The Philippine Government Information System PDF
The Philippine Government Information System PDF
The Philippine Government Information System PDF
This two-part chapter presents the detailed GISP strategies and solutions towards the realization
of Philippine Government Online. Part 1, Government Information Systems, describes the
methodology used in the identification of the various information systems, the criteria used in the
identification process, the presentation format, and the identified information systems. Part 2,
Strategies and Technology Solutions, consists of the identified information systems gaps in
government and their corresponding technology solutions, and the indicative system
configuration of the technology solutions.
Discussed in detail in this chapter are the interrelationships of various groups of information
systems, major databases, technology solutions, online services, and users that are covered
under the GISP.
The group on Information Systems and Major Databases consists of the Public Sector, Sectoral,
and LGU Mission-Critical Information Systems. These systems comprise the individual
information systems of oversight and line agencies whose data requirements and processing
requisites cut across various other government agencies. Users and operators of information
systems are found all over the country.
The group on Technology Solutions is composed of the various infrastructure technologies that
the GISP shall employ. Among these are data warehousing technologies that will be used to store
and manage the government’s data on human resources, finance, trade, tourism and industry,
health, and other very large government databases culled from various distributed databases
housed in individual agency data sources. Also included in this group are electronic document
technologies for managing data on human resources, government records and archives, and other
document-related activities of the government; and spatial technologies for statistical
information, agriculture and agrarian reform data, and public order and safety.
The group on Public Services Information System represents the single access window
government portal for both government users and the general public. It provides government
users with secured Internet connection via Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to access transactional
systems and data dedicated for government use by the Office of the President, staff personnel of
the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, including local government units
(LGUs). The general public uses the public Internet connection to access data for public
dissemination, and to engage in electronic transactions such as issuances of permits, licenses,
registrations, and other regulatory requirements of the government from the public.
The systems will allow the integration and networking of information and databases across
agencies and thus facilitate information and resource sharing, and enhance coordination of
related government oversight functions for planning and decision-making.
1. Objectives, which articulate the desired end results that the information system
intends to achieve, particularly in the areas of improved information quality,
efficiency, access, transparency and accountability, integrity, coordination and
data sharing, among others.
The Public Services Information System (PSIS) provides a one-stop access window
and user-friendly guide to the range of government services, information, and
regulation useful to the general public and specific organizations and interest
groups. The system integrates under a one-access facility all frontline services and
regulatory activities of government agencies, government-owned and/or controlled
corporations, local government units, and private banks and institutions offering
public services and information.
These include Customs and Internal Revenue Services, Civil Registration and Census
Enumeration, Vehicle Registration and Drivers Licensing, Professional Regulation and Licensure,
Passports and Visa Processing and Authorization, Land Registration and Titling, Business
Permits and Registration, and Voters Registration. To integrate all of these frontline services and
make them accessible to the public, public kiosks and community telecenters will be set up in
central public places, community centers, schools, and municipal halls, with private-sector
support. A Philippine government portal, to serve as a one-stop Internet gateway for government,
will be developed, incorporating all the features of an information kiosk on the Internet.
One of the most important elements in crime management and prevention is the
availability of data that will form the basis for intelligence work, gathering of
evidence, covert and overt operations, and at a higher level, the development of
better crime management and crime prevention policies, programs, strategies, and
techniques.
The Justice, Public Order and Safety Database and Information System is a system
that supports and enhances the existing Crime Information System. It provides
electronic linkages from six agencies to 23 different agencies of government
involved directly or indirectly with matters related to criminality.
The fundamental component of the system is the module found in the police
station, which records complaints, arrests, searches, and intelligence work. The
system likewise includes a networked facility for logistics management within the
entire police organization, thus providing information on supplies, equipment,
accountabilities, maintenance and status, acquisitions and organizational
distribution, and other related data that will improve resource management and
utilization.
The Office of the President Executive Information System (OPEIS) provides the
President, the Executive Secretary, the head of the Presidential Management Staff
with a multimedia information support facility that facilitates top-level executive
management, reporting, and monitoring system for the entire bureaucracy.
The teleconferencing facility allows the President to conduct virtual meetings with
Cabinet members and agency heads down to the provincial level. The facility also
accommodates teleconferencing requirements within and among agencies, thus
lessening travels to and from Manila, and speeding up the exchange of information
and decision-making.
The Cabinet reporting system provides departments and agencies with the facility
to report to the President, and ad-hoc communications with the President or the
Executive Secretary can be electronically transmitted.
The Government Procurement System (EPS), which has been initiated by the
Department of Budget and Management, is an Internet-based electronic
procurement system to rationalize and speed up the procurement process in
government. It specifically aims to: (1) improve efficiencies in the procurement
system of the government; (2) promote speedy procurement of quality and properly
valued equipment and commodities; (3) ensure the integrity of the public-sector
procurement process; and (4) widen information and choice on products and
prices available to government agencies.
The system features, among others, a supplier and product selection and
accreditation; product publication; electronic ordering; negotiation for bulk
purchases; centralized/decentralized procurement; monitoring and auditing; and,
industry development and research.
The CSC electronic copy of the plantilla enables counter-checks against the same
form accomplished by agencies filled up with incumbents, and the GSIS electronic
copy of the same plantilla is useful in updating membership data.
The basic component of the entire system is the agency human resource
management information module, which contains all personnel records and
transactions. Data from the agency modules can be accessed by DBM and CSC
and consolidated into macro statistics useful in policy formulation and analysis,
personal services budget formulation and evaluation, and other oversight
decision-making activities.
The system provides an agency module that maintains a record of each physical asset from its
acquisition to its maintenance, rehabilitation, and disposal. Infrastructure agencies responsible
for the construction and maintenance of key government infrastructure facilities will operate
separate information systems with functional features that will enable them to develop
inventories and track maintenance and expenditures; and, at the oversight level, the DBM will
maintain
The Statistical Database and Information System has the following overall
functional features: statistical databases in departments and agencies with
statistical functions as well as agencies whose transaction operations or regulatory
functions result in the generation of statistics; centralized point of contact with
respect to public acquisition of statistics, through the NSO statistical Web site that
is connected to the Public Information Services System. This will allow public
access to statistics and provide guidance on the acquisition of more complex
statistical information. It will also provide linkage with the Land Use and
Environment Management Information System providing geographical information
on various statistical data as may be required by the users.
The system features a government records management Web site that will provide
directories of government legal and legislative issuances, documents, and other
records of public significance and use, guide on the location and accessing of
records from various government agencies, and publication of recent legal and
legislative issuances, notices and other vital public information. The Records
Management and Archives Office (RMAO) will be the key point of access for all
government records and will operate the web site; and the National Library will be
electronically linked with other public libraries for exchange of library information
and for providing public information on a wider range of library resources.
Departments and agencies will link their respective records management system
and provide a computer-aided system of archiving, library maintenance, and
public access.
The Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Database and Information System will
generate, consolidate and analyze massive amounts of data, from 24 participating
government entities covering 35 business processes. This will lead to better sector
analysis, better informed policy and program formulation and implementation
assessment, and more focused identification of projects and services. It will also
allow easy and proximate public access to information on agriculture, trade and
business opportunities, technologies, markets and market linkages, sources of
inputs, as well as services provided by government agencies, banks, and
private-sector organizations on agriculture and agrarian reform.
Studies are now being conducted to decentralize basic education and improve capacities for
program and resource management at the school level. This will enable DECS to more effectively
oversee and assess the performance of the
The Education and Manpower Development Database and Information System will
support these thrusts through the networking of the databases of public and
private academic, research and cultural institutions. This will allow oversight
agencies like DECS and CHED to collect and process massive and comprehensive
data useful in improving education policy, plans, programs, supervision and
monitoring process; provide for an automated school management systems within
each public school to strengthen the monitoring facility of the DECS; and allow
electronic processing of the issuance of accreditation and permits.
The functions of other sectors are considerably improved with the proper use of
quality geographical information. For example, health planning can be more
focused and monitoring can be more effective if adequate geographical statistics,
profiling and analyses of disease prevalence, malnutrition incidence, and
morbidity/mortality can be linked with relevant geographical information, for
example on population and income, and environment. Criminality can be better
understood if geographical information on historical trends of specific crime
incidence can be linked with economic and social demography which may give
correlation useful in crime management and prevention.
This Land and Environment Database and Information System will lead to better
planning, implementation management, monitoring, and assessment of
mission-critical sectoral programs and projects through sharing of geographical
information.
The DOH is also concerned with attaining better efficiency and effectiveness in
enforcing health regulations. With limited manpower and geographical presence in
relation to the extensive nationwide prevalence of health institutions, people, and
services, the task of regulating should be supported by proper technologies that
will store and update background information, easily retrieve it, assist transaction
evaluation and processing, and improve supervision and monitoring.
The system will provide computer-aided hospital management operations that will
facilitate recording of various hospital operation transactions and other related
data; connect to the DOH for reporting purposes to provide a central repository of
health data and statistics useful in health policy formulation, and program
planning and assessment.
The system allows DOH to establish linkages with the DOST, academic
institutions, and private health institutions here and abroad to share health
research data and to establish tele-medical information services among local and
international medical institutions.
The system provides several major databases at the DSWD for the entire welfare sector and for its
social welfare operations; at the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, which will be the main
repository of housing information; and at the Department of Labor and Employment for labor and
employment information. The DSWD and DOLE may access the social
The system links with oversight modules in the DILG, DBM and DOF for purposes
of consolidating and analyzing macro-level information on the revenue
performance of LGUs.
4.2 LGU Business Regulation System
The system provides a stand-alone facility for LGUs that do not yet have
computerized business regulation system. The system provides for a database
retrieval and decision support facility for evaluating applications for business
permits and for recording approvals, disapprovals, suspensions or extensions. It
also stores data on establishment records, thus facilitating information retrieval
useful in the evaluation process.
The system links with oversight modules in DILG, DBM, and DOF for purposes of
consolidating and analyzing at macro levels the overall business-licensing
activities of LGUs, covering receipts, business establishment statistics, measuring
local economic activity and other related statistics useful in policy formulation
planning.
The analysis of identified IS gaps versus technologies is summarized in the following table.
The table identifies four technologies that offer the most solutions to the identified gaps. Depicted
in columns with the most number of dots, these are Internet technologies, which address 15 gaps,
Data Warehousing and Distributed Databases, each addressing 10 gaps, and Virtual Private
Networks, with the ability to offer solutions for seven gaps. Brief discussions of how these four
technologies help solve the identified gaps follow, but more comprehensive definitions, possible
applications, considerations and prognoses of these and other scanned technologies may be
found in Annex C.
Finally, used in conjunction with online learning technology, the Internet offers an
opportunity to address the massive training needs of government, including the
need to educate key decision-makers through its ability to deliver on-demand
asynchronous training modules nationwide.
When installed, the data warehouse servers will provide the capability to store and
process voluminous integrated and historical data, something currently missing in
the government’s ICT resources. Through the Internet, these data warehouses may
be made available not just to government central offices, but to field offices, LGUs
and even the general public.
The ability of distributed databases to allow data to be physically kept locally while
providing logical integration is ideal for central office-field offices set up in most
agencies, allowing data to be accessed wherever it is located. The support for local
data entry, processing, and storage of information will also alleviate delays in
transmitting data from the field. Distributed databases will facilitate sharing of
information across departments and agencies, thereby reducing the need for
duplication of data and applications.
VPN (Virtual Private Network) Technology is the practical answer to the need
for connectivity in government. Instead of using expensive, and sometimes
unavailable, dedicated leased lines to implement wide-area networks, VPN allows
the use of comparatively inexpensive shared infrastructure such as the Internet
and phone system. In addition to reducing costs, VPN also makes it possible to
implement connections immediately in areas where Internet service is available.
VPN will support field office to central office connections, links between agencies,
and even public access. It will provide the infrastructure for addressing the issues
of data sharing, stand-alone applications, and proliferation of stand-alone PCs. For
example, even notebook PCs used in the field can access the agency’s Intranet and
databases through a dial-up connection to a local Internet Service Provider.
Finally, because only a single connection to the Internet is required for each site,
VPN will provide a single standard for wide area network communications and help
reduce the duplications of network infrastructures in government.
Aside from these four technologies, five other technologies deserve further
consideration, as they offer unique opportunities to improve government
operations: Electronic Commerce, Electronic Document Management,
Geographical Information Systems, Online Learning, and Wireless/Mobile
Computing.
GIS and Remote Sensing and Related Spatial Technologies. More than 80
percent of planning, decision-making and operations in government are related to
or affected by location, people, things, and events. Geographical information, that
is, maps with associated attribute databases, is therefore essential to effective and
efficient governance. Geographical Information System (GIS) technology enables
the geographical integration of disparate databases of government agencies.
Through location, such as an address, or reference to a street, land parcel, district,
barangay, town/city, province, region, or through geographical position or
technical description of objects in space, it is possible to link government
databases about a geographic area together. Spatial analysis, not possible before
with all the types of sorting and manipulation done on databases, is quick and
easy in a GIS. There is continuing acquisition and creation of geographically
referenced information in government. However, the base maps, with which to
relate or overlay these new data sets are very old and doubtful accuracy. There is
need to supply all users with common digital updated base maps with which to
relate their databases for their applications.
Online Learning Techniques. Such techniques will not only help address
government’s massive training and retraining requirements, but more importantly,
can be used to improve the deteriorating quality of education and training in the
country. At the very least, placement of course materials on CDs and the Web that
can be accessed by teachers and students nationwide will help in standardizing
instruction. On the other extreme, Web-based asynchronous distance
education/training modules will facilitate massive nationwide training efforts for
teachers, government workers, and even professionals in need of continuing
education.
With these technologies as underpinnings, the following technology strategies and solutions are
adopted for GISP implementation:
A two-level encryption strategy will be adopted where the first level supports the
need of some agencies for a purely internal network and the second level allows a
common VPN for agencies needing to share data with one another.
Dial-up users will be provided authentication portals with two connections to the
Internet, a normal connection, and another employing encryption using a VPN
router. The user accesses the portal via its public Web site, and once
authenticated, is allowed to send and receive messages through the VPN link.
Since all connections are local (i.e., leased line to local ISP, local call to ISP) total
communication costs will be substantially reduced. Furthermore, the connections
can be made to carry more data through VOIP and videoconferencing over internal
protocol technologies, thereby allowing increased communication and
coordination between field and central offices.
When all government agencies start to put up public Web sites, it will actually
become harder for the public to look for information that they need, which may
actually be on a Web site but cannot be located by users. For this reason, a single
point of entry for users with links to all public government Web sites will be
adopted. The site will also contain a search engine to allow users to quickly locate
the sites that may contain the information requested.
This strategy will also be useful in enhancing security for government systems. If
the Web site mirrors all public homepages, there will be no need to provide general
public access to Web servers of the individual departments and agencies, thereby
allowing these servers and their links to the Internet to be used exclusively for
encrypted interagency and intra-agency data traffic.
Data warehousing, with its ability to accept data from multiple sources for use in
analytical processing without changing the existing operational database, can be
used to integrate data from different departments without the risk of jeopardizing
their existing computer systems and data. It is particularly useful when the
agencies providing the data use different database management system platforms,
and may, therefore, be unable to take full advantage of distributed database
options.
With most government offices already using PCs to produce documents, reports,
and other records, the efficiency, cost, and reliability of storing and disseminating
these records will be greatly improved through a document management system.
Instead of printing out multiple copies of these documents, having them published
in the official gazette, and keeping them in archives where future access is nearly
impossible, agencies are required to periodically submit electronic copies of all
newly
Not only will this result in lower costs over the long term (optical disk storage is
cheaper than paper), it will also improve access to government records through
automatic indexing, text-searching capability, and remote access through the
Internet.
The connection of government systems to the Internet will expose them to hackers,
unauthorized users, viruses and other risks. To address this concern, a security
infrastructure will be put in place. A combination of technology, policies, legislated
laws, and enforcement procedures will comprise this security infrastructure.
The use of tested security technologies and best security practices in implementing
the GISP will be the overriding priority of the plan. Security beyond the standard
firewalls will be adopted and deployed to protect systems with valuable data. The
public web server must remain "outside" the agency’s firewall. Secure encryption
techniques will be employed on all VPN links. Systems will be designed to reject
"crackable" passwords, and strictly implement password aging. For e-commerce
applications and government business transactions, authentication devices like
smart cards, client membership procedures like membership enlistment, and
enforcement mechanisms like user Certification Authority will be strictly
implemented in combination with standard identification systems and procedures.
Finally, the government will adopt as its standard de facto industry standards and
practices such as the use of Windows-based PCs as workstations and Unix based
servers. Other de facto standards include:
Government will never have sufficient manpower, both in terms of quantity and
quality, to implement and operate all GISP-identified information systems.
Outsourcing will be encouraged to efficiently and effectively implement the GISP,
such as contract programming, turnkey development, BOO, BOT, and other
similar outsourcing schemes.
Indicative System
Configurations
The matrix on the next page identifies information systems and the appropriate technology
solutions.
For purposes of simplifying cost estimation, all servers were assumed to be one of three types:
large, medium or small.
Large servers are intended to house the consolidated databases and data warehouses (300
gigabytes to terabyte range) and support hundreds of simultaneous users.
Medium servers can support up to 100 gigabytes of data and 50 simultaneous users if used as
database servers. Reconfigured to have less disk storage but more processors and higher memory,
the same equipment can support hundreds of users as a heavy-duty Web server.
Small servers are meant for data-processing applications involving up to 20 simultaneous users
and 20 gigabytes of data. These servers can also be used as medium-size Web servers.
LAN-based systems are built around Windows NT-based departmental servers with 128 MB
memory and 12 GB of disk storage. In addition to being used as LAN servers, the same equipment
will serve as small Web servers or as firewalls.
PCs are based on the Microsoft Windows platform and would ideally have a LAN card or an
internal modem to allow connection to the government Virtual Private Network.
To implement the envisioned government VPN over the Internet, VPN Access Routers will have to
be procured. These routers must have hardware-based encryption capability not only to achieve
better performance, but also to lower the risk of unauthorized key distribution. The access router
will have two serial ports — one for a possible leased line connection to the ISP, and a second port
with auto-dialup capability to serve as a backup, or to enable connection to the ISP in case only
dial-up access is available.
Detailed indicative specifications of database servers, departmental servers, PCs and VPN Access
Routers are found in Annex C.
Source: http://www.neda.gov.ph/
Accessed on 01/05/2005