PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday approved the establishment of a National Broadband Plan for the country, a senior Cabinet official said.
Following a presentation made by DICT Secretary Rodolfo Salalima, Duterte emphasized the need for faster communications in the country, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said.
“President Duterte earlier said he would like DICT ‘to develop a national broadband plan to accelerate the deployment of fiber optics cables and wireless technologies to improve internet speed,’” Piñol said in his Facebook post.
Salalima in an earlier interview said the government has earmarked more than P77 billion and P200 billion for the country’s National Broadband Plan, including the setting up of an infrastructure, north to south, for the purpose of serving the needs of both the people and the government in the countryside that would take two to three years to implement.
During his first State of the Nation Address in July, Duterte ordered the newly formed DICT to come up with a plan on how to improve the internet service in the country.
The option includes using 5,000 to 10,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines “running from north to south” to make easier for the government to implement the NBP.
In a separate Facebook post, Pinol said Duterte asked the Budget Department to “review and work for the amendment of the government procurement law, especially on the provision which stipulates that the lowest bidder wins government supply contracts.”
During the Cabinet meeting, Duterte was reported to have stressed the lowest bid did not guarantee quality products being procured by government, a position he echoed during the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) meeting last month.
“Lowest bid, lowest bid (and then it’s destroyed after a year),” the President said. “We need to amend the procurement law to correct this.”
In a speech last August, Duterte said he told state auditors he would not follow the rule on awarding contracts to the lowest bidder – which is mandated by law – as it was ‘the source of corruption’ in government procurement.
The President added that with the lowest bid policy, the government tended to purchase cheap equipment that easily got damaged and ended up unused.
