ICT AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF THE FILIPINO YOUTH

1. ICT AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF THE FILIPINO YOUTH Deputy Commissioner KATHLEEN G. HECETA, First Philippine Youth Consultative Meeting on WSIS, Asian Development Bank Headquarters, 08 September 2003

2. What is WSIS? It is a single high-level event that brings together Heads of State, Executive Heads of the United Nations agencies, industry leaders, non-governmental organizations, media representatives, and the civil society to assemble at a high-level gathering and develop a better understanding of the ICT revolution and its impact on the International Community.

3. What is the significance of WSIS to the country? The Arroyo Administration declared ICT as one of the pillars necessary to push the country’s socio-economic agenda.

4. What is the expected outcome of the WSIS? • Develop and foster a clear statement of political will and a concrete plan of action for achieving the goals of the Information Society, while fully reflecting all the different interests at stake. • Offer a unique opportunity for global community to reflect, discuss and give shape to our common destiny in an era when countries and peoples are interconnected as never before.

5. Objective, goals and targets of WSIS: BENCHMARKS • (WSIS Intersessional meeting) • All villages to be connected by 2010, with a community • access point by 2015. • 90 per cent of the world’s population to be within wireless • coverage by 2010 and 100 per cent by 2015. • All universities to be connected by 2005, all secondary • schools by 2010 and all primary schools by 2015. • All scientific research centres to be connected by 2005. • All public libraries to be connected by 2006 and all cultural • centres, museums and archives by 2010. • All hospitals to be connected by 2005 and health centres • by 2010.

6. All central government departments to have a website and • e-mail address by 2005 and all local government • departments by 2010. • All primary and secondary school curicula to be revised to • meet the challenges of the information society by 2006. • All of the world’s population to have access to domestic radio • services by 2010 and domestic TV services by 2006. • The necessary technical conditions should be in place by • 2010 to permit all world languages to be present and used on • the Internet. • Building awareness of the use of ICTs to all segments of • society by 2020.

7. ICT in the Philippines: • TheInformation Technology and Electronic Commerce Council (ITECC) • organized in 2000 pursuant to Executive Order No. 264 chaired by Her Excellency, the President of the Philippines. (Public and Private) • streamlines all ICT related government agencies to provide effective and focused leadership in the implementation of the nation’s ICT policy agenda. • Vision - an ‘enabled society where empowered citizens have access to technologies that will provide quality education, efficient government service, greater source of livelihood, and a better life.’

8. ICT in the Philippines: Philippine Telecommunications Policy/Plan • ‘Telecommunications is essential to the nation’s economic development, integrity and security and shall be developed and administered to safeguard, enrich and strengthen the economic, cultural, social and political fabric of the country’. (RA 7925, Philippine Public Telecom Policy Act) • The Philippine shall use ICT to face the challenge of nation’s emergent economy and establish our standing as a competitive player in the world market. It is our vision that in the 21st Century, the Philippines would have laid the infrastructure for every business, every agency, every school, and every home in the Philippines to have access to information society. (Medium term plan)

9. ICT in the Philippines: Industry Structure ( As of December 31, 2002)

10. FIXED LINES PER 100 POPULATION MOBILE 19.36 PER 100 POPULATION NATIONWIDE 4.17 National Capital Region15.79 Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao .35 ICT in the Philippines: Telephone density in the Philippine (2002)

11. ICT in the Philippines: Strategic Roadmap for ICT: Source-ITECC • E- Government implementation • Make it easier to do business in the country (investor-friendly); • Improve efficiency, accessibility, accountability and transparency in delivering basic services; • Spur the domestic ICT Market with the government as the largest customer; • Provide proper environment to enable and increase IT usage. • Human Resource Development • Increase the use of IT in delivering Basic Education; • Improve the quality of IT knowledge/skills throughout the supply chain; • Accelerate the development of relevant IT knowledge/skills; • Leverage overseas Filipino ICT professionals.

12. ICT in the Philippines: • Business Development • Build the RP brand and image; • Focus on niches in the Foreign Market where the country has a sustainable competitive advantage; • Use a more targeted approach in selling and closing outsourcing opportunities. • Legal and Regulatory Framework • Rationalize the institutional framework by creating a Department of ICT; • Strengthen the legal and policy framework to address critical issues arising from new technologies; • Provide a support framework to ensure enforcement of laws, promote e-commerce and ICT investments.

13. ICT in the Philippines: • Information Infrastructure • Consolidate existing government ICT resources to be shared by all government offices; • Undertake the development of a Universal Service Program; • Update network performance service standards to conform with acceptable Global standards; • Develop a National IT Security Program

14. Empowerment of the Filipino Youth Advocating ICT and an Empowered Youth • An empowered youth is a nation’s best hope for the future. Given their inspiring capacity for creativity, ingenuity and restless energy, it is vital to create an environment that can harness these positive qualities and nurture them to be able to forge towards the future with confidence and noble expectations. • With ICTs vast powers and potentials as a major catalyst of economic growth, it is being harnessed by the Philippine government to help narrow the income disparities among Filipinos and bridge the existing digital divide among the different regions and communities in our country.

15. Empowerment of the Filipino Youth RP Laws, ICT and the Filipino Youth The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child • Mankind owes to the child the best it has to give.” The Rights of the Child demand that we must go beyond providing for the basics like food, clothing, and shelter and should strive to succor to the child’s emotional, social and spiritual needs.

16. Empowerment of the Filipino Youth The 1987 Philippine Constitution heralds the nation’s commitment on the significant role of the Filipino youth in nation building. • Article 13 of the Constitution affirms that, “The state recognizes the vital role of youth in Nation building and shall protect and promote their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual and social well-being. It shall inculcate in youth patriotism and nationalism and shall encourage their involvement in the public and civic affairs.”

17. Empowerment of the Filipino Youth The Child and Youth Welfare Code or Presidential Decree 603 of December 10, 1974 declares: • The child is one of the most important assets of the nation. Every effort should be exerted to promote his survival and development and enhance his opportunities for a useful and happy life. • The Child is not a mere creature of the State. Hence, his individual traits and aptitudes should be cultivated to the utmost insofar as they do not conflict with the general welfare.” • Other institutions, like the school, the church, the guild, and the community in general should assist the home and state in the endeavor to prepare the child for the responsibilities of adulthood.”

18. Empowerment of the Filipino Youth Republic Act 7610, Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act enacted on June 17, 1992. It is the State’s policy to: • provide special protection to children from all firms of abuse, neglect, cruelty exploitation and discrimination and other conditions, prejudicial to their development, provide sanctions for their commission and carry out a program for prevention and deterrence of and crisis intervention in situations of child abuse, exploitation and discrimination. • protect and rehabilitate children gravely threatened or endangered by circumstances which affect or will affect their survival and normal development and over which they have no control.

19. Empowerment of the Filipino Youth Republic Act No. 9208, an Act to Institute Policies to eliminate Trafficking in Persons especially Women and Children, establishing the necessary Institutional Mechanism for the Protection and Support of Trafficking Persons • A landmark legislation enacted last May 2003, it specifically contemplates Internet content in defining “pornography” and the crime of trafficking in persons. “Pornography” is defined as any representation, through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent shows, information technology, or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primarily sexual purposes.

20. Empowerment of the Filipino Youth Monitoring of Youth Programs and Projects implemented by Government Agencies The DBM has issued a circular mandating all government agencies, GOCCs and LGUs to institutionalize youth development programs, activities and projects, in their annual planning, programming and budgeting process, implementation and monitoring and evaluation. The National Youth Commission is tasked to spearhead this monitoring scheme and submit an annual Accomplishment Report with HR of Congress, the DBM and NEDA. While this is not specifically aimed to cater to ICT by the Youth sector, it provides a feasible window of opportunity to bring in ICT programs and projects that benefit the youth.

21. Empowerment of the Filipino Youth National conference of E-learning (Aug. 7-8, 2003) Under its Strong Republic Program, President Arroyo pushed for the government’s distance learning program to raise the literacy rate in some 400 remote and impoverished barangay in the country. It aims to provide a communication infrastructure for TV broadcasting and Internet access as a primary medium to deliver the distance learning program and translate the standard education program, as well as a pre-emptive way to stop the recruitment of terrorist and the spread of insurgency. Critical to this program is the continuance of e-learning with the teaching of English and the upgrade of math and science in schools. In re-iterating that technology is the foundation of future economic development, the President emphasized that technology must not only be a subject matter of our curriculum but as the medium of the message in preserving our values. Knowledge without character is not acceptable. She called for deeper inculcation of moral, social and cultural values through our basic education system.

22. Empowerment of the Filipino Youth MOBILE IT CLASSROOM (MITC) In line with its outreach program, the DOST, under its Science Education Institute, has a Mobile IT Classroom (MITC) which is a special bus with laptop computers, audio visual equipment and learning software, that goes around designated areas in the regions on schedule to make science learning through computers fun and easy. This goes to the grassroots level, bringing ICT specially the internet, to the remotest barrios and barangays. While it may take time for the government to provide computers to all public schools, it is good that MITC is already roaming around schools, inching its way through rough roads and crossing wooden bridges, to give students in the barrio a ride in cyberspace.

23. Empowerment of the Filipino Youth BRIDGEIT OR TEXT2TEACH PROGRAM, etc. A global program developed locally under the leadership of the Ayala Foundation with the commitment and involvement of UNDP, the Pearson library, the Department of Education, Seameo Innotech, Globe Telecom, Dream Broadcasting and Chikka Asia. It aims to deliver digital education materials to schools using mobile technology. Interactive, multi-media learning materials become accessible to local classrooms around the world. In a countrywide pilot beginning June 2003, fifth and sixth grade teachers and pupils in 40 public and private schools from Manila and Mindanao use mobile phones to access a library of more than 80 full length science videos. The selected videos are downloaded via satellite to the digital video recorder connected to a television in the classroom. The Philippines has been chosen as the pilot site, primarily due to country’s comfort level for digital technology, particularly the cell phone and its English proficiency.

24. Community e-Centers (CEC): Philippine Model This project will augment the existing government efforts on solving the “last mile problem” with private sector and local community participation to improve bandwidth affordability in remote areas through several deployment models. These e-centers can establish a new channel for delivery of e-government services at a lower cost.

25. Empowerment of the Filipino Youth THE FUTURE AND ICT NO DOUBT THE POWER OF ICT IS WORKING BEHIND THE SCENE IN OUR SCHOOLS, GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESSES, SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE OF OUR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC REALITIES. INFORMATION IS ACCESSIBLE AT WARP SPEED, ENABLING PEOPLE TO MAKE INFORMATIVE DECISIONS IN ALMOST ALL ASPECTS OF THEIR LIVES AND THEIR LIVELIHOOD. OUR CHILDREN- THE YOUTH OF OUR LAND ARE ONE OF THE BIGGEST WINNERS AND RECIPIENTS OF ICT AND THEIR BENEFITS. THEIR FUTURES FIND ASSURANCE IN ICT. IT IS UP TO US TO ENSURE THEIR FUTURE AND THOSE WHO WILL COME AFTER THEM AND THROUGH THE PARTNERSHIPS WE HAVE FORGED OUT OF MUTUAL CONFIDENCE AND PURPOSE.

26. THANK YOU! MABUHAY!