Digital backwater

As in everything else we have failed to do to make us competitive, we are today still a digital backwater. According to the Oxford dictionary, a backwater is a place or condition in which no development or progress is taking place, for example, “the country remained an economic backwater.”

Ok, there are some bright spots in our digitalization that takes us out of a backwater definition. Yes, that’s true for our largest banks because they have invested heavily in upgrading technology as an urgent operational necessity.

After banks, it is difficult to say other financial companies, including G-Cash, have upgraded their digital systems enough. I still hear enough sad stories, including from our household helper, of money disappearing from their e-wallet accounts. That’s why I do not have one. I still depend on the friendly staff of two big banks in their retail branches near where I live. I get to talk to their tellers and managers who are eager to help a digitally challenged senior citizen.

Last week, my colleague at Business Mirror, Stella Arnaldo posted this complaint on Facebook:

“It’s admirable when companies adopt technology to make their operations run efficiently, but a huge turnoff when, despite the tech, they become inept instead. I spent a freakishly long time this morning trying to load my Beep card – the company that operates the tech/app is co-owned by two of our largest conglomerates.

“First, it would not load from my bank debit card, so I loaded it from my GCash. Then after loading P100 (+P3 SF), I couldn’t ‘fetch the load’ via NFC. After what seemed a million tries, I was finally able to transfer the load... Thank heavens! But now, my remaining balance has disappeared! Puñeta. Third world pa din talaga.

“BTW, this is a slight improvement from the last upgrade which would not allow you to load funds online unless you’re a ‘premium customer’. To be one entailed a massive invasion of privacy because the app asked for a govt ID, then a real-time photo capture of your face, then a photo of your ‘back ID’. Hell, I know what that is. Pfft.”

As for government digitalization, that’s a laugh. No, that’s more of a cry. The National ID is the biggest flop in recent years. I got my ID after a long wait but I was not supposed to have it copied because the QR code contains all my vital information and in the wrong hands, I could become a victim of fraud or identity theft. So, it is kept safely in a drawer never to see the light of day.

And the implementation of the National ID rollout was as messy as could be. I heard that’s because they hired a foreign company without the necessary expertise beyond printing, and even that was a flop. There were IDs where the printed information vanished or was smudged. Then they started to send paper IDs because apparently, like the LTO, they ran out of plastic cards.

I blame our failure to put urgency in our digitization efforts to the inability of the Duterte administration to appreciate the importance of having the right person with enough experience and expertise to head the newly created Department of Information and Computer Technology (DICT). A worn-out politician was appointed to head DICT forcing the senior Usec then, the very capable General Eliseo Rio, to resign. We still don’t have the right Secretary now. There should be a number of retired IT professionals from IBM, Oracle and other big name IT companies who may be convinced to serve.

Then we required SIM card registration which the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said would help track down bad elements using the anonymity of pre-paid SIM cards. As of end July last year, 113,969,014 SIMs have been registered according to NTC, accounting for 67.83 percent of 168.16 million subscribers (as of December 2022). Of these, 53,727,798 of the registered SIMs were from Globe Telecom, while 52,500,870 were from Smart. The remaining 7,740,346 were from DITO Telecommunity, just over half of its subscribers.

So, why are we getting more and more spam and phishing text messages these days? Apparently, the digital crooks have no fear of the NTC or they know NTC has officials more interested in being fat cats than enforcing the law. I wonder if NTC even has a plan to start catching the digital crooks as they promised when they asked for the law.

Simply, there should be a way people can report spam and phishing messages to the NTC and NTC will require the offending telco to explain who the crook is according to their registration files. The number should be immediately blocked. Actually, even unsolicited text messages from property companies should be banned.

NTC can’t say they have no money for law enforcement. NTC reported that last year, they collected revenue totaling P9.43 billion due to the strict enforcement and remittance of spectrum use and regulation of fees (SUF) and penalties. Mayroon palang pera. How is NTC using its money to benefit taxpayers? Hoy Gising!

Then there is the Land Transportation Office or LTO. It had been trying to digitize for the longest time. It was one of the first government agencies that tried to computerize their operations with a company called Stradcom that boasts of having former Finance Secretary Bobby de Ocampo as chairman. After many years, one of the administrations tried to get rid of Stradcom supposedly because it was unable to upgrade its system. They tried getting another group, but LTO data is housed in Stradcom computers.

No wonder it took my driver several days to renew the registration of my car. Last week, my editor, Marianne Go, posted this complaint on Facebook: “So, who said LTO has gotten more efficient? Started at 9:30 am and am still waiting for the photo to be taken while they eat lunch.”

One problem I heard was that LTO is running two data systems in parallel with different protocols. The sane thing to do is to choose one and be ready to live by the consequences of the choice. But politics and incompetence prevail.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X or Twitter @boochanco