President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday ordered the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to help capacitate all local government units (LGUs) to be able to adapt the “e-Gov system” as part of the administration’s digitization efforts.
“Let’s capacitate our LGUs so they can adapt to the system… Let’s be sure that we are able to upgrade this system. Set it up to get them (LGUs) ready, so they know how to operate it,” the President said during a sectoral meeting on DICT’s pending projects and on cybersecurity concerns.
DICT Secretary Ivan Uy, in accepting the directives, said making LGUs digitally ready would enable them to save funds and to boost their income by making their collection more efficient.
The DICT last December announced the establishment of an e-Gov system which aims to ensure the digitalization of government systems including LGUs.
The e-government system includes centralizing government cloud services, the e-Report for citizens’ feedback and complaints and the e-Gov App which will integrate all government services into one platform. An e-Gov Super App will be launched early next month.
Uy, during the meeting, also updated the President on the status of the National ICT Development Agenda 2023-2028 which include the National Broadband Plan (NBP), Digital Transformation of the National Government, State of the Philippines’ Cybersecurity, and Enhancing ICT Competency of Filipinos through Upskilling and Reskilling programs.
The NBP serves as a roadmap for accelerating the development of fiber optic cables and wireless technologies across the country to increase internet speed.
It also includes the Free Public Internet Access Program that currently has 3,961 operational sites in 493 localities as of April 2023. DICT is targeting to expand the program to an additional 10,000 sites in 1,364 localities.
The Digital Transformation of the National Government program, meanwhile, aims to streamline functions and ensure interoperability, and maintain data standards and cybersecurity protection.
Uy also mentioned the proposed National Cybersecurity Response Organization and the DICT’s ongoing unified counter measures.
