MANKAYAN, Benguet – The Cordillera office of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT-CAR) in coordination with the municipal government and the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMC) recently rolled out the implementation of free wifi in public places in the municipality that will service the town’s centralized vaccination center and government installations adjacent the established facility.
Mayor Frenzel A. Ayong stated that the facilities of the free wifi were established in a strategic place in barangay Paco to ensure that it will service the internet connectivity requirements of government offices and installations and other important instrumentalities around the said barangay.
He added that the free wifi is capable of providing the connectivity needs of offices and residents within more than 50-meter radius from where the facilities are situated.
The local chief executive expressed his gratitude to the DICT, Paco barangay officials and LCMC representatives for their contributions in ensuring the successful roll out of the free wifi in the locality that will allow people to have access to the latest developments around the global village.
More importantly, Mayor Ayong disclosed that the availability of free wifi in strategic areas in the municipality will provide quality connectivity services to the Carlos Palanca, Jr. (CPJ) community center which was previously identified by the local government as the town’s centralized vaccination center, the rural health unit, the municipal hall compound, the Mankayan Municipal Police Station, the Mankayan fire station and other important government and private installations within the 50-meter radius from the said facility.
According to him, DICT and the municipal government studied the feasible site where the free wifi facilities were established so that it will be able to provide quality connectivity services to the concerned stakeholders that need the same, especially the centralized vaccination center to ensure the preservation and protection of the vaccines that will be vaccinated to the members of the priority sectors pursuant to the guidelines that had been crafted by the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases to contain the spread of the deadly Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
He admitted that internet connectivity is one of the major problems of the municipal government that is why there are difficulties in farming out timely information coming from the ground, thus, the availability of the free wifi in some parts of the municipality initially will allow concerned sectors to have greater access to the global arena and be updated on the latest developments not only in the ongoing fight against the pandemic that brought new challenges to the lives of the people but also appropriate information that will guide them in their day to day life.
Mayor Ayong expressed hope that with the successful roll out of the free wifi in Barangay Paco, more free wifi facilities will be able to be established in other parts of the municipality to provide people with uninterrupted access to the world for them to be guided on what is happening around them and in other parts of the world. By HENT
