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MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday underscored the importance of digital security, emphasizing how technology preserves memories even after people are gone. He said this during the grand launch of the VITRO Sta.
Rosa (VSR) Data Center in Laguna, the first artificial intelligence-ready data center and the largest hyperscale facility in the Philippines. READ: US urges curb of Google’s search dominance as AI looms “In today’s world, data is as critical as water and electricity. We need to strengthen further our digital infrastructure, especially for critical, private, and confidential data,” Marcos said in his speech.
“We need to safeguard our digital security. We need to secure our digital future. So, how important, in fact, is it to secure digital information system?” he asked.
In a lighthearted moment in his speech, the president compared data security to “soft and hard launching” of a romantic partner on social media. “Itong mga panahon na ito, paano natin nalalaman kapag in a relationship na ang dalawang tao? Nowadays they call it an Instagram hard launch—posting of romantic pictures sa IG na may caption ‘Found my Forever’ or such like,” he said, which received laughter from the audience. (These days, how do we know when two people are in a relationship? Nowadays, they call it an Instagram hard launch—posting romantic pictures on IG with a caption like “Found my Forever” or something similar.
) “Mayroon ding soft launch. I look at the social media posts of Sandro [Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Alexander ‘Sandro’ Marcos] siya ang nagturo sa akin nito,” he added.
(There’s also the soft launch. I check out Sandro’s social media posts—he’s the one who taught me about it.) READ: Instagram tries using AI to determine if teens are pretending to be adults As for how people know a couple has broken up? Marcos said it often starts with unfollowing, blocking, and deleting each other’s photos online.
“Pero minsan, napapasilip pa rin sa archive, na nagbabaka-sakaling may naiwan pang picture. Parang may memories. Buti na lang may data center na tayo—kasi kahit siya ay hindi na bumalik, ‘yung alaala, naka-backup pa rin.
‘Yan ang sinasabi natin tech has your back,” he said. (But sometimes, you still sneak a peek at the Archive, hoping there’s still a photo left—like holding on to memories. Good thing we have a data center now—because even if that person doesn’t come back, the memories are still backed up.
That’s what we mean when we say tech has your back.) Also in his speech, Marcos said the government is committed to making the country’s technology on par with other countries. “There is some work left to do but we are ready to do that work so we can be an equal player in the world of data and data processing,” he said.
“This launch also reflects our commitment to regional development. We bring the digital progress beyond outside of Metro Manila and into the heart of our provinces,” the president added. The VSR Data Center was built to support advanced computing needs such as cloud services, high-performance enterprise systems, and AI-driven technologies.
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