AN INDUSTRY leader said it is about time for the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to increase its budget for innovation amid the reported failure of the free WiFi project in the country.

Earlier, the Commission on Audit (COA) hit the DICT due to its flop implementation of the four-year project worth P6.5 billion.

The COA, in its 2017 audit report, said the lack of project planning and coordination resulted in its failure.

Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, executive director of the Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for ICT (Bnefit), said higher allocation for innovation should be balanced with infrastructure, making the utilization process more efficient.

Batapa-Sigue, also the vice president of the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP), said industry development is not just about connectivity but many other things.

“It is a holistic digital transformation,” she stressed, adding that "we are not saying that free WiFi is not important, but they put more budget to connectivity and less with innovation."

In 2011, the government, through its internet for all project, has laid out a five-year program providing free internet services.

The COA further reported that in 2016, under the Duterte administration, the project was tweaked and renamed as Pipol Konek.

Its findings, however, revealed that as of December last year, the project achieved a very low-performance rating.

Batapa-Sigue said while there was a bigger budget earmarked for connectivity, the innovation team was hardly looking for a fund for ICT training and missions, among others.

Batapa-Sigue said she worked closely with the team in developing and implementing strategies to integrate the Philippines in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

"The NICP and Bnefit have worked with the DICT in major areas like digital governance and the digital economy," she added.

Digital governance is empowering cities and provinces to create eGovernance systems to make local government services delivery more efficient.

Digital economy, on the other hand, is developing provincial locations for ICT-enabled jobs and services.

Batapa-Sigue said these are done through closely working with ICT councils, helping improve digital skills, and create startup ecosystems at the regional level.

Also, by stepping up global services to complex ICT segments like software development, animation and game development, and healthcare information management, she said.

"I am urging the DICT to involve more stakeholders’ participation in planning," the official added.