INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

Prospero Pichay podcast interview transcript, part 4

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Alex Villafania: Sir, good afternoon, Alex Villafania for INQUIRER.net. I cover the Infotech beat.

Prospero Pichay: Yeah. Hi, Alex.

Alex Villafania: Sir, earlier you mentioned something about [the] business process outsourcing industry. Do you have any specific platforms regarding the IT [information technology] industry?

Prospero Pichay: Well, I think, as far as the IT industry, we already have the right infrastructure here, no? The requirement is at least two telcos. And we have PLDT and Bayantel. And we have places like Subic. We have Clark. We have other areas wherein you can really put up the BPOs. I think there's no need for us to legislate. I think there's a need for us to just invite these people who are into BPOs and show to them that the Philippines is a nice place.

You know, two, a few months ago, I had a visitor from Wall Street, New York. And one of their biggest problem[s] actually is coming to the Philippines because from New York, there's no direct flight. Not unlike, I mean not like India. In India, there's a direct flight from New York to New Delhi. And that's the reason why there's a lot of call centers in New Delhi because most of the clients are from Wall Street. So, if and when we can convince Philippine Airlines to fly direct from New York to the Philippines, then we will be able to convince a lot of people from Wall Street to bring in the BPOs in our country.

We have beautiful places like Subic, Clark, and I'm sure that they are more than willing to go there and invest.

Alex Villafania: Sir, how about using IT in the government like the modernizing [of] certain aspects of our government processes. Do you have...

Prospero Pichay: Well, I think, we have already started that, 'yung IT procurement, that’s a new innovation in procurement wherein you just can go to your Internet and you'll be able to see in the website of government agencies, their procurement for the year. So these are innovations done by the administration of President [Gloria] Macapagal Arroyo.

Alex Villafania: Sir, how about the modernization of the elections? So far, right now, it's not going to be implemented but are you going to push for that in the next election?

Prospero Pichay: Well, there's already a law to that. Implementation was a big problem because it was passed late and so there was no time for the Comelec [Commission on Elections] to be able to procure the necessary equipment or hardware for this kind of elections. But, yes, I'm going to support that.

Alex Villafania: Sir, on another note, on education, sir. One of the biggest issues right now in the Philippines is lack of proper education. Do you have in your platform, something about improving the educational system in the Philippines?

Prospero Pichay: Well, I guess, we have to invest more in education because if we do not invest in education, then the quality of education in our country will suffer. And you know, the future leaders of our land should have a very good basic education, and I believe that we should put in more budget in education. We should build more school buildings, and what is important is we train more teachers so that they will be able to give quality lessons to our students and pupils. I think the investment should not be in infrastructure, it should also be in training. You train the teachers so that they will be good teachers, and they will be able to teach good education to our students.

Alex Villafania: Will you be pushing any specific legislation that would help at least improve the quality of education?

Prospero Pichay: Oh, yes, probably on the aspect of training the teachers. But I think it will just be a resolution because you don't have to legislate the training of quality teachers. So, it will just be in form of resolution urging the Department of Education that the sense of the House, which is composed of Congress and the Senate--I mean the sense of Congress is that we have to improve the quality of our teachers in our country so that they'll be able to give lessons to our students.

Alex Villafania: Thank you so much, sir.

Prospero Pichay: Thank you. I'd like to take this opportunity for giving me a lot of your time in your podcast. So, I'd like to thank INQUIRER.net.

JV Rufino: You're welcome, Congressman, and the best of luck in your campaign.

Prospero Pichay: Thank you very much.

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