Honasan says foreign entities want to enter PH ICT system

DICT Secretary Gregorio Honasan II (Gregorio Honasan FACEBOOK / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)

Department of Information Communications and Technology (DICT) Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II revealed  that there are foreign entities that want to enter into the country’s information communications and technology system.

Honasan, a former Senator, revealed this when he appeared before a Senate finance sub-committee public hearing where he pleaded for more funds to finance DICT’’s national broadband and free wi-fi program in the country, particularly in far-flung areas.

“Magugulat ho kayo sa mga nadidiskubre naming na mga foreign entities na gustong pumasok sa sistema natin,’’Honasan told Senators Panfilo Lacson and Maria Josefa Imelda Marcos during the hearing. (You will be surprised that we discovered foreign entities trying tio enter into our system.

“Hindi lang naming alam kung bakit nila gustong pumasok and some of them claiming to be our friends. Now if you have friends like them who needs enemies?”he asked. (We don’t know why they want to come in and some are claiming to be our friends…)

Honasan revealed this during a question and answer phase of the committee hearing where Marcos noticed that the DICT for the first time has no budget for confidential expenses when in fact P800 million was given in 2020 and P300 million was given in 2019.

Honasan said that P400 million from the P800 million was used which is not even enough to buy a software and hardware that would be obsolete tomorrow. 

He said he did not push through with his plan to request for P800 million in confidential expenses because he knew this would be denied as government needs funds for other government expenditures.

by Mario Casayuran|ManilaBulletin 

Source: Peso Economics