Sara to municipal execs: Don’t just roll out tourism programs, study them first Converge bolsters Davao City’s digital connectivity

The groundbreaking ceremony for Bifrost cable landing system (CLS) of Converge ICT Solutions, Inc. held on Wednesday ushers in the looming improvement of Davao City’s internet connectivity.

To rise soon on an 8,000-sqm lot in Bago Gallera, Davao City, the 745sqm, one-storey facility is tagged the first fully owned and operated cable landing station of Converge in the Philippines.

“This is the first cable started in Indonesia, and Singapore landed in Davao and connected to Guam and California. This is the first cable in the world connected to Singapore and the US. This is the biggest US technology. Each fiber has 16 terabytes of capacity and this is a six-fiber pair. This is a brand new and state-of-the-art, purely optical network, from international, domestic to your home,” said Dennis Anthony Uy, chief executive officer and co-founder of Converge, in an interview.

The Bifrost Cable System is a new trans-Pacific cable system connecting Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines, to the West Coast of North America.

“Bifrost Cable System is going to be the first submarine cable that connects Singapore directly to the US. In the past most of the submarine cables pass through east Asia, the South China Sea, or the west Philippine Sea, going to Japan and the US. This will be the first that goes to the bottom. Singapore becoming a major cloud data center hub it need to have an alternative route,” Jesus Romero, chief operations officer of Converge, told media.

When asked about the company’s capital expenditure for the project, Romero just said it’s a “nine-digit level US dollars.”

The CLS is expected to be completed (or ready for service meaning when can be used) in the third quarter of 2024.

“We are doing the groundbreaking but we actually started the cable landing station. As we FCONVERGE, P10

By MAYA M. PADILLO

Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte advised municipal officials on Tuesday to conduct a study of their locality’s strengths and the budget needed before rolling out tourism programs.

In her message during the 2023 League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) General Assembly at The Manila Hotel on February 21, 2023 Duterte said it is important to identify the strength of the area as a municipality to invest the tourism budget in.

“Unang-una po sa turismo, kailangan nyo po ng pag-aaral. Hindi po pwede na kung ano yung gusto ninyo na maging tourism program ng inyong lugar ay pwede na syang i-rollout. Kailangan po muna ay gumawa kayo ng feasibility study para po kailangan nyo ng budget para sa pag-aaral, para po makikita ninyo kung anong ano ang strengths ng inyong lugar,” she said.

She also said municipalities need a partnership with the private sector because it is where the money is.

Duterte cited Davao City’s strengths, which are peace and order and tourism.

“May I just share my experience as city mayor, hindi po ako ang pinakamagaling o expert as a city mayor pero meron din akong nine years na naging city mayor and one of the strengths of Davao City during my administration was tourism and peace and order. Sa amin po sa Davao