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President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday led the National Launch of the eGov PH Super App and the National Information and Communication Technology Month Kick-off Ceremony in Malacanang, saying that the government must facilitate the rapid development of the country’s interconnectivity infrastructure and digitalization to boost the economy and fight corruption.

“And…the whole idea of e-governance is something that we need to do because we have fallen behind,” Marcos said, noting that 95 percent of people’s daily activities such as shopping, bank and government payments are done online.

“We hope with the beginnings of this e-governance system, that a senior living in an isolated place, isolated island somewhere who, by the time we will have connectivity, can just go on to their phone (and transact),” Marcos said.

According to Marcos, Friday’s event is an extremely important step in heading down the road to digitalizing the bureaucracy that will not only cover the national government but also the local government units.

The good thing is that local governments have already taken the initiative and have started to digitalize themselves, the President said.

“Now, what we have to do is to consolidate all of those systems in place. Allow them to communicate with each other in a way that is useful for the consumers, for the citizens in terms of, again, the business that has to be conducted with government,” he pointed out.

Expressing elation over the government’s direction towards digitalization, he said another importance of the initiative is it serves as a means to combat corruption.

Through digitalization and the use of available apps, all transactions can be simplified and, in the end, minimize corruption and other abuses, he said.

“So, that way it simplifies the process, especially for the citizen and there is no discretion being exercised by anyone,” he said.

“We owe that to the people. We owe them to be able to do that. We should not allow them to continue to suffer to this antiquated, corrupt, and inefficient system.”

Marcos also highlighted the importance of government partnership with the private sector for the successful implementation of the initiative and to ensure cybersecurity.

“And so, this is a very good step and we will continue to push for this and we will need, not only of our government agencies, but also the private sector because the private sector also has concerns in this regard, especially when it comes to cybersecurity,” said Marcos.

He congratulated the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) during the event for having the first e-governance app, as he vowed to continue making it more extensive and sophisticated as the Philippines competes in the global market for the supply of goods, services, and labor.

Through the Super App, Filipinos will be able to access and avail of highly desirable government services, such as valid personal identification in digital format, essential day-to-day core government services; e-tourism and e-travel services; e-payments and banking services; and, even useful news and information about various subjects.

The eGov PH Super App could also be expanded and improved with version updates in the future. Presidential News Desk