ICT AND THE EMPOWERMENT

OF THE FILIPINO YOUTH

Deputy Commissioner KATHLEEN G. HECETA,

First Philippine Youth Consultative Meeting on WSIS,
Asian Development Bank Headquarters, 08 September 2003
What is WSIS?
It is a single high-level event that brings
together Heads of State, Executive Heads of
the United Nations agencies, industry leaders,
non-governmental organizations, media
representatives, and the civil society to
assemble at a high-level gathering and develop
a better understanding of the ICT revolution
and its impact on the International Community.
What is the significance of WSIS to the country?

The Arroyo
Administration
declared ICT as
one of the pillars
necessary to
push the
country’s socio-
economic
What is the expected outcome of the WSIS?
1. Develop and foster a clear statement of
political will and a concrete plan of action
for achieving the goals of the Information
Society, while fully reflecting all the
different interests at stake.
2. Offer a unique opportunity for global
community to reflect, discuss and give
shape to our common destiny in an era
when countries and peoples are
interconnected as never before.
Objective, goals and targets of WSIS:
BENCHMARKS
(WSIS Intersessional meeting)
• All villages to be connected by 2010, with a
community
access point by 2015.
• 90 per cent of the world’s population to be within
wireless
coverage by 2010 and 100 per cent by 2015.
• All universities to be connected by 2005, all
secondary
schools by 2010 and all primary schools by 2015.
• All scientific research centres to be connected by
2005.
• All public libraries to be connected by 2006 and all
cultural
• All central government departments to have a
website and
e-mail address by 2005 and all local government
departments by 2010.
• All primary and secondary school curicula to be
revised to
meet the challenges of the information society by
2006.
• All of the world’s population to have access to
domestic radio
services by 2010 and domestic TV services by 2006.
• The necessary technical conditions should be in
place by
2010 to permit all world languages to be present and
used on
the Internet.
 ICT in the Philippines:

The Information Technology and

Electronic Commerce Council
(ITECC)
 organized in 2000 pursuant to
Executive Order No. 264 chaired by
Her Excellency, the President of
the Philippines. (Public and
Private)
 streamlines all ICT related
government agencies to provide
effective and focused leadership in
the implementation of the nation’s
ICT policy agenda.
 Vision - an ‘enabled society where
empowered citizens have access
to technologies that will provide
quality education, efficient
government service, greater
source of livelihood, and a better
life.’
 ICT in the Philippines:

Philippine Telecommunications Policy/Plan

 ‘Telecommunications is essential to the nation’s

economic development, integrity and security and shall be
developed and administered to safeguard, enrich and
strengthen the economic, cultural, social and political
fabric of the country’. (RA 7925, Philippine Public Telecom
Policy Act)

 The Philippine shall use ICT to face the challenge of

nation’s emergent economy and establish our standing as
a competitive player in the world market. It is our vision
that in the 21st Century, the Philippines would have laid
the infrastructure for every business, every agency, every
school, and every home in the Philippines to have access
to information society. (Medium term plan)
 ICT in the Philippines:

Industry Structure ( As of December 31, 2002)

TELECOM SERVICE 1999 2000 2001 2002

LOCAL EXCHANGE CARRIER SERVICE 76 77 74 73
INTER EXCHANGE CARRIER SERVICE 12 12 14 14

INTERNATIONAL GATEWAY FACILITY 11 11 11 11

CELLULAR MOBILE PHONE SYSTEM 5 7 7 7

PUBLIC TRUNK REPEATER SYSTEM 10 10 11 11

RADIO PAGING SERVICE 15 15 11 11

COASTAL 12 12 12 13

BROADBAND 10 18 19 19

INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS 31 34 64 53

BROADCAST SERVICES 1032 1089 1143 1274

CATV SERVICES 1055 1162 1219 1373

 ICT in the Philippines:

Telephone density in the Philippine (2002)

FIXED LINES MOBILE

PER 100 POPULATION

NATIONWIDE 4.17
19.36 PER 100
POPULATION
National Capital Region 15.79

Autonomous Region

for Muslim Mindanao .35

 ICT in the Philippines:

Strategic Roadmap for ICT: Source-ITECC

E- Government implementation
 Make it easier to do business in the country
(investor-friendly);
 Improve efficiency, accessibility, accountability
and transparency in delivering basic services;
 Spur the domestic ICT Market with the
government as the largest customer;
 Provide proper environment to enable and
increase IT usage.
Human Resource Development
 Increase the use of IT in delivering Basic
Education;
 Improve the quality of IT knowledge/skills
throughout the supply chain;
 Accelerate the development of relevant IT
knowledge/skills;
 Leverage overseas Filipino ICT professionals.
 ICT in the Philippines:

Business Development
 Build the RP brand and image;
 Focus on niches in the Foreign Market where
the country has a sustainable competitive
advantage;
 Use a more targeted approach in selling and
closing outsourcing opportunities.

Legal and Regulatory Framework

 Rationalize the institutional framework by
creating a Department of ICT;
 Strengthen the legal and policy framework to
address critical issues arising from new
technologies;
 Provide a support framework to ensure
enforcement of laws, promote e-commerce and
ICT investments.
 ICT in the Philippines:

Information Infrastructure

 Consolidate existing government ICT

resources to be shared by all
government offices;
 Undertake the development of a
Universal Service Program;
 Update network performance service
standards to conform with acceptable
Global standards;
 Develop a National IT Security
Program
 Empowerment of the Filipino Youth

Advocating ICT and an Empowered Youth

 An empowered youth is a nation’s best hope for the future.

Given their inspiring capacity for creativity, ingenuity and restless
energy, it is vital to create an environment that can harness these
positive qualities and nurture them to be able to forge towards the
future with confidence and noble expectations.

 With ICTs vast powers and potentials as a major catalyst of

economic growth, it is being harnessed by the Philippine government
to help narrow the income disparities among Filipinos and
bridge the existing digital divide among the different regions and
communities in our country.
 Empowerment of the Filipino Youth

RP Laws, ICT and the Filipino Youth

The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the

Child

 Mankind owes to the child the best it has to give.” The

Rights of the
Child demand that we must go beyond providing for the
basics like
food, clothing, and shelter and should strive to succor
to the child’s
emotional, social and spiritual needs.
 Empowerment of the Filipino Youth

The 1987 Philippine Constitution heralds

the nation’s commitment on the
significant role of the Filipino youth in
nation building.

 Article 13 of the Constitution affirms that, “The

state
recognizes the vital role of youth in Nation
building and
shall protect and promote their physical,
moral, spiritual,
intellectual and social well-being. It shall
inculcate in youth
patriotism and nationalism and shall
 Empowerment of the Filipino Youth

The Child and Youth Welfare Code or

Presidential Decree 603 of December 10,
1974 declares:

 The child is one of the most important assets of the

nation.
Every effort should be exerted to promote his survival
and
development and enhance his opportunities for a useful
and
happy life.
 The Child is not a mere creature of the State. Hence, his
individual traits and aptitudes should be cultivated to
the
utmost insofar as they do not conflict with the general
welfare.”
 Other institutions, like the school, the church, the guild,
and
the community in general should assist the home and
state in
 Empowerment of the Filipino Youth

Republic Act 7610, Special Protection of

Children against Abuse, Exploitation, and
Discrimination Act enacted on June 17, 1992.
It is the State’s policy to:

 provide special protection to children from all firms of abuse, neglect,

cruelty exploitation and discrimination and other conditions, prejudicial to their
development, provide sanctions for their commission and carry out a program
for prevention and deterrence of and crisis intervention in situations of child
abuse, exploitation and discrimination.

 protect and rehabilitate children gravely threatened or endangered by

circumstances which affect or will affect their survival and normal
development and over which they have no control.
 Empowerment of the Filipino Youth

Republic Act No. 9208, an Act to Institute

Policies to eliminate Trafficking in Persons
especially Women and Children, establishing the
necessary Institutional Mechanism for the
Protection and Support of Trafficking Persons

 A landmark legislation enacted last May 2003, it specifically

contemplates Internet content in defining “pornography” and the crime of
trafficking in persons. “Pornography” is defined as any representation, through
publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent shows, information technology, or
by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual
activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primarily sexual
purposes.
 Empowerment of the Filipino Youth

Monitoring of Youth Programs and Projects

implemented by Government Agencies

The DBM has issued a circular mandating all government agencies, GOCCs and
LGUs to institutionalize youth development programs, activities and projects, in
their annual planning, programming and budgeting process, implementation and
monitoring and evaluation.

The National Youth Commission is tasked to spearhead this monitoring scheme and
submit an annual Accomplishment Report with HR of Congress, the DBM and
NEDA. While this is not specifically aimed to cater to ICT by the Youth sector, it
provides a feasible window of opportunity to bring in ICT programs and projects
that benefit the youth.
 Empowerment of the Filipino Youth

National conference of E-learning (Aug. 7-8, 2003)

Under its Strong Republic Program, President Arroyo pushed for the government’s
distance learning program to raise the literacy rate in some 400 remote and
impoverished barangay in the country. It aims to provide a communication
infrastructure for TV broadcasting and Internet access as a primary medium to deliver
the distance learning program and translate the standard education program, as well
as a pre-emptive way to stop the recruitment of terrorist and the spread of insurgency.

Critical to this program is the continuance of e-learning with the teaching of English
and the upgrade of math and science in schools. In re-iterating that technology is the
foundation of future economic development, the President emphasized that
technology must not only be a subject matter of our curriculum but as the medium of
the message in preserving our values. Knowledge without character is not
acceptable. She called for deeper inculcation of moral, social and cultural values
through our basic education system.
 Empowerment of the Filipino Youth

MOBILE IT CLASSROOM (MITC)

In line with its outreach program, the DOST, under its Science Education Institute,
has a Mobile IT Classroom (MITC) which is a special bus with laptop computers,
audio visual equipment and learning software, that goes around designated areas
in the regions on schedule to make science learning through computers fun and
easy. This goes to the grassroots level, bringing ICT specially the internet, to the
remotest barrios and barangays.

While it may take time for the government to provide computers to all public
schools, it is good that MITC is already roaming around schools, inching its way
through rough roads and crossing wooden bridges, to give students in the barrio a
ride in cyberspace.
 Empowerment of the Filipino Youth

BRIDGEIT OR TEXT2TEACH PROGRAM, etc.

A global program developed locally under the leadership of the Ayala Foundation
with the commitment and involvement of UNDP, the Pearson library, the
Department of Education, Seameo Innotech, Globe Telecom, Dream Broadcasting
and Chikka Asia. It aims to deliver digital education materials to schools using
mobile technology. Interactive, multi-media learning materials become accessible
to local classrooms around the world.

In a countrywide pilot beginning June 2003, fifth and sixth grade teachers and
pupils in 40 public and private schools from Manila and Mindanao use mobile
phones to access a library of more than 80 full length science videos. The selected
videos are downloaded via satellite to the digital video recorder connected to a
television in the classroom. The Philippines has been chosen as the pilot site,
primarily due to country’s comfort level for digital technology, particularly the cell
phone and its English proficiency.
Community e-Centers (CEC): Philippine Model
This project will augment
the existing government
efforts on solving the “last
mile problem” with private
sector and local
community participation
to improve bandwidth
affordability in remote
areas through several
deployment models. These
e-centers can establish a
new channel for delivery
of e-government services
at a lower cost.
 Empowerment of the Filipino Youth

THE FUTURE AND ICT

NO DOUBT THE POWER OF ICT IS WORKING BEHIND THE SCENE IN

OUR SCHOOLS, GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESSES, SIGNIFICANTLY
CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE OF OUR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC
REALITIES.

INFORMATION IS ACCESSIBLE AT WARP SPEED, ENABLING PEOPLE TO

MAKE INFORMATIVE DECISIONS IN ALMOST ALL ASPECTS OF THEIR
LIVES AND THEIR LIVELIHOOD. OUR CHILDREN- THE YOUTH OF OUR
LAND ARE ONE OF THE BIGGEST WINNERS AND RECIPIENTS OF ICT
AND THEIR BENEFITS. THEIR FUTURES FIND ASSURANCE IN ICT.

IT IS UP TO US TO ENSURE THEIR FUTURE AND THOSE WHO WILL

COME AFTER THEM AND THROUGH THE PARTNERSHIPS WE HAVE
FORGED OUT OF MUTUAL CONFIDENCE AND PURPOSE.
THANK YOU!

MABUHAY!