By Anthony A. Araos
Digitalization has truly found a better place to thrive. Where else? It is in Aguinaldo town of Ifugao, particularly, at the Office of the Sangguniang Bayan (SB).
At this legislative body, members and others behind it like to challenge conventional wisdom and seize themselves these rare opportunities. Like “going digitalized,” for example, “For us it’s a catalyst,” SB Secretary James Frederick Dulnuan said.
It was a decent and remarkable move. Dulnuan, a former board member will be again sharing his experiences as a pillar in the law-making process navigating a fast-changing landscape that has been increasingly going digital. Thus, building an effective digital infrastructure is so important.
It thus pleased countless folks like Ricky (as he is fondly called by many here). Dulnuan is retaining his position. “We are happy that someone with dogged determination to serve the people and achieve reforms like (SB Secretary). Dulnuan will help propel the legislative branch to greater effort designed to bring enduring progress to Aguinaldo,” said a youth leader.
This is essential because Aguinaldo enjoys the “first-class” municipality tag in poverty-stricken Ifugao. A farming town, Aguinaldo is nestled in a far-away section of this upland Cordillera province. It was named after Emilio Aguinaldo, the President of the first Philippine Republic. With this development, the other ten towns of Ifugao should emulate the best practices of Aguinaldo in terms of office digital management, time to look ahead in the direction. Ifugao must level up in order to achieve a more secure interconnected digital-based communication network.
Legislators should continue to be fully mindful of the need for them to also learn best practices in other localities. For this reason, I think it bears pushing through since the polls are over. This comes as no surprise to most of them since they too have digital lives to nurture.
The more they explore other towns or cities, the more they learn from them. It helped them to shape them into what they should be. Nurturing the councilors’ potential through the digital world so they will have the skills set they need to be ready for the real world of enacting quality laws. In order to better understand this point, let’s zero down at the local government level. For the urgency to go digital is even more urgent as basic public services are devolved to cities and municipalities.
The municipal government must innovate, level up and digitalize, then, this way there is a pretty good chance of making a big difference in the people’s lives, all in the spirit of wisdom and understanding. I had plenty of other ideas, and just got sucked at these ones too.
For folks in the town’s 16 barangays, who have dreamt of this project for so long, well, we are finally seeing the light of the day. This milestone is a huge leap toward realizing this dream. Indeed, many are grateful to development partners for supporting this endeavor and believing that the people genuinely deserve an improved quality of life.
Aguinaldo may be divided by mountains but folks all have a common aspiration- to have a better quality of life for them and in coming generations. All in all, the days in which Aguinaldo could be pushed aside, relegated to the sidelines would seem to be over. If and only if, the town cuts down the remaining “digital gap”, it is digital transformation, not the ayudas that motivates good governance. Ring in 2026 this early, with the call to fast-track the digitalization program. That is surely great news for Aguinaldo officials and the people they serve.**
