DICT to develop teleconferencing system for Cabinet meetings

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte presides over the 38th Cabinet Meeting at the Malacañan Palace on June 10, 2019. ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — Virtual Cabinet meetings under the Duterte administration may happen soon once a teleconferencing system is established, an official of the Department of Information and Communication said on Tuesday.

DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said the proposed system would help the Cabinet save time spent on heavy traffic and reduce vehicular volume along major roads in Metro Manila.

“We can have meetings virtually instead of meeting each other person to person. In fact, we can do more by avoiding heavy traffic.

We can have productive meetings through teleconferencing,” Rio said in his keynote address at the 2019 National ICT Summit held on Tuesday at the Novotel Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City.

Online Cabinet meetings can be conducted through the regional offices of the departments, Rio added.

“Even if the Cabinet secretaries are in their offices, they can still talk to a number of people through the internet network. It seems like talking face-to-face with them. So this will solve travel time, gasoline consumption and time wasted in traffic,” he said in an interview with reporters on the sidelines of the event.

“So this is an idea of the President because he said that he does not want to attend meetings and events because it will only cause traffic,” he added.

He urged other government agencies and private companies to hold teleconferences, which refers to meetings among several persons in different places linked through communication devices such as telephones, computers, videos, audios, among others.

DICT Undersecretary Denis Villorente said Rio ordered the creation of a plan to set up the teleconferencing infrastructure and coordinate with government agencies.

“The Secretary is looking for funding within our budget to be able to implement this. His instruction is for us to create a plan and determine how much is needed.

We still need to meet with agencies because some of them have already invested on their own facilities,” Villorente said.

“The secretary’s instruction is to implement for the Cabinet and the sub-clusters as well,” he added.

Villorente said once established, teleconferencing would be one of the available options to workers and firms who opt to hold meetings through video, which would eventually reduce vehicular traffic in the metropolis.

Last December, Duterte signed Republic Act 1165 or the Telecommuting Act which recognizes work-from-home arrangements in the private sector.

Under the law, employers in the private sector can offer their employees a telecommuting program on a voluntary basis.