Marcos Jr. orders DICT to speed up common tower program

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has directed the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to prioritize the Common Tower Program (CTP) to enhance government service delivery.

He emphasized that focusing on the CTP will enable the government to serve a larger population more effectively, with an estimated 404,600 direct and 2,023,000 indirect beneficiaries.

The Common Tower policy, initially conceptualized in 2018, aims to alleviate telecommunications companies from significant capital expenditures related to tower construction.

President Marcos had previously pledged support and policy reforms for common towers in his third State of the Nation Address.

DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy confirmed to the President that the department is working on renewing 15,715 free Wi-Fi access point sites with an allocated budget of P6 billion.

An additional P1.5 billion is being considered for the establishment of new Wi-Fi sites and other projects, including the CTP.

The administration is now managing a total of 1,277 government systems, significantly improving service efficiency through digitalization.