PLDT, Inc. (PLDT) and Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) laud the passage of House Bill Number 10388 or “An Act Mandating the Allocation of an Area for Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure and Facilities in Subdivisions and Housing Development Projects” at the House of Representatives on its third and final reading.            

To promote the accessibility of information and communications technology and ensure digital connectivity in urban centers and populated areas of the country, this bill mandates all housing projects, subdivisions, villages or other residential  areas, including socialized housing projects to allocate 30% of the gross area for open space for the establishment of ICT infrastructure and related amenities. The use of the area that has been identified and allotted by the relevant local government and homeowners’ association for ICT Infrastructure shall not be subject to any further consent from the homeowners’ association.

This welcome development will help ease the roadblocks that telecommunications companies experience in their rollout especially in subdivisions as many homeowners’ associations and communities still prohibit the construction of cell sites and other telecommunications infrastructure due to perceived health risks, aesthetic reasons, among others. PLDT and Smart, for our part, are embarking on an information and education campaign to address the health concerns of these homeowners’ associations. It is our hope that with these twin measures, we will gather support from homeowners’ associations and communities for our rollout of telecommunications towers and infrastructure in their subdivisions and communities.

We urge the Senate to likewise support this legislation as we continue to ramp up our efforts to provide connectivity throughout the country.

PLDT and Smart continue to be committed to support the Government’s call for enhanced connectivity, particularly in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, to keep all of us connected and engaged.