Fifteenth Post : MIS: Assignment 7_SONA

To answer this question, I surf the internet to look for the full text of the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of our President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for this year that was happened on the month of July because I didn’t actually saw or heard the president on her speech.

After reading the full text, here are some of the areas that the president mentioned that I think related with the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) sector:

Creation of ICT Department
“Kung noong nakaraan, lumakas ang electronics, today we are creating wealth by developing the BPO and tourism sectors as additional engines of growth. Electronics and other manufactured exports rise and fall in accordance with the state of the world economy. But BPO remains resilient. With earnings of $6 billion and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon speaks eloquently of our competitiveness and productivity. Let us have a Department of ICT”

As part of the third-world countries, it’s good to know that finally our president decided to have a department that focuses on the issues related to information and communications technology. Compared to other countries, we should not limit ourselves with the modern breakthroughs and the latest trends of technologies that most countries are using nowadays especially those who belong in the first-world countries. We should not be contented of what we have now we must push through advancement to be competent enough with those modernized countries. It was also mentioned there about the BPO or Business Process Outsourcing. I am happy that our nation’s economy is moving towards this so called BPO. BPO helps our fellow Filipino to acquire jobs not only here but also abroad and because of this many of the unemployed people and fresh graduates can grab this opportunity to earn money to provide for their basic needs.

Telecommunication
“Sa telecommunications naman, inatasan ko ang Telecommunications Commission na kumilos na tungkol sa mga sumbong na dropped calls at mga nawawalang load sa cellphone.”

This line really caught my attention. The issue here is the loss of load unexpectedly and the expiration of loads. As a mobile phone user, I also encounter this problem. Since cellphones plays a very important role in the lifestyle of most Filipinos (rich or poor) and a means of communication nowadays cellphone load has already been part of the budget of the Filipinos as part of their expenses. We can’t deny the fact that when this problem occur the telecommunication networks are usually being blamed because they are the one distributing the cellphone loads. It’s a great thing that the government already found a way to prevent this issue. Now, the expiration of the loads has been extended. And I guess everyone of us can benefit from this. Though there are still instances of load loss but am glad that the government made an action.

Automated Election
“As the seeds of fundamental political reform are planted, let us address the highest exercise of democracy, voting! In 2001, I said we would finance fully automated elections. We got it, thanks to Congress.”

For the first time in the Philippine history, automated election will implemented this coming election in 2010. I would proudly say that this is just one step into a digital advancement. This development can greatly ease the work of the people in voting and counting the votes. And it is much easier to conduct that using a manual system. We are aware that in politics there are cheats and anomalies in election and I guess having this automated election can lessen those issues and can make the process of election faster and easier. I hope that this coming election in 2010 would be a successful one.