Jun Lozada backs revival of NBN project, won't act as consultant

Building a major digital highway for public use will improve the Internet service in the country, engineer Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada said Wednesday.

With this, the Philippines can shed off its image as one of Asian countries with the slowest and most expensive Internet service.

Lozada, whistleblower of the scuttled $329 million National Broadband Network-ZTE deal during the Arroyo administration, supports the revival of the project as long as funds will be accounted for.

“The project can be finished in two to three years if the funds for the project won't go to corruption,” he told reporters after launching in Pasig City the first Filipino-developed software which would allow smartphone users to disable the device remotely.

Underscoring the need for a digital network, Lozada said higher Internet penetration and better broadband services bode well for the economy.

“We have come to an age that we are dealing with digital goods. We have seen that more than 10 years ago that the world will move into a time where we will be dealing with digital goods. So the country, through the government, must also provide its citizens the digital highway where all those digital goods can move around,” he said.

The former head of the defunct Philippine Forest Corp. though is not keen on working with the government again to make the NBN possible.

“It's so traumatic for the family that even the thought of going back there really scares them,” said Lozada, who was a technical consultant in the broadband project.

Lozada made headlines in 2008 when he accused some government officials and former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, of lobbying for a large sum of money with China’s Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Corp. in exchange for the contract’s approval.

The Arroyo couple and former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos were later charged with graft in connection with the anomalous deal before the Sandiganbayan.

But despite the scrapping of the NBN-ZTE deal, the Aquino administration had expressed interest in developing a solid ICT infrastructure in government.

In September 2011, the government announced that it was looking at the possibility of setting up a Government Broadband Network or GBN that will ride on the existing transmission facilities of telecommunication providers, particularly the fiber facility of the National Transmission Corp. or Transco.

The GBN was supposed to cost P800 million or almost 20 times cheaper than the NBN-ZTE contract and less than the P2 billion that the government spends for Internet services each year.

GMA News Online asked Department of Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo on the status of the proposal, but he has yet to reply as of this posting time. — BAP, GMA News