MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) has not had an easy ride since its creation in 2004 but I did not expect that it would fall into an untimely demise under this administration.

The CICT was established through Executive Order (EO) No. 269 signed by President Arroyo in January, 2004, as a provisional measure while Congress has yet to pass a law creating a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

The creation of the DICT was proposed – and strongly supported by the private sector, including the Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) and the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce (JFCC) – so there would be a premier government agency dedicated to developing and promoting a national ICT strategy.

It was envisioned not to be a mere advisory entity, but active in harmonizing the government's ICT-related initiatives and ensuring that our ICT infrastructure is globally competitive and attractive to investment.

In the absence of a full-fledged department, the CICT served as the primary policy, planning, coordinating, implementing, regulating, and administrative body on strategic ICT development. It followed an uncertain path from the very start.

When it was initially formed, the CICT was composed of the National Computer Center (NCC), Telecommunications Office (TELOF), Philippine Postal Corp. (PhilPost), and all other operating units of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) dealing with communications.

On August 2005, the NTC was moved back to the DoTC by virtue of EO 454. The TELOF and all other operating units of the CICT dealing with communications were also subsequently transferred back to the DoTC on February 2007 through EO 603, leaving the CICT with just the NCC and PhilPost.

By January, 2009, the CICT had regained its original composition through EO 780.

The latest twist in the CICT's odyssey occurred on June 30, the day it came out that President Aquino signed EO 47 a week earlier, a move virtually abolishing the CICT as it was first created and, ironically, giving it a lesser role in the bureaucracy.

The CICT will be renamed the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) and placed under the supervision of the Department of Science and Technology (DoST). The new ICTO will be headed by an executive director with the rank of an undersecretary, whereas the CICT was headed by a chairman with a Cabinet rank.

The NCC and TELOF will be transferred to the DoST as part of the ICTO. However, the NTC and PhilPost will remain under the Office of the President.

This decision came as bombshell as only a day before it was publicized, the CICT had just unveiled its ICT roadmap – the Philippine Digital Strategy for 2011-2016. Malacañang in fact named Oliver Chato as the CICT commissioner for human capital development a few days before the EO was signed. The industry is understandably confused over these recent developments.

We have been pushing for the creation of the DICT since the Fourteenth Congress. The bill was already passed by the House of Representatives and was nearly passed on Third Reading in the Senate. I have refiled the measure this Fifteenth Congress.

The Senate Committee on Science and Technology, which I chair, conducted a public hearing to discuss the DICT bill with stakeholders last June 6, just three days before Congress went into recess. During the hearing, the BPAP through Atty. Raul S. Cortez reiterated their support for the creation of a DICT.

The JFCC through Jeffrey Woodruff of the American Chamber of Commerce added that the Philippines can be far more competitive if it had a dedicated agency to oversee and manage the development of ICT-related industries.

When the CICT was created in 2004, our information technology and business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry was still at a nascent phase. It only had revenues of US$1.3 billion and a 101,000-strong workforce.

By 2009, when the CICT was restored to its original form and there was relative stability in its operations, the IT-BPO had grown to a US$7.3-billion industry that employed 446,000 people. In 2010, revenues shot up to US$9 billion and employment increased to 530,000 owing to the Philippines dominance in voice-based services, beating India for the top spot.

The BPAP predicts that by 2016, total employment will increase to 1.3 million and revenues to US$26 billion.

A recent analysis by the World Bank on export services in developing countries mentions several factors contributing to the Philippines' success in outsourcing: Low wages competitive with India's; English proficiency; affordable telecommunication costs due to liberalization in the 1990's; availability of affordable real estate; allowing 100 percent foreign ownership; tax incentives and other perks through the Philippine Economic Zone Authority; and a proactive private sector.

The strongest economies in Southeast Asia all have a line department devoted to ICT. We are in the league of Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Timor-Leste in this regard. This is yet another area where we are being left behind by our peers.

Time will soon tell whether the downgrading of ICT is one of the short-sighted actions of the present administration.

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