Information and communication policies

By Florangel Rosario Braid - Manila Bulletin

AFTER numerous consultations with various groups, ATIN’s (Accountability and Transparency Information Network) version of the Freedom of Information bill is finally ready for filing in the 14th Congress. Senator Mar Roxas and Rep. Erin Tanada of the Liberal Party are two of its "champions" and are pushing the passage of the bill which is on the priority LP agenda.


Freedom of information laws, giving practical effect to the right to access information, have existed for more than 200 years according to Toby Mendel who observes that there is now a wave of freedom of information legislation sweeping the globe. Several laws have been passed over the last ten years. This growing popularity is due to its being associated as an integral part of the human rights movement.

In 2006, about 68 countries had laws giving citizens right to access government information. Jurisprudence has laid down key principles in applying right to information, namely: (1) guarantee is self-executory and does not require enabling legislation for it to become enforceable; (2) right to information is a public right; (3) government agencies are without discretion in refusing access to information of public concern; (4) not being discretionary, the performance of the duty to afford access to information of public concern may be compelled by a writ of mandamus.

Despite the Constitutional guarantee and affirmation of the right, denial of access remains widespread. This is due to factors such as the absence of a uniform, simple, and speedy access procedure. Access remains discretionary in practice even if in theory, there is no discretion in giving access to information. To date, there is still untested, if not insufficient basis for sanctions in cases of violation of this right. Finally, the remedy to compel disclosure remains inaccessible to the general public. This is due to reasons such as the poor state of government record-keeping, the low level of bureaucratic commitment to openness, and the excessive cost of access to certain information.

An ongoing concern is that of promoting openness in all government agencies. The government has the duty to publish information enumerated in the bill. The latter should be regularly updated in the website of public bodies. The E-Commerce Law, for example, requires all government agencies to maintain a website. Every public body is mandated to establish and enhance its Management Information System in order to strengthen its capability to store, manage and retrieve records as well as facilitate access to public records.

While this debate on free flow of information is going on, there are developments in the telecommunication sector that are quite worrisome. The agreement with China on a broadband project under the aegis of the Department of Transportation and Communication and the Department of Education’s cyber-education projects are already hounded by controversy even before they have started. The documents on the first project were lost and have been reconstituted. Some think it was a memorandum of agreement; others say it was a contract. At any rate, two UP professors thought that the two projects should not be pursued as their feasibility is questionable. On the first project, I think that we should shelve it until a more plausible rationalization process is undertaken. After all, there are more urgent national priorities. Then there is the argument that the initiatives started by the private sector should be encouraged and strengthened. Should the project be pursued, planning and implementation should be transparent — with adequate consultation with as many stakeholders.

On the cyber-education project, a number of studies have shown the feasibility of utilizing satellite-based systems for distance education – teacher training, and reaching marginalized communities which lack classroom teachers and educational resources. We have enough expertise that can supervise its implementation. What will be needed is a systematic design that would ensure maximum deployment of our own local talent including local content so that we don’t become overdependent on external resources.

The rapid turnover of key officials in the two ICT government agencies – the Commission of Information and Communication Technology and the National Telecommunications Commission has also raised eyebrows. Perhaps it is about time we revisit the structure and functions of our communications policy and implementing agencies of government. Unless this is done, I am afraid there would be a continuing overlap of functions and a perpetuation of obsolete policies. More on this next time. My e-mail is florbraid@yahoo.

No go for broadband deal--Palace adviser

Apostol: Where's copy of contract?

By Michael Lim Ubac, Riza T. Olchondra, Jeannette Andrade - Inquirer

THE CONTROVERSY over the $329-million national broadband network (NBN) contract that went to ZTE Corp. of China was reduced Monday to a paper chase.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's legal adviser, Sergio Apostol, said the project could not be implemented because the contract was nonexistent.

"How can we implement? There are no papers. Show me the contract," Apostol said when asked about the status of the ZTE contract.

The Philippine government's copy of the contract was stolen shortly after Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Yu Yong, ZTE vice president, signed it on April 21 in the presence of Arroyo.

Also stolen was the Philippine copy of the $460-million contract to build a satellite-based backbone for the Department of Education's Cyber Education Program (CEP).

Both the NBN and CEP contracts were signed in Boao, China, on the same day. The projects were to be financed by a concessional loan from China.

Two professors at the University of the Philippines' School of Economics said there was no need for the NBN and CEP deals.

Economics professors Raul V. Fabella and Emmanuel S. de Dios said the two projects were likely to end up being a waste of funds partly because it was not in the government's "core competence" to own, maintain and use an information technology infrastructure separate from two existing ones owned by private telecommunication firms.

Moral backbone
They said government should address "last-mile connectivity" to government agencies and public school computers instead of building another network.

"The only backbone that the government needs today is a moral one," Fabella and De Dios said in a paper titled "Lacking a backbone: The controversy over the National Broadband Network and Cyber-education projects."

Apostol said before Malacañang would answer the criticisms heaped on the project, there should be proof that the contract ever existed.

Details of the NBN project remain hazy at this time although the Department of Justice has ruled that the contract is legal.

In broad strokes, the NBN will exclusively cater to the telecommunication needs of the national government and local government agencies. It is also aimed at reducing the telecommunications spending of the government.

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said the NBN project, to be funded through a loan by China's Eximbank, carried a sovereign guarantee, which means that the government will have to pay for every yuan spent for the project.

Andaya, however, said the ZTE deal was not covered by the Government Procurement Act, which requires a transparent bidding process.

"There are exceptions under that law, and if it's a government-to-government (contract), then there's no need for it to go through that," he said.

Contract didn't reach Palace
But Apostol pointed out that legally speaking, the contract was nonexistent because there were no documents to speak of.

"Somebody has stolen it--(all) two copies. So there's no contract. We don't know what kind of contract it is," the President's legal adviser said.

He noted that the ZTE contract did not pass through his office for scrutiny.

"It did not pass through Malacañang because it was lost. How can it pass through me when the documents were gone? I haven't seen the contract," he said.

Never impartial
Apostol described Fabella and De Dios as "never impartial." He said the UP professors "have not even seen the contract, (yet) they made conclusions already."

The Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) disagreed with Fabella and De Dios' claim that the country does not need another broadband network.

"This is one of the few cases in which outsourcing does not make sense," said Lorenzo Formoso, assistant secretary for telecommunications.

"Using existing telco services is costing us almost P4 billion a year. If we make last-mile connections by buying more airtime from them, we will have to budget this again. In contrast, if government has its own network, the savings will actually pay for the loan," Formoso said.

Savings
DOTC data show that government can save P2.51 billion from the NBN project set to be undertaken by ZTE. At present, the cost of all telecommunications for government is P3.5 billion.

With the loan-backed contract, government is set to pay P990 million in annual amortization, giving the government P2.51 billion in savings that can be used for other purposes, according to the DOTC.

But the savings would exclude those for mobile communications because the NBN does not have a mobile component.

The DOTC said the offer of Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI), the company that submitted an unsolicited to build a broadband network, and that of another bidder, US-based Arescom, would be more expensive than that of ZTE's.

This is because AHI is offering a $240-million satellite-based network with 87 stations but the government must buy its own Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP service.

Arescom has offered a bid-price of $135 million but can only provide 21 base stations. "So, in reality, they are more expensive," Formoso said.

House probe
In the House of Representatives, the chair of the committee on information and communication technology wants to grill executives of the National Economic and Development Authority, DOTC and Commission on Information and Communications Technology on the NBN deal.

Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago said representatives of ZTE, AHI and Arescom, along with Fabella and De Dios, would also be invited to the public hearing.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) asked the government to sober up on its "Cyber Education" program, calling it a white elephant that has nothing to do with cutting-edge technology.

ACT chair Antonio Tinio said the money to fund the project could be better spent on building classrooms, subsidizing the education of children who cannot afford to go to school, hiring more teachers, and producing quality teachers.

Simply broadcasting
"The project is very expensive with little or no proven benefits to the students. It is simply broadcasting a 20-minute lecture to selected schools via satellite. If that is the only thing the Department of Education (DepEd) wants to do, it might as well tape the lectures, place them in compact disks and distribute them to the schools for viewing,"
Tinio said.

The project aims to set up television production and satellite broadcasting facilities at DepEd's central office and satellite-based facilities in 26,618 schools nationwide, each of which will be provided with a multimedia classroom equipped with four television sets, two desktop computers and a printer.

Fifteen- to 20-minute lectures conducted by education experts in all subjects for all grade or year levels will be aired live via satellite to all schools on 12 television channels.

Tinio said the project would not provide students with computer-based learning as the name connotes.

With reports from Norman Bordadora

Telcos nix Remonde’s media plan

By Philip M. Lustre - Manila Standard Today

We were amused to read Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri’s answer to our series on the $435-million Cyber Education Project (see Standard Today, May 24, 28, and 31). Published on June 9 issue of the Standard Today, Neri’s explanation was brief to avoid any complications and mistakes, but it did not in any way assail or clarify what we earlier said about the project. In short, Neri did not deny that the project is an expensive march of folly that uses obsolete technology.

Neri, who looks more of a choirboy than a political illusionist that he has become after three years in the Arroyo Cabinet, has forgotten what transpired in the Nov. 21, 2006 Cabinet meeting, which tackled among other things the Cyber Education Project. We are publishing unedited portions of that meeting, a transcript of which we got in our sleuthing about details of this project. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Neri and Secretary Ramon Sales, who recently resigned as chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology, had a vigorous exchange of views in that meeting.

Excerpts:

Sales: Okay. So, the summary for the [Medium-Term Philippine Investment Plan] is the government broadband at P5.1 billion ...

PGMA: Do we need a government broadband?

Neri: Physically, Ma’am we need a backbone but who will provide this is the issue, but there’s the private sector... plus later on, we will probably need on-site...

PGMA: At saka ano, remember what happened to the... itong distance learning. Ito ba iyong kay Jesli Lapus?

Neri: That’s right.

PGMA: That becomes the backbone because you’ll gonna reach all the barangays.

Neri: The way it was structured, Ma’am, it’s not broadband but it’s satellite-based.

PGMA: If it’s satellite-based so what wrong with that?

Sales: The satellite is among the most expensive medium today.

PGMA: But if it is already going to be provided, we might as well maximize the use of it so that we will have another second backbone.

Neri: The way it’s emerging, it can stand alone...

PGMA: Which one?

Neri: Itong education, Ma’am.

PGMA: But even it can stand alone, it doesn’t stop from using it as a backbone. Because otherwise we have to spend another P5 billion.

Neri: We analyzed it Ma’am. Mukhang puedeng two systems because one is TV-based...

PGMA: But not if we will spend. If we will spend only one.

Neri: ’Yang backbone, Ma’am, posibleng gawing BOT iyan...

PGMA: That’s why you have to make sure it’s BOT, that’s why I asked where is the money coming from. So government broadband network parenthesis BOT.

Neri: But we will spend for is only the education component.

PGMA: But the education is already in no. 2 so iba ’yon, it’s a separate project. That’s why I wanted that education becomes the backbone to maximize the... [inaudible] that we gonna spend. If somebody else would provide additional, BOT unsolicited, therefore, no subsidy.

Neri: That’s right Ma’am. The only way to make it work, Ma’am, is for government to be the customer for this backbone if we also have them revive the TELOF.

PGMA: Ang mangyayari n’yan take or pay, which is the whole issue of MRT 7.

Neri: What we need to do, Ma’am, is to structure it in such a way that there is no government subsidy, but the government will become just a main customer for this backbone.

PGMA: But not take or pay.

Neri: We will avoid the take or pay provision, Ma’am.

PGMA: It has to be you use, you pay.

Neri: Oho, that’s what we will tell. But the way it is emerging, Ma’am, mukhang magiging separate system itong education.

PGMA: So you have to specify that government broadband is BOT, not government would gonna spend for it.

Sales: Yes.

Judging from the exchange of views, the emerging plan at that day was to pursue the cyber education project, which is distance learning through satellite, at a modest scale of around P5 billion, which was the same as the national broadband network’s. The plan was also to put it under build-operate-transfer scheme so that the government would not spend for it.

But the projected entry of the Chinese money had pushed the Arroyo administration to pursue the projects at a much grander scale—the cyber education project at $435 million (P26.7 billion) and the national broadband network at $330 million (P15.5 billion). They were to be pursued as government-to-government projects, not BOTs. This was what we were saying in the earlier published series.

Strangely, the Department of Education has yet to make its own explanation on this dubious project. Let’s wait how Lapus will tell his side when Congress starts investigating these two highly questionable projects in August.

* * *

Presidential management Staff chief Cerge Remonde got the shock of his life when major telcos had rejected his overtures for them to finance his media plan to promote the government’s Cyber Corridor Project. According to the grapevine, Remonde had sought the telcos’ help to bankroll to the tune of slightly over P3 million a media plan to disseminate details of the Cyber Corridor, which seeks to install Internet connectivity to all public schools in major urban centers—from Baguio City through Subic. Clark, Metro Manila, Central Visayas up to Davao City .

The grapevine said Remonde apparently misread the telcos, probably thinking that they would finance a laudable project without something or anything in return. Telcos do not know much about Remonde, who, as a broadcaster, was based mostly in Cebu City. Remonde, of course, was mad on the rebuff.

* * *

The resignation of Sales as CICT chief had somehow stirred the hornet’s nest. Speculations abound, but the most plausible explanation was that Sales was aghast by the confusion on his job description. With the transfer of the Telecommunications Office and National Telecommunications Commission from the Department of Transportation and Communications, CICT was left with no office, except the National Computer Center, to supervise.

Earlier, CICT commissioners, including Emmanuel Lallana, had resigned and left for some more financially and morally fulfilling jobs elsewhere. Sales found himself the only one remaining at CICT. As CICT chief, Sales did not have to implement projects but oversee several ICT related projects. No less than the President had spelled this out to him. But this did not sit well with Sales, who wanted a more active role. Unfortunately, Congress has yet to enact a bill creating the proposed Department of Information and Communications Technology. E-mail: telecom_digest@yahoo.com