The House of Representatives has taken the initiative to help President Marcos realize his vision of achieving increased digitalization and electronically-enhanced governance by passing a bill for the purpose.
The House led by Speaker Martin Romualdez approved on third and final reading a Palace-backed bill seeking to institutionalize the government’s shift to e-Governance for faster and improved delivery of services to the public.
The approval came as Congress resumed its session on Jan. 22, 2024 from a month-long holiday recess.
House Bill (HB) 7327, titled, “An Act institutionalizing the transition of the government to E.Governance in the digital age, creating for the purpose the Philippine Infostructure Management Corp. and appropriating funds therefor” was approved by a 304-4 vote.
Romualdez, the principal author of the proposed law, expressed hope that the Senate will prioritize the bill – one of the presidential priority measures mentioned in the 2022 State of the Nation Address.
“The bill would make it easier for people to transact with and avail themselves of services from the government through digital platforms. It would make the delivery of services more effective, efficient, and transparent,” Romualdez said.
HB 7327 is a consolidation of 21 related measures, including the first proposed E-Governance law filed in the House, HB 3 that was authored by the Speaker.
Co-authors of the bill are Senior Deputy Majority Leader andIlocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand Alexander A. Marcos, and Tingog Party-list Reps. Yedda Marie K. Romualdez and Jude Acidre.
The bill seeks to adopt “a policy to create, foster and sustain a digitally empowered and integrated government that provides secure, responsible and transparent citizen-centered services and harnesses the potential of open data for promoting economic growth and a globally competitive Filipino nation.”
Reps. Luis Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur and Joey Sarte Salceda of Albay supported the House leadership’s move in taking the lead in passing legislation that will ensure that the country’s adoption of digital technologies is responsive, inclusive, and forward thinking.
Villafuerte said the Philippines’ digital transformation must go side-by-side with its continued infrastructure development.
“Building infrastructure like roads and bridges should be undertaken side-by-side with building the information superhighway … because if you have digital connectivity, people will have access to information—and growth and progress will follow,” Villafuerte said.
He said the planned nationwide digitalization would pave the way for e-governance, which “will be very beneficial for our country.”
“I believe if there is less human intervention, there will be less corruption. If most government transactions are done through online or e-governance, even payment of taxes, our development will be hastened and there will be less corruption,” Villafuerte said.
For his part, Salceda, chair of the House committee on ways and means and the lower chamber’s resident economist, appealed to government agencies to simplify government processes and reduce their documentary requirements first as a prerequisite to digitalizing their services.
Salceda warned that if processes remain complex and tedious for citizens accessing government services, efforts to digitalize government services “will merely migrate such inefficiencies.”
He stressed “digitalization or electronic governance is not a magic word. It requires internal reform and efficiency. Digital inefficiency is still inefficiency.”
He cited issues such as government websites that are difficult to navigate, websites that are not privacy-secure, supposedly digitalized processes that still require face-to-face transactions such as TIN registration, and other supposedly electronic government services that remain inefficient, lengthy, complex, or requiring physical processes.