(Last of three parts)

MANILA, Philippines -- Mismanagement, bureaucratic delays and lack of technological expertise hobbled a P739-million satellite-based nationwide broadband network of the government’s information machinery.

The Philippine Administrative Network Project (PANP) services the news gathering and dissemination network of the Philippine Information Agency and the Bureau of Broadcast Services (BBS) from the PIA offices in Quezon City to 27 sites across the country.

The system enables the government to feed press releases and information on government policies and events to the public through the PIA’s 10 regional offices, the state television network NBN 4 and 17 stations of Radyo ng Bayan.

PANP was initially financed with a P370-million loan from the French government and a P46-million counterpart fund from the Philippines under the RP-French Financial Protocol signed in 1998.

Some P17 million is spent every year for maintenance, including satellite rental, Internet access and salaries of its maintenance personnel.

Planned as early as 1992, the modernization of the government’s news and information system spent almost a decade on the drawing board before it became operational in 2001.

But within a year, PANP was in a sorry state.

In 2002, when the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) moved from Kalayaan Hall in Malacañang to the Arlegui Guesthouse, the PANP equipment had to be hauled off to the other building across the Palace, its fiber-optic cables cut.

For almost three years up to 2005, the PANP equipment, including servers and PABX systems which needed air-conditioned settings, was stashed away, rotting in some OPS stock room while the meter on the foreign loan was ticking.

Then the OPS decided in 2005 not to use the PANP system altogether. It transferred the network to the PIA and the BBS, which the OPS said had better use for the project.

Obsolete technology

An official of the OPS dismisses the PANP technology as becoming obsolete, and says the office prefers to use the Blackberry -- a handheld wireless e-mail device -- for its communication needs.

In addition to the services given to the PIA and BBS, PANP was originally meant to host the OPS website (www.ops.gov.ph) and the government portal (www.gov.ph) and allow the President to hold video-conferences with the Cabinet, local officials and citizens in remote parts of the country.

Left holding the bag, the PIA and BBS had no choice but to make do with the PANP. Now, PIA officials say the project is functioning but much of the equipment is in disrepair.

But since the technology was proprietary to the French, the purchase of the spare parts needed to repair the facilities and upgrade the video-streaming capability for use by the government’s TV station was tied to the expansion of the project.

New loan

As a result, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration signed last year another P227-million foreign loan from the French government for the PANP with a P50-million local counterpart, bringing the total cost of expansion to P327 million.

In all, P739 million has been plunked down for a system that has been neglected for years.

Even with the fresh infusion of funds, the system has not been utilized as efficiently as envisioned. Bureaucrats say they’d rather use cell phones to communicate.

PIA Director General Conrado “Dodi” Limcaoco admits the project is far from perfect. But he says scrapping it is not an option.

“Is it perfect? No. Are we using it? Yes. Should we sink it and pay for it or use it because we are paying for it? For me, I say use it,” Limcaoco says.

Not a lemon

Limcaoco says PANP is not a lemon, as some of the other broadband systems of government have become.

“This is not a political contract under the Arroyo administration. This was conceived during the Ramos administration, I just inherited it. The way I see it, my role is to see to it that we use it because it’s already been obligated. People before me, wiser than me, thought it to be a good project,” Limcaoco says.

He says that without the PANP, the PIA will go back to faxing its press releases and the Radyo ng Bayan and television stations will not be able to broadcast live.

A briefing paper prepared by Limcaoco and PANP project officers for the Philippine Daily Inquirer denies that PANP is a white elephant.

“It has not been fully maximized for various reasons, including equipment depreciation over time, and inadequate maintenance exacerbated by frequent changes in the top management of the agencies involved,” the paper says.

Victim of mismanagement

Engineer Jojo Nufable, PANP project coordinator, says PANP was a victim of mismanagement in OPS and bureaucratic politics.

“There was mismanagement (of the system) between 2003 to 2005 so the efficiency went down,” Nufable says.

Nufable says the equipment depreciated because of lack of proper maintenance at the OPS. The equipment lay idle for years until it was moved to PIA in 2005. He says the fiber optic cables were even cut when the OPS moved out of Kalayaan Hall to Arlegui.

“They thought those were the fiber optics of Erap (former President Joseph Estrada) so they cut them,” he says. He says the Presidential Security Group also refused to give permission to dig an underground fiber-optic connection in Malacañang for security reasons.

Leadership problems

Nufable says changes in OPS leadership also posed a problem for the PANP. He notes that the PANP went through more than nine press secretaries since the Ramos administration.

Nufable says some components of PANP, such as the video-streaming capability, were not availed of when some press secretaries decided to slash the budget for it.

He says the OPS changes also affected the maintenance budget. As a result, he says the efficiency of the system went down from 80 percent to 50 percent over time.

Other officials privy to PANP’s operations also point to “lack of technological appreciation” by the present OPS under Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye.

“(Former Press Secretaries Jess) Sison, Rod Reyes, Silvestre Afable and Ricardo Puno were supportive of this program. But with Secretary Bunye, there is zero appreciation,” says a source who declined to be identified for fear of losing his job.

Bunye prefers cell phones

Bunye, who is also the presidential spokesperson, takes exception to the criticism.

“Actually, it’s more of what that project is offering to do (that) has been overtaken by existing technology. Except that according to Dodi (Limcaoco), since we are under the French Protocol, we might as well use it,” Bunye says.

“We could accomplish our communications objectives through the regular cell phones,” Bunye adds.

Press Undersecretary Robert Rivera explains that PANP was “ceded” to PIA because its technology was becoming obsolete.

Still using analog

“They were using analog, but we are now digital. So it was my hunch that while it was workable at the time it was proposed, it might be overtaken by digital technology, which is exactly what happened,” Rivera says.

Limcaoco, however, says PANP was using digital technology contrary to Rivera’s claim. He and PANP coordinators say the technology is advanced because it is satellite-based.

“With the digital age and with some modern tools for communication like the Blackberry, we feel we can do at the moment with this. (It) is faster, real time and less costly,” Rivera says.