FOUR legislators from Camarines Sur led by Rep. LRay Villafuerte have propped up a priority plan by incoming Speaker Martin G. Romualdez for the 19th Congress to accelerate the Marcos administration’s digital transformation by filing their own version of a measure to develop and interlink electronic government or e-government services so the Philippines can get ahead of the curve in the post-pandemic “new normal.”

Villafuerte said an E-Government system covering all state agencies and corporations under the new Marcos administration—as outlined in House Bill (HB) 277–”will further improve the ease of doing business and brush-up the country’s image as a top investment haven, while letting Filipinos continue transacting official business without actually having to go to the various government agencies themselves in the post-COVID-19 scenario.”

His HB 277 co-authors are Camarines Sur Reps. Miguel Luis Villafuerte and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata and Bicol Saro Rep. Nicolas Enciso VIII.

HB 277 has come on the heels of the filing by Romualdez and three more legislators of HB 3 mandating all government agencies, including state-run firms and local government units (LGUs), to switch to digital or Internet platforms for the delivery of more transparent and more efficient services.

The bill (HB 3) authored by Romualdez with Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand Alexander Marcos and Tingog party-list Reps. Yedda Marie K. Romualdez and Jude Acidre mandates the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to be the principal implementer of the proposed E-Governance Act through a project management office (PMO) that would be organized within one year from the effectivity of the proposed law.

Villafuerte actually first filed an E-Government bill way back in the 17th Congress, or even before the pandemic struck in 2020, to improve the ease of doing business, promote greater transparency and do away with corruption in official transactions.

In HB 277, meanwhile, Villafuerte said, “the Marcos government ought to fully utilize the newly created DICT to integrate Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development in all state offices instead of having agency-specific applications.”

This proposed legislation, he said, will clear the way for “the establishment of effective E-Government plans that create more valuable and meaningful services through interoperability and maximization of resources, which are part of the powers and functions of the DICT.”

“More efficient government services through the proposed E-Government seek to minimize corruption by minimizing the human intervention component in government transactions,” Villafuerte said. “The issue of interoperability and harmonization is not solely a technical problem, but also includes many organizational concerns that need to be overcome. HB 227 is designed to strengthen ICT use in the government in order to make its implementation possible and sustainable.”

In HB 277, the four Bicolano lawmakers said their bill aims to provide a “whole-of-society” approach to the “new normal” way of life anchored on strict mandatory safety and physical distancing protocols to prevent further COVID-19 spread, once all containment measures and health protocols are lifted and economic and social activities are 100% back across the country.

HB 277 directs the DICT to craft and then implement an E-Government Master Plan, which has six major imperatives comprising the integration of the citizen frontline services of all agencies handling business registration, digitization of archives and records management information systems (MIS) across all offices, and adoption of an Internet-based electronic payment facility to enable people and companies to remit payments electronically to agencies.

Allowing people to transact with the government online will likewise minimize official corruption as it will mean zero contact between applicants and government executives or employees in-charge of processing and issuing official documents, they said.

HB 277 aims for the State to develop and promote electronic government services and processes through inter-agency cooperation, as a way to expand opportunities for citizen participation in the government by way of ICT and other new technologies, in the post-pandemic environment, they said.

Villafuerte and his co-authors explained that in HB 227, they proposed the “technical and informational interoperability of the ICT systems of all government offices through the Internet-based E-Government System, to lead to the further improvement of the ease of doing business in the country and minimize corruption while at the same time making the Philippines ahead of the curve in the practice of social distancing under the new normal scenario of possible coronavirus outbreaks in the years to come.”

The E-Government Master Plan has the following six major components:

• An interoperability framework to guide and govern basic technical and informational interoperability of the ICT systems of all government agencies and corporations;

• An Archives and Records Management Information System for all government documents and records.

This will entail the digitization of paper-based documents and records and the development of systems that will manage the creation, routing, tracking, archiving and disposal of all official documents—while adhering to existing policies, laws and ISO standards;

• An Internet-based Government Online Payment System and gateway that will enable citizens and businesses to remit payments electronically to government agencies.

This will involve various delivery channels, including debit instructions (Automated Teller Machine or ATM accounts), credit instructions (credit cards) and mobile wallets (short messaging system or SMS);

• A Citizen Frontline Delivery Services that would facilitate business registration-related transactions by integrating all agencies involved in business registration.

Proposed for inclusion are such agencies and firms as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR) and of Customs (BOC), Social Security System (SSS), Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG), Philippine Health Insurance Corp.(PhilHealth), LGUs and other offices issuing permits and licenses;

• A Public Financial Management system to harmonize such financial systems in government as taxation, payment systems, accounting and business registries; and

• A Procurement System providing online and real-time services encompassing all procurement processes involving bidding, contract agreements, and payment for services or supplies.

The four HB 227 authors said the adoption of these six components of the master plan would enhance the access to, and delivery of, government services to bring about efficient, responsive, ethical, accountable and transparent government service.