods, land records, weather forecasts, local government database and other agricultural knowledge support - thereby boosting their agriculture productivity - has been dragging on for years. This is largely due to the lack of coordination among agencies with ICT functions," he said
"ICT is one of the frontier fields that will dominate the world - how we work, study and conduct business," he said. "It would be to our great disadvantage if we were left out in the field of ICT."
"Over the last two decades, China and India have used ICT to drive their economy and lift millions of their people out of pervasive poverty," Angara added.
FOR FULL TEXT OF PGMA’S SONA 2009:
http://jlp-law.com/blog/state-of-the-nation-address-sona-2009/
REFERENCES:
http://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2008/0603_angara1.asp
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/technology/07/27/09/arroyo-oks-creation-ict-department
http://jlp-law.com/blog/state-of-the-nation-address-sona-2009/
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/july/03/yehey/top_stories/20090703top8.html
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85717
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