Online petition to revive CICT gains momentum

Faculty and students of IT departments of 15 state colleges and universities (SUCs) have declared their support for the restoration of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and the eventual creation of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). The support was made through an online petition over ipetitions.com which contains an appeal to restore CICT. The petition has drawn more than 400 signatures over in a just a week, according to Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, chair of the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP) which initiated the on-line petition. The stream of support statements were also related via e-mail messages to Theody Sayco, head of the IT department of Central Luzon State University. The pledges of support to the appeal were gathered from the iSchools group composed of 39 SUCs all over the country who have implemented the iSchools Project, eSkwela Project, the Content Development Project, the Camp Blogs and the PC Recycling Projects under the CICT. More signatories are expected in the next few days, according to Sayco. The schools include the Central Luzon State University, Batangas State University, Bicol University, Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College, Visayas State University, Western Philippines University, Aklan State University, Capiz State University, Capiz State University, Benguet State University, Tarlac State University, Davao Del Norte State College, Romblon State University, Southern Luzon State University, Tarlac State University, and Pampanga Agricultural College. The NICP is also in the process of collating the statements of its member ICT councils from various cities and provinces in the country. With the support coming from the 15 SUCs, the NICP vowed to consolidate support statements from remaining SUCs in the country. The appeal requests Pres. Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III to reconsider and recall Executive Order No. 47 dated June 23, 2011, which abolished the CICT under the Office of the President and created an ICT Office under the Department of Science and Technology. The online petition states that by scrapping the CICT, EO 47 will remove the most effective catalyst and enabler of all the ICT councils in various regions, cities and provinces. The appeal also asserts that the CICT has been an effective implementing partner of the Philippine Digital Strategy (PDS). EO 47 has also scrapped the numerous partnership programs and projects under its four strategic groups, namely, e-government, cyberservices, human capital, and information infrastructure as well as various pending partnerships with academe, local stakeholders, and industry associations that all serve to harness the Philippines’ potential with the use of ICT, the petition said. — Newsbytes.ph