Marcos wants swift passage of digitalization bills

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Wednesday committed to enhancing the country’s digital infrastructure.
 
Speaking at the National Information and Communications Technology Summit 2022 held at the Manila Hotel, Marcos said that his administration would facilitate the swift passage of the E-Governance and E-Government bills. 
 
"I am happy to report that at the last meeting of the LEDAC, which is the liaison body between the executive and the legislature, this came up and it looks like that... the E-Governance and the E-Government bills will be consolidated,” he said.
 
“But they are working on it, and I have asked them to bring it out as quickly as they possibly can so that we have the framework with which we will digitalize our government, which we will digitalize our bureaucracy.”
 
"It is not something that we choose to do. It is something that we have to do. We are already playing catch-up in terms of digitalization to the rest of the world," he added. 
 
If the Philippines wants to keep up with other countries, Marcos said the country's system should be digitalized. 
 
"All our plans for the transformation of the economy and our continuing redefinition of the Philippines’ place in the community of nations, all of that depends upon your work, and that we are able to do all the important work that we are trying to achieve," he said. 
 
"And that can only be done if we have a digitalized government, a digitalized bureaucracy, and a strong partner with our private sector in terms of the technology industries," he added. 
 
He said that the bills that he has urged lawmakers to pass would “enable us to ensure fast, transparent, and efficient government service for Filipinos."
 
"I therefore call on all our servant-leaders in Congress to help accelerate the approval of these bills once again. As I said earlier, there is nothing that I can see that should hold us back from getting the future that we want," Marcos said. 
 
"We have the tools. We have the knowledge. And most importantly, we have the people. All that is left to do is to have the will and the resolve to achieve it," he added. 
 
Marcos also called on government partners to help build a better and more progressive future for the country's information and communications technology (ICT) sector and the bureaucracy.  — VBL, GMA News