House ICT committee to probe NBN deal

By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – The committee on information and communications technology of the House of Representatives has said it will investigate the controversial national broadband network project.

The new committee chairman, Catanduanes Representative Joseph Santiago, said in a statement Monday that he would start the investigation once the committee is fully organized.

The committee would focus on whether the government really needed to establish the proposed network or whether it was better off obtaining services and equipment from the private sector, Santiago said in his statement.

He was not available for further comment at this writing.

The Department of Transportation and Communication is the lead agency of the National Broadband Network project.

The agency is implementing the project through a Chinese government loan and with Chinese company ZTE as supplier.

"The government's lack of core competency is definitely an issue. But this is not the only issue. Cost-efficiency is another issue. Unlike private enterprise, state agencies are inherently inefficient," Santiago said, as he referred to a University of the Philippines' School of Economics (UPSE) study, which warned that the government lacked the "core competency" to own, maintain and use an IT backbone.

Santiago reiterated that one of the strongest arguments against a government broadband system "is the fact that even the highly advanced governments of other countries do not have state-owned (broadband) networks."

"In many countries, governments agencies simply rely on existing, more efficient and highly reliable privately owned networks that provide universal access and connectivity," he added.

The House probe will invite officials of the National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Transportation and Communications, National Telecommunications Commission and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology, the lawmaker said.

He also said that representatives of ZTE Corp. and rivals Amsterdam Holdings Inc. and Arescom Inc. will be invited to the public hearing, along with the authors of the UP School of Economics study.