Matthew John F. Sino Cruz Dr.

Sherwin Ona
Student, Doctor in Information Technology Professor, Overview of IT in Society

Concept Paper
An Assessment of the Capability of Bayambang to Support E-Governance

Introduction
Government, as defined by Webster, is a system of ruling and political administration
over a state or organization. There are different types of government being implemented over the
world. Each type of government is implemented based on who will lead the state, political
system and who will choose the leader. In the Philippines, Republic type of governance is being
implemented wherein, the countrymen has the power on choosing who will be the head of the
state, known as the President (Webster, 1998).
Technological developments in the past century have made fundamental improvements in
many areas of our lives: transportation, work, communication, health care, leisure activities and
even governance (Rogers & Fisk, 2003). As such, IT is seen as the most important forces of
modernization. In an information society, the indicator of development is the diffusion of
Information Technology (Avgerou, 2000 as cited from Nair & Prasad, 2002). However, rapid
changes in technology may leave segments of the population ill prepared to interact with some of
the complex systems (Rogers & Fisk, 2003). Philippines is one of the developing Asian countries
which try to innovate the different aspects of socio-economic system through the utilization of
technology. Traditionally, many governments have been using paper based approaches in all
their transactions which has been proved to be disadvantageous as long as accountability is
concerned (Mehrtens et al., 2001).
Throughout the world, e government has been realized as an important tool for
responsive governance (Bwalya, 2009). UNESCO defined E Governance as the manner on
how the public sector use the Information and Communications Technology with the aim of
improving information and service delivery, encouraging citizen participation in the decision
making process and making government more accountable, transparent and effective. Currently,
UNESCO has an on going activity related to the capacity building on implementing E
governance in the different countries. The said project promotes the use of ICT as a tool in
enhancing good governance through the development of training modules for local decision
makers in Africa and Latin America (UNESCO, n.d). The Philippines started the innovation of
the political system during the implementation of the computerized election last May 2010. The
said technology is known as the Precinct Count Optical Scanner or PCOS and was provided by
the Smartmatic Philippines. Stiftung (2002) stated that the paradigm shift in way of governance
has been brought about also partly by the rapid growth in Information and Communications
Technologies (ICT) which have potential to transform the generation and delivery of public
services by public institutions (cited from Bwalya, 2009).
Accordingly, the benefits of implementing e government has not been easy for various
technological as well as organizational reasons. This is true for both industrialized and
developing countries (Heeks, 2003; Pacific Council on International Policy, 2002; Strejeek &
Theil, 2002; Holliday, 2002; Wescott, 2001 as cited from Saxena, 2005).

Philippine Initiatives toward E Governance
Former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada envisioned the usage of Information and
Communications Technology on all areas of the government in the country for the purpose of
ensuring the wide access of information and the delivery of the public services to the citizens.
The initiative was then implemented in a master plan called the Government Information
Systems Plan. The master plan sets the enabling policy and institutional infrastructure and
environment, as well as the direction, priorities, and benchmarks for computerization o key
government operations and activities over the next five to ten years. It is a plan to fully harness
the potentials of ICT for good governances and promote transparency and accountability in
government operations and transactions. (Philippine Government Online by National
Information Technology Council, 2000)
The Master Plan was stipulated under the Executive Order No. 265 which covers the
approval and adoption of the Government Information Systems Plan as framework and guide for
all computerization efforts in the government. In line with this, the DOST ICTO and DOST
ASTI conducted a joint project entitled Integrated Government Philippines (iGov Phil). The
project aims to setup government shared network that will facilitate the deployment and
implementation of mission critical ICT projects. In relation with this, it is being viewed to be
integrated with the different existing e-services of the government such as e-serbisyo, UMID,
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and PhilGEPS.
Aside from the iGov Phils, DOST also initiated the Contact Center ng Bayan (CCB). This
initiative aims to improve the service delivery and reduce red tape in the government front line.
The project enables the citizen to gain access relevant information and service and report
complaints and ask assistance through a single number.
Philippine Community eCenter Program was also initiated by the Department of Science
and Technology in response to the improvement of the delivery of government service to the
citizens. The said project sought to establish e centers on different municipalities where there
are no shared IT infrastructure such as internet, computer laboratories and the like. Accordingly,
42.45% of the 1496 municipalities still do not have CeCs. However, the institution targeted to
provide CeCs on the remaining municipalities which do not have such infrastructure.
Lastly, e governance started penetrating local government units through the
implementation of the e LGU project. The overall objective of the initiative is to revolutionize
local government units by integrating Information Technology to improve government service
delivery, promoting transparency among government transactions and increase access to
government information. The eLGU project currently undertakes the development of mission-
critical system applications which uses open source technology and is particularly aimed at
supporting the LGUs revenue collection function. These functionalities include Electronic Real
Property Tax System (eRPTS), Electronic Business Permit and Licensing System (eBPLS) and
the Electronic Treasury Operations Management System (eTOMS). Accordingly, a total of 110
eLGU were established in 2008. These projects initiated by DOST started on September 2002
and currently being implemented all over the Philippines. (www.icto.dost.gov.ph)
The implementation of the E Governance in the Philippines was also stipulated under
the Executive Order No. 47, s. 2011 section 5.a. It was stated that the government should prepare
a medium-term development plan for ICT research and development and its linkages to the ICT
industry, and a medium-term e-governance infrastructure and information systems plan in order
to support improvements in the global competitiveness of our countrys economy. (Dennis
Vilorente, 2011)

Local Implementation of E Governance among LGU Olongapo City
Long before the Estrada administration, the initiatives of the e governance
implementation was already instigated under the Ramos administration under Administrative
Order (AO) 332, otherwise known as National Information and Technology Plan. The said plan
was implemented to improve the countrys status into the 21
st
century. This was accomplished
through the dissemination of IT in society.
In line with this, Olongapo City already implemented e governance to provide a more
efficient way of delivering public services to its citizens. The implementation was amended by
the contract between the City Government and Amellar Consortium through Resolution No. 45
series of 2000. The agreement covered the delivery and installation of the hardware component
of the project in the amount of $258, 000 (Php 12, 900, 000). In addition to this, the city council,
through Ordinance No. 104 series of 2000 appropriated $112, 900 (Php 5, 645, 000) as additional
payment to the project.
The objectives of the computerization project of the Olongapo City include the
enhancement of the revenue performance, taxpayer services, records management, internal
operations and information flow.
However, the implementation of the E governance in the said city has gone a long
process before its full success. Accordingly, the factors which influenced the success of the
project includes the level of digital literacy of its citizens, the core values that the government is
currently upholding and the political will to which, the power of the person in position was
challenged in preventing resistance of the citizens from accepting the project.
The benefits of implementing the project were observed through the government
performance. Upon its implementation, the transparency among the government offices was
observed, especially in its fiscal and resource management. The project also helped the city
government in managing city operations and served as a responsive tool for effective and
efficient problem solving and decision policy making processes.
However, the City Government was also challenged due to the different factors that
hindered effective implementation of the project. This includes budget constraints that affect the
funding of the project which made it hard for its full implementation. There was also an
inadequate government policy, wherein existing practices limit the employment of the IT
strategies in achieving the agencys mission. Another factor is the resistance to change which is
brought about by insecurity, misconceptions of the technological revolution and professionalism
in performing ones role. These factors caused fear to the personnel under the city government
which may in turn, resisted them from totally accepting the project.


International Practices in Implementing E Governance Daegu, South Korea
One of the Metropolitan City of the South Korea is Daegu. The city has been formulating
best practices and strategies in implementing e governance on its government sectors. Several
stages were established for the full implementation of e governance. Majority of which focused
more security and reliance of information, digital public service and delivery systems, managing
IT resources, scale and measurement methods of citizen participation, decision support systems
for public employees and others.
Nowadays, the Korean Government has been reinventing itself with new digital
revolution. However, they believe that the government should not only concentrate on the
physical infrastructure of production but also with the quality and speed of information retrieval.
Thus, such innovations should cover social structure and function and does not only concentrate
on the position and the use of computer.
The endeavor was then initiated by the Mayor of Daegu. The mayor organized a team for
establishing policies concerning e-governance in the city. The team was composed of IT related
experts from the academe, industry and government. The team conducted regular meeting once
every quarter of the year to discuss the policy concerning the project.
A master plan was built by the team which covers the steps in implementing e
governance infrastructure in the city government. They initially provided PCs for every
government employee to work with. To materialize the infrastructure, the mayor should exert
effort to persuade his chief and the city assembly in securing budget for the infrastructure.
During that time, the city government employees were lacking knowledge on the usage of
computers which made it hard for them to totally accept the project. To address the problem, the
CIO (Mayor) improved the computer tutorial system to educate the employees with computer
basics. The tutorial session were usually conducted by a facilitator and done with their houses on
a one on one basis. The training lasted for 6 months and the result was quiet impressive since the
employees were able to learn basic computer knowledge.
However, even though the government has established computer literacy program,
portion of the society has been left behind which caused digital divide within the nation. To
solve the problem, the CIO organized Citizens Computer Literacy Assistance Team who
worked day and night. The team aimed to educate citizens in using computers. To support the
project, the government coordinated with the private computer academy and put up PC rooms in
implementing the program. In line with this, the Law of e-Governance was implemented on the
first day of July 2001. The law aimed to transform a paper document oriented administration to
a large scale cyber civil affairs service area. Likewise, majority of the government transactions
were improved with greater speed and efficiency. An automated system was used to accelerate
proceeding time and manual paper works were no longer necessary. Thus, drafting new policy
ideas based on accurate data will be implemented.

Brief Information about Bayambang Pangasinan
Bayambang is one of the municipalities of Pangasinan situated near the Agno River.
Being near at the river, the town is conducive to farming which served as the livelihood of the
people living in the area. The town became the 5
th
capital of the short lived Philippine
revolutionary republic under General Emilio Aguinaldo on November 12, 1899. It was also in its
former barangay, Bautista, where Jose Palma wrote our National Anthem.
Currently, the population of the municipality is 111, 521 according to the CENSUS of
2010. In line with this, a study shown that the literacy rate of the municipality is 92.50% of the
total population which means that many bayambang town people are well educated. Thus, they
classified the town as one of the 1
st
class municipalities in Pangasinan.
The local government unit is currently headed by Honorable Engineer Ricardo M.
Camacho who has been elected as the Municipal Mayor.

Research Objectives
The research aims to develop an e governance framework for selected Local
Government Unit in Pangasinan that will enhance the current business processes and practices
being implemented on its offices.
Specifically, it seeks to:
1. describe the current business processes in different offices of the selected Local
Government Unit;
2. identify the problems that arises among these processes;
3. assess the best practices of different government units inside and outside the
Pangasinan in implementing e governance;
4. evaluate the capability of the selected Local Government Unit to support e
governance, and;
5. develop an e governance framework to address the problems cited for the Local
Government Unit of Pangasinan.
References
Hon. Katherine H. Gordon. E-Governance: The Olongapo Experience. Information Technology
for Local Governance: East and Southeast Asia Network for Better Local Governments. 2001
Dr. Chang-hak Choi. Strategy for E Governance in Daegu, South Korea Its Experience and
Task. Information Technology for Local Governance: East and Southeast Asia Network for
Better Local Governments. 2001
National Information Technology Council. Philippine Government Online: Government
Information System Plans. 2001
Roger and Fisk. Impact of Technology for Successful Aging. Springer Books. 2003
http://www.unesco.gov.ph
http://www.ict.dost.gov.ph
http://www.visitbayambang.com