ICT stakeholders call for tech officer in every town, city

MANILA  -The National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP) is pushing for the assignment of chief technology officer (CTO) in each city and municipality and the enactment of the bill supporting the expansion of broadband networks to ramp up digitalization in the country.

Mary Joy Abueg, president of NICP, told reporters in a recent event in Taguig that placing CTOs in local government units can enhance the implementation of e-governance as they would be tasked with monitoring the digital systems.

She explained that CTOs could also be on top of network cybersecurity to fend off digital threats, which have been on the rise as digitalization has widened the attack surface for hackers.

Along with this, Abueg raised the need to invest in cybersecurity infrastructure to fully harness the benefits of e-governance, which enables paperless transactions and other digital delivery of government services.

Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky noted that 49.8 percent of the Filipino users had been targeted by web threats in 2022, most of which were malicious softwares.

The private sector group also called for the passing of the proposed Open Access in Internet Services Act, which streamlines the permitting processes for infrastructure buildup to boost broadband access in the country.

The bill is backed by other groups including Democracy.net.ph, Employers Confederation of the Philippines, Fintech Alliance.ph, Foundation for Media Alternatives, Internet Society-Philippines Chapter.

The Philippine Cable and Telecommunications Association Inc., Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. are joining the call as well. “Despite some improvement over the past two years, the country continues to suffer from a broadband infrastructure gap, which is worse in the rural areas,” the groups said in a joint statement.

Nevertheless, Abueg said the free WiFi project by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has been “effective” in extending connectivity across the country, especially in remote areas. As of Aug. 18, the DICT said it has 2,595 active sites in Metro Manila and 70 provinces, benefiting about 2.6 million users.

DICT Assistant Secretary Jeffrey Dy recently said they were aiming to increase the number of free WiFi sites to about 9,600.

The department has allocated 58 percent of the P2.5-billion budget granted for the program so far.

The DICT is targeting to deploy more free WiFI sites to cover 80 percent of the country, including the geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas where internet access is insufficient. INQ