Group wants EO on telco permit strictly implemented

MANILA, Philippines — A citizen advocacy group has lauded the issuance of an executive order streamlining the bureaucratic process for the establishment of telecommunication and other internet infrastructure, but also urged the government to immediately and strictly implement the EO for the benefit of ordinary consumers nationwide.

“Upgrading our digital infrastructure to global standards will empower our government, industries, and most of all, our people to be compete and excel in a highly digitized global economy,” said Tim Abejo, co-convenor for CitizenWatch Philippines.

“EO 32 is a responsive policy move that will hopefully cut out unnecessary bureaucratic red tape that has delayed the building of telecommunications infrastructure needed to deliver faster and reliable broadband services for all.”

The EO, signed by President Marcos on July 4, intends to address the administrative bottleneck of securing permits for telco infrastructure.

Excessive, redundant, and circuitous permitting and license requirements have been pinpointed as the cause for the slow rollout of telco towers and fiber networks, and consequently causing poor telecom coverage in many places around the country.

“Telcos used to deal with a bureaucratic gauntlet every time they applied for permits to establish towers and other infrastructure in local governments,” Abejo said.

“Their hands were tied by all these requirements. And yet it was them (the telcos) that got the ire of the public when the services were poor.”

The EO institutionalizes a previously issued joint memorandum circular issued by 10 government agencies prescribing the same streamlined process, but which lacked the force and effect of law. It also expired this month.

The JMCs yielded concrete results in terms of shortening the timeline for establishing a telco tower, drastically bringing down the number of documents and signatures required, and the number of days for processing.

“Moving forward, we hope that EO 32 will push all the ongoing digital infrastructure projects such as the DICT’s long delayed Luzon Bypass Infrastructure Project and the cable landing stations of the 12,800-kilometer Pacific Light Cable Network, that when activated, will lower the cost and improve the speed of broadband services,” Abejo said.