Jocelle Batapa-Sigue took her oath as Department of Information and Communications Technology undersecretary, before DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy on Thurday.*
Former Bacolod Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, newly appointed undersecretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, took her oath of office before DITC Secretary Ivan John Uy on Thursday, August 4.
Batapa-Sigue said she is deeply humbled and honored to assume the position “with the goal of helping our country leverage on digital innovation by including the countryside in the discussion”.
She is inspired by direction set by Uy to include among his priorities the development of ICT-driven industries to generate more jobs and investments for the country, Batapa-Sigue said.
“The DICT is well-aware of the necessary metrics to build the ideal innovation ecosystem for digital business to thrive in all regions. Therefore, I believe my lens as a countryside digital advocate for almost two decades will come in handy as I tackle my new responsibilities with the help of the whole DICT and key stakeholders,” she said.
Batapa-Sigue said her passion has been to help develop strong ecosystems in the form of ICT councils across the country as a venue for academe, government, and industry to collaborate and develop strategies to generate jobs and investments and drive digital innovation.
In 2007 she led the Bacolod Negros Occidental Federation for ICT (BNEFIT) which worked for the successful inclusion of Bacolod as one of the six Centers of Excellence (COE) in ICT Business Process Management in 2014 and the Tholons International Top 100 Cities in the World for outsourcing destinations in 2010, she said.
Bacolod today has surpassed the 30,000 jobs mark and continues to grow as one of the choice locations of ICT firms in the country, Batapa-Sigue said.
In 2008, she co-founded the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP), an umbrella organization of all ICT councils in every city, province, and region, which is now the widest organization championing collaboration for digital innovation across all sectors in the local level, Batapa-Sigue added.
She is a lawyer and has been a law professor for Legal Research and Legal Ethics since 1998 at the University of St. La Salle – Bacolod where she earned her Juris Doctor degree in 1997. She finished her Bachelor of Arts major in Political Science at the University of Negros Occidental – Recoletos in 1993.*