SPEAKER Martin Romualdez yesterday said the public is expected to immediately benefit from the P1.5 billion allocation to the National Broadband Plan (NBP) of the Department of Information and Communications Technology which is included in the P77 billion institutional adjustments of the House of Representatives.
Romualdez said he expects the country’s internet speed to go up a notch next year once the DICT implements the broadband project.
“And the internet is a critical social service nowadays, as it is deeply entrenched in the way we live. We use the internet for education, for delivering and availing social services, for our businesses, and for almost every facet of our lives,” Romualdez said.
Last Friday, the House and Senate contingents tasked to reconcile their differing versions of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) held an initial bicameral meeting at the Manila Golf Club in Makati City.
Romualdez has expressed hope that that the Senate will agree to the adjustments made by the House in Malacañang’s proposed 2023 national budget, stressing that these are meant to augment the allocations for education, health, transportation and other critical social services.
Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, said the P1.5 billion that was allocated for the NBP “will go a long way in jumpstarting the program that is envisioned to provide the backbone in providing internet to all government agencies nationwide.”
“At alam naman natin na maraming lugar pa rin sa ating bansa ang hindi naaabot ng internet connection, lalo na ‘yung malalayong lugar (There are still many parts of the country which do not have internet connection because these are far-flung areas). And we can now use the bandwidth given by Facebook once the DICT conducts the rollout of national broadband infrastructure, which will now be finally funded,” Co said.
He was talking about the earlier agreement forged by DICT, Facebook, and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) in which Facebook agreed to provide the Philippine government with spectrum equivalent to at least two million megabits per second (mbps) once the internet infrastructure has been established.
