RP e-commerce law needs improvement--CICT chief
By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 16:33:00 04/14/2008
MANILA, Philippines – Saying that electronic commerce in the Philippines remains in its infancy, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) chairman has suggested that the E-Commerce Law be "further enhanced."
Speaking at an e-commerce forum last week organized by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Philippine Internet Commerce Society (PICS) with CICT, CICT chairman Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III stressed that the country's e-commerce law still lacks "sufficient legal and policy frameworks and sophisticated infrastructure."
He said that the E-Commerce Law, Republic Act 8792, should include provisions on data privacy, intellectual property rights, domain names, and other security-related issues.
The CICT has recently formed a technical working group on data privacy that is mandated to revive and improve pending data privacy bills in the Senate and the House of Representatives, he said.
The group includes representatives from government, industry associations, such as the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, Philippine Computer Society, Chief Information Officers Forum, and the Philippine Internet Commerce Society.
The CICT chief said the technical working group is currently drafting its position. A data privacy survey conducted by lawyer Claro Parlade, executive director of the Cyberspace Policy Center in Asia Pacific, has provided a snapshot of the private sector's views on the matter.
Roxas-Chua also reiterated efforts to finalize the anti-cybercrime bill, which was crafted in October 2007 during a workshop organized by the Department of Justice, the CICT, and the Council of Europe with Microsoft.
"We are currently finalizing the draft bill, which incorporates the feedback from the workshop, for submission to the House of Representatives," he said.
Amid the controversy surrounding the scrapped national broadband network project, the CICT chairman stressed the need to improve the existing information and communications technology infrastructure to support the development of the e-commerce industry.
"Our ISPs [Internet service providers] need to continuously improve their services to ensure faster, more reliable and more affordable Internet connectivity. The government and private sector must also intensify campaigns on the benefits of ICT to the community," he said.
He said that CICT is currently doing its part to improve ICT infrastructure in the country through its community e-center program, which aims to provide computer access to 1,600 municipalities by 2010. The CeCs provide various ICT-based services, including basic computer skills training.
CICT has also been working for the integration of computer literacy in the school curriculum through its iSchools project. To date, it has provided 360 public high schools with computer labs and relevant digital content for enhanced classroom instruction.
According to Mary Anne Tolentino, president of PICS, a recent AC Nielsen survey shows that the number of Internet users in the Philippines is expected to hit 24 million in 2008, up from 14 million in 2006.
She said this growth was due to the establishment of more Internet cafés and the availability of low-cost computers.
"During the dotcom crash in 2000, we only had around two million Internet users, and in 2005 close to eight million although another report pegs this between 12-20 million. This is really a dramatic growth for the industry. I also learned from a famous blogger that current number of bloggers in the Philippines is estimated at 200,000, up from 40,000 only a year ago," she said.
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