TELECOM | PLDT calls for faster subsea cable repairs, stronger protection
The appeal was made during the Archipelagic Governance for Subsea Cables Forum to discussed ways to improve the resilience of the country’s subsea cable infrastructure.
The PLDT Group has called for stronger government-industry cooperation to protect the Philippines’ undersea cable network and speed up repairs, warning that prolonged outages could disrupt essential services and economic activity.
The appeal was made during the Archipelagic Governance for Subsea Cables Forum, where telecommunications operators, government agencies, security officials, regulators and academic institutions discussed ways to improve the resilience of the country’s subsea cable infrastructure.
Albert V. Villa-Real, PLDT Global president and CEO, said undersea cables support not only telecommunications but also banking, government services, businesses, cloud computing, data centers and artificial intelligence applications.
“They are national infrastructure. They carry the connections that enable our businesses to operate, our banks to transact, our government to deliver services, and our families to communicate,” Villa-Real said.
He said the Philippines should strengthen network redundancy, diversify cable routes and improve coordination among stakeholders to minimize disruptions. He also called for streamlined procedures for cable deployment and repairs, better information sharing and established incident response protocols.
Villa-Real said the country could become a major digital gateway in the Asia-Pacific region by combining resilient international and domestic connectivity with data centers, cloud services, reliable power systems and policies that encourage investment.
“The Philippines should not think of itself simply as the end point of international cables. Our ambition should be to become a major digital crossroads of the Asia-Pacific,” he said.
He added that protecting existing infrastructure would require cooperation among telecommunications operators and government agencies.
“No single company—and no single government agency—can secure the connectivity of an archipelago. It requires a true partnership,” Villa-Real said.
Faster repairs needed to limit disruptions
PLDT First Vice President for Network Design and Engineering Arvin L. Siena also called for faster restoration procedures, saying subsea cable reliability is essential to government operations, public services, businesses and the country’s digital transformation.
Submarine cables can be damaged by natural disasters, earthquakes, fishing activities, ship anchors and other maritime incidents. Repairs require specialized cable vessels, which may need multiple permits and clearances before entering Philippine waters.
Siena said national security and regulatory compliance remain important, but lengthy approval processes can delay the restoration of essential connectivity.
“A cable fault is a technical problem. But an extended outage while repair approvals are being secured becomes a national economic concern,” he said.
He called for clear and predictable approval procedures for emergency cable repairs, backed by closer coordination among government agencies and telecommunications operators.
Siena also proposed designating submarine and terrestrial cable routes as critical digital corridors to raise public awareness, strengthen infrastructure protection and reduce preventable damage caused by human activities.
“National security and the rapid restoration of connectivity are not competing objectives. We need both security and speed,” he said.
The forum was organized by The Asia Foundation in partnership with the National Security Council Secretariat, the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, and the National Telecommunications Security Council.
The PLDT Group said it would continue working with government and industry stakeholders to protect critical connectivity infrastructure and strengthen national resilience.
Full disclosure: All news articles published on the TechSabado website are written by human journalists, unless otherwise specified. Final text editing is also performed by human editors, with artificial intelligence (AI) used only to assist with additional grammar and style guide corrections..
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