Senate may look into DICT exec’s allegations

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate may look into allegations of fund misuse at the Department of Information and Communications Technology brought into the open by the resignation of DICT Undersecretary Eliseo Rio.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the committee on national defense and security, said the Senate could exercise its oversight function after Rio questioned the allocation and disbursement of some P300 million in confidential and intelligence funds by the DICT.

“Since there are no other details other than what was aired in the media by Undersecretary Rio, we can’t go beyond the realm of speculation as to the issues behind his resignation,” Lacson said.

“Having said that, there is a Senate oversight committee on confidential and intelligence funds that we may need to constitute in the 18th Congress, if not yet constituted,” he said.

He said the mandate of the panel is to exercise oversight over the use of confidential and intelligence funds.

The chairman of the committee in the 17th Congress was then senator Gregorio Honasan, now DICT secretary.

Rio earlier alluded to Honasan as accountable for the questionable disbursement of the funding and sought an audience with President Duterte to explain the matter.

Lacson and Senate President Vicente Sotto III, however, vouched for Honasan’s integrity.

Sotto said he has long known Honasan as a principled man.

Rio, in his resignation letter dated Jan. 30, 2020, cited several accomplishments of the DICT that led to direct investments of P518.8 billion in the first 10 months of 2019 that “is almost equal to the contributions of all other sectors combined.”

Among the accomplishments he cited in his letter were the extension of the validity of the pre-paid load to one year; lowering of the interconnection charges to make text messages and mobile phone calls cheaper; free use of the 6,200 kilometers of “dark fiber” of the National Grid Corp. for the country’s national broadband program; and the Common Tower project that would put up 50,000 new telecommunications structures to cope with the growing demand for faster internet and mobile access.

Honasan formally assumed the DICT portfolio on July 1, 2019 after his term in the Senate ended.

Rio declined to give details on what he said were serious problems in the department that were hampering the rollout of urgent projects.

He said the agency’s cyber security office purpose is not for surveillance but for securing the country from cyber threats.

Honasan, however, was unfazed by Rio’s allegations, adding he would wait for more details before answering them squarely.

He said as head of DICT, he would take full responsibility for problems in the agency. He also did not consider Rio resigned unless deemed so by Duterte.