The first one is simple: I wish lawmakers would totally prohibit telcos from recycling mobile numbers.

Once a SIM card expires or is cancelled for cause, no telco should recycle or re-issue the number, whether prepaid or postpaid.

The reason here is simple. Mobile numbers are used for registering or signing up, as well as logging in, to various services. Recycled numbers may still be tied with the identities and accounts of their former users. Recycled numbers would prevent new users from being able to sign up for services.

True, mobile numbers are finite. But that’s no excuse to expose new users as well as many online or mobile services to the problems of recycled numbers. The introduction of new prefixes should provide telcos with the means to provide the public with new numbers.

In the past few days, there have been reports that authorities have allegedly blocked websites hosted by Tumblr and Blogspot, as part of steps taken against online gambling and gaming operations.

Many support this campaign, but not sweeping platform-wide blocking. There must also be a clear procedure law enforcers should ask a court to order the blocking of any website or app.

There is a new law supposedly aimed at improving internet connectivity. But one aspect that could be improved further is accessibility and affordability for students and teachers.

Both houses of Congress, the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, the Department of Science and Technology, National Telecommunications Commission, and the Department of Information and Communication Technology, and local government units operating local colleges and universities should press the telcos to provide “subscription plans” tailor-fit for students and teachers.

These education plans should be easy to apply for, with zero installation fees and no data caps. Telcos should not run away from their social responsibility of enabling Philippine education. Public school teachers should get their own plan offerings.

Further, lawmakers and local governments should look at the awesome example of Cebu City which pioneered 24-hour operations for the Cebu City Public Library. This is an important initiative that helps Cebu City’s students looking for conducive, safe and free places for study.

National, provincial and city libraries should be expanded and hours extended to ptomote library use and reading by the youth. This will also redirect foot traffic from malls towards public libraries.

At the same time, steps should be taken to check on the status and conditions of public school libraries, and promote public use of libraries of state colleges and universities, as well as libraries of local colleges and universities.

DepEd, CHED, TESDA, DOST, NTC, DICT, and other concerned agencies should also work to guarantee that there’s stable, fast and redundant internet connections in these public libraries and public school libraries.

Perhaps the government should call for a national “hackathon” on how to improve the user interface of government websites, especially those offering frontline services.

There must be a better way of booking passport appointments, paying taxes, checking social security benefits, obtaining certificates, and paying for such services. The effort should improve usability by the public, as well as security.

How to avail of Philhealth YAKAP? How to apply for medical assistance? Not only should there be up-to-date information, but signing up for services per se should be possible online.

It should be possible for any Filipino to find out which public hospitals nationwide are offering laboratory and other services (CT Scan, MRI, 2D Echo, etc.), prices, procedures, eligibility, and availability.

We could be certain that practitioners and users would be interested in contributing to and seeing improvements, by way of feedback and recommendations.

One area that should improve is the transparency of the annual national budget, as well as budgets of local governments, expenditures, and projects. These data are owned by the people of the Philippines, apart from the pesos and centavos denoted there.

Congress should provide an online edition of the budget that’s accessible to the public, in a machine-readable and open format, including annotations on amendments proposed by individual lawmakers. The departments, starting with the Department of Budget and Management and the Department of Public Works and Highways, should publish expenditures and funds releases. Governments in other countries have been doing this disclosures for decades now.

I hope our lawmakers and policy makers would consider.