That’sIT •Edison D. Ong
Even after confirming that President Arroyo has accepted his resignation as chair of the Commission on ICT (CICT), Secretary Ver Peña is still tight-lipped on these questions: Why did he leave his post? When exactly is he leaving? Who did he recommend to replace him? And finally, where is his next destination?
His sudden departure makes one think that there must be some issues -- professional or otherwise -- besetting the agency. The man has practically spent his whole life as an IT guy and is the only person who has headed the CICT since its creation two years ago.
I therefore find it hard to understand that he would just leave abruptly and without a fight.
What am I hinting at? Peña ought to give an explanation. Is he leaving because he can no longer work with his present crop of commissioners? Could it be because the DICT has, until now, not become a reality? Did the CICT underperform under him, forcing him to quit? Is he dissatisfied with the current organizational structure of the agency? Is a popular young senator has anything to do with this? Or is he just fed up with the people around him? So many questions left unanswered.
It seems ironic that just days before he announced his resignation as the country’s top ICT chief, Peña was brimming with enthusiasm that the DICT bill would be approved by yearend. He even told Rep. Sim Kintanar, the guest of honor during the CICT’s second anniversary, that the agency is all set to replace the word "Commission" with "Department" in the CICT marker that was unveiled at the NCC façade in Quezon City.
As to when his resignation will become effective, Peña said it would be "as soon as (a) replacement is appointed and takes his oath." Malacanang has not floated any name as a possible replacement, but Peña said he has recommended someone, whom he refused to name, to take his place.
If the appointing power would care to ask, I’d prefer NCC Director General Tim de Rivera to assume the post.
He’s a UP-educated engineer and has proven himself well in his job. He’s also very open to media, unlike some of the unapproachable commissioners who have been put there out of political accommodation.
For the meantime, Pena said there’s no clear agenda yet on what he’ll do next when his replacement is finally named. Perhaps he can do some strolling on the park while he awaits the call from GMA, possibly early next year, to make a big return as the first secretary of the DICT. — Melvin G. Calimag
Friends and foes
While hardware vendors compete neck-to-neck in a small market, at least in one event during the formal launching of MSI-ECS partnership, the bosses were together in one table. It was my first time to see Nilo Cruz, the HP Phils boss joining in a roundtable with Jajo Quintos, the IBM Phils general manager.
Sitting beside Nilo was Vicky Agorilla, the country manager of Lenovo Phils.
Both Nilo and Vicky were former IBMers.
HP, IBM and Lenovo are major partners of MSIECS. MSI, the company owned by Jimmy Go used to be a partner of Digiland Singapore but the relationship did not last long. MSI and Digiland parted ways. According to Jimmy the main reason why they parted ways was the change in the "direction" of Digiland over the past three years.
Last year, after a major strategic move of Digiland, MSI had opted to operate independently and continued catering to the growing market of technology and entrepreneurs and large enterprises.
Early this year, MSI has partnered again with another Singaporean-based IT distributor, ECS Holdings Ltd. We just hope that the MSI-ECS partnership would last longer that previous partner.
Meanwhile, the top dealers of MSI-ECS for 2005 were given recognition during the MSI-ECS partnership launch at Shangri-La Hotel in Makati last Friday. The top five dealers for consumer products were Electroworld, Octagon, PC Express, Silicon Valley and Thinking Tools. The top five dealers for PCs and server products were Advance Solutions, Information Products Corp., Octagon, Silicon Valley and Zenshin Systems Corp. The top dealers for technology products were ICT Systems, SQL Wizard, ePLDT, Creative Technologies and Global Sapphire. In the provinces, MSI-ECS’ top provincial dealers were Columbia Computer Davao, Interpace Computer Systems, Thinking Tools, Electroworld Cebu and Enigma Technologies.
P.S. Executives in the IT industry come and go. Bong Paloma has resigned as president of Micro-D International. He was replaced by Cynthia Veloria, former president of Microwarehouse. Dennis Aranas took over as the new boss of Microwarehouse. Kenneth Palacios who used to be the country manager of 3Com has joined Micro-D as chief technology officer. — Edu H. Lopez
Law and technology
This year already marks the second time that the Supreme Court has released the results of the Bar exams through its website (http://www.suprecourt.gov.ph). It’s a convenient way for Bar candidates, as well as their friends and families, to check if they passed the test or not.
Technology also had a way of manifesting itself even for those who opted to go the Court of Appeals compound in Ermita to "physically" check the results. Breaking tradition for the first time, the list of successful Bar examinees was revealed from a computer monitor through a widescreen projector. This was vastly different from the past when the magic list was posted manually outside of the SC compound in Padre Faura St. in Manila.
It’s amazing how technology has caught up with the judiciary, at least in the level of the High Tribunal.
Credit goes to former Chief Justice Hilario Davide for initiating the modernization reforms and current CJ Artemio Panganiban for continuing what his predecessor had started. — Melvin G. Calimag
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