Why spend ?12 billion a year on foreign servers when we can build our own for ?2.5 billion?
This was the central question raised during the House deliberations on the DICT’s 2026 budget, as lawmakers pressed for investments in local data centers to reduce dependence on costly and risky foreign cloud storage.
Rep. Presley De Jesus asked the sponsor how much government would need to establish its own facilities.
Rep. Brian Poe, sponsoring the budget, replied:
‘Mr. Speaker, it will cost us ?2.5 billion pesos. However, what I wasn’t able to clarify. is that the ?2.5 billion is not all in one go. In fact, based on the absorptive capacity of DICT, we will have to spread out this ?2.5 billion across the remaining three years of the administration to build these data centers.’
Rep. Robert Nazal then raised funding options, suggesting the Spectrum Users Fund (SUF) as a possible source:
‘Since we’re already requesting for the ?2.5 billion and we intend to get it from the GAA, why not get it from the SUF?’
Poe acknowledged the proposal but explained DICT’s immediate priorities:
‘Mr. Speaker, DICT is prioritizing the connectivity, the internet connection, as well as the continuing appropriation for maintenance and operation of these Free Wi-Fi sites. Now, to my colleague’s point, I understand where he’s coming from. If there’s ?21 billion sitting in this fund and there is a bad need for these data centers, why not consider the data centers? And that’s something that we can take up. But before we go into that, I think the DICT has a pressing commitment by October to deliver these Free Wi-Fi sites to the Filipino people.’
Both interpellators and Poe agreed that local data centers are vital – not only to save billions in recurring cloud rental costs but also to safeguard sensitive government information. Poe closed by emphasizing that DICT has steadily improved its absorptive capacity – from 87% utilization in 2024 to a projected 93% in 2025 – making it ready to roll out phased investments in data centers while ensuring the timely delivery of Free Wi-Fi commitments to the Filipino public.