Koronadal City—South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr. expressed his support for open governance strategies to improve the relationship between citizens and the provincial government, making governance more participative and inclusive.
“We want to involve the public in monitoring our government projects and programs through information technology. We are empowering them to participate,” Tamayo said in his speech during the Dagyaw, a townhall meeting initiated by the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Presidential Communications Operations Office held here Thursday.
He also emphasized the important role of the community in reporting corruption in government transactions.
“This is transparency. This is open government,” he said.
One of the open government strategies is the use of social media as a new approach to widening the reach of local governance.
“Gagawing ng online ang ating mga transaksyon upang makita at makapag-react ang publiko kaagad hinggil sa mga programa at proyekto ng gobyerno. Meron tayong website at i-involve ang publiko para maging transparent,” the new governor said.
He also stressed out that his administration is aligned with the direction of the Duterte administration especially in illegal drug campaign, collaborations with other government agencies, poverty reduction, health care, and anti-corruption campaign.
However, he asked for unity and cooperation from the public, private sector, and national line agencies to smoothly implement the programs and projects.
“Sisiguruhin natin na ang pera ng mga national line agencies ay derekta na mapupunta sa proyekto at programang nakalaan sa publiko ng walang koruspyon at politika,” he said.
Open government creates a local government more transparent, accountable and responsive to citizen needs.
OGP was launched in South Cotabato in 2016.
