The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) backed President Duterte in renewing his call to Congress to pass the E-Governance Act that would aim to help the public transact with the government during the coronavirus pandemic.
ARTA Director-General Jeremiah Belgica made the statement after Duterte made the call to Congress during his sixth and final State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 26.
In a statement, Belgica said the measure was aligned with ARTA's vision to streamline and automate government processes for the public's convenience, as well as their proposal to improve data-sharing among government agencies.
"We join President Duterte in his renewed call for the passage of the E-Governance Act," he said Wednesday, July 28.
"We have seen the importance of automation amid this pandemic and we pledge to assist government agencies in their transition toward digitalizing their services," he added.
In his SONA, President Duterte said the proposed E-Governance Act will institutionalize the transition of the government to e-governance amid the challenges it faced during the pandemic.
"While the pandemic has demonstrated readiness, resourcefulness, and capability of government to serve the Filipino people through the use of ICT and digital services, it has also shown its inherent deficiencies and weaknesses," he said.
"As such that they ask Congress to pass an E-governance Act that will set up transition of government process, processes to digital aids," he added.
The proposed measure sought the establishment of an integrated, interconnected, and interoperable information and resource-sharing and communications network spanning the entirety of the national and local government; an internal records management information system; an information database; and digital portals for the delivery of public services.
It also pushed for the digitization of paper-based and other traditional modes of workflows for a more efficient and transparent public service.
In 2020, the President tapped ARTA, along with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Budget Management (DBM), and other government agencies, to lead the transition to a paperless government through e-governance.
In September 2020, ARTA launched a series of webinars featuring the E-Governance Agency of Moldova, the Embassy of New Zealand, and the Republic of Serbia to showcase their best practices in terms of e-governance.