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Friday, October 22, 2004
GMA names Emphasis head of telecom office
PRESIDENT Arroyo has appointed former transportation and communications undersecretary Elberto Emphasis as head of the Telecommunications Office (Telof) with the rank of assistant secretary.
In the same appointment paper dated Oct. 12, Arroyo also named Emphasis as ex-officio commissioner, with a rank of undersecretary, of the newly created Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) under the Office of the President.
Telof is formerly the Bureau of Telecom (Butel), which used to be under the Department of Transportation and Communications, and now attached to CICT.
Telof has communications facilities in various cities and municipalities nationwide. In Bohol, Telof facilities are being used by telephone companies.
Emphasis, who will take his oath of office before Arroyo on Monday, wants to make Telof a profitable government agency, or at least break even in his first year in office.
He will establish more Internet services in the barangay level, especially in remote towns in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
“We will target more customers and under my command, there must be sincere public service with profit for the government,” Emphasis said.
When asked about Telof’s telegraph service, which is becoming obsolete because of text messaging through mobile phones, Emphasis said he will convert it into money transfer operations.
Under this scheme, the poor can easily send money to their families, he said.
Emphasis is a four-time president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Emphasis said CICT under Chairman Virgilio Peña will speed up the “electronic governance” (e-governance) of the Arroyo administration, such as the electronic bidding (e-bidding) and electronic procurement (e-procurement).
“If this scheme will be fully in place, there will be more transparency in the implementation of government projects that could minimize, if not eradicate, corruption,” he said. (EOB)
(October 22, 2004 issue)
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