Gov’t to review existing laws on ICT sector

Government is currently reviewing existing legislation to find out whether or not it is adaptable to the emerging technologies in the information and communications technology sector.

Virgilio Pena, head of the newly created Commission of Information and Communications Technology (CICT), told The STAR during the sidelights of the 12th Philippine International Cable Convention, that one of the laws that need to be reevaluated is that classifying cable television as part of broadcast.

The Constitution prohibits foreign investments in media, including broadcast, which should be wholly Filipino-owned. Cable TV’s classification as part of broadcast has prevented the entry of much-needed foreign investments into the CATV sector.

Another priority for the government, according to Pena, is pursuing legislation for the implementation of e-governance. He revealed that right now, only 20 percent of all government agencies have reached the third of five stages of their compliance with the E-Commerce Act. "The idea is for all government agencies to be able to fully transact with the public via the Internet," he said.

The CICT was created by the President via an executive order issued last February to serve as a transitory policy-making body to the eventual creation of a separate department handling information technology and communications.

Pena said the commission will have under it the communications sector of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), the Telecommunications Office, and the National Computer Center, and will have as it attached agencies the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the Philippine Postal Corp. The CICT will also take over the role of the Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (ITECC).

He explained that the CICT will focus on legal and regulatory reforms, infrastructure development for the information sector, and human resources development for the ICT sector and the society in general.

Pena emphasized that the sector has become so huge and complicated, with the telecommunications industry overlapping with the Internet service providers (ISPs), the emergence of IT and IT-enabled services which include the call center business, that there is a need to update existing legislation in order to ensure the competitiveness of the Philippines in the ICT world.

During the conference, President Arroyo, in a speech read for her by Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza, noted that the CATV industry has yet to reach the apex of its development given the different problems facing it. These include rising cost of operations, rampant signal piracy, subscriber underdeclaration, and escalating foreign programming cost.