Technically, it was I who wrote it — but it was actually former CICT chair Virgilio "Ver" Peña who suggested it during a forum held in November last year.

The event, organized by the Foundation for Media Alternatives and held at the Ateneo de Manila University, was a forum meant to solicit civil society comments for the country’s ICT roadmap that was then being crafted by the CICT.

What Peña said in his presentation was really interesting, if not revealing. For the first time, he admitted that the agency he used to head had no real power to speak of that would allow it to effectively steer and develop the country’s ICT sector.

Without regulatory functions, Peña said the CICT was virtually a lameduck government agency. He said things started on a bright note for the CICT when the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) was put under its wings.

But for reasons he said he wouldn’t want to divulge even he if knew it, the NTC was removed from the CICT and reverted to the DoTC by Malacañang. Given the NTC’s awesome powers, Peña said it would have been different if the regulatory body was retained under the CICT.

He reckoned: "Once I attended an early morning meeting called by (former) NTC chair Ronald Solis. I was surprised to see Gerry Ablaza of Globe Telecom and Polly Nazareno of Smart Communications. That made me realize how powerful the NTC was — that’s because I never managed to get these two guys in a meeting as CICT chair! "

The removal of the NTC "castrated" the effectiveness of the CICT, he said.

With the remote possibility of the NTC being placed again under the CICT, Peña said that only recourse for the agency is for it to be transformed into a full-blown department.

The need for a DICT is first and foremost anchored on budget. During budget deliberations in Congress, only legit departments are given their yearly funding, he said. Currently, CICT gets its money from the Office of the President by way of the National Computer Center.

Secondly, as long as a separate DICT is not established, the ICT sector will remain a fragmented industry with no comprehensive development strategy since it is "not an organic part of the government."

Thirdly, he said the Philippines is one of the remaining few countries in the world whose ICT sector is by a department or a ministry. "The promotion of ICT in other countries are not with the trade or commerce department," he said.

Sounds convincing to me. Hope the powers that be are convinced as well. — Melvin G. Calimag

The newly-merged Alcatel-Lucent company has brought changes in its organizational setup worldwide. As expected, AlcatelLucent Philippines has a new president and country senior officer, Klaas Oreel from Holland who replaced Herve Pourcines who will report back to the headquarters in Paris by the end of January 2007. Klaas is a world-class veteran in the telecom industry with more than 20 years of global experience in the business. He is married to a Filipina, a former stewardess of Cathay Pacific Airlines and blessed with three children. Klaas met his wife not in one of the flights of Cathay but in Hong Kong. With his Filipina wife, I’m sure Klaas would feel at home but will have a challenging task of making better than his predecessor. Welcome aboard sir!

On another note, SAS Philippines is acknowledged as market leader in business intelligence solution. However, it is sad that one of the members of Sonny Halili’s management team who handles one of the big accounts is leaving the company for good. I understand the guy is joining another IT company. Good luck on your new job! — Edu H. Lopez

If you noticed, the "g" in google in the title above is in the lower case. That’s because the topic that I’m writing about is about a search engine for mobile phone services but it is not the mobile version of "Google" as you know it.

I’m referring to Luk4 directory service — the mobile version of the yellow pages directory that most of us are familiar with. The service gives instant info, from "gimmicks" to movie schedules to restaurant recommendations to food delivery information.

How did I learn to use Luk4? My colleague Joel Pinaroc and I recently participated in an event ala "Amazing Race" in Metro Manila which required contestants to use the mobile service to search for the places we were supposed to locate.

We didn’t win the R100,000 prize, but we’re able to pick up some useful skills along the way, like using Luk4.

To utilize Luk4, save "Luk4" in your phone book — 2851 for Globe subscribers (R2.50/text), 2951 for Smart subscribers (R2.50/text) and 2851 for Sun Cellular subscribers (R2.00/text).

The keywords are easy to learn, which is extremely helpful since using the right keywords gives you the exact information you need in just one text. For example, Text LUK4 GMIK MALATE for the latest goings-on in Malate. — MGC