DEVELOPING A PRO-CITIZEN APP

DEVELOPING A PRO-CITIZEN APP It has been many years since I left the DFA as a Foreign Service Officer (FSO), but up to now, I am still getting many calls from friends and friends of friends, asking for my help in applying for passports and in the authentication of documents for transmission abroad. The same with PCSO, I left that agency as a director many months ago, but up to now I still get many calls to ask for my help in getting financial assistance for hospitalization and other medical services. Why is it that many Filipinos would always look for someone who knows somebody at a government agency for them to approach and ask to for help? Why can't they just approach those agencies on their own? Is it not that anybody should be able to approach these government agencies at any time for any request for assistance? Is it not that these government agencies are supposed to provide them with good and fast services because of their being citizens, taxpayers and voters? The answer is yes, but there are still many reasons why Filipinos are hesitant to approach on their own. The first , reason is that it is really difficult to find the right person or office who could attend to them right away. If you call an office for any reason, you have to talk to talk to several people and say the same thing over and over again, before you get to talk to the right person. And if you are not so lucky, you will end up talking to a robot in a recorded voice mail system until you would hang up because of frustration. And if you choose to use Facebook Messenger instead, you will also get auto replies from a robot who will keep giving you the same answer no matter what questions you will ask. Come to think of it, very few people have landline phones now, so why is it that many government agencies could only be contacted via landlines? Partly out of frustration, and partly out of inspiration, I am now planning to build a mobile app that could become the "proxy" of all citizens, taxpayers and voters in transacting with the government. In order to make the mobile app strictly transactional, it will only help subscribers in applying for a product or service, meaning that it will not cater to complaints, questions or suggestions. Examples of products or services could apply for are passports, drivers licenses, birth certificates, identification cards, postal money orders, guarantee letters, scholarships, loans, health insurance policies, police clearances and welfare subsidies. If they use the mobile app, subscribers will be recognized by the government agencies right away, without the need to repeat the entry of their personal data. The bottom line is that subscribers will no longer need anybody who knows somebody at any government agency, because the mobile app is all they need. What do you think? Let me know. IKE SENERES/07-22-2024