IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The initiative, dubbed “Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders”, was launched on Thursday at the CICT office in Quezon City, with top executives from the United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Center for Information and Communications Technology for Development (UNAPCICT) attending the event.

Long before smart cities were envisioned to be a possibility in the country, one of the Philippines’ leading real estate developers has started laying down the foundation of a smart and sustainable city in the early 1990s, designing a groundbreaking sustainable township in a sprawling 244-hectare prime property in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

This pioneering development is Filinvest City – a vision that was brought to life, thanks to the forward-looking ethos of Filinvest Alabang Inc. (FAI).

For years, Filipinos have struggled with going to government buildings across the metro to process their requests or legal documents, which consumes their time, energy, and resources. But since society transitioned into the digital age, government agencies extended their services to be available online, allowing more Filipinos to access their benefits.

Among the cities in the country, Quezon City is a pioneer in streamlining all its services to function online and offline.

QC was cited for its Computerized Health Information Tracking System (CHITS), which received runner-up award in eGov Customer Empowerment Award (G2C category) and its mobile money real property tax payment scheme, as runner-up for eGov Business Empowerment (G2B category).

The upgraded postal identification card is now recognized as a supporting document in transactions with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Philippine Postal Corp. (PHLPost) said.

In an article posted on PHLPost's website early Friday, Postmaster General Josefina dela Cruz said the BSP's security, investigation and transport department said the BSP has "no objection to the [postal ID] and will recognize it as a valid identification reference for those who will transact with the BSP.”

The BSP supervises banks and exercises regulatory powers over lending companies, remittance centers and other non-bank institutions engaged in quasi-banking functions.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has committed to double down over the next five years on its assistance to the Philippines in increasing digital platforms and in expanding systems on the country’s e-government initiatives and cyber security protection.

Lawrence Hardy, USAID mission director to the Philippines, in his remarks at the Third Indo-Pacific Business Forum on Wednesday, said USAID will also provide greater engagement of small and medium sized enterprises and e-commerce, as well as continue pursuing digital interventions in our work, involving health, education, governance and the environment.

A measure set before the House of Representatives proposes to maximise the country’s telecommunications infrastructure to deliver health services seldom reached by conventional means.

According to Representative Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya of Cavite’s first congressional district, “telehealth” can lessen direct and indirect health care costs, especially out-of-pocket expenses that are a major burden to patients and their families.

In an effort to take a significant step towards transformative progress, Aboitiz Data Innovation (ADI) announced their partnership with Victorias City Government in developing the Smart City Master Plan, marking a milestone in their journey towards a smarter and more sustainable city in the Philippines.

ADI Public Sector Head Carlos Streegan and Victorias City Mayor Javier Miguel Benitez led the ceremonial contract signing of the Scope Of Work Proposal for the Smart City Master Plan. This significant partnership demonstrates their joint commitment to leveraging advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence and promoting data-driven decision-making and governance in Victorias City.

Cebu City, which is already a first-class city in the Visayas, is determined to up the ante and become a smart city, like Singapore.

Hence, the local government unit (LGU) of Cebu City forged a partnership with PLDT Enterprise, the corporate business arm of PLDT Inc., to hasten its digitalization.

To start with, they are rolling out free, unlimited, hi-speed Wi-Fi in 50 barangays, including Guadalupe, Tisa, Basak San Nicholas, and Talamban.

Cebu City’s goal of becoming a "smart city" is expected to move closer to reality after it recently forged a partnership with PLDT Enterprise, the corporate business arm of PLDT, Inc.

The collaboration is seen to provide reliable connectivity, with the initial roll out of free, unlimited public wi-fi in 50 barangays, including Guadalupe, Tisa, Basak San Nicolas, and Talamban.

The corporate business arm of PLDT Inc. teamed up with the provincial government of Cebu to expedite its digital transformation for the benefit of constituents and thriving business communities.

The collaboration will provide advanced digital solutions and reliable connectivity with the initial roll-out of free, unlimited public Wi-Fi in 50 barangays, including prominent areas like Guadalupe, Tisa, Basak San Nicholas and Talamban.

The Comelec on Sunday said a total of 9,018,256 registered voters were found to be without the needed data—consisting of digital fingerprints, photos and signatures—as of the last day of registration and validation on Oct. 31 last year in preparation for last May’s midterm elections.

First District Election Officer Stephen Roy Cañete announced that the 75,000 Zamboangueño voters with incomplete biometrics will be able to vote in the May 9, 2016 national and local elections.

Cañete told the Philippines News Agency on Saturday that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) promulgated a resolution allowing voters with incomplete biometrics to vote in next year’s elections.

“The farm-to-e-market portal will make the farmers more mobile and better aware of the prevailing prices of agriculture products in the market at any given time,” said Eriberto P. Barriga, Jr., ICT Davao, Inc. executive vice-president.

A related but limited system driven by text messaging was initiated by the city government and Smart Communications, Inc. three years ago.

It is common knowledge, as it should be, that the world’s resources are finite. Soon, waters may dry up, soil may become barren, land may be extinguished of its minerals. It is the hard truth – the Earth, our only home, may soon run out of resources if we do not know how to utilize it now.

This may not sound so alarming if not for the rising population of the world. World population is projected to rise to 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100.

A few years ago, a city in Metro Manila claimed to be the cleanest city, despite the fact that its rivers were still heavily polluted.

Recently, another city claimed to be “smart”, based on the fact that its CCTV cameras are now connected to a centralized monitoring center.

When Ferdinand Marcos Jr became president, he laid out a policy of immediate digitalization of vital government services to boost the ease of doing business and combat corruption. This was an important policy as the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department observed that digital transformation can be an important boost to the Philippines’ economic recovery in the post-pandemic period. Globally, digital transformation is nothing new as the ongoing process of digitalization has been shaping how countries do business and trade.

The estimated value of the Philippines’ digital economy in 2020 is around $7.5 billion with a projected annual growth rate of 30%. There are also expectations that the sector will expand substantially between $28 billion and $40 billion in 2025. Robust public-private cooperation is essential to this growth. E-commerce leads the Philippine digital economy in terms of sector, followed by online media, transport and food and online travel.

The newly formed ICT Council, which was organized by the local business chamber, also cited the city’s lack of infrastructure to house would-be locators. "We hope to make Zamboanga City the next wave city and hope to take a share of the $50-billion information and communications technology industry by 2016," Pedro Rufo N. Soliven, president of the Zamboanga Chamber of Commerce and Foundation, Inc., said in a recent interview.

The portal provides a library of the agency’s on-going and completed projects nationwide. It also details their fund allocations and cumulative disbursements, completion period, percentage of accomplishment and other relevant data, including regularly updated photos, which were provided by the attached agencies, corporations and regional field units of the Department of Agriculture.

Taguig city government recently completed the roll-out of the Taguig Tracking Device System (TTDS) enabling people to monitor the flow of transactions at City Hall, said Mayor Ma. Laarni Cayetano.

Cayetano explained the system was developed to suit the needs of investors in Taguig and to improve efficiency in completing transactions and releasing documents which are being processed by the city government.