Grace Gorospe-Jamon

President, Association of Schools of Public

Administration in the Philippines
ASPAP and the Filipino
Decade of e - Governance
 ASPAP ON THE GO !

 The Association of Schools of

Public Administration and
Governance ( ASPAP ) has put
itself behind the concerted
effort to bring the Filipino
citizen and the Philippines more
fully into the era of e -
governance .
 The 2010 Automated
Elections – eGovernance
Milestone
 There is nothing that signals the
entry of the Philippines into
this era than the upcoming 2010
Automated Electoral System . Here
we decide to make information
and communication technology
help us choose our leaders and
lead us not only for the next
six years , with impact maybe for
several terms after that . This
is at least as momentous an
event as when Filipinos began
trusting the ATM machines with
their money decades ago . This
time , we are entrusting
 ICT for eGovernance

 Voting , however , is only the tip of

the iceberg . Information and
communication technology for
governance , or e - governance , is a
much broader engagement . ICT can be
used to further empower the
citizens , enabling them to more
accurately , frequently ,
intelligently , and insistently
bring their concerns to government .
We are already learning how to
storm the gates of the bureaucracy
with our text messages and our
public opinions . Never before did
the Filipino citizen have the
power of being able to give a
piece of his mind to political
leaders and politicians with an
 ICT for Public ,
not only Private ,
Empowerment
 But we must learn how to harness
this new power , this new
connectivity , to enhance citizen
participation and government
responsiveness and
accountability . We must learn
how to communicate not only
personal needs and wants , but
collective interests and goals .
We must learn to use ICT not
only for interest articulation ,
but interest aggregation as
well .
ICT for Political Party
System Development
 ICT must help us build or re - build our
political party system . Political parties
are in the business of finding out what
the Filipino , from Aparri to Zamboanga
and beyond , need and expect from
government . This used to be a touch and
go process , as political parties never
had the organization and machinery for
assaying the people ’ s sentiments and
opinions , although they always managed to
organize to obtain the people ’ s votes .
With ICT , it is now possible for
political parties to more feasibly
understand their constituents enough to
represent their genuine voice and
interests in the institutions of
government , in sangguniansat various
levels , and in Congress . Most importantly ,
the President , and the vast bureaucracy
she or he presides over , can be
constantly attuned to the sentiments and
opinions of the people .
 ICT for a Broader and
More Direct Democracy
 In brief , ICT has brought to us the
potential of a broader and more
direct democracy . Representative
democracy became inevitable when it
became impossible to meet more than
1 , 000 people in deliberative
assemblies . It was also not possible
to give people as much knowledge and
information as their congressmen and
members of parliament . Today , however ,
with modern information and
communication technology , the citizen
can be as knowledgeable about global ,
national , and local affairs as his
congressman . And he can express
himself using ICT in a two - way
interactive political process , whereas
before he used to always be at the
 ICT for Filipino
Nationalism
 Information and communication
technology also engenders
nationalism and national
identity , in addition to
democracy . For the first time ,
Filipinos can have friends and
acquaintances across the breadth
and length of the archipelago .
Another Filipino is just a text
message away , and friends are to
be found in cyberspace 24 / 7 , in
the virtual agoras of facebook ,
twitter , multiply , and other
social cybernetworks .
ICT for the Filipino –
Local , National ,
International
 These are the promises of ICT for
e - governance , for a nation of
Filipinos that are destined to
be partly in , and partly out –
Filipino “ locals ” in their
communities , Filipino “ nationals ”
attentive to national affairs ,
and Filipino “ internationals ”
who are beyond Philippine
borders and in hundreds of other
countries of the world .
 ICT to bring about OFVs
and OFCs
 For the first time , Filipinos can
spread out , because they can
remain connected to the
motherland . This is true not
only in terms of the social and
cultural , but also in terms of
legal . The OFW should soon be a
reliable OFV ( overseas Filipino
voter ) and eventually an OFC
( overseas Filipino citizen ).
What is the role of
ASPAP in all this?
Linking Public Ad Schools
into Civic Discourse
Networks
 The spread of information and
communication technology has
followed private interests and
business interests . It has not
quite followed public and
collective interests .
 There is a need to bridge another
version of the digital divide ,
where institutions attentive to
public interests , issues , and
concerns in various localities
are not able to discourse on
these issues because of the
distance and isolation .
 For instance , there are over 120
member schools of the ASPAP , all
connected with their
communities , but are not
effectively connected with one
another to start and maintain
discourses and exchanges on
national and public issues . As
public administration learning
institutions , they are only half -
effective unless the technology
to interconnect them is brought
in to make them a truly national
organization .
 The rationale for
EXCHANGES
 This is why ASPAP , with the
assistance of our partners ,
especially UNDP , has thought of
the project that we are
launching today – EXCHANGES .
EXCHANGES a Civic Social
Network Infrastructure
 EXCHANGES aims to be the
infrastructure for national
dialog among selected regional
academic hubs that in turn are
connected to the key civil
society , private sector , and
government sector institutions
in their localities . Regional
hubs will themselves be
organizing and sustaining
regional dialogues on regional
and local issues .
 The idea is to create structured
opportunities for citizens all
over the country to be informed ,
interested , and involved in
crucial issues such as the
trustworthiness of the 2010
Automated Electoral System that
we are discussing today . The
EXCHANGES is an infrastructure
for allowing intelligent debate
and learning happen across
distance . It is an
infrastructure for distance
education in public affairs , as
 EXCHANGES as a Cyber
Network
 EXCHANGES provides basic equipment and
facilities to enable the local ICT
capabilities of the host universities
that serve as regional hubs to be
linked together . It enables
audiovisual and computer centers or
laboratories to talk to one another
across the internet . This discourse
must not only be intermittent , but a
habit , following national and regional
schedule of events . That is what
EXCHANGES is essentially about . There
are other goals , such as the
continuing capacitation of public
administration institutions , and the
upgrading of the competencies of
individual professors and
practitioners of public
 Launching a Beginning

 In the end , we would like ASPAP to

be known as one of the pioneer
institutions that purposively
and effectively empowered the
Filipino to be a better citizen
through the upcoming field of e -
governance . What we have today
is a launch of a small beginning
that hopefully other
institutions in the national and
local arena would take up . ASPAP ,
in turn , has been an eager
partner and collaborator of
other institutions that have
been promoting good governance .
 Salute to the ASPAP
Family
 I salute all individuals and
institutions who are members of
the ASPAP family , for we are
collectively doing our share to
make the Philippines worthy of
its wonderful citizens who
deserve much better than our
public institutions have
delivered . We will continue to
do our share , and will teach
others to do the same , both on
the ground , and in cyberspace .
Thank you and good day .

End Of Presentation