Ang ZTE bow

I remember the week before the ZTE broadband controversy erupted in the news, I was in Zamboanga City to do a roadshow consultation in the region with the organizers of the Mindanao ICT Congress. I was still with my previous office then and it was actually my last work-related travel. We invited ICT stakeholders both from the government and private sector to promote the conduct of the said event. As part of the promotional roadshow, we conduct consultations among the ICT players, the output of which will form the policy component which usually translates into resolutions or policy agenda.

The NTC regional director reported during that meeting that the deployment of the National Broadband Network is expected the following week. Broadband connectivity is one of the emerging ICT concerns as this is seen to heighten appreciation of the critical role of ICT in the nation's development especially that world economies are now propelled by information and knowledge. In fact, I read in the papers a few months back that the Philippines ranked 4th in the world with the usage of e-Governance. ICT is indeed critical in enhancing government transactions and the basic delivery of government services.

Then here comes Abalos who seems to enjoy the proverbial hot seat and other political schmucks entering the picture inevitably. Everything has been laid already in the table, in the hands of the Senate inquiry actually, where everybody had a grand time except Abalos who keeps receiving pies in the face.

But I don't gripe on this usual scenario. Fuck those retards. What I'm dismayed at is how this kind of political backwardness takes its toll on an industry that is poising the country to really actively play in the global economy, thinking that we can outrun other leading Asian countries in the ICT and BPO field in few years if we're dead serious about it. If planned strategically, and commonsensically at that, ICT can and will bridge this digital divide, even in the countryside, that hampers a great deal of development. Look at the Telepono sa Barangay which is so haphazardly installed that I bet rural people continue to ogle at its anatomy and purpose.

I hope that the initiatives and efforts that are already under way should be sustained. I also hope that the players in the industry continue to have that technopreneurial spirit to get ICT to transform lives.