President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday order Cabinet officials to ensure the government can freely use untapped television frequencies to augment the e-learning efforts of education agencies.
In his fifth State of the Nation Address, the President said doing this will give the government a wider reach in carrying out online learning as he reiterated his stance that no face-to-face classes will be held without an available COVID-19 vaccine.
“TV frequencies reverted back to government for whatever cause or reason shall not be used exclusively to the exclusion of other persons or dummies to cope up with the demand of the next normal,” he said.
He ordered the Secretaries of Communication and Information, Science and Technology, Education, Finance, and Budget and Management to ensure this will be completed as soon as possible.
“It shall be the government who should be given the first option to utilize them. Ang sobra sa kanila (The remaining frequencies will be theirs),” the President added.
Earlier this month, a lawmaker said the government should use the former television and radio frequencies of ABS-CBN.
Hours after this SONA pronouncement, media giant ABS-CBN offered their transmission network and educational programs to assist the government in their education efforts in this time of crisis.
“In response to the educational thrust of the government in this time of pandemic, we are offering the use of our transmission network to broadcast educational programs all over the country,” ABS-CBN said in a statement.
Despite not having an impact on the business of the broadcasting network, ABS-CBN assured that they are still committed to be in service of the Filipinos.
“We hope to help the government continuously educate students nationwide despite limitations brought by the pandemic.”
