Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Wednesday said he supports the proposal for the government to build cell towers to improve the country’s Internet and telecommunication (telco) services.

“I concur with the proposition that the government should fund the construction of cell towers and rent them to telco companies,” Drilon said in statement.

“I think the primary (goal) at this point is to improve Internet services through the construction of cell towers, because, really, we are lagging behind with the rest of the world insofar as Internet speed is concerned and insofar as services of telco companies are concerned,” he said.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III had earlier floated the idea during the Senate’s deliberation on the proposed P10.14-billion budget of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) last week.

Drilon noted there is a very high capital requirement for the building of one cell tower, which amounts to P15-million per cell tower.

The senator said that while telco companies have vowed to fast track the construction of cell towers within the next three years, it would still not be enough to meet the 70,000 towers needed to achieve the ideal ratio with the number of subscribers.

He pointed out that the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2) temporarily suspends clearances and permits to build telco towers within the next three years except for building permit and height clearance from Civil Aviation Board, if necessary.

In a span of four months, 1,200 new towers were built to augment the existing 20,000 towers around the country with about 106 million population. Within the next three years, telco companies would build around 18,000 to 20,000 new towers.

Drilon noted that the ideal ratio is 1,000 users per cell tower. But the existing ratio in the Philippines is still 4,258 users per site, far from the ratio in Indonesia at 1,554 users per site, Vietnam at 711 users per site, China at 1,002 users per site, and India at 1,002 users per site.

To achieve the ideal ratio, he said the government should not just rely on the private sector to improve Internet and telecommunication services in the country.

The government itself, he said, must fill in the gap in order to upgrade the country’s digital infrastructure and make it at par with other countries.

“I am in favor of the government taking over the putting up of cell towers and telco companies will just rent them. As pointed out by Senate President Sotto, we are at the mercy of the capital outlay of the telco companies,” he said.

“Where are we today? I must assert that today I have not felt any improvement. Dati po hirap ka kumuha ng linya, ngayon makakuha ka ng linya wala naming sumasagot sa kabila (Before it’s hard to obtain a line, now even if you do obtain a line, no one answers on the other end),” he lamented.

The DICT has said it would need P18-billion to implement a National Broadband Program but the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) did not fund it for 2021.

Drilon believes this is because the DBM itself has doubts on the DICT’s ability to carry out such program.

“I agree with the proposition that we must fund it but it would appear that the DBM is not convinced of the proposition. I suspect that the DBM, in its usual standard, is looking at the absorptive capacity of the DICT,” the Senate minority chief said.

As of October 2020, the DICT has an obligation rate of only about 18 percent and 36 percent disbursement rate, where a total unobligated balance amounts to P6.6-billion.

“We do hope that DICT will be able to utilize its funds. Sayang naman kung hindi magagamit (It’s sad if they cannot fully use the funds),” he said.