House Bill 6968 aims to strengthen NTC's existing powers | News | Techie.com.ph
11:12 PM | Thursday | 09 September 2010

A bill seeking the reorganization of the Big Brother of all telecommunication services in the Philippines, the National Telecommunications Commission, is pending in the House of Representatives. 

Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez have just filed House Bill 6968 which aims to strengthen the NTC's existing powers. This amid the call to abolish the agency, allegedly because it is favoring the companies that it's supposed to regulate.

Villafuerte explained, "As a number of new players have emerged in the past years, it has become imperative for the government to provide a regulatory environment to develop a viable, adequate, efficient, and universal information and communications sector using the best available and affordable technologies."

In short, he's saying that it's time to regulate the new players in the information and communications industry. 

Under the bill, the NTC will:

• have jurisdiction over all persons and entities engaged in the operation and/or provision of information and communications telecommunications, broadcast, cable TV, and other multimedia infrastructure and services; and
  
• be tasked to establish standards, specifications, measures, guidelines, rules, and regulations that will govern the operations of service providers in the areas of information and tel, broadcast, cable TV, and other multimedia service providers.

And the icing on the cake? The NTC will have fiscal autonomy, meaning its appropriation should be equal to or more than the amount appropriated for the previous year, which should be released immediately after approval. A pretty good bonus, yeah? In exchange, the agency is required to set up a rigorous training program for its personnel. Fair enough.