Discussing ICT in PNoy's 4th SONA

The 4th State Of the Nation Address

 

Last July 22, 2013, Pres. Benigno Simeon Cojuanco Aquino III also known as Noynoy Aquino or Pnoy (President Noy), delivered his 4th State of the Nation Address (SONA) to report to his boss (the Filipinos) of what have happen or what is the current situation of this country (Philippines). From his previous SONAs, I always like the he delivers his speech because he use Filipino dialect to deliver his report to the Filipinos more understandable and apprehensible specially to those who haven’t got the chance to learn the universal language -the English language. The speech lasted for more than one and a half hour.

 

On his SONA he discuss about the great help of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) particularly in Risk Reduction, but he did not discuss about the ICT alone. But in his speech he boasted the DOST Project Noah which belongs to the ICT field and the help of IT-BPO which help the country’s economy to grow. The Risk Reduction and IT-BPO were the two areas help and improve the quality of life that the Filipinos is now experiencing. Though most of his speech is focused on the country’s current growing economy and the elevating life style of the Filipinos, we can noticed that most of it were because of the technology.

For example the DOST’s Project Noah which help the Filipinos particularly in this rainy season to be aware of the upcoming rains, thunderstorms, and flood that they can possibly experience in this area. Particularly to the lower areas in National Capital Region or NCR specifically in Marikina City and the country’s capital -in Manila. Project NOAH gives a more accurate, integrated, and responsive disaster prevention and mitigation system, especially in high-risk areas throughout the Philippines. Last July 6, 2013, PNoy encourages the Filipinos to use the Project NOAH for their own protection for the upcoming typhoons and heavy rains that the country will be experiencing. It is a powerful tool to help the Filipinos to predict the possible disasters that the Filipinos might undergo. It can also detect landslides and earthquakes prone areas. The Project NOAH also display real-time satellite, Doppler radar, ARG, and WLMS data to empower LGUs and communities to prepare against extreme natural hazards, which makes the DOST highly regarded today. For this innovation the president promotes the DOST website to the Filipinos to be always prepared and not be distress because of the calamities and blame the Philippine government for their lack of preparation for the coming disasters.

For the fast growing IT-BPO in the country, we all know that technology now a days were being used by everyone, whether you are a toddler, adolescent, teenager, young adult, adult and even the old age person can experience the technology, because of this fast growing and fast changing technology, and because everyone wants to be more comfortable, IT-BPO is now trend to the business field. President Noynoy also praise the IT-BPO industry for its great help in the rising economy of the Philippines.

How does IT-BPO works here in Pihilippines? One of the most popular and on demand jobs here in the country which gives hundreds of thousands jobs to the Filipinos is the Call centers. It is one of the most popular job in the Philippines whether a graduate or undergraduate part itme or full time, call center can hire you as one of their agents, then you will be called a call center agent. Call center agents were hired for its client to be more comfortable because of their business style, they just call their clients or the clients would call the company and ask for an inquiry and the call center agents will handle your concerns. Last 2011 the call center agents were numbered and they are more than 400,000. This makes the Philippines the highest number of employees at the call centers. And it has more than 1000 call center in the country.

What is BPO? Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of specific business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider. Originally, this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as Coca Cola that outsourced large segments of its supply chain.

IT-BPO handles legal and medical transcription, finance, logistic and accounting and software development and animation. Because of IT-BPO Filipinos now can live comfortably and continue their business without hassles in going to the banks or office of the said services.

Technology is now fast growing and fast changing, others might not have noticed but technology is now everywhere. it is good that Philippines use technology for the betterment of the country, unlike other people uses social networking which is also in the field of technology to point, blame and annoy other person and even the government. Though it is good to give your opinion but it is not a good practice for anyone to find any errors, mistakes and fault in the current government. For me, President Aquino is a good leader, as I can observe he does what he can to satisfy the need of the Filipinos. I am contented for his effort in handling the presidency. He does not have an evil plan to be be like the greedy and liar presidents we previously have.

I congratulate President Noynoy Aquino for the success of his 4th SONA. I hope that in his next SONA PNoy will also appreciate the ICT itself in the Philippines because of its help improving the life of the Filipinos. I also hope that Philippines someday will not be the country who is being hired to give service to other countries or the people overseas, I hope that the scenario will be inverted, that the Philippines will be the one who will hire foreigners to give their service and be paid from their Filipinos employer. I hope it would happen someday :) - Filipinos as an employer and not as an employee :). No more Filipino slaves!