DICT seeks P2.7B budget for e-government push in 2027

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is proposing a P2.7-billion budget for its E-Government (eGov) initiatives in 2027.

Speaking on the sidelines of the two-day eGov Hackathon on Tuesday in Taguig City, DICT Undersecretary for E-Government David Almirol said that the requested funding will cover cloud hosting, cybersecurity, system integration, and developer compensation.

"The overall estimation—including cloud, sustainability, and the like—is around P2.7 billion," Almirol said.

"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."

Of the total proposed P2.7-billion eGov budget, P800 million is earmarked specifically to upgrade and maintain the government’s flagship one-stop-shop eGov Super App.

The remaining budget, meanwhile, will target four key digital pillars:

• Cloud Infrastructure & Hosting: Expanding server capacity to support expanding government transactions and eliminate system downtime.
• Cybersecurity Tools: Essential security suites and architectural reviews to safeguard integrated government data.
• Developer Compensation: Retaining skilled in-house programmers to maintain and scale existing infrastructure.
• Integration & Interoperability: Connecting national and local agency systems into a single digital interface.

Almirol said the proposed budget is also in line with the Republic Act No 12254 or the eGov Law, which creates a separate eGov budget line.

The law also opens new funding options for the agency:

• NTC Spectrum Fund: Under the new law, eGov can now draw support from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) Spectrum Fund, which was previously restricted solely to Free Wi-Fi rollouts.
• Inter-Agency B2B Contracts: Rather than hiring expensive overseas contractors, agencies can contract the DICT's managed services team. Revenue and savings generated from these business-to-business (B2B) agreements will be retained in a dedicated Interoperability and Sustainability Fund.

Moreover, Almirol said the DICT is preparing a transition plan to partner with local IT startups and the tech community through initiatives like hackathons to ensure long-term platform sustainability.

"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," he said.

"We want the IT community to help us enhance this, strengthen security, and review the architecture,” he added.

During the hackathon, participants developed practical tools to simplify government transactions, improve inter-agency coordination, and speed up public services.

DICT Secretary Henry Aguda, in his remarks, highlighted the growing public reliance on these digital channels.

"We have a long way to go to improve," Aguda said.

“In the spirit of digital bayanihan, let us all work together to improve government services,” the DICT chief added.

Data presented during the event highlights the expanding scale of the government's digital services across several core platforms:

The eGov app, in particular, has recorded 61 million downloads and over 900 million transactions. It integrates 1,332 government e-services across 95 service modules, covering health, education, employment, travel, tourism, local government transactions, public safety, financial services, social protection, citizen assistance, and digital identity.

The eGov Data Exchange Platform has also processed more than 950 million transactions as of June 2026.

Furthermore, more than 92 million Digital National IDs have been issued to date, supporting over 300 million digital identity transactions through eVerify.

EGovAI platform likewise recorded more than 200 million transactions and over 10 million users, performing functions such as translation, document extraction, electronic identity verification, and legal assistance.

With 1,300 government systems currently integrated into the eGov framework, the DICT maintained that efficient, seamless digital services remain the best proof that taxpayer money is being managed responsibly. —AOL, GMA News