President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is receiving praise for his recent directive to the Department of Information and Communications Technology to enable local government units to “adapt to an e-government system as part of efforts to modernize government services and promote efficient governance.”
Either those singing alleluia were not aware that the technology has been there for quite a while or they were aware but stonewalled the fact that information technology can dramatically alter the delivery of government services and effectively curb corruption. It’s simply incredible that it seems some people in government learned about the Internet of Things just yesterday.
Anyway, as they say, better late than never.
Information technology has been with us for some time now. Private firms have explored and have made use of IT and its limitless applications to improve their efficiency and productivity. At the height of the pandemic, some insurance firms intensively used digital technology instead of face-to-face encounters with their prospects. The insurance agencies that adapted quickly to the system were the real winners.
It is different with the government bureaucracy though. Digital technology undoubtedly limits or can completely do away with person-to-person contacts. It allows for extremely transparent transactions with government functionaries and therefore is an effective tool to eradicate corruption. And therein lies the problem.
The Bureau of Customs, for example, has established valuations of import and export products where assessments are based on the imposition of tariffs, among other things. Migrating the manual processes to technology-driven systems would totally remove the propensity of corrupt customs officials to haggle, threaten and demand illegal fees and commissions. The agency has yet to implement digital technology since this would do away with under-the-table transactions.
In my personal experience, I wondered why it took the Bureau of Lands in Davao City almost a year to approve the surveyor’s plan to split my 300 square meter-property in two. The data were all in the mother title and the lot was in the heart of the city not in the boondocks.
In the same manner, the Register of Deeds of Davao City took its own sweet time processing the titling of the two properties I described above when all the data were readily available.
The RoD of Davao, by the way, had digitized its system so what the hell were they waiting for before having the titles processed and released?
True, the directive issued by President Marcos reflects his commitment to improving public service delivery and advancing the nation’s digital landscape, but there ought to be timelines and penalty clauses to eradicate corruption and shady deals altogether.
Digitization is here but those in the government bureaucracy are among the biggest impediments to the LGUs and government agencies adapting to the system. They are scared as the system would identify the crooks in government.
Then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wanted to establish a national broadband backbone in preparation for the establishment of a network precisely for e-governance.
Sadly for her, those tasked to procure and implement the program had other plans in mind and could not “moderate their greed.”
Since then, the plan was not revisited. In the meantime, the Internet of Things had evolved dramatically. PBBM need not procure those facilities, unlike PGMA before him.
If the new guys at the Department of Information and Communications Technology know their job, they can readily set up the digital backbone to link the LGUs and the national government agencies.
The LGUs, on the other hand, can set up their own local area networks with the barangays which in turn would be capacitated to access or be accessed by agencies linked to the government network.
The technical knowledge required for this is no longer the exclusive franchise of a few.
As I said, information technology has evolved. Even the remotest barangays and schools are now within finger-tip reach, thus closing the digital divide not only in availing of government services but for students in far-flung schools who can access updated data and information, putting them at par with their urban counterparts and better preparing them for this competitive world.
To the credit of PBBM, while he is focused on enhancing the delivery of basic government services, he is too is on the way to solving the problem of isolation of schools that has been a blight on our educational system for decades.