DICT to digitally connect judicial agencies under NJIS

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has committed to provide digital connectivity to various agencies in the justice sector that will implement the National Justice Information System (NJIS).

The DICT is set to collaborate with agencies in the country’s justice sector to develop and implement the NJIS, an ICT platform which is expected to address fragmentation in the justice system through the development of information management systems and inter-agency exchange mechanisms.

“We intend to connect all NJIS implementing agencies to each other to facilitate seamless, secure and authenticated information exchange, and other tasks that require digital connectivity,” DICT Secretary Gregorio Honasan said in a statement.

The NJIS implementing agencies include the Department of Justice, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Dangerous Drugs Board, Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Corrections and Parole and Probation Administration.

“The very ideal of a real time information exchange across agencies through the Department of Information and Communications Technology is groundbreaking, and I believe the first of its kind in our country,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta said.

According to the DICT, data and information on Philipine laws and cases involving persons deprived of liberty, among others, will be digitized and uploaded to a centralized database and shared throughout the relevant offices in the government under the NJIS.

It said the information and data would be made accessible to prosecutors, public defenders, judges, law enforcement officers, immigration officers, parole and probation officers and social workers, among others.

“Our aim is not simply the collation of data and their placement online. Our job does not entail simply collecting information on cases and about those involved in them. Our job is to make sure that correct information and data promptly reach those who administer our criminal justice system so that they may make use of this towards the dispensation of justice,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said.