Or lack thereof, reprinted from the Manila Bulletin
Professor P.I. Flashbulb
Two years ago President GMA directed all government agencies to put up a website “that would provide basic public information”, a move that was greatly applauded because this means that information about a specific government agency would be faster and readily available to those who need it. Just recently, the National Computer Center said that as of June 30, 2004 99.5% or 373 out of 375 government agencies have their own websites.
When I randomly checked the websites of our government agencies, here’s what I found out:
The first site that I checked was the Office of the Vice President (www.ovp.gov.ph), the site was down. Maybe the server was just under maintenance.
What surprised me were the next five sites that I randomly clicked from the list of government links at http://www.gov.ph/govlinks/officeofpres_departments.asp
The Metro Rail Transit (www.mrt.gov.ph), the Philippine Coast Guard (www.pcg.gov.ph), the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (www.nica.gov.ph), the National Security Council (www.nsc.gov.ph) and even the Supreme Court (www.supremecourt.gov.ph) websites were all down. I first thought that these agencies are using just one server, but upon checking I found out that they are using different providers.
I continued surfing and here are the additional things that I found out:
The website of the Sandiganbayan (www.sandiganbayan.gov.ph) was last updated on April 5, 2004 and is still to be completed. “Under Construction” sign is everywhere.
The Department of Transportation and Communication (www.dotc.gov.ph) website’s “News” link was last updated on August 25, 2003.
The National Telecommunications Commission (www.ntc.gov.ph) website’s “What’s New” link was last updated on July 5, 2004.
The Land Transportation Office (www.lto.gov.ph) was last updated on April 2004.
The Department of Science and Technology’s (www.dost.gov.ph) website was last updated on July 5, 2004
The National Bureau of Investigation (www.nbi.gov.ph) site was last updated on March 25, 2004
The “What’s New” link of the website of Science and Education Institute of the DOST (www.sei.dost.gov.ph) is dated March 28, 2004
The “News Bulletin” of the Bureau of Immigration (www.immigration.gov.ph) is dated November 2003.
The biggest surprise of all that made me decide to stop surfing the Philippine government links is the Manila International Airport Authority website. When I clicked http://www.miaa.gov.ph I was automatically redirected to a site that says the name has already expired. I later found out that the domain miaa.gov.ph has expired June 28, 2004. This is an epitome of negligence to the highest level. This is not only the fault of the IT people but of everyone from MIAA who has access to the Internet. The MIAA should do something immediately and avoid this kind of embarrassment from happening again.
All these things make me doubt the commitment of the government in implementing the directive of the President two years ago. Yes the websites are there but they need to be updated in order to be effective or at least they need to be UP and RUNNING in order to be included in the 99.5% the NCC is bragging about. To Madam President, Ma’am don’t believe them let someone check it for you.
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