Senate OKs e-governance bill on final reading

The Senate on Monday approved on third and final reading the proposed E-Governance Act, a priority measure of the Marcos administration.

SB 2781 was passed with 21 affirmative votes, zero negative votes, and zero abstentions.

According to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, sponsor of the measure, the proposed law aims to streamline government processes and make them more transparent by institutionalizing a national framework for a unified digital government system.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology will be the primary department in charge of the framework and will guide other government agencies on the technical and informational standards they need to adopt for seamless digital integration.

The framework will be referenced on a comprehensive master plan which will be updated every three years.

A secure network called the "Integrated Government Network" will be established which will connect all government websites and applications and allow data-sharing among different agencies.

The E-Governance Act is among the bills that President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. mentioned in his first State of the Nation Address.

The bill was approved in the Senate before the end of the 19th Congress.

The counterpart measure of the bill in the House of Representatives was already approved on third and final reading before the Holy Week break last year. — BM, GMA Integrated News