THE VIEW FROM RIZAL
Dr. Jun Ynares
Several weeks ago, top officials of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) visited the Capitol of Rizal Province. The occasion was a momentous one: DICT and the Rizal provincial government inaugurated a free Wi-Fi service for the University of Rizal System (URS).
With free Wi-Fi, students of URS may now do as much online research as they need. They can access assignments and do them online. They may now watch lessons that are being streamed live. They can do so without burdening their pockets with the cost of data services. The national government, through the DICT, has already addressed that particular concern.
The leadership of Rizal Province was profuse with gratitude to the DICT, particularly to Secretary Ivan John Uy. The department’s free Wi-Fi program is a major boost to the education sector. Just like other provinces in the country, Rizal has always put a premium on education and kept it in its priority list of important investments. This must be one of the reasons why Rizal Province has earned high marks in the human development index given by the United Nations Development Program and the Human Development Network.
The new Rizal governor has declared that the province’s achievements on the economic front (hall of fame, Most Competitive Province in the Philippines; second richest province in the Philippines; topnotcher in the list of provinces in terms of ability to generate own income) do not mean much unless they are translated into social gains, particularly in the field of human development.
We understand that there is much more to the free Wi-Fi program of the national government than what is being done for schools. We learned that the DICT has a plan in the short-term to set up and activate 5,000 free public Wi-Fi sites.
We are elated that President Bongbong Marcos has directed the department to make sure that access to the internet is not limited to urban areas, state universities and colleges and to the more developed areas.
We were told that the President’s instruction is to make sure that even Filipinos living in far-flung areas are brought into the mainstream of our country’s social and economic life.
These are called GIDAs — “geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.”
In so doing, the national government will be bridging the so-called “digital divide.” The program will open a host of new opportunities to the underprivileged among us.
We learned of another positive development on this front.
It appears Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte has offered to the DICT the use of the premises of the country’s public school system as sites for telecommunication towers, and that their respective departments are now discussing this.
If this is set into motion, a possible agreement between the two departments would make available some 46,000 sites all over the country for so-called “common towers.”
The way we understand it, the use of the school premises would be some kind of “exchange deal.” The use of the land would be free. In exchange for its use, the “lease payments” would come in the form of the free use of internet services by the host school.
We are glad that the present administration is giving information and communication technology a major push. We believe that access to modern technology is a major boost not just to education but also to public service. The DICT has a term for this: E-government and E-governance.
In many ways, local governments like Antipolo City have already tapped the power of digital technology to improve our frontline services.
In Antipolo City, for example, businesses no longer have to physically come to the City Hall to register their enterprises. They may simply create an account on the City’s website. The site serves as a business portal through which they can register their business and pay corresponding taxes for their operations.
The city also uses the website to fully disclose how public funds have been used.
The Rizal provincial government, on the other hand, has created its own portal through which the public may look at job vacancies and submit their online applications. Meanwhile, the University of Rizal System has created its own online library which may be small today, but has all the potentials of becoming a huge online repository of world-class learning materials.
These small steps elevate the level of transparency and accountability of local governments and educational institutions. They make it easier for students to do research and for ordinary citizens to interact with their public servants, and for entrepreneurs to experience fully the meaning of “ease-of-doing business.”
The present government’s free Wi-Fi program would help more people access these online services. More than that, the present national leadership would be able to add greater meaning to the term “participatory governance.”
Thanks to the efforts of the DICT, we are closer to the fulfillment of that aspiration more than ever.
(For feedback, please email it to [email protected] or send it to Block 6 Lot 10 Sta. Barbara 1 cor. Bradley St., Mission Hills Subd., Brgy. San Roque, Antipolo City, Rizal.)