The Department of Information and Communications Technology in the Negros Island Region (DICT-NIR) is prioritizing geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs) for the government’s Free Wi-Fi for All program, an official said on Monday, June 1.
At a forum in Dumaguete City to celebrate the agency’s upcoming 10th founding anniversary, Ramil Taboso, officer-in-charge regional director of DICT-NIR, said 80 percent of the agency’s free Wi-Fi program beneficiaries are GIDA sites.
Taboso said that as of May, 5,560 SIM cards have been distributed out of the 27,800 total allocation for the DICT-NIR.
“Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental have received 2,780 pieces under the Bayanihan SIM Project, but Siquijor has not received any because it does not have a GIDA site,” he said.
The Bayanihan project provides free SIM cards loaded with 25GB of monthly data for 12 months, and aims to bridge the digital divide in remote areas by supporting online education and access to government services.
Taboso said they are hopeful they can add 280 sites in Negros Oriental within the year.
Beneficiaries in GIDA sites are mostly schools and barangays.
Meanwhile, other free Wi-Fi sites that the DICT-NIR had provided with free Internet access totalled 650 as of April 2026.
These include 71 in Siquijor, 327 in Negros Oriental, and 252 in Negros Occidental.
Beneficiaries include Disaster Risk Reduction and Management offices, state universities and colleges, provincial capitols, public high schools, plazas, local government units, rural health units, and public markets, among others.
Taboso assured the public they are expanding their programs and projects to advance digital transformation across the region, in all three provinces.*PNA
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