MANILA, Philippines — Former Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary Eliseo Rio claimed Tuesday that the four awards previously given by the agency for the establishment of 1,035 very small aperture terminals (VSAT) in the country amounting to P466 million were “overpriced.”
During the hearing of the House committee on good government and public accountability, Rio pointed out that the DICT issued four notices of awards back in December 2020 for the procurement of managed internet service for the .
Rio said the notice of awards were issued to the following:
- Philippines Communications Satellite Corporation (PhilComSat) – P112.5 million for 250 sites
- We Are It Philippines, Inc. – P113.65 million for 257 sites
- Ione Resources, Inc. – P97.825 million for 215 sites
- Ebizolutions, Inc. – P140.615 million for 313 sites
A document from the DICT shows that the project seeks to provide a fully managed VSAT internet connectivity service to various locations in the country including geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas amid the pandemic.
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However, Rio, who , said that these were “overpriced” when compared to the DICT’s partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the free Wi-Fi program wherein each site only costs P227,000 per year.
“There were four awardees, all of them, cost per site per year is approximately about five times more than the UNDP,” Rio said.
