Iika-ikang eCommerce ng Pilipinas

It is quite interesting to learn that no matter how lag the Philippines compared to other progressive countries, we were able to have a Republic Act promoting eCommerce.

Should we be happy about this? Personally, we should.

Should we be satisfied with how it was implemented? I asked a friend of mine to how he views the eCommerce in the Philippines.

According to him, the eCommerce Act is a good start to enable the Philippines at par with the other countries who have been utilizing the Information and Communications Technology in the daily transactions of business and government.

However, the implementation is not what he expected.

He strongly believes that the government is not yet ready to submit to the automation of processes.

For him, the government should revisit their own processes for a probable process reengineering.

Reengineering a process in the government transactions does not necessarily mean the removal of red tapes. To be more specific, it necessitates the enhancement an important process and the removal of useless or redundant process. Optimization, as he says it, could help the government agencies to deliver better than what they were doing as of the moment.

He also stressed that section 3 of the law states "...promote the universal use of electronic transaction in the government and general public..." From what he observes, the agency portals of the government are mostly for informative purposes only. If there will be transactions, purely queries, and downloading of forms.

For him, if eCommerce will really be implemented in the government, agency queues could be minimized by allowing people to initially transact over the web and if physical appearance is necessary, then that is the only time they need to show up in the agency buildings.

For example, in getting a drivers license, why can't the transportation agency provide a portal where the citizen can fill up the details needed and get a tracking number so they can be quickly entertained when they show up.

Many improvements could be done with the use of the internet and ICT but as my friend says it, the Philippine government is not yet ready to leave its comfort zone.

As he closed our discussion, he stressed, "may eCommerce nga, di naman makausad nang todo, parang pilay na nananakbo, iika-ika; iika-ikang eCommerce ng Pilipinas."