In the same meeting, GMA approved the transfer of the National Computer Center from the Department of Science and Technology to the Department of Transportation and Communications and designated Virgilio Peña as the “integrator” of all government ICT plans. Peña is also to join all ICT promotions abroad to be done by the Department of Trade and Industry.
To speed up the migration of public services to the Internet, GMA has approved the creation of an e-Government Center that could be funded by the Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA). Trade Secretary Mar Roxas, Usec Peña, and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. President and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan are to firm up the plans for an e-Government Center. Those plans must be ready by yearend, meaning, this week.
Suddenly, the government’s IT budget leapfrogs to 8.3 times the original, thanks to a guy named Roberto R. Romulo, the former president of IBM Philippines and the former Foreign secretary of President Ramos. RRR or Bobby for short is one of the most influential private advisers to President Arroyo. His title is “senior adviser on international competitiveness.” Bobby seems to have designed his own title and what he calls his “portfolio” which covers foreign affairs, international finance, investment, trade and information and communications technology strategy.”
He is also co-chairman with Secretary Roxas of the Information and E-Commerce Council (ITECC). Lately, GMA herself has assumed the chairmanship of the ITECC, an indication that the President is serious about modernizing government for IT is mainly about modernization using technology. Bobby has also been designated a special envoy by the President in February 2001.
Just how influential Bobby is on the President? Well, the firing of Vice President Teofisto Guingona as Foreign secretary is blamed on or credited to (make your choice) the son of the late Gen. Carlos P. Romulo. Bobby backed PLDT Director Alberto del Rosario as Philippine ambassador to the US, a job my friend Al Yuchengco had wanted. Tito was/is anti-American. Bobby is pro-American. Tito was/is against the presence of American forces in the Philippines. Bobby is for presence of US soldiers in combat zones like Zamboanga and Basilan. Tito was against globalization. Bobby is for globalization. If you are the Foreign secretary and you have someone offering a different opinion most of the time, someone who has the ear of the President, somehow you get tired. So you get out of your post kicking and hissing. That’s what Tito has done.
I am not sure if Bobby had something with installing Ver Peña as undersecretary for ICT (information and communications technology). An engineering graduate from California Polytech, Ver is a 29-year veteran of IBM Philippines, where he rose from systems engineer in 1965 to president and GM by 1989. From IBM, he joined San Miguel Corp. as CIO (Chief Information Officer), no, not the press relations type. As DOTC undersecretary, Ver has the National Telecommunications Commission, the former Bureau of Telecommunications, and indirectly, the Post Officer, under him.
The fact that GMA is keen on IT technology is one proof perhaps that she is not corrupt personally. One major benefit of IT is transparency. Government deals will be published in the Internet. Bidding will be done online, through the Internet. Purchasing will be done on the Internet. I am told the savings of bidding and purchasing online is between 15 percent and 30 percent. This is the amount that goes to kickbacks, commissions and overpricing.
GMA is the first President to be serious in maintaining a Web site to tell the people about her daily activities and to publish most of her speeches. Erap’s people also had a Web site for him but maintenance was rather perfunctory. Look at her Web site, you will find up-to-the-minute update on her SONA (State of the Nation) promises and how she has kept them or not kept them. She has a full-time staff maintaining her Web site. Surely, one who has to hide anything from the public will not allocate eight times more than the usual as budget just so government will acquire more computers and more agencies will be linked to the Internet.
E-enabling government should result in remarkable efficiency and benefit for the people. Take one example: finding a job abroad. You want to be OCW. To do that, you secure a passport. To secure a passport, you must have a birth certificate (for which you must go to the National Census and Statistics Office), a police clearance (you go to the police), an NBI clearance (you go to the NBI, of course). You also have to be trained by the TESDA. And then you have to be cleared by the DOLE. An applicant thus must secure at least 16 signatures and undergo all kinds of BS. Imagine if the DFA, the NCSO, the Department of Justice (to where the NBI belongs), the Philippine National Police, TESDA and DOLE were all linked by computers, red tape could be cut tremendously for the poor would-be OCW. And he can become productive right away.
And if all government contracts and deals above P50 million were published on the Internet, you wouldn’t have need for a Freedom of Information Act to get the information. Government officials will think twice before making shady deals, collecting kickbacks, interfering in judicial processes, or robbing the people.
Quelle: The Manila Times
