SIGNAL BOOSTER. A netizen from Tacloban City wrapped his pocket WiFi and placed it on top of a bamboo stick to boost its signal in this April 5, 2020 photo. Officials in Eastern Visayas on Monday (July 27, 2020) lauded President Rodrigo Duterte’s warning to telecommunication companies to improve their services by December. (Photo courtesy of Mark Raquel Rogero)
TACLOBAN CITY – Officials in Eastern Visayas on Monday praised President Rodrigo Duterte’s imposed deadline to telecommunication companies Smart and Globe to improve their services by December.
For Ramil Uy, president of the Association (of) Government Information Officers in Eastern Visayas, said on Monday the President’s call to telecommunication companies is very timely as more people need the internet during this health crisis.
“I think we have sufficient infrastructure, but yet the services being provided by these networks are beyond what we paid for. The issue, I guess is the incapability of these networks to upgrade their capacity vis-a-vis the ballooning subscribers. They should know how to compute ratio and proportion,” said Uy, the information officer of the Department of Science and Technology regional office here.
In his State of the Nation Address, the President said the Filipinos’ patience with the services of these two companies is already at its limit.
“I’ll be straight. Smart pati itong Globe, ilang taon na ito? At ang sagot palagi sa akin (Smart and Globe, how many years this has been happening. The reply I always get is) the party cannot be reached. Edi saan pala pumunta yung yawa na iyon? (So where did the (connection) go?)".
“And you might not want what I intend to do with you. Kindly improve the services before December. I want to call Jesus Christ to Bethlehem, better have that line cleared,” the President said.
The President promised that improving the telecommunications of the country will be a priority of his administration in the next two years.
He vowed to fulfill it even without the two telecommunication companies.
In her social media post, Ma. Margarita Junia, the chief of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) field office in Maasin City, Southern Leyte, said she clapped when the President brought up this issue in his speech.
“Thank you beloved President Duterte! Smart and Globe, you have to listen well since we have been sacrificing for so long!” Junia said.
The official said their paperless reporting through interconnectivity is still not implemented due to poor signal.
Her staff has to travel three hours to Tacloban City from Southern Leyte to submit hard copies of reports. Some personnel have to return to the office at night and wait for a good signal to send other reports.
“Personally, I am having a hard time looking for a good signal for the online schooling of my grandchildren. We even placed our modem on top of the coconut tree, but it still slow. In the contract, they promised an internet speed of 10 megabytes per second (mbps), but it's actually only 2 mbps,” she added. (PNA)
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