BPO stakeholders lament on EO 47 implementation

CEBU, Philippines - Stakeholders in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Information, Communication Technology (ICT) are disappointed by the recent implementation of Executive Order 47 saying it will cause a setback in the ICT sector of the country.

In a position paper, signed by major ICT/BPO organizations around the country, including Cebu Educational Development Foundation for IT (Cedfit), Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for ICT (BNEFIT), Cagayan de Oro ICT Council (CDO ICT), Davao City Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Southern Luzon Technological College Foundation Inc., Cavite State University, and Iloilo Federation for Information Technology, the group are united in appealing to the President to reconsider the EO 47, which transferred the former Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT), under the shelter of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

“By scrapping the CICT, EO 47 has also scrapped the numerous programs and projects under its four strategic groups, namely, e-government, cyber-services, human capital, and information infrastructure as well as various pending partnerships with academe, local stakeholders, and industry associations that all serve to harness the Philippines’ potential with the use of ICT,” the group’s appeal stated.

Likewise, by scrapping the CICT, it will cut the vital link of the Philippine government to the international ICT community, to various global ICT organizations as well as to local ICT groups, “who are champions and advocates of their respective regional and provincial areas.”

Without holding a public consultation on the EO 47, the private BPO and ICT stakeholders’ felt “ditched” on this particular decision, said Cedfit executive director Jun Sa-a.

“By scrapping the CICT, EO 47 shows that the process leading to the decision was not consultative and sensitive to the real sentiments of the ICT stakeholders especially in the local areas, undertaken suddenly and without warning, seemingly attended with manifest bad faith, and will eventually result to grave and serious damage on the thriving ICT community ably-assisted by the CICT, government’s most devoted emissary that has effectively partnered with the private sector for the last ten years,” expressed the stakeholders.

The group further claimed that the Executive Order has removed the “navigator of the plane which has just left the airport when all ICT stakeholders launched the Philippine Digital Strategy 2011-2015, a guide that was intended to help the President, as pilot, steer this nation to greatness once again.

“As pilot and as a good father of the family, the President should have been aware that an experienced navigator would be necessary and useful to guide him in steering our country to further heights,” the appeal stated.

Despite the several pronouncements made by DOST secretary Mario G. Montejo, assuring sector’s stakeholders to introduce and implement programs to further develop the ICT/BPO sector, players maintained fears that the downgrade of CITC to a mere attached agency, threatens the Philippines bid to be in the forefront of the multi-billion-dollar ICT and outsourcing market. (FREEMAN)