The Philippine government is opening its digital transformation efforts to the country’s technology community through the eGovPH Hackathon, inviting developers, programmers, students, and innovators to help build the next generation of citizen-focused government services.

First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos joined Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda and Undersecretary for e-Government David Almirol Jr. in launching the two-day hackathon at the SMX Convention Center Aura in Taguig City.

Unlike traditional coding competitions, the hackathon is designed to crowdsource ideas and technologies that can be integrated into the government’s digital platforms, particularly the eGovPH Super App.

Almirol said the initiative supports President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s vision of making government services more accessible to Filipinos.

“So, nangangarap po tayo, ’di ba? So, 2022 nung nagsimula po ang PBBM administration, ito po talaga ’yung kabilin-bilinan ng ating mahal na Pangulo ang sabi sa akin, ‘Dalhin ang gobyerno malapit sa tao,’” he said.

He emphasized that the government is looking beyond internal development and wants the country’s technology sector to become an active partner in improving digital governance.

“We can no longer handle everything alone. There needs to be someone to sustain what we’ve started, or else everything we built will just crumble,” Almirol said. “We want the IT community to help us enhance this, strengthen security, and review the architecture.”

He said the solutions developed during the hackathon could help simplify government transactions, strengthen interoperability among agencies, improve cybersecurity, and enhance the overall user experience of government digital services.

The initiative comes as the DICT is seeking a P2.7-billion budget for 2027 to expand digital government infrastructure, integrate more government services into the eGovPH ecosystem, strengthen cybersecurity, and improve the capacity of its digital platforms amid growing public demand.

Almirol said the government’s digitalization program has already gained significant traction, with the eGovPH Super App reaching 61 million downloads and facilitating more than 900 million transactions while integrating 1,332 government e-services across 95 service modules.

“The eGov Data Exchange Platform (eGovDX) has processed more than 950 million transactions, while more than 92 million Digital National IDs have been issued, supporting over 300 million identity verification transactions through eVerify,” Almirol said.

He added that eGovAI has also emerged as a key component of the government’s digital ecosystem.

“eGovAI has already processed more than 200 million transactions and now serves over 10 million users. It supports translation, document extraction, electronic identity verification, and assistance on government laws and regulations,” he said.

The eGovPH Hackathon runs until July 22, with participating teams expected to present solutions that could be adopted as part of the government’s continuing digital transformation program.