. By DateLine Philippines
MANILA–The Filipino scientist-entrepreneur credited with being the first to connect the Philippines with the world wide web topped the roster of awardees for the 2009 CyberPress ICT Choice Awards.
Dr. William “Bill” Torres, widely regarded as the “Father of the Philippine Internet,” became email lead the first recipient of the Cyberpress Lifetime Achievement award, given in honor of personalities who contributed immensely to the development of the local IT industry.
A co-founder and former CEO of Mozcom, the country’s first commercial internet service provider (ISP), Torres spearheaded negotiations with the United States (US) government in the early 1990s to connect the Philippines to the internet.
Torres is also the first Filipino to acquire a doctoral degree in computer science, which he earned in the US.
In his acceptance speech, Torres emphasized how important it was for the country to take advantage of the benefits offered by technology.
He cited, in particular, cloud computing products and services, which he said are ideal for use in a developing nation like the Philippines.
The 2009 CyberPress ICT Choice Awards was held last December 17 at the Arts in the City, Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.
Cyberpress, also known as the IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (ITJAP) press corps, selected 2009 achievers in five categories: IT Story of the Year, IT Product of the Year, IT Startup of the Year, IT Executive of the Year, and IT Company of the Year.
Voted the IT Story of the Year was “Smartmatic-TIM undertakes 2010 election automation project.”
Cited as the IT Product of the Year was Windows 7, Microsoft’s newest operating system that IT writers described as “light and efficient, a big improvement over Vista, and optimized for internet consumption and wireless connectivity.”
New Filipino technology firm Innovent, Inc. got the IT Startup of the Year award. Innovent was cited for its prototype of an LCD interactive television (iTV) set, the first of its kind to be produced in the Philippines.
IT Executive of the Year went to Intel’s Ricky Banaag, for leading Intel Microelectronics Philippines for the 12th straight year.
Acer Philippines won as IT Company of the Year for being the top PC vendor in the country for 2009. Globally, Acer now threatens league leader Hewlett-Packard, after knocking out Dell from the second spot.
The list of nominees for the awards was drawn up during the CyberPress team-building seminar, held from December 5 to 6 in Baras, Rizal province. CyberPress members then voted for their choices via an online poll.
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