RAMON P. Jacinto, a presidential adviser, has replaced resigned Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary for Operations Eliseo M. Rio Jr. He promised to focus on developing policies that will enable more Filipinos to be connected to the Internet.
In a text message, Jacinto, a known musician and businessman, confirmed his appointment and thanked President Duterte for his appointment. He said he will be putting premium on three key areas, namely, common towers, free Wi-Fi, and the national broadband backbone.
“I look forward to galvanizing and pushing reforms in the telecommunications industry in our country, particularly the Independent Common Tower Policy that the President tasked me to do as the Presidential Adviser. Also very urgent is the implementation of the National Broadband Plan and free Wi-Fi projects of the government, especially at this time. Because of the Covid-19 crisis, the new normal will require connectivity throughout the country, especially in the rural areas,” he said.
Rio said last week that Duterte accepted his resignation. He submitted his resignation in February. Rio resigned due to two reasons: One is the availability of confidential funds for the ICT department, and two is his exclusion from the decision-making processes of the agency.
Jacinto used to be the presidential adviser for ICT. He was tasked to evaluate the prospects of common towers in order to boost connectivity in the Philippines. This particular issue had him quarreling with Rio, as the latter wanted a more liberal policy to attract as many investors as possible.
Rio came out of retirement when he was appointed as an undersecretary for the ICT department in 2016, when the agency was led by then-Secretary Rodolfo A. Salalima. When Salalima resigned, Rio took the helm of the DICT as officer in charge.
Under Rio’s leadership, the government was able to award the third telco franchise to Dito Telecommunity Corp. Rio also led the department in deploying free Internet connection in public places.
He was also instrumental to concretizing the national broadband plan and has secured key contracts with Facebook for a two-terabyte backbone, as well as with the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines and the National Transmission Corp. for the use of their dark fiber for Internet connectivity.
Through Rio’s leadership, the department was able to craft Vision 2020, an overarching goal for ICT development that aims to develop the industry and bring forth digital innovations and services that will greatly improve the daily lives of Filipinos.
He also led the common towers and shared infrastructure initiatives, which are geared toward improving the physical infrastructure of telcos to provide better services to end-users.
Image credits: DICT
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