National broadband must bring jobs

Government’s plan for a new national broadband brings to mind the failed network attempted a decade ago. And the reported interest of Chinese telecom giant ZTE to join anew arouses suspicion. So sleazy was the broadband project of 2007 that it had to be scrapped. No less than the presidential spouse and the Comelec head were exposed in a Senate inquiry to have meddled in the G2G deal. ZTE was denounced for inserting in the P16.5-billion ($329-million) price tag a P10-billion ($200-million) kickback. The much cheaper originator was coerced to back off, a Cabinet man was offered P200-million bribe, his tech consultant was kidnapped, and another tech guy bared the payoffs. So graphic were the findings then that Filipinos became wary of government undertaking any broadband. ZTE later was investigated at the US Congress for embedding spyware in networks it laid down for federal agencies.

The Dept. of Information and Communications Technology has given no details of the new broadband. There are no postings on its website, apart from tantalizers about speeding up the Internet – any modern Filipino’s dream – in “last-mile” connections to homes, offices, campuses, parks, and malls. The announced budget is stupendous: P80 billion to P200 billion. It contradicts Moore’s Law that microchips double in speed for half the price every 18 months.

Joey de Venecia, who conceptualized but was bullied out of the national broadband in 2007, wonders if government today would be the third competitor to private networks Smart and Globe. Jun Lozada, who blew the whistle on the huge “tong-pats” back then, calls for vigilance against “regulatory capture” of the DICT by whoever would design the network this time. Dante Madriaga, who detailed the old payoffs, hopes the present technology would be the latest. All three stress the need for transparency in every step of the new government work.

The same first week of March when the DICT announced the national broadband plan came dark news about ZTE from America. The Chinese recidivist had breached US trade sanctions and obstructed federal probes. It had bought technology and parts from US firms, then sold the wares to Iran and North Korea. Pleading guilty, ZTE accepted the fine of $892 million for sanctions-busting, and a further $300 million should it fail to fulfill the corrections. It is the stiffest ever imposed by the US on a Chinese firm.

That news bit not only is coincidental but also providential. It is a source of lessons for the Philippines. Like, the government should have penalized ZTE for the 2007 misdeeds. More important, for the present broadband plan, the government can impose conditions on companies that will bag all or parts of the P80 billion to P200 billion contracts.

The imposition that would be most beneficial is to hire Filipinos en masse. Contracts must have conditions like technology transfer by foreign suppliers, and local hires for exclusive operating rights in certain locales. The P80 billion to P200 billion in the telecom backbone should pump-prime the economy via direct employment. The new hires would then spur more jobs in support lines, like food canteens, daily transport, or uniform tailoring.

No longer should government buy technologies that enrich and employ only foreigners. Two such fiascos come to mind:

• The Comelec purchase, twice already, of voting machines and accessories, totaling P30 billion. The contracts were cornered by a disreputable Venezuelan, who jobbed out the fabrication to Taiwan. Even the emergency supply of 144,000 flash drives was sourced from Thailand. Filipino info-technologists and tech-shops were kept out of the loop. That’s P30 billion wasted in three elections, with no Filipino labor value added.

• The government contracting of a Dutch for P3.8 billion to make 10 million pairs of vehicle registration plates – of which only a few thousands were delivered, defective at that. The 2013 bidding was rigged. Disqualified at the onset on flimsy grounds was the lowest bidder, a Filipino who had been making the plates for decades and a Polish who was to put up a factory in Luzon. Six other low bidders were eased out. The two highest bidders were left. Chosen was the Filipino convicted of forgery and thus blacklisted from government contracting, and the undercapitalized Dutch partner. After wangling a down payment of hundreds of millions, they had the plates made in India. The prototypes were substandard, with the metal crumpling like paper in Manila's floods. The first delivery of 11 cargo containers got stuck at the Manila port for the contractor’s inability to pay the import duties. That’s another P3.8 billion lost to wheeler-dealers and bribees.

* * * Dedicated Filipino public servants are not a dying breed; they just go about their work quietly. Metrobank Foundation continues to seek them out, for esteem and emulation, in an annual Search for Outstanding Filipinos. Starting this year the awards for exemplary teachers, soldiers, and policemen will be combined, four for the first and three each for the two other professions. The individual cash award is raised to P1 million, plus presidential medal, and Metrobank trophy. Nominees should have served at least ten years, and consistently been rated by superiors as top-class. Winners will be announced on Metrobank’s 54th anniversary in Sept., then presented to Malacañang, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. They will go on a yearlong speaking tour about their advocacies.

Deadline for nominations is on Apr. 7. Forms and details are available at any MetroBbank branch, or in the following weblinks:

• for Outstanding Teachers, http://bit. ly/SOT2017NominationForm

• for Outstanding Soldiers, http://bit. ly/TOPS2017NominationForm

• for Outstanding Police Officers, http://bit.ly/COPS2017NominationForm

* * * Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ, (882-AM).

Gotcha archives on Facebook: https:// www. facebook. com/ pages/ Jarius- Bondoc/ 1376602159218459, or The STAR website http://www.philstar.com/author/ Jarius%20Bondoc/GOTCHA

For the stupendous cost of P80 billion to P200 billion, officials should compel proponents to hire Filipinos en masse.