A House leader on Monday welcomed the approval of the bill establishing an E-Government masterplan that will give the public access to government services through the Internet.
The House of Representatives last week voted 229-0 to approve House Bill 6927 or the E-Government Act.
With the approval of the E-Government Act, Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte pushed for the immediate implementation of Republic Act 11055, or the National Identification or ID System Act, and of the National Broadband Plan of the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
Villafuerte says HB 6954 and HB 6864 form part of a comprehensive reform package designed to let the Duterte administration upgrade the delivery of its future social amelioration programs or SAPs, and to avoid a repeat of the hitches that mired the initial release of cash subsidies to the 18-million poor and low-income families hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also says the swift passage by the Senate of HB 1297, or the Banko sa Baryo bill, which designates Authorized Credit Agents or ACAs to serve the banking needs of the people in the remote villages without banks.
With the Bangko sa Baryo bill, Villafuerte says, the government could download its future social amelioration subsidies to the intended family beneficiaries not only through accredited banks, remittance centers and pay platforms, but also through the bill-proposed ACAs that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and contracting banks are to tap in the distant villages without bank branches.
To make sure the government could make the seamless online transfers of cash to the beneficiaries of future subsidy programs via all banks, remittance centers, pay platforms or the HB 1297-proposed ACAs, Villafuerte says, the DICT needs to expedite its NBP, which aims to deploy fiber-optic cables and wireless technologies, to ensure regional connectivity and improve Internet speed especially in the remote villages nationwide.
The House-approved E-Government bill aims for the more efficient delivery of government services through interoperability and to minimize human intervention in government transactions to curtail corruption.
The bill provides for various programs in the E-Government masterplan, including the Philippine Government Interoperability Framework that will guide the basic technical and informational interoperability of government ICT systems.
A Government Online Payment System allowing citizens and businesses to remit payments electronically to government agencies will also be created under the measure.
Citizen Frontline Delivery Services will also be established to speed up business registration-related transactions by integrating all agencies involved in such purpose, such as the Department of Trade and Industry, Securities and Exchange Commission, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Social Security System, Pag-Ibig and Philippine Health Insurance Corp., among others.
The measure tasks the Information and Communications Technology secretary to head the E-Government initiative. He will be assisted by the chief information officers in the key government units.
Local government units are also required to have an ICT officer to manage and supervise its adoption of the E-Government Plan under the House-approved measure.