VER PEÑA has resigned as chairman of the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT), which oversees ICT development in the Philippines. His departure creates some uncertainty over the direction the agency and the industry will take.
As CICT chairman, Peña initiated a number of programs aimed at improving public access to IT, including a plan to ensure that the country’s 1,501 municipalities would have affordable Internet access by 2010.
Also during his watch, the government took a liberal view of voice over IP, encouraging new players to offer Internet telephony in competition with the large telecommunications companies.
For the first time, too, the government enunciated clearly the policy that the PH domain is a public resource that needs to be managed for the good of the entire community, and not one man’s property to be milked for private profit. Unfortunately, little else has been done in a year after this declaration.
No doubt, Peña must have been frustrated at being unable to transform CICT into a full-blown Department of ICT, a move that was blocked by competing priorities and politics.
Last year, he also saw a diminution of the agency’s power, when the administration removed the National Telecommunications Commission from the CICT’s control.
“Five years enough payback,” Peña texted me when I sought to confirm his departure, referring to his time in the government service. “Time to go back to my natural habitat.”
As the country’s ICT czar, Peña was a consensus builder, taking an open and consultative approach to most industry issues.
Some in the industry would have preferred to see the CICT take a more aggressive stand on issues such as the use of open source technology, but that wasn’t Peña’s way. Within a range of guidelines, he said, users ought to be able to choose the technology that best fits their needs and budget.
Whether or not one agrees with this view, one thing is clear: despite Peña’s significant contributions, much still needs to be done to bring the Philippines into the Digital Age. The Palace is said to be considering another person from the private sector, but will not as yet say who. The starting point, however, ought to be a good man (or woman) with Peña’s integrity and unquestionable credentials.
