STATEMENT OF SEC RAMON SALES 
ON THE House Bill No 5769 or  
“Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) Act of 2006”.

Mr. Chairman, Honorable Members of the Committee, Colleagues and Friends from  the ICT sector, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for this opportunity comment on House Bill 5769 – the proposed Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) Act of 2006.

The use of FOSS – in industry and government - has strategic, economic and social benefits.  This is the reason why a number of countries have developed and implemented their respective FOSS policies. 

The United Kingdom, France, and Germany are the leading countries in the migration of the public sector IT infrastructure to open standards and FOSS.  In our part of the world, Malaysia, China and Vietnam have adopted national FOSS strategies.  In the case of Malaysia, Malaysian Administration Modernization and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) of the Prime Minister Department was given the responsibility to promote the use of FOSS in government.  

CICT believes that the Philippines should also develop a Philippine FOSS Policy and Strategy. And HB 5769 is a good start in developing said policy and strategy.  

In our view, the Philippine FOSS Policy and Strategy should have the following elements:

1.	Freedom of Choice – WE BELIEVE THAT IT IS UNWISE FOR GOVERNMENT TO MANDATE THE USE OF SPECIFIC SOFTWARE OR APPLICATION.   The decision on which software to use is best left to the potential user or consumer.  They know their requirements and therefore are also in the best position to decide on the best software/application that will meet their requirement(s). 

The role of government, following the APEC Principles for Technology Choice, is to “promote technology neutral policies and regulations... that will allow flexibility in the choice of technologies in order to ensure competition, maximize benefits for government, businesses, and consumers and bridge the development gap”
	
2.	Open Standards – WE SUPPORT A POLICY THAT WOULD MANDATE OPEN STANDARDS FOR GOVERNMENT.  Open Standards promote interoperability and ensure that various systems would be able to communicate.  Open Standards also ensures technology and/or vendor independence by preventing lock in by a specific technology and/or vendor.
	 
3.	Encourage the use of FOSS in government.  There are at least two concrete ways that we can promote the use of FOSS in government.  

The first is to adopt the policy and practice that all government agencies should consider FOSS solutions alongside proprietary/commercial ones in IT procurement. Contracts should be awarded only after a careful point by point comparison of open source and commercial software and solutions, and on the value for money basis.

The second concrete way to promote FOSS is to create an Open Source Competency Center. Following the Malaysian model, this center could serve as the single point of reference on FOSS in the country. The center's aim will be to guide, facilitate, coordinate and monitor implementation of FOSS in the public sector.

From this brief enumeration, we hope that it is apparent that we support certain sections of the FOSS Bill and we do not support others.  

However, if Congress chooses to pass the FOSS Bill in its current form, it will not be difficult for us to comply with the law nor will government be disadvantaged in our efforts to implement a coherent and integrated system that redounds to a reliable, high-performance, ICT enabled public service. 

In closing, I wish to underscore that a FOSS policy should contribute to reducing the cost and reducing the risk to government systems.  This means:
− acquiring best value for money solutions;
− removing the reliance on individual IT vendors and suppliers; and
− providing more flexibility in the development, enhancement and integration of systems

CICT would be happy to submit a longer brief to the Committee on the FOSS Bill, if the Committee so desires.  

CICT will also be happy to serve as a technical adviser to the Committee during its deliberation on this matter, if our services is deemed necessary.

Thank you and Good Morning.