The newly-created Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) should be policy-centric, and as much as possible, allow the private sector to steer the ICT ecosystem in the Philippines, said a Silicon Valley-based magnate.
Filipino venture capitalist Diosdado “Dado” Banatao, who was in Cebu last week, said the DICT “should stay on the policy side.”
“It must be the industry that has to solve the problem because they (government) don’t have the expertise. It’s just an organization that regulates,” Banatao said.
The Filipino venture capitalist particularly criticized the weak regulating power of the government, emphasizing the duopoly of the telecommunications industry. “They should disrupt this duopoly,” he added.
President Benigno Aquino III signed into law, Republic Act 10844, a bill creating DICT. The new department is tasked to promote ICT development agenda, institutionalize e-government, and manage the country’s ICT environment, according to the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO).
President-elect Rodrigo Duterte is yet to name the DICT secretary. Under the law, there will be a six-month transition period for the full implementation of the transfer of functions, assets and personnel. However, existing personnel will continue to assume their posts in holdover capacities until new appointments are issued.
“(Policy-wise) they have to be strong, but they should not get into the business of anything technology because for sure that will fail. That should be left to the industry and to the entrepreneurs and that they should support them,” warned Banatao.
Banatao has earned the monicker “The Filipino Bill Gates” for inventing the first modern semiconductor.
He said the present duopoly in the telco industry is affecting the growth of tech startups in the Philippines.
On May 30, the two biggest players in telecommunications acquired the telco assets of San Miguel Corp. The Philippine Competition Commission clarified that just because the implementing rules and regulations have not been finalized did not mean the transaction between SMC, Globe and PLDT is “deemed approved”. It informed the three conglomerates that the notice informing the PCC of the transaction was “deficient and defective in form and substance.”
In separate disclosures to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, SMC and Globe said they submitted their respective replies to the PCC and assured that they complied with the provisions of the Philippine Competition Act and all memorandum circulars issued by the PCC.
“MC No. 16-002 provides that before the implementing rules and regulations for Republic Act No. 10667 (the Philippine Competition Act) come into full force and effect, upon filing with the PCC of a notice in which the salient terms and conditions of an acquisition are set forth, the transaction is deemed approved by the PCC and as such, it may no longer be challenged,” Globe said.
San Miguel added that the NTC approved the co-use arrangement between its subsidiary Bell Telecommunications and Globe and PLDT.
Globe, for its part, said a deficient and defective notice is not ground to prevent the transaction from being approved, stating that the “only exception to the rule that a transaction is deemed approved is when a notice contains false material information.” The company assured that their notice did not contain any false information.
Both companies said they acknowlege and recognize the authority of the PCC and expressed willingness to present the commission with more details about the transaction.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jeandie O. Galolo, Mia A. Aznar
Quelle/Source: Sun.Star, 13.06.2016
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