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NTC back with ICT office

Business Mirror | 01/08/2009 9:51 AM

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The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has been transferred back to the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT).

In a statement, the CICT said President Arroyo has issued Executive Order (EO) 648, which transfers the NTC from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to the CICT.

EO 648 was signed on August 6, 2007, but was only released by the Malacañang records office on December 23, 2008.

The NTC was first transferred from the DOTC to the CICT when the latter was created in 2004 through EO 269. It was subsequently transferred back to the DOTC in 2005 as mandated by EO 454.

CICT Secretary Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III welcomed this development. The President, he said, has identified the growth and development of the ICT sector as a priority of her administration.

“As communications and information technology continue to converge, there is a need to converge the policy- making functions, as well,” said Roxas-Chua.“With the NTC once again an attached agency of the CICT, we look forward to being more responsive to the developments in the ICT industry.”

Roxas-Chua also believes this will bolster the CICT’s efforts to become a department.

“One of the provisions of the bill creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology [DICT] is the transfer of the NTC from the DOTC to the DICT,” said Roxas-Chua. “While the DICT bill is still pending in the Senate, the issuance of EO 648 brings us one step closer to our vision.”

NTC deputy commissioner Jorge Sarmiento said in a phone interview that the agency remains independent with regard to its regulatory and quasi-judicial functions.

“The NTC will still have its same functions,” he said. L. Lectura