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FARMERS
checking the weather on mobile phones or sending birth
details of livestock over the Internet may be a thing of
the future. That is, if the Philippine government fails
to perform its supporting role to spur the country’s
information and communications technology (ICT) growth.
“True,
there are Filipinos who still can’t afford mobile phones
or access to information technology. If, in fact, the
government recognizes the importance of [these
technologies], that can spell a difference,” former ICT
commissioner Emmanuel Lallana said during a conference
Thursday in Makati City.
Lallana
admitted that while there are 60 million Filipinos with
mobile phones, some 25 million of the country’s total 85
million people are missing out on the opportunities
offered by mobile governance.
According to Lallana, who is also a government
consultant, “mGovernance” is the collective action
through the use of technology for the benefit of the
common good. He calls the mobile phone the “weapon of
the weak.”
However,
he said there are several problems in making technology
work for most Filipinos.
Lallana
said only half of the 31 national government offices
offer electronic services and have incorporated short
messaging system (SMS) sending features of mobile phones
to said services.
He cited
as an example the Department of agriculture (DA) price
and weather updates via SMS as not maximized.
Lallana
said the DA receives only 150 SMS a day when more than a
third (35 percent or 11.8 million) of the estimated 33.7
million employed persons in the country are in the
agriculture sector.
“Farmers
are definitely losing opportunities here,” he added.
Sherwin
Ona of the De La Salle University bared the same problem
of lack of government support for the Imus Agricultural
Network project that aimed to automate the chain of
farming and marketing in that Cavite town’s
agricultural-based trade.
The
prototype his students developed would have allowed
farmers to know, for example, seed inventories, seed
distribution and best practices. Likewise, it offers a
birth registry for livestock as well as slaughterhouse
data.
However,
Ona said the project couldn’t take off because it didn’t
have a “solid link” with the
municipality of
Imus
and it didn’t involve the local government’s
management-information system group.
Hence,
he added, fund sourcing has become difficult. “I think
this [fund sourcing] is a perennial problem for
academe-initiated projects lacking in local government
unit [LGU] commitment,” Ona told participants at the New
World Renaissance Hotel.
He added
“a lot of convincing” among LGU officials is needed for
ICT projects especially if these officials are seeking
reelection.
“This is
proving to be difficult because ICT projects such as
this are not physical against farm-to-market roads,” Ona
said.
Developing the project, according to him, would cost a
minimum of P200,000 excluding investment for
infrastructure.
Lallana
said what the government can do is follow the example of
Bangladesh’s Grameenphone concept.
Sen.
Edgardo Angara, who delivered a keynote speech,
emphasized that technology wouldn’t matter if the
citizens don’t trust the government.
“Without
that trust, any government can’t function,” Angara,
chairman of the Senate Committee on Science and
Technology, added.
“The
tools are already available and would be only effective
if leadership over these tools is granted,” he added. |
