DICT Secretary Henry Aguda (left), Panfilo "Ping" Lacson (Facebook)

Newly-minted Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda must ensure the digitalization of not only government-to-government transactions but also of transactions between government and private institutions, in order to eliminate corruption.

Thus, said administration senatorial candidate Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, whose handine stance against corruption is well known.

"This is my advocacy, to minimize corruption through full digitalization. It would be great if the new DICT secretary will do his duty to speed up the digitalization of all government transactions," he said in Filipino on Friday, March 21 during a press conference of the Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial slate in Trece Martires, Cavite.

"This should include not just transactions between government agencies, but also those between government and the private sector," Lacson noted. 

The ex-senator cited as an example the transactions at the Bureau of Customs (BOC), where if all applications are processed online all the way to the payment of taxes, there would be less chances of human intervention.

Malacañang this week named Aguda, a bank executive and digital technocrat, as the new DICT chief to replace Ivan John Uy, who resigned from his post.

Aguda reportedly was the digital infrastructure lead at the Private Sector Advisory Council, which was formed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to strengthen coordination between the government and the private sector.