POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

College of Political Science and Public Administration

Department of Public Administration
Sta. Mesa, Manila




Reaction Paper
on

E-GOVERNMENT AND THE APPLICATIONS
OF TECHNOLOGY
TO
GOVERNMENT SERVICES




Submitted by:

REHOM P. PIMENTEL
BPAG 4-1



Submitted to:

PROF. JAYSON SALVADOR
Comparative Civil Service System




March 1, 2014

Working Paper of Pacific Basin Research Center, and chapter in Dennis A. Rondinelli
and John M. Heffron, eds. Globalization In Transition: Forces Of Adjustment In The Asia Pacific
Region, in press.
Clay G. Wescott, Asian Development Bank

E-Government has been proven to be a tool for development in most countries around the
world. Developing countries such as Philippines have begun to invest their governments
resources and efforts to help make Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
penetrates the Bureaucracy.
The question is what are those things in the bureaucracy that is highly needed to
modernize? And what will be the benefit of the government, the public and so with the corporate
world?
The very first thing that we have to do is to identify those aspects that we needed to apply
with e-government. Firstly, we have to improve and develop the citizens participation. This
aspect of governance is very important because the effectiveness of the government will be
reflected on the participation of the citizens with regards to the programs, projects and policies
being implemented. No matter how good the leaders are, if the citizens are not responsible
enough to respond to tasks set by the government, every effort and resources being used will be
all useless for a kingdom is nothing without its people. Citizens participation would help
improve the manning of the government from their suggestions, sentiments, opinions or even
their criticism. In such ways, the policy makers would know how the people reacted to their
actions and decisions, wherein, in that sense, our politicians would be careful enough not to be
subjected to public criticism or humiliation maybe. And this benefits we can get from active
citizens participation will be better improve using e-government, for instance, the used of social
media. One of most peaceful movement that is successfully held in the country was the call for
the abolition of pork barrel system, which was named Million People March. This action
simply originated from a voice of a single person using the social network which is facebook,
and then rapidly spread out to all netizens which make them move to Luneta Park in the common
pursuit of abolishing pork barrel system and punishing those corrupted public funds.
Another thing is the delivery of government services to the people. Thousands of
complains have been thrown to the government especially when it comes to front line services
delivery which is cause by a very long and slow-moving processes we have in most of all
government instrumentalities. This have a problem since the establish of the government that is
maybe caused by the bloated system we wherein band of government employees are doing the
same task, one reason, and could be because of the manual procedures that we are still practicing
in the country, another reason. For example in releasing or issuance of permits, clearances or
certifications such as NSO, NBI, PNP, DFA, etc. This institutions are the front line services since
they are always present in every aspect of life whether as an student, employee, employer, OFW,
etc. Such problem would be easily addressed once we use e-governance such as the online
application or processing which has been one of the practices of DFA and an innovation on the
part of NBI. This mechanism would help improve the services by lessening the very long and
slow-moving processes since most of us now have accessed already to internet.
Lastly, the most important thing that we have to improve in the government making use
of e-governance is the public accountability. The public officials should be accountable to the
people. They must show that the public funds were all legally or purposively used for the general
welfare. Also, their actions and decisions should be made accountable to the people in order to
avoid negative bureaucratic behaviour such as palakasan, bribery, graft and corruption and the
like. One of the best example is making all the government institutions website improved
having the necessary information such as the used of budget and their allocation. This would
satisfy the people regarding on the proper use of public funds.
At the end of the day, once the e-governance have been a practice in government, time
will come that people itself will return a good feedback to the government saying that the
government is now more accountable efficient and effective when it comes to service delivery,
decision making, program and policy implementation and all other aspects of governance. And
therefore, the people will regain their trust and confidence to the government which is a very
important factor in all kind of leadership.