Where cowards dare not tread

The choice of opposition stalwart, Francis "Chiz" Escudero as one of this year’s The Outstanding Young Men ( TOYM ) awardees speaks highly of the award-giving body’s integrity and impartiality. The TOYM to this day remains to be the most prestigious award given to Filipino achievers under the age of 40.

The TOYM takes pride in the stringent selection process of its awardees, explains Butch Jimenez, president of the TOYM Foundation and an awardee in 1998 for multi-media achievements.

The responsibility of choosing the winners is divided between two groups – the TOYM Foundation and the Philippine Jaycees. The TOYM Foundation is solely responsible for choosing the members of the screening committee and the board of judges, while the Philippine Jaycees is tasked with running the process and setting the criteria. Not one single entity is responsible for both the selection of the judges and running the process at the same time.

According to Butch, the Jaycees cannot tell the foundation which judges to choose, while the foundation cannot impose on the Jaycees on how to run the process or set the criteria. This ensures that not one group holds all the power in choosing the winners.

The selection of the judges weighs heavily in the quality of the awardees. This year, the judges included Manuel V. Pangilinan, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Gutierrez, UP President Emerlinda Roman, Secretary Peter Favila, multi-awarded mayor Jesse Robredo, historian Ambeth Ocampo, among others – all men and women with high levels of credibility and integrity.

Other awardees include comedian Michael V, who I heard also won an award in the Asian Television Awards the same day, Paul Cruz for aquaculture, Edgardo Herbosa for countryside development, Alvin Marcelo for medical informatics, Corazon de Ungria for forensic science and Iliac Diaz for social entrepreneurship.

We all know how highly politicized our country is. Where before many major decisions are made, the question is always asked, "how will the President feel?". I’m glad we still have institutions like the TOYM which make independent decisions without political color.

One step towards political maturity is being able to make independent decisions. Though as a country we still seem to be far away from that, at least we see pockets of hope such as in the TOYM where we see that independence.

Congratulations is in order to the winners, and kudos to the brave board of judges led by its chairman, MVP. Lesser mortals would’ve second-guessed the President and refrained from giving Chiz, one of her most vocal critics, the award.

Just as a side note, my reporter friends covering the Malacañang beat saw that the President was sincere in welcoming and giving Chiz the award. They also saw that from the swarm of people asking for Chiz’s autograph and pictures, it seemed apparent that Chiz was more popular than PGMA even inside her own house and among her own staff.

Notes on VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP is taking off in the Philippines as overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) discover a cheaper and more efficient way of keeping in touch with families and friends at home.

VoIP – a technology for transmitting voice calls over the Internet or any other Internet Protocol (IP) based network – is expected to push down the price of long distance telephone calls, providing a much welcome windfall for the approximately seven million overseas workers scattered over some 186 countries worldwide. The technology is also generating significant business opportunities for both IP providers and telecommunication companies who are seeking to serve the world’s second largest overseas labor force.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) recently classified VoIP as a value added service (VAS) and not a telecommunications service, thus opening the market to VAS providers such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other non-telecommunication companies. In its March 2005 memorandum circular, the NTC explained it wants to develop and maintain "a viable, efficient, reliable and universal telecommunications infrastructure using the best available and affordable technologies," and to improve and extend "services to areas not yet served."

The NTC’s recently released rules on reallocation of radio frequencies for broadband wireless access, as well as the approved frequency allocations for Third Generation (3G) mobile telephony, is expected to enhance VoIP’s role in bridging the digital divide for Filipinos. 3G wireless technologies, such as CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev. A and UMTS Rel. 6, all support VoIP and are expected to improve the reach of broadband Internet into rural areas and bring quality VoIP communication to the provinces.

The Philippine government certainly sees the value of VoIP technology. National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) director general Romulo Neri expressed the need to encourage families of OFWs to take advantage of this technology to communicate with family abroad, citing its immense benefits to overseas Filipino workers and their families.

Local ISPs, such as Sky Internet, have come up with low-cost VoIP calling plans and local carriers, such as PLDT and Globe, have recently introduced VoIP services for their consumer broadband customers, with toll rates nearly 85 percent lower than their standard rates.

But it’s not just all talk. In addition to voice communication, VoIP’s Internet-based technology allows additional features, such as exchange of messages, video and other data communications. This is because the voice data flows over a general-purpose packet-switched network, instead of traditional dedicated, circuit-switched voice transmission lines commonly used by local telecommunication carriers.The traditional circuit-switched telephone networks were designed to carry only voice traffic. However, because circuit-switched networks reserve an entire channel for each conversation (even when no one is talking), they do not use the network’s available bandwidth efficiently. Conversely, packet technologies, such as IP, can interleave traffic from many users on shared facilities, using the network’s bandwidth more efficiently.

Telecommunication providers all over the world are shifting transport of voice traffic from traditional circuit switched to IP. Currently, 50 percent of all global telecommunication traffic is now carried over IP, and this figure is expected to rise to 75 percent in three to four years’ time.

Yet, for most consumers, the growing use of IP for international voice traffic has passed un-noticed, as IP data is usually converted to circuit switched for distribution to the end user so they do not even know they are using VoIP. Indeed, the fact that this is taking place unnoticed demonstrates the clear advantage that VoIP offers.

Because the NTC is opening up the VoIP market to VAS providers and this is creating competition, consumers are starting to benefit through lower international toll calls. Most carriers have begun offering VoIP calling plans for their broadband Internet customers in order not to lose out on call minutes that might go to other VoIP providers.

According to Australia-based analyst Paul Budde: "Network operators can save at least 30 percent on their network costs, so they will gradually replace their old voice switching technology with VoIP; and wireless VoIP charges can be 95 percent cheaper than comparable mobile charges."

This is good news for consumers as efficient use of bandwidth means immediate savings. With fewer restrictions for VAS providers, it also creates a highly competitive market for local and long distance calls, which in turn will lower VoIP long distance call rates.

The growth of VoIP in Asia is also being spurred by the corporate market as companies shift to VoIP for their internal and external telecommunications requirements. Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP-PBX) systems are replacing circuit switched analog and digital Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX) systems in Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong and Singapore, with other countries following suit. Frost & Sullivan forecasts that Asia‚s IP-PBX market will grow annually by 65 percent to reach US$1.67 billion by 2008, as companies transfer from circuit-based systems to packet-switched internal phone systems.

Palawan Representative Abraham Mitra has said that liberalizing the use of VoIP would also benefit government agencies. The government spent a whopping P3.7 billion in 2004 for "communication expenses" which included payments for Internet subscriptions. The Palawan lawmaker suggested, "VoIP can result in huge savings for cash-strapped government."

In order to catch up with the global market trend, it may be time to review the Republic Act 7925 - also known as Public Telecommunications Policy Act. The widespread utilization of VoIP could encourage the Government to revisit regulations in order to encourage the development of new applications and services to enhance Philippine competitiveness in the global information and communication technology market.