The Philippines as a global E-Gov leader
E-governance, or electronic governance, according to IGI Global, is “the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to provide government services and information to citizens, businesses, and other government entities.”
It aims to improve efficiency, transparency, and citizen engagement in government processes. Essentially, it’s about using digital tools to make government more accessible, responsive, and accountable to the people it governs.
The key aspects of e-governance are service delivery, information dissemination, citizen engagement, inter-governmental cooperation, transparency and accountability, and efficiency and cost-savings.
Some examples of e-governance are online tax filing, digital IDs, online voting, e-procurement, e-payment and online citizen portals.
People might think that because e-governance makes use of ICT or digital technology then it is something that happened fairly recently.
Truth be told, e-governance has been with the Philippine government since the last century.
It was in 1971 that the National Computer Center (NCC) was established by then President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, father of the current President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., through Executive Order No. 322.
In 1978, the NCC was designated as the primary government agency responsible for directing IT use for national development and rationalizing the computerization of the country.
In 1994, Executive Order No. 190 (President Fidel V. Ramos) created the National Information Technology Council (NITC) and designated it as the central policy body on ICT matters in the country.
In the year 2000, Republic Act No. 8792 was signed into law by then President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, also known as the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 (E-Commerce Act) that aimed to facilitate both domestic and international electronic transactions. It recognized the validity and legal effect of electronic documents and digital signatures, promoting the use of electronic, optical, and similar technologies in various dealings.
In 2016, then President Benigno Aquino III signed into law Republic Act No. 10844, creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the primary policy, planning, coordinating, implementing, and administrative entity of the Executive Branch of the government that will plan, develop, and promote the national ICT development agenda.
The DICT is currently headed by Henry Aguda, a UPLaw alumnus like me, who was previously connected with Meralco and Unionbank.
Just recently, the United Nations (UN) bestowed upon the Philippines the UN E-Government Award in recognition of the country’s remarkable progress in e-governance from 2022 to 2024.
The Philippines was one of only 12 out of 193 countries worldwide to receive the award.
This award was conferred by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) during a special segment of the 2025 UN Public Service Forum held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It acknowledges countries that were significantly advanced in the UN E-Government Development Index (EGDI) and the Online Service Index (OSI) — two global benchmarks for measuring government digital performance.
The country improved its classification from “High” to “Very High” in the E-Government Development Index (EGDI), rose more than 15 places in the EGDI global ranking, and also moved from “High” to “Very High” in the Online Service Index (OSI) after achieving an increase of over 15% between 2022 and 2024.
According to DICT Undersecretary for E-Government, David Almirol Jr., these milestones “reflect the government’s sustained efforts to digitalize public services and make them more accessible, secure, and citizen-centric.”
“This global recognition by the UN validates the Philippines’ digital transformation roadmap under President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., aligning with his vision to make government services more efficient, inclusive, and future-ready,” Almirol added.
The recognition followed the successful rollout of several major digital platforms by the DICT, including the eGov PH Super App which now has over 13 million users and offers 47 integrated service modules with over 150 million transactions.
The eGovDX platform has facilitated over 500 million transactions connected to more than 1,000 national and local government agency systems through its eNGA and eLGU platform.
Twenty-one out of 25 eGovernment platforms have been deployed and integrated such as eGovAI, eGovPay, eReport, eGovDocs, eSignature, eResume and eTravel.
Additionally, the Digital National ID empowers its eKYC features over 87 million digital national IDs have been generated out of 93 million registrants.
Supporting this service ecosystem is a robust digital infrastructure through the eGovCloud project, optimizing four multi-cloud services with more than 3,000 hosted government system servers.
The Philippines also clinched two major accolades recently at the prestigious 2025 GovMedia Awards in Singapore, with the eGovPH Super App being hailed as the E-Governance Project of the Year, and the eGovDX Platform winning the Digital Transformation of the Year.
With so much happening on the ground here with the DICT and its various projects and platforms, trust that the digital future of the Philippines is in the here and now and not just something that is a virtual reality. No pun intended. *
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