IF THE Internet provider for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Manila was able to speed up the connection to 8.5 gigabytes per second, the same fast service should be made available to the public, Senator Grace Poe said Sunday.
“Not just for VIPs,” said Poe, the leading candidate for President in the surveys for next year’s elections.
“A faster Internet service should be for everyone and not just for VIPs,” Poe said.
She said the public—especially students and those who needed the Internet to work—should also be given access to a faster Internet service because this formed part of the public’s right to information.
Poe made her statement even as Malacañang said hosting the Apec meetings in Manila was a “lifetime opportunity” to show the world the Philippines’ best despite the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.
“Let me also take this opportunity to thank the entire Filipino people for their cooperation,” Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda told dzRB radio.
“I know we have pleaded for understanding, but this is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity for us to show our best foot forward and, considering the difficulties, and considering the recent Paris attacks, the security concerns, we were able to successfully host the Apec Leaders’ Summit.”
Poe said that, in 2013, the delegates to the first World Summit on the Information Society, which was launched by the United Nations in Geneva, affirmed the role of information and communication in nation-building.
The public’s right to access to information and communications technology was again affirmed in a convention in Tunis in 2005.
“There are a lot of Filipinos who are complaining about the slow Internet speed,” Poe said.
“Broadband speed still feels like dial-up connections in the 90s.”
Poe said that when it comes to the average Internet speed, the Philippines’ 3.7 mbps falls behind the 5.1 mbps in Myanmar, 5.6 mbps in Laos, 7.45 mbps in Malaysia, 9.42 mbps in Cambodia, 20.63 mbps in Thailand, 30.5 mbps in China, 73.3 mbps in the US, 103.2 mbps in Japan, and 133.1 mbps in Singapore.
“We can fix our ICT infrastructure if we want to,” Poe said.
“We can attain the fastest Internet speed that is necessary to facilitate learning, information access and business transactions online.”