STRAIGHT FROM THE BIG CITY

Government communications and livelihood projects
Ike 'Ka' Iking Seneres

How could government agencies communicate securely, economically and efficiently with each other? This appears to be the three main government considerations in communicating with each other, to make it secure, economical and efficient.
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As it is now, very few agencies seem to be concerned about their data security, as evidenced by the fact that only a few agencies have their own proprietary encryption. Truth to tell, encryption is the way to secure both data and communications, regardless of how and where messages are sent. Logically speaking therefore, government agencies should invest more in encryption rather than in the bandwidth where messages are transmitted.
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Long before Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) became popular in the public mind, the Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology was already available, with no government agency taking advantage of it. To this day, VPN is still available, and still no government agency is using it.
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Simply put, VPN enables users to have their own secure network within any other network, commercial or otherwise. To be more specific, users could have their own VPNs within the networks of Smart, Globe, Sun Cellular, BayanTel and PLDT, and it would work securely, as if they have their own.
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On the side of economy, users could run VoIP within a VPN, thus eliminating the need to spend for commercial calls within the Plain Old Telephone System (POTS). This is another issue, as the carriers may not like the idea of reducing their POTS revenues. Practically speaking however, the costs of National Direct Dialing (NDD) long distance costs within the POTS has already gone down to ten pesos for unlimited calls, thus making it very economical already.
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Considering all the telecom options that are already available, the government should instead come up with a policy that would guide employees which options should be used to save money the best way.
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Now, on livelihood projects. How could the government assist in the marketing of products coming from livelihood projects? The initiative of Sen. Dick Gordon to ship fruits from Mindanao using military aircraft is praiseworthy, but we need permanent solutions for this problem that could survive the test of time.
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Since Gordon has taken the first step of arranging buyers for these goods to be purchased by supermarkets in Metro Manila, the government should step in to make this a regular program, making sure however that the government should only help in the trading process, and not to do the trading directly.
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Way back in the mid-70s, I was Group Product Manager of Bliss Marketing Corporation, a private company that was funded by the government for the purpose of marketing products coming from livelihood projects. Although we succeeded in the early stages, we eventually failed as the government made the decision to directly engage in direct trading, rather than just assist producers in finding markets for their products.
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In a free market economy, products could be sold by producers and delivered to any destination for as long as the selling prices are right, and for as long as the transportation expenses could be absorbed by the selling prices. Shipping the fruits from Mindanao using military aircraft is a good idea for humanitarian reasons, but in reality the selling price is not sustainable, because there is no shipping cost.
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As the cost of airline tickets are going down due to the effects of healthy price competition, it may be a good time for shipping lines to bring down their own sea freight costs, as they are starting to be affected by the transfer of sea travel customers to the airlines.
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It should take more than one energetic Senator to solve the problem of marketing products from Mindanao and from all livelihood sites. The government is giant machinery that should get its act together in solving the problem, so that it could do more than what one man has done. For more information about public governance, email iseneres@yahoo.com