Information and Communications Technology or ICT enables people to innovate ways to access

information by providing means to communicate, collaborate, and compute. As information serves as

the fabric of our decision-making processes, a reliable and secure ICT infrastructure is critical for any
organization to achieve its goals.

MEC Networks Corporation is the Philippines premier ICT & Physical Security Products, Solutions and
Services Distributor. Helping in bringing a brighter Future Today through World-Class ICT Distribution,
MEC Networks Corporation is committed in helping organizations achieve their goals with ICT products,
solutions, and services.

MEC Networks Corporation is the Philippines premier ICT & Physical Security Products, Solutions and
Services Distributor. Helping in bringing a brighter Future Today through World-Class ICT Distribution,
MEC Networks Corporation is committed in helping organizations achieve their goals with ICT products,
solutions, and services.

1995 MEC Networks Corporation started out as a software and hardware computer
services company and eventually, a sub distributor of networking products by
Merrick and Maureen Chua. Providing connectivity to Filipino businesses
2001 MEC Started Aiming to become the Philippines One-Stop-Shop ICT Distributor
MEC Starts Distributing 3com Products in the Philippines
MEC Introduces Celestix Aries Internet Server to the Philippines
One of the premier information technology providers in the Philippines,
MEC Computer Corporation introduced the Celestix Aries Internet Server
Aries is the fastest way to connect a small network to the Internet. It is
an all-in-one server that caters to small and medium sized business
2002 MEC officially distributes Krone Products in the Philippines
Krone, the leading global provider of end-to-end and complete
telecommunications connectivity solution in 140 countries forged
another distributorship agreement with MEC Computer Corp., for
Krones PremsiNet and TrueNet technologies
Krone PremisNet is engineered to handle technologies such as Fast
Ethernet, ATM, video conferencing, imaging and other multi-media
applications as well as the next generation of applications
2003 MEC introduces HP Networking to the Philippines
Not so long ago, the Philippines was imprisoned by the tyranny of
expensive network costs and absence of a converged network
infrastructure that will make networks work like how they used to be
MEC realized the need of revolution in the way Filipinos are doing
networking and started distribute HP Procurve products in the
Philippines in 2003
2007 MEC adds IP Telephony to Solutions Portfolio with Siemens
2009 MEC includes IP Surveillance to its Core Competencies with Axis
Communications

The Philippine ICT Sector

CT TIMELINE

Fidel V. Ramos
EO No. 190 Approving and Adopting the National Information Technology Plan 2000
and Establishing the National Information Technology Council (NITC) (July 19, 1994)
EO No. 468 Providing for the Creation of a National Council for the Promotion of
Electronic Commerce in the Country (February 23, 1998)

Joseph Ejercito Estrada

EO No. 35 Directing the National Computer Center (NCC) to Design and Build an
Integrated Government Information Infrastructure (GII) (October 26, 1998)

EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 125

REVITALIZING THE NATIONAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL (NITC)
AND THE NATIONAL COMPUTER CENTER (NCC)

EO No. 264 ESTABLISHING THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ELECTRONIC

COMMERCE COUNCIL (ITECC) FROM THE MERGER OF THE NATIONAL INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL (NITC) AND
THE ELECTRONIC COMMERCE PROMOTION COUNCIL (ECPC)

EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 334

ABOLISHING THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ELECTRONIC
COMMERCE COUNCIL AND TRANSFERRING ITS BUDGET, ASSETS,
PERSONNEL, PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS TO THE COMMISSION
ON INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
EO No. 269 Creating the Commission on Information and Communications Technology

Benigno Simeon Aquino III EO No. 47 Reorganizing, Renaming and Transferring the
Commission on Information and Communications Technology and its attached
agencies to the Department of Science and Technology as an ICT Office

First Philippine RPG: Anito: Defend a Land Enraged

Anito: Defend a Land Enraged, a role-playing game developed by Anino Games (now Anino Playlab),
was released last November 2003 for Microsoft Windows. It was warmly received by Filipinos mainly
because of the use of familiar features like terrifying creatures from Philippine mythology.

When it was released in the United States, however, the game received a lot of criticism in terms of game
design, controls, and being an alleged rip-off of the popular Diablo franchise.
The first computer school in the Philippines
AMAES traces its roots to 1980 when Dr.Amable R.Aguiluz V founded the Amable M. Aguiluz Institute of
Computer Studies (AMAICS), the first computer school in the Philippines with the vision of providing hi-tech
quality yet affordable education for the youth. From a provider of short term courses,AMAICS began offering
Bachelor of Science Programs geared towards Information and Communications Technology and became the
Philippines first institution of learning to offer a comprehensive curriculum for the countrys future computer
scientists.
The AMAES started as an Institute of Computer Studies. At that time, computers were expensive and
microprocessors were very new. But its founder, Dr. Amable R. Aguiluz V, saw a vision of the Philippines
as the worlds premier source of manpower through computer education. Dr. Aguiluz vigorously pursued
his plan of setting up a center of computer learning in every corner of the Philippines.

A year later, a positive response from computer enthusiasts encouraged the Institute to offer a four-year
course in Computer Science the first in the Philippines then and was thus renamed AMA Computer
College. In 1983, the institution grew into a network of colleges in Metro Manila.

In 1999, AMA Computer College made another breakthrough it became the first computer school to be
awarded the prestigious ISO 90001 Certification. This certification further attests to the world-class
quality education that AMA offers.

A History of Automated Elections in the Philippines

As early as 1992, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has identified the modernization of the
electoral process as a goal of what was called Operation Modex (Modex for Modernization and
Excellence). In the following year, Comelec commissioned foreign consultants to conduct studies on
modernizing elections in the Philippines. Several Comelec officials also travelled to the United States to
inspect the voting system there. A US company was chosen to supply canvassing equipment. No contract
between the government and the supplier could be signed, however, pending the passage of a law on
the use of a new election system. Meanwhile, Comelec conducted public demonstrations of the new
system using two units on loan from the supplier.

The change in administration in Comelec led to a repeat process of public bidding, and another supplier
was chosen to provide the equipment that was later used in the pilot-testing of the new system in the
1996 ARMM Elections. The new equipment consisted of machines with optical mark recognition (OMR)
capacities in scanning and tallying computerized ballots. Comelec personnel and ARMM field officials
were trained to handle the whole electoral process. Results were determined just 48 to 72 hours after
the end of Election Day on September 9. Demonstrations of the new system to the public followed suit.

In 1997, RA 8436 was passed into law, authorizing Comelec to implement an automated system in the
May 1998 elections, and in subsequent national and local elections. However, lack of preparation, time
and funding led to the use of the automated process only in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and
Tawi-Tawi in the 1998 elections. In 2001, the COMELECs failure to launch a public education campaign
on the new election process led to the unintended exclusion of an estimated 3 to 6 million voters
(Schaffer, 2009).

By 2003, Comelec had started to build a centralized computer database of all registered voters, including
digital photos, fingerprints, and signatures. With $18 M worth of newly purchased data-capturing
machines, the poll body had asked all registered voters to have their registration validated in order to
purge the voters list of ineligible, fictitious, and double voters (Schaffer, 2009). However, the scheme of
validating the voters registrations crashed because the software used in the old voters list turned out to
be incompatible with that of the new list. Many names disappeared when the two lists were merged.
With the May 2004 elections fast approaching and a solution not in view, COMELEC hastily instructed
their field officers to just use their own records. The use of an automated system in counting the votes
was also stopped due to controversies of electoral fraud.

In 2007, RA 9369, amending RA 8436, was passed to encourage transparency, credibility, fairness, and
accuracy of elections. An automated electoral process on a nationwide scale was first enforced in the
2010 elections, which brought President Benigno Noynoy Aquino III to power. The multinational
company, Smartmatic, was chosen to supply the hardware and software for electronic voting. A few
weeks before the elections, the memory chips of the vote counting machines were found to be faulty,
and candidates like former President Joseph Estrada petitioned to postpone the elections and revert to
manual polls. Elections pushed through as scheduled, however, because all technical problems were
deemed to have been addressed. Four hundred sixty-five vote counting machines were reported as
malfunctional, but 75,882 machines worked smoothly. Compared to past elections where the winners
were known after weeks or months, local winners were determined in a few hours, while half of the
national winners were known after a day. As Rep. Raymond Palatino wrote, Most people are satisfied
with the election process and the voting results. Foreign media and world leaders have already
congratulated the Philippines for the successful conduct of its first automated elections.

The second nationwide automated elections will take place on May 13, 2013. In a report dated February
18, 2013, Automated Election System Watch (AES Watch) writes that in the 2013 elections, compact-
flash or CF cards will still be used to store the software responsible for counting the votes and scans. CF
cards, they say, are insecure, as these cards can be transplanted with new data.AES Watch also
demands that the automated election system equipment, particularly the source code of the vote
counting machines, be reviewed by political parties and other interested groups in order to ensure the
credibility of the whole system.

An international group of observers of the 2010 Elections pointed out that the new system did not
prevent the usual problems like vote-buying, intimidation of voters, harassment of candidates,
campaigning against militant groups, and the presence of military men and armed goons in precincts
(PDI, May 14, 2010). The group found that irregularities and glitches were pervasive; and they lauded the
eager voters and resilient poll precinct workers as the real heroes of that election. As the groups
leader reported, The people made it happen, and not Smartmatic or Comelec!