Greg is a silent workhorse in a chamber of showhorses. He has always been after good policies not after good publicity.

I was the principal author of the law creating the DICT, the modernization of PAGASA and free WiFi, and I can attest that while he gave valuable inputs, he did not give a hoot at being credited for his contributions. For him, substance need not create splash.

Greg takes the helm of an agency whose policies affect every Filipino who has a cellphone in his pocket and a socmed account in his name. This is so because broadband is now the third utility, after water and power. It needs to be improved because every 10 percentage points increase in broadband penetration is said to boost the GDP by 1 percent.

His marching order is in the DICT law : To give the Filipino access to quality, affordable, reliable ICT service, or in simple consumer language, service without dropped calls, dead spots, disappearing signals and slow Internet speed.

The immediate challenge before him is to assure the public, the Senate included, that the third telco will not compromise national security and will be able to meet its rollout schedule and service deliverables on time.

Many of the problems we confront today — from traffic to illiteracy to health care — have ICT solutions which can ease the pain they cause or make them totally go away. Another area of concern is our nation’s defense against cyber attacks because an enemy with a missile is as dangerous as one with malware.

Greg can do it.