IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Cebu City is the second largest city in the Philippines, with a population of 800,000 (about 8% of the national population). The city government describes itself as having 80 full-time IT staff, which it believes to be too burdensome in terms of overhead cost. According to William Artajo, head of the City Government's Management Information and Computer Services department, cost savings is the main driver of interest in cloud computing.

Sarangani, a province with over 475,000 inhabitants in Southern Philippines, has released an automated real property tax assessment system covering the province’s seven municipalities.

The Sarangani Automated Real Property Tax Assessment System (SARPTAS), costing P2.437 million (US$56,200), was built by the Sarangani government’s own solution developers, under the administration of Governor Miguel Dominguez, to promote efficiency and transparency within the body through the use of modern technology.

The City of San Fernando is the capital city of La Union and the regional centre of the Ilocos Region. It is located in the Northwest of Luzon Island, one of the three biggest islands in the Philippines.

The facility, which the agency called the e-lounge, is a room similar to that of internet cafés, where taxpayers can access BIR’s e-services free of charge with the BIR district staff guiding users as they go online.

According to Provincial Assessor Romeo Dizon, the iTAX system will help the province shift from lengthy and tedious manual tax collection processes to that is transparent and efficient.

Minalin was chosen as the pilot site for its ideal size as it covers a smaller land area thus leaving less room for errors and adjustments for the new system.

General Santos city is a highly urbanised first class city located in the southernmost port city of the Philippines.

According to Vice Mayor Shirlyn Banas-Nograles, the website is important not only to the Provincial Council but also to the general public as well. The website features informative data like the directory of offices and employees, barangay profiles, and the schedules of committee hearings. Added features include a web search box and the real-time weather reports.

Bantayan and Camotes islands are a group of islands under the jurisdiction of Cebu province, located in the Visayas.

Dubbed as the RxBox, the portable device was specifically designed to cater to the needs of ‘doctor-less’ areas.

“Vendors need to think more carefully about the people in government they’re talking to, which is usually CIOs. This is preaching to the converted,” she told FutureGov.

“Cloud is still just an idea for Philippine government agencies, but most CIOs recognise the long-term benefits. It is the legislators and policymakers who still need convincing,” Guillermo remarked.

Applicants should submit registration authority documents such as birth certificate printed on security paper, a taxpayer identification number, one unified multi-purpose identification compliant card before the digital signature can be issued, stated the department administrative order 11-01.

Lawmakers approved a senate bill, which calls for the reorganisation of communications-related agencies into a separate entity known as the Department of ICT (DICT).

The National ICT Confederation of the Philippines, made up of the country's top technology firms, indicates that industry stakeholders have been clamouring for the creation of an ICT department for over a decade.

The information and communications technology (ICT) sector in the Philippines has a new Department of ICT (DICT), even as one local e-Employment project won an international award.

Philippine Department of ICT created after 15 years

After 15 years since the first DICT bill was filed in Congress, the proposed government department has finally been signed into law by President Benigno Aquino III on Monday.

Last Tuesday I had the opportunity to hear the views of the top executives of some of the country’s leading tech disruptors on the current state of our preparedness to take full advantage of the benefits of the digital economy. This was a follow-up of the conference recently organized by the Carlos P. Romulo Foundation on digital future during which the imperative to address the broadband infrastructure requirements was one of the major conclusions.

What I heard was frankly quite dismaying. While they were all able to function within the confines of the current state of our digital infrastructure, it comes at significant costs and at less than the intended quality of service. More industries are increasing their reliance on the internet, but connectivity issues hamper advancement.

The data center to be housed at the Globe facility is the second National Government Data Center, Globe said.

The project is in line with the eGovernment Master Plan, which adopts a whole-of-government approach to information and communications technology infrastructure and shared government applications for better and more efficient public service delivery.

Philippine government agencies are required to supply one per cent of their budgets to the E-Government Fund, which is worth around 1 PHP billion (US$22 million). “But this is not happening”, Ibrahim told a room of 130 delegates at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Manila. “Our budget should be more like PHP 12 billion (US$273 million),” he said.

The Philippines government has announced introducing regulations to support convenient e-government public services, including e-invoicing adoption.

Outlined in the Philippine Digital Transformation Strategy 2022, released in February 2019 by the government, the goal is to have fully integrated and deployed e-government systems by 2022. The DICT, the agency in promoting e-governance, is in charge of developing an integrated government portal, which will allow the public to access various government services online. The portal is still undergoing pilot testing, and will likely be implemented by the end of the year, supporting at least online services provided by major government agencies, the DICT secretary told Business World last week. The Department of Finance (DoF) will also undergo a digital transformation and has already developed a long-term strategy with the goal of improving online service to the public.