Pwede pa! Ping says DICT’s broadband program can still get funding if…

After being virtually stripped of funding for 2021, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)’s national broadband program still has a chance to get the funding it needs, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Saturday.

Lacson, who sponsored the DICT’s 2021 budget, said this is if there are savings in other agencies under the executive department.

“Ang savings pwede i-realign papunta sa National Broadband Program. Present naman ang line item doon, may NBP sa item ng DICT, kung gagawin yan,” he said in an interview on DWIZ radio.

“Kaya pwede pa rin makahingi ng additional budget ang DICT kung may savings sa ibang ahensya,” he added.

Earlier, Lacson lamented the DICT got a “useless” increase of less than P1 billion – a far cry from the P18 billion it needs to implement the much-needed national broadband program.

He said it was “odd” that while the Senate sought to add P3 billion and the House another P2 billion to the P902-million allocation for the NBP, the added funding was whittled down to P900 million instead of P5 billion at the bicameral level.

The national broadband program would have meant savings of up to P34 billion for the national government in the next five years, he noted.

“Kung makakahingi sila sa Pangulo within the executive kasi under the Constitution pwede mag-realign ang Pangulo within the executive department,” Lacson said.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)