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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider 'It will be very challenging': DICT says on Senate's decision to realign confidential funds in regular line item budget

'It will be very challenging': DICT says on Senate's decision to realign confidential funds in regular line item budget

Published Nov 21, 2023 08:07 am

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Tuesday, Nov. 21 said "it will be very challenging" for the agency after the Senate disapproved its request for confidential funds.

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Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)

"We'll see how far we can go with that kind of limitation in terms of our budget," DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said on the sidelines of the Launch and Ceremonial Turn-over of equipment of the Universal Internet Subscription for GIDA (geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas) (UISG) Project at the DICT Main Building in Quezon City.

However, Uy said they “gladly accept the challenge of implementing our vision to—not only deliver our mandate on connectivity, on e-governance upscaling, as well as industry development, but also on cybersecurity."

“We leave it to the wisdom of the legislature on how they will approve our expenditures and our budget,” he added.

He also hopes that the legislators would have "open ears" and an "open mind" if the agency appeals for a supplemental budget in case it encounters "insurmountable" challenges.

"If we feel that there are certain challenges that are insurmountable, then we will make an appeal to Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate, if there could be a supplemental budget to provide us the weapons and the facilities in order to address this growing threat of cybercrime and cyber threats," Uy said.

"Phishing, scams, not only that, even the attacks actually that are happening not just on the government side, but also in the private sector," he added.

On Monday, Senator Grace Poe underscored the realignment of DICT's supposed confidential funds to regular line item and removed P20 million from the initial P300 million that the agency was asking.

RELATED STORY:

https://mb.com.ph/2023/11/21/senate-ends-plenary-deliberations-on-2024-national-budget

As per the conversion, the DICT will receive P280 million: Network Detection and Response (P72.3 million); Security of Operation Software (P48.2 million); Extended Detection and Response (P79.7 million); Manpower to monitor the National Security Operations Center (NSOC) (P19.8 million); Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration testing tools (P20 million); and Mobile Security Operations Center (P40 million).

Despite the disapproval of the DICT's confidential fund request, Uy vowed that the agency will "work with whatever is given to us."

Related Tags

Department of Information and Communications Technology Confidential funds ivan john uy
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