"Classes in all levels are due to open this August through ‘flexible learning, which involves digital and non-digital technology."
"Classes in all levels are due to open this August through ‘flexible learning, which involves digital and non-digital technology."
The good news is that the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) has allotted ₱7.7 billion in its proposed budget for next year for free WiFi in public spaces and state colleges and universities (SUCs).
The earmarked budget will be used to allow the department to reach its target of putting up 23,100 live sites by the end of 2021.
The plan is to establish most of these live sites in educational institutions, with 10,300 sites in public schools and 1,804 sites in SUCs and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) schools.
According to DICT Secretary Gringo Honasan: “This is part of our commitment to DepEd, CHED and TESDA to ensure the education sector’s access to broadcast, connectivity and digital security this upcoming school year while the country is still under a state of public health emergency.”
Classes in all levels are due to open this August through “flexible learning,” which involves digital and non-digital technology.
Of the targeted 23,100 sites next year, some 5,644 will be installed in national and local government offices, 3,300 in public hospitals and rural health centers, 1,505 in public parks, plazas, and other open areas, 368 in public libraries, and 179 in transport terminals.
Thus far, 4,248 sites have installed and now up and running as of June 30, with 400 of them in public hospitals and rural health centers.
The projected free Wi-Fi access points across thousands of public schools to boost connectivity is a departure from the previous government policy to leave the establishment of digital infrastructure to the private sector.
Ramping up free Wi-Fi coverage across the Philippines is a key component of the DICT proposal for a record P46.6-billion budget in 2021, which is almost eight times its P6-billion budget this year.
The DICT is also setting aside P13.5 billion for its national broadband program. This is composed of six major projects: the national fiber optic cable backbone, cable landing stations, accelerated tower build, accelerated fiber build, satellite overlay and broadband delivery management service.
One of the biggest components is the backbone, which aims to cover the entire Philippine territory to reach unserved and underserved areas by targeting the installation of 2,295 kilometers of fiber cables next year.
The cable landing project is part of the DICT’s venture with the Bases Conversion Development Authority and social media giant Facebook.
The DICT said the construction of a 240-km fiber highway is “underway” and expected to improve access to two terabits-per-second capacity by 2021.
The establishment of a national fiber optic backbone is a critical component of government efforts to ramp up the country's economic competitiveness.
We have expressed serious misgiving about the appointment of Honasan as DICT Secretary after his Senate stint since he appeared to lack the experience in information and communications technology as provided by the law creating the department.
But it seems Honasan has hit the ground running at the helm of the DICT, and we hope he sustains the momentum in the next two years, since the education sector needs faster connection to the Internet for wider distance learning in the new normal.
Death penalty as crime deterrent
Will Duterte's push for Congress to formally re-impose capital punishment, particularly for big-time drug traffickers, be effective as a tool to deter crime?
The death penalty has already been re-imposed by the Duterte administration since 2016 through Operation Tokhang, where as many as 6,000 drug suspects were killed by police operatives since they ostensibly resisted arrest and fought back ("nanlaban").
Human rights groups, however, claim that as many as 20,000 to 30,000 alleged drug suspects have died in the hands of vigilante groups in extrajudicial killings EJKs, also known as summary executions, in the past four years.
If we take just the official police figure of 6,000 drug suspects killed since 2016 in legitimate police operations and the continuing drug problem in 2020—almost every day we read news reports of "buy-bust" operations resulting in arrests and seizure of varying amounts of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu—the obvious conclusion is that drug traffickers are not afraid of thedeath penalty at all, whether through legislation or in the form of the business end of a Glock 9 mm pistol aimed right between their eyes.
What would deter crime, as pointed out by experts, is the certainty that if a crime is committed, then the perpetrator would be arrested, tried and convicted if found guilty. In the concrete Philippine context, a life sentence in Muntinlupa without possibility of parole is a fate worse than death, given the subhuman conditions there particularly for poor inmates.
ernhil@yahoo.com
