DOTC office still overstaffed

The Telecommunications office, an attached agency of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), continues to suffer from overstaffing despite the obsolescence of the telegraph business.

Joaquin Obieta, DTOC assistant secretary and Telof chief, said yesterday that they currently have 5,661 people all over the country, mostly handling the 1,665 telegraph stations owned by the government.

"Some of our stations, particularly in far-flung municipalities, have to go because they are not generating revenues. Our people right now are still carrying out their duties but they have no clients anymore," he said.

Obieta, however, refused to state how many employees would be retired, redeployed or retrained, saying that they are currently preparing the proposal for downsizing of Telof's organizational structure. It is expected to be ready within the first half of the year.

"The policy decision of the National Government for Telof to withdraw as an operator in urban areas without collapsing plantilla positions has resulted in overstaffing," he explained.

Obieta, though, said that detailing people is easier said than done since there will definitely be some resistance.

"Everything has to be gradual. We have to respect security of tenure so the best option is to retrain them and give them other functions within Telof or DOTC," he said.

Obieta also, bewailed Telof's current situation wherein it is unable to accommodate the entry of new technologies due to the belief of some decision-makers that Telof is a "sunset office".

He noted that Republic Act 7925 or the telecommunications law, mandates the privatization of all government telecom facilities which are being handled by Telof, thus, there is a notion that the agency will soon die.

Yet, he stressed that Telof could go on existing by offering other services since the telecom field is very broad.

The agency, he said, has many plans which cannot be disclosed at present until approved by the DTOC leadership.

"There are many possibilities and we have very good engineers to make our plans happen. We must continue to trace our own course. We should know where we will go," he said.

Likewise, Obieta said that Telof still has to manage 665 public calling offices (PCOs) and 74,000 telephone lines in Visayas and Mindanao until they are turned over to the private sector.

The DOTC already conducted a bidding for the facilities two years ago but there were no takers. Another bidding is being worked out for this year.