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'Intellectual dishonesty': Solon tells DICT to get real with poor state of free public Wi-Fi program
'Intellectual dishonesty': Solon tells DICT to get real with poor state of free public Wi-Fi program
Northern Samar 1st district Rep. Paul Daza told the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Thursday, Sept. 8 to be honest with the results of its free public Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) program.
This, after the DICT painted a rather rosy picture of the program during its presentation in their budget hearing before members of the House Committee on Appropriations.
Daza, in his subsequent interpellation of the DICT contingent headed by its Secretary Ivan John Uy, demanded to know the person who prepared the slides on the free public Internet program.
"This is not representative of the actual state of the free public Wi-Fi. To be polite, it's intellectual dishonesty," a miffed Daza said.
The senior deputy minority leader pointed out that "There were many interpellations regarding the frustration with the free public Wi-Fi."
But Daza acknowledged that Uy was yet to warm his seat as DICT head honcho.
"If we can request the new secretary to do a comprehensive, honest-to-goodness, objective report on the appropriations for the free public Wi-Fi, utilization, operational accomplishment report--the details. And with his recommendation and action plan moving forward. Can we request that from the good secretary?" he said.
Uy replied, "We'd be more than happy to comply."
Next, Daza asked Uy if the status of the program had been relayed to President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.
The Cabinet official answered in the negative and said, "Most of our meetings have been forward-looking; we have not done any audit or assessment of our predecessors."
Daza requested Uy to furnish Malacañang a copy of the report that he asked them to dp.
In a subsequent statement, Daza noted that the free public Wi-Fi program’s target since 2016 was to provide 105,000 free public Wi-Fi spots, and that Congress had allocated approximately P12 billion to the project since that time.
However, according to the statistics Daza presented, only 10 percent of these sites have been established and only 4 percent are operational to date. “We’re hoping that will be a priority for the new secretary and the new officials,” he said.