The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) is urging Filipinos to go online when dealing with government offices and agencies, as the Duterte administration intends to fully automate all government procedures and citizen transactions by 2022.
Neda Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said many Filipinos still prefer to do manual transactions, which take too long.
However, Pernia said that, by 2020, or within the midterm of the Duterte administration, this attitude must already change since the government expects significant changes in online government transactions.
“I think he [President Duterte] mentioned [that] by midterm, there should already be some signs or clear signs that we are moving [toward automation and that] there is substantial progress there so that by the end [of his term], [full automation is] in place,” Pernia said.
Neda Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon said many Filipinos are averse to doing online transactions because they do not trust technology.
She said the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) even admitted that face-to-face transactions in securing civil registry-related documents are still preferred by most of their clients.
Data obtained by the BusinessMirror showed that a total of 310,203 transactions were processed by e-Census in 2016.
This only represented about 1.8 percent of the total volume of 17.28 million transactions processed in 2016.
“[The PSA said] people are not really availing [themselves] of it [e-Census], utilizing the service because they would rather physically go there,” Edillon said.
“They prefer talking to a person. [Maybe they have more] assurance that the transaction was filed,” she added.
The Neda said the automation of government procedures is part of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017 to 2022.
Edillon said this is part of the President’s plan to cut red tape and shorten the processing time needed to perform everyday transactions, like opening and closing a business. She added the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is one of the early adopters of going online through its i-DOLE.
Initially, Edillon said, the i-DOLE caters to overseas Filipino workers who are more accustomed to transacting online.
The best practices in the government’s automation efforts is one of the topics that will be discussed in the third Asean-Overseas Economic Cooperation and Development Good Regulatory Practice Network Meeting which is now ongoing in Iloilo City.
Pernia said the GRPN will provide an opportunity for Asean countries to share experiences and best practices to support the Asean Community and the 2025 Vision through enhancing regulatory systems and frameworks.
The GRPN this year will be co-chaired by New Zealand and Malaysia, and will bring together around 20 regulatory policy officials from Asean Member States and development partners from OECD member countries.