The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is seeking around P2.7 billion in next year’s national budget to sustain and expand the government’s digitalization program.
DICT Undersecretary for E-Government David Almirol Jr. said the agency has yet to settle on a final figure, but estimated that the eGov program’s overall requirement for 2027-covering cloud services, cybersecurity tools, programmer salaries, and system sustainability-would reach about P2.7 billion.
Of that amount, at least P800 million would go to the eGov PH Super App alone, excluding cloud costs.
‘We are being extremely thrifty,’ Almirol told reporters on the sidelines of the eGov Hackathon on Tuesday, noting that the government’s past digitalization projects often ran into billions of pesos. ‘We can see that digitalization doesn’t actually need to be expensive. If you know how to optimize and avoid repeating processes and systems, it will really come in under budget.’
Almirol said he is hopeful that the government will soon put a line item on eGov itself, drawing confidence from Republic Act 12254, or the E-Governance Act, which established e-government as a distinct program with its own dedicated budget.
The new law opened two additional funding channels for eGov. The DICT can now draw from the Spectrum Fund administered by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)-previously earmarked solely for the Free Wi-Fi program-to support eGov’s sustainability.
The agency is also now authorized to enter into business-to-business contracts with other government agencies, offering itself as a managed services provider in lieu of expensive private or overseas contractors. Revenue generated from these engagements can be retained in a sustainability fund under the new law.
‘It’s cheaper, and the money stays within the government,’ Almirol said.
The undersecretary said the DICT built all 28 of its digital platforms in-house, without outside contractors, but conceded that the agency can no longer sustain the workload on its own. He said it is time to craft a transition plan that would allow startups and the broader information technology community to help maintain and enhance the systems, strengthen security, and review the platform architecture.
‘There needs to be someone to sustain what we’ve started, or else everything we built will just crumble,’ he said.
Hackathon to draw more ideas for eGov
On Tuesday, the DICT challenged hackathon participants to create practical tools that can simplify government transactions, improve coordination among agencies, and provide faster and more responsive public services.
To date, some 1,300 government systems have been integrated into the eGov platform. DICT Secretary Henry Aguda said transactions on the eGov PH app have reached 900,000 daily.
‘But we have a long way to go to improve. In the spirit of digital bayanihan, let us all work together to improve government services,’ Aguda said.
Data presented at the hackathon showed the eGov PH app has logged more than 61 million total downloads, while digital national identification transactions have surpassed 300 million-alongside 92 million digital national IDs issued.
The government’s paperless push has likewise recorded over 950 million eGovDX transactions, 36 million issued digital documents, and 48 million e-signatures, while 95 percent of tax payments and 97 percent of customs payments are now made online.