Cybersecurity advocate lauds former DICT official

FORMER Party-list Rep. and cybersecurity advocate Francisco Ashley Acedillo commended lawyer and former undersecretary for policy and legal affairs of the Department of Information and Communications Technology Jose Vicente Salazar, “for serving as an effective bridge between the government and the private sector, especially in the present discussions on e-governance, cybersecurity and the implementing rules and regulations of the SIM Card Registration Act.”

Acedillo is also the chief of staff of the chairman of the powerful Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

“It saddens me, though, to see him leave government service as we will lose a very capable, knowledgeable and honest public servant in Atty. Salazar. But family comes first, and I admire his decision in any case,” said Acedillo, referring to the lawyer’s irrevocable resignation from the DICT because of the health condition of his wife.

Acedillo, who heads the Philippine Institute of Cybersecurity Professionals Inc., said with the exit of Salazar from government, PICSPro “lost a valuable partner in our mission and advocacies for the country’s information and communications technology sector”.

“In his brief stint at the DICT, I saw his all-out commitment to the government’s ICT agenda, as well as his transparency and integrity—stellar qualities which could have served the Department in particular and the government in general - in good stead,” said Acedillo who, as a member of the 16th Congress, was one of the principal authors of Republic Act 10844 which created the DICT.