NEWSFLASH

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PLDT TO IT GIANTS: $1M SUBSIDY FOR PINOY JOBS

Manila, May 26, 1998 - PLDT is offering to subsidize $1 million worth of telecommunications charges to a foreign software development company that will assure jobs to Filipinos in the country.

PLDT Chairman Roberto Romulo said the offer is part of the private sector's program to produce topnotch Filipino software developers to service the growing needs in the Philippines and the region.

Romulo said he personally discussed the PLDT proposal with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, top executives of Cisco Systems and IBM, his former employer.

"Gates is thinking about this," Romulo said.

He lamented the fact that the P10 million seed money pledged by President Ramos to support the programs and projects of the Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development has not yet been released.

Last year, President Ramos witnessed the signing of an agreement between PLDT (represented by Romulo) and Oracle Corp. (represented by Chairman Larry Ellison) which created Phil-Net, a network computing infrastructure for the Philippines. It aims to provide a low-cost distribution channel for information products and services and to provide a backbone for members to share information with each other without going through the Internet.

Romulo noted the President's keen interest and hands-on familiarity with Information Technology applications.

"For the past six years, we were fortunate to have a President who understands IT," Romulo said.

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