Photo from Department of Information and Communications Technology
MANILA — The Department of Information and Communications Technology is proposing a P1.8-billion allocation in its 2027 budget for the government’s digitalization program through the implementation of the E-Governance Act.
The E-Governance Act institutionalizes a secure digital system aimed at streamlining government processes, reducing red tape, and delivering faster services to Filipinos.
During the Senate budget hearing on Wednesday, DICT Undersecretary David Almirol Jr. said the agency aims to have all 150 government agencies and 1,250 local government units comply with the E-Governance Act using its proposed budget.
The DICT also plans to integrate around 40 government agencies into the eGovPH Super App.
Almirol, however, said that even without a budget allocation last year, the eGovPH Super App had already reached around 65 million downloads and 60 million unique users, while about 1,131 LGUs had adopted the digitalization initiative.
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The DICT also said that around 92 million digital national IDs had been generated as of last year.
“As of August 2026, the eGov app already reached 65 million downloads with 60 million unique users,” Almirol said.
Senator Pia Cayetano, who chaired the agency’s budget hearing, raised concerns about data privacy over the fact that the data centers powering the digitalization program are foreign-owned.
“Kasi ang daming private data na laman yan ha and currently that data is in a foreign-hosted and managed data center… the security of that is really a concern,” Cayetano said.
The DICT said it is in close coordination with these foreign data centers and is encouraging them to establish local data centers within the country.
“We’re also encouraging these foreign entities to come up with certain localization zones in the Philippines…We call it co-development… it will take time,” Almirol added.
Cayetano also pointed out the need for more IT experts to work in the public sector instead of private companies to sustain the government’s digitalization program.
“The ability of the foreign capitalists to sustain them is stronger than ours so ang nangyayari, nawawala din sa atin, diba?”
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Almirol, however, assured senators that part of the agency’s budget would be allocated to provide higher compensation for its IT experts.
“Since we have 1.8 billion, we are allocating budget for that also for that to increase also the compensation of our IT experts who will be joining us.”
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