Unfazed Honasan to push budget hike for DICT

MANILA, Philippines — Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Sec. Gregorio Honasan II will continue to demand for a higher budget from Congress to fuel the DICT’s national broadband and free wifi access programs, among others.

The House of Representatives has approved the DICT’s P5.15 billion budget for 2020, which is lower than its P7.1 billion budget in 2019. Out of the total available budget for 2020, P3.7 billion are considered new appropriations, while P1.5 billion are automatic appropriations.

Among the projects affected by the budget cut was the national broadband program with an approved budget of P196 million, or P14.5 billion short of the P14.7 billion DICT-requested fund. For the free WiFi program in public spaces and state universities and colleges, the DICT requested P6.3 billion but only P1.4 billion was approved.

Asked what the agency will do if Congress refuses to augment their funding for next year, an unfazed Honasan said: “We will appeal.”

“But the equation is very simple. You give us this, we will deliver this,” he added in an interview on the sidelines of a cybersecurity forum on Friday organized by the Stratbase ADR Institute in Makati.

The retired Philippine Army officer and former senator also appealed that Congress gives the DICT the chance to fund its programs since Congress could exercise its oversight power over DICT anyway.

Under the DICT’s P5.15 billion budget for 2020, some P263 million was earmarked for “infrastructure management” and another P17.6 million was given to its government emergency communications systems.

Some P179 million was also allocated for DICT’s digital literacy program. Their other projects are the national government portal (P381 million), national government data center (P295 million) and cybersecurity development and management program (P121 million).

The DICT has obtained an 83.4 percent utilization rate in 2018, a decline from the 2017 figure of 94.2 percent, according to the budget notes of the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department of the House of Representatives.  /muf