A senior official of the Department of Information and Communications Technology resigned last week.
In his letter to President Rodrigo Duterte, Undersecretary for Operations Eliseo Rio listed his accomplishments at the agency, including overseeing the process to establish the third major telecommunications player.
Rio, the DICT’s acting secretary until former Senator Gregorio Honasan assumed the Cabinet post last July, is no newcomer to the field: He is a licensed electronics and communications engineer who ranked fourth in the board exams in 1971. He headed the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ communications, electronics and information systems until 2000, and was appointed chief of the National Telecommunications Commission until 2002. He is a retired brigadier general of the Philippine Army.
But why exactly did he leave? Rio said he wanted to relay his concerns personally and privately to the chief executive. “The President must know first the full situation and he will decide what to do,” Rio told the Philippine Star.
In the interview, Rio cited irregularities in the disbursement of hundreds of millions in confidential funds. He hinted that these were being used for surveillance when the cybersecurity office of the agency was meant to protect the Philippines from cyber threats.
A document obtained by CNN Philippines alleges that the Commission on Audit had in fact flagged down the cash advance, which was released in tranches of P100 million on Nov. 8, Dec. 3 and Dec. 17 last year.
The cash advance was “for confidential expenses in connection with cybersecurity activities."
According to the document, the COA pointed out the delayed processing of the cash advance because it was squeezed into the last few weeks of 2019 and left "very little time" for the agency to meet its targets for cybersecurity programs.
Rio had earlier told CNN he believed his agency did not need confidential funds because it is not in the DICT’s mandate to conduct surveillance and intelligence activities. “I would rather have given it to the National Bureau of Investigation and the police,” he added.
He also said he could not work with his colleagues—undersecretaries and assistant secretaries—who kept him out of the loop in intelligence-related decisions which were supposed to be within his scope. And since he was not being involved in intelligence issues, “I might as well get out, sayang ang sweldo para sa akin (my salary would be a waste).”
The President has yet to act on Rio's resignation. How Mr. Duterte decides on the resignation and acts on the issues it raises will be worth watching.
Information and communication technology is a field so dynamic and complex that it is difficult to identify what it can and cannot do. This leaves the rest of us with no choice than to trust that the officials in pertinent agencies are doing their jobs to protect the people’s interest, shield them from potential cyber breaches, provide them better and cheaper options for their telecom needs.
Most of all, these officials should ensure that taxpayers’ money intended for the above purposes do not go to waste and are not diverted into other purposes. It’s a tenet of public service, and one does not have to be an ICT expert to be aware of this basic norm.