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E-GOVERNANCE IN THE PHILIPPINES:

THE TRUE VALUE OF E-PARTICIPATION IN THE GOVERNANCE PROCESS

Benjamin D HUFFMAN PhD Candidate Nagoya University, Graduate School of International Development

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have the potential to transform the political landscape and improve the governance process. This move by governments to improve public services and enhance representation through the use of ICTs may encourage citizens to participate more in the governance process by enlarging their choices and avenues for interacting with governments. Whether citizens find value in utilizing these technologies is contentious. Further research needs to be done to determine the conditions or factors affecting citizen’s real opportunities to achieve value through e-Participation. This paper investigates these factors, while taking into account the vastly different values and circumstances affecting citizens at the local level. In order to increase civic engagement and participation in the governance process, it is important to understand how citizens utilize e-Government services and to identify the barriers that prevent them from doing so in order to establish policies that can address these issues. Through examining the flow of resources, capabilities and utility this research seeks to understand the conditions affecting citizens’ real opportunities to obtain value through e-Participation. Moreover, this research explores the potential benefits and drawbacks of ICT utilization by citizens and government actors at the local level. The main findings of this paper show that e-Participation as a political movement will most likely be the responsibility of the uprising ‘intellectual class.’ While citizen’s value governance and democracy, the government’s effort to increase e-Governances has not translated into value to the common citizen; furthermore, the National Government is out of touch with the needs of the local people. The expansion of choices for participating in the governance process has not lead to an increase in benefits for the state or for its people; although, the barriers faced by local citizens to achieve valued functionings have been substantially reduced.

Keywords: E-Participation, Information and Communication Technology, Web 2.0, E-

Governance, Capability Approach.

Introduction

Information at the speed of thought is an actuality no longer relegated to the

inner-dwellings of the mind. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are

paving the way for citizens to become more actively involved in the way they are

governed. Equally, governments are allocating substantial resources to improve public

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services and representation through the use of ICTs, allowing citizens to participate more

in the governance process by enlarging their choices and avenues for interacting with

governments. ICT-driven development is becoming the cornerstone of this new

development paradigm (UNPAN, 2004). This technological form of governance is called

e-Governance, which is the utilization of ICTs by governments to encourage citizen

participation in the governance process and to improve transparency, accountability and

effectiveness (UN, 2006).

The introduction of contemporary technologies into the governance process has brought

citizens and public servants closer together. This has been seen as a positive step for

development (Macintosh, 2004). The traditional boundaries of governance are being

erased by the influx of second generation ICTs and applications, also referred to as Web

2.0. Studies have shown that a countries ability to utilize ICTs effectively is directly

related to its economic growth (Labelle, 2005). While the expansion of opportunities for

citizens has increased through choice and access, this environment may not directly

translate into value to the government or to the citizens they serve. This paper examines

the relationship between government actors and citizens through the use of ICTs in an

effort to understand the conditions affecting citizen’s real opportunities to achieve value

through e-Participation at the local level. Derived from this notion, the capability

approach provides a philosophical foundation on which to build a theory.

Defining the Terms

The field of research pertaining to e-Governance is not rooted in any one

conventional discipline. The paths being paved, cross between a number of research

domains, particularly Political Science, Computer Science, Information Systems and

Public Administration. As such, it is essential to provide a working definition of the key

terms within e-Governance as well as provide an elementary model for linking the terms

together.

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E-Governance and e-Government are synonymous terms, while the terms are often used

interchangeable; e-Governance is the utilization of ICTs to enhance governance whereas

E-Government refers to the use of ICTs by government agencies to improve the delivery

of information and public services to its citizens;1 however, in order for this to take place,

citizens need to engage in this electronic form of governance. This term is called e-

Participation, which is defined as the sum total of both the government programs to

encourage participation and the willingness of the citizen to do so.2 A final component to

e-Governance that this paper would like to introduce is termed e-Democracy. E-

Democracy is a component of e-Participation and will be investigated as such. E-

Democracy is an umbrella term that broadly describes moving citizens from passive

consumers of information to active ICT participants within the democratic/governance

process (Garson, 2006; Backus, 2001; Lee, et al., 2011). While e-Government tends to

follow a top-down approach, e-Democracy tends to follow a bottom-up approach,

although there are differing viewpoints on this (Clift, 2004; Coleman, 2005). Figure 1

highlights the key terms with ICT/Web2.0 residing at the center of the evolutionary

model.

1 Taken from The World Bank: http://go.worldbank.org/M1JHE0Z280. Referenced 01/25/2015. 2 Taken from the United Nations Public Administration Programme. http://unpan3.un.org/egovkb/egovernment_overview/eparticipation.htm. Referenced 01/07/2014.

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Figure 1: Evolutionary E-Governance 2.0 Model

Source: Author

There are three main actors in the governance process: government, civil society and

business. In order for e-Governance to be successful, participation between the three

actors must take place. Within e-Governance, e-Participation is broken down into the

three nomenclatures.3 The first, Government-to-Government (G2G) involves sharing data

and conducting electronic exchanges between governmental actors. This involves both

intra- and inter-agency exchanges at the national level, as well as exchanges between the

national, provincial, and local levels. The second, Government-to-Business (G2B)

involves business-specific transactions (e.g. payments, sale and purchase of goods and

services) as well as business-focused services. The final nomenclature is Government-to-

Citizen (G2C), which involves initiatives designed to facilitate people’s interaction with

government as consumers of public services and as producers of information. This

includes interactions related to the delivery of public services as well as to participation

in the consultation and decision-making process. While e-Participation crosses all

3 Referenced from the United Nations Public Administration Country Studies website: http://unpan3.un.org/egovkb/en-us/About/UNeGovDD-Framework, on June 16, 2015.

e-Governance

e-Participation

e-Government

ICT/Web2.0

Evolutionary E-Governance 2.0 Model

• Policy & Security • Back-office operations/Interoperability • Front-line services • Transparency, Accountability, Efficiency

• G2G, G2B, G2C & C2C • Participation in E-Government services • Participation in the Democratic process

• Incorporation of e-Participation, e-Government & ICT/Web 2.0

• Good Governance

• Information & Communication Infrastructure

• Applications • Social Networking • Mobile Networking

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classifications, this paper intends to investigate the significant relationship between

government to citizens (G2C). To better understand this, Table 1 illustrates these

concepts within the context of this study.

Table 1

Term Working Definition

E-Governance Encompasses all concepts since their overriding goals are the same,

which is to improve governance through the use of ICTs. Although e-

Governance is the broader term, e-Government is the term more

commonly associated with academic writings.

E-Government Is a narrower concept that focuses on the delivery of information and

pubic services, along with back-end processes. This study will touch on

the evolution of e-Government paying special attention to citizen

participation in the governance process.

E-Participation Is the focal point of this study; specifically it investigates the

relationship between government to citizen (G2C) and vice versa to

determine the capabilities as well as the values citizens place on

interacting with government through the use of Web 2.0 technologies.

E-Democracy Is a component of e-Participation. It refers to the role citizens and

government actors play in promoting democracy through the use of

ICTs.

Improving Governance through E-Participation

The potential benefits of improving governance through the use of ICTs have

been well documented; nonetheless this author would like to stress the word “potential.”

Governments are inclined to focus on enhancing ICTs and e-Government services rather

than on encouraging citizens to participate in the governance process (Burgess and

Hougton, 2006; O’Toole, 2009; Verdegem and Hauttekeete, 2010; Jimenez, et al., 2012;

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Freeman, 2013). This is because investments in e-Government services have the

prospective to increase efficiencies and lower costs; whereas, investing in e-Participation

reduces the governments control over information and decision making (Thompson,

2005; Flamm, et al., 2006; Hernon and Cullen, 2006; Verdegem and Hauttekeete, 2010;

Lester & Hutchins, 2012). Furthermore, research has shown that improvements in e-

Government does not necessarily lead to improvements in e-Participation (Kardan and

Sadeghiani, 2011; Blakeley and Matsuura, 2001; Cho, 2008). Further research needs to

be done to determine where the correlations exist.

In order to increase civic engagement and participation in the governance process, it is

important to understand how citizens utilize e-Government offerings and to identify the

barriers that prevent them from doing so in order to establish policies that can address

these issues (Scott, 2002; ITU 2003; Alampay, 2006). One of the aims of this study is to

examine whether civic engagement through the use of ICTs has value to citizens.

Through examining the flow of resources, capabilities,4 and utility this study will seek to

understand the conditions affecting citizens’ real opportunities to achieve valued

functionings in order to strengthen the state by deepening democracy through a more

bottom-up approach. Moreover, this research seeks to explore the potential benefits and

drawbacks of ICT utilization by citizens and government actors at the local level. Many

studies have heralded the use of ICTs for increasing civic engagement (Hague and

Loader, 1999; Moon, 2002; Macintosh, 2004; Mossberger, et al., 2008), but there needs

to be more attention placed on the affects e-Participation has on citizens at the local level

and whether those affects have a positive influence on their everyday lives.

Scope and Framework

The freedom of citizens to achieve valued functionings, may lead to increases in

empowerment and other intrinsic utilities; however, it may also be overshadowed by the

misuse of information by government, politicians and/or elites for their own political

purposes (Hutchins and Lester, 2011). This research will seek to identify the core set of

4 Which some researchers refer to as freedoms and functionings.

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capabilities needed for citizens to achieve value though e-Participation with government.

Furthermore, it intends to provide evidence on how ICTs can change the political

landscape and the rules of the game, while providing a framework on which to further

investigate the conditions affecting citizens' interest in participating in the governance

process.

The capability approach will be used as a foundation to evaluate the social arrangements,5

not just the resources, affecting citizens’ decisions to participate in e-Governance. The

Philippines has been selected as a research site based on its aggressive push to improve

information and communication infrastructure (ICI), e-Goverment, and most notably e-

Participation. Although the Philippines has a high penetration rate of mobile phone

technology of more than one per citizen6 and improved ICI through policies like

Executive Order No. 2657 and Administrative Order No. 398 , e-Participation has

regressed substantially for over a decade – not until recently has this trend reverse

course.9 The capability approach implies that evaluating access alone is not enough;

when evaluating the level of entitlements, both the range of communication options and

the ability of citizens to make use of these options to achieve their relevant functionings

are important (Garnham 1997). This is why it will be important to not just focus on

citizens and technology, but also the government actors that influence the allocation of

limited resources.

The analytical framework for this research has its roots grounded in Amartya Sen’s

capability approach (Sen, 1999) and Alampay’s revised approach for measuring ICTs

(Alampay, 2006). Unlike the basic needs approach, which focuses its poverty measures

on a core set of resources (Streeten et al, 1981), the capability approach explores the

5 In order to assess e-Participation in broad comprehensive terms, as sketched out in Sen’s book The Idea of Justice, 2009. 6 Information gathered from the Commission on Information and Communication Technology “The Philippine Digital Strategy” plan. http://www.ncc.gov.ph/files/PDS.pdf. Referenced 01/08/2014. 7 This order setout to improve information and communication infrastructure throughout the country and reduced the cost of service. 8 This order tasks the Department of Science and Technology with putting government services online and improving communication infrastructure throughout the country. 9 As referenced in Figure 3: e-Government Overview of the Philippines.

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ability of people to convert resources into funtionings.10 Moreover, Sen’s capability

approach (CA) provides the basis for the conceptualization of inclusive democracy,

where the individual has the freedom to develop the necessary capability to be able to

choose between different opportunities (Sen, 2009). This provides a useful philosophical

foundation for conceptualizing new ICTs. While Amartya Sen rightly identified that the

focus of human development is not in the acquisition of resources (Sen, 1992), this

research will show that within the realm of e-Governance, expanding the capabilities of

citizens does not go far enough. In fact it might be time to ‘go back’ and refocus on

utility – not from a traditional approach that focuses on income, but from one that

adequately captures the varied and multidimensional nature of the human condition with

in the realm of e-Participation. Figure 2 lays-out the analytical framework for this study.

It follows the information and resource cycle also know as the ‘empowerment loop’

(Nath, 2003).

Figure 2: Analytical Framework

10 Martha Nussbaum’s work on the capability approach related to social justice was reviewed; however Sen’s model is highly adaptive, which works well for this study.

Governance Process

Individuals • Age • Income • Gender • Education/Capacity • Location (w/r to ICT)

Capabilities • The core set of

capabilities required for citizens to achieve value through e-Participation

Utility/Value to citizens and local politicians

• Intrinsic • Instrumental

Influence of government actors

Realized Functions and Freedoms • Benefits • Barriers • Other conversion factors

Information and Resource Cycle

Formal

Informal

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Grounded in the CA, this study examines individuals based on various demographic

criteria, while determining the influence government actors have on the empowerment

loop. By doing so, this paper intends to provide a theoretical model that will help policy

makers understand the conditions affecting citizens’ capabilities to achieve valued

functionings. The model will provide a framework for explaining how e-Participation is

influenced by the utility and value citizens place in governance and show that resources

and capabilities, as the dominate discourse, should no longer take precedence over utility

when evaluating e-Participation in the governance process.

Research Approach and Rational

ICTs in the Philippines have grown exponentially over the past twelve years.

Over a period of a decade, e-Participation the Philippines dropped by 69 percent,11 while

the country’s infrastructure index has more than tripled.12 This is an ideal example of the

criticisms proposed in previous research that there is no correlation between investment

in ICT and improvement in e-Participation (Kardan and Sadeghiani, 2011; Blakeley and

Matsuura, 2001; Cho, 2008). However, over the past two years, the e-Participation Index

in the Philippines has leapfrogged 15 countries (UNPAN, 2015). Figure 3 illustrates e-

Government in the Philippines over the past twelve years. 13

11 From an e-Participation index ranking of 0.672 to an index ranking of 0.2105. 12 This is the largest drop by any country in the world over this period of time, as noted by United Nations’ E-Government Development Database (http://unpan3.un.org/) 13 Mathematically, the EGDI is a weighted average of three normalized scores on three most important dimensions of e-government, namely: (1) scope and quality of online services (Online Service Index, OSI), (2) development status of telecommunication infrastructure (Telecommunication Infrastructure Index, TII), and (3) inherent human capital (Human Capital Index, HCI). EGDI = 1/3 (OSI normalized + TII normalized + HCI normalized)

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Figure 3: e-Government Overview of the Philippines

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

2003 2004 2005 2008 2010 2012 2014

E-Participation Index

EGovernment Index

Human Capital Index

Online Service Index

Infrastructure Index

Source: http://unpan3.un.org. 2014 Global E-Government Survey. This data was gathered from the

UN E-Goernment Development Database. Accessed 07/14/2015.

This remarkable jump over such a short period of time makes the Philippines an

interesting case for examination. While there has been a strong focus on e-Government

services and infrastructure over the past 12 years, e-Participation has fluctuated. The

Philippines’ continuing political and social unrest has been seen as obstacles to the

consolidation and deepening of democracy in the political system (Quimpo, 2008).

However, recent trends suggest that unique factors may be influencing this substantial

shift in citizen engagement.

As established in the Evolutionary E-Governance 2.0 Model, E-Governance is a

multidimensional process that consists of three components. Figure 4 expands on this

concept breaking-down each component into its own distinctive sphere with e-

Participation at its center.

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Figure 4: Multidimensional Components

The research for this paper was conducted using a mixed method approach. Priority was

given to the qualitative data utilizing a sequential exploratory strategy (Creswell, 2003).

An ethnographic approach was used in the field to observe traditional interaction as well

as to evaluate the role that ICTs play in the governance process. This was done by

observing the usage of Web 2.0 technologies by three local politicians from the Central

Visayas region of the Philippines.

In order to understand the conditions or factors affecting citizen’s real opportunities to

achieve value through e-Participation at the local level, field research was conducted in

three stages. The first stage consisted of reviewing Philippine policies and research

related to e-Governance and e-Participation. An examination of ICT tools, programs and

infrastructure at the national and local level was additionally investigated. A final and

related component in stage one was studying the use of Web 2.0 e-Government services.

To achieve this objective, the case study approach was taken as an empirical inquiry that

Technology Government

Citizens

- Government Actors - E-Government Services

- Web 2.0 - 3rd Party Application - Communication Technology - Communication Infrastructure

- Demographical Stratified

E-Participation

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investigates a contemporary phenomenon (adoption of Web 2.0 technologies) within its

real-life context (governance); especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and

context were not clearly evident (Yin, 2003). The second stage began looking at

government actors. Three politicians were identified as case subjects in order to examine

e-Participation for the viewpoint of government. Additionally, interviews were conducted

with key ICT executives as well as leading academics in the field of ICTs for

development in the Philippines. Based on the qualitative research findings from stage one

and the beginning of stage two, a test survey was carried-out in order to substantiate the

capability set which influences citizen’s ability to benefit from e-Participation in the

governance process. The questionnaire/survey was administered randomly to 29 citizens

living in the two major metro regions of the Philippines, Manila and Cebu; additionally

interviews were conducted with the participants of the surveys. Based on the findings

from stage two, a final revised questionnaire/survey was conducted in stage three. In total,

four-hundred and sixty-six questionnaire/surveys were carried-out, which included 144

hours of interviews. The final stage also brought to close 3 years of ethnographic research

on the three case subjects. It was determined in stage one that Facebook would be the

sole Web 2.0 application documented due to its widespread popularity and active use by

all three politicians.14 In total, 3,918 posts and 19,998 comments were reviewed. The

final component of data collection in stage three was a set of six round table discussions

on e-Participation held at UP Diliman and Ateneo de Manila University. The results of

this data collection will be disseminated in the next two sections.

Identifying the Capability Set

Web 2.0 technologies have to potential to change the ‘rules of the game’ and

providing citizens with tools necessary to influence governance. Moreover, governments

and their actors can uses e-Participation to strengthen the state and deepen democracy. In

order for this to take place, certain conditions need to be fostered. Based on the finding

14 Social networking among Filipinos is the highest out of any country in the Asia Pacific markets with 84.9% of web users using Facebook. Retrieved on October 4, 2013 from: http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2010/4/Social_Networking_Across_Asia-Pacific_Markets.

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from this research a core set of capabilities were identified. Table 2 presents the five

normative capabilities as well as their subsequent descriptions. It should be noted that this

is by no means an exhaustive list nor is any one capability more important than another.

Bear in mind, the argument being made is that the priority for improving e-Participation

through policy is utility, not necessarily a core set of capabilities. Nevertheless, in order

to examine the factors affecting citizen’s ability to find value through e-Participation, this

approach is essential.

Table 2: Capability Set for E-Participation

Capability Description of Capability

Access Being able to access modern ICTs; utilize public services;

and, have low barriers to entry.

Expression

Being able to speak freely; have the technical literacy to

participate in the governance process; and, voice an opinion

without the fear of retribution.

Equality

Being able to access the same information as everyone else;

have equal opportunities to access services; and, be free of

discriminatory behaviors.

Knowledge Acquisition

Being able to access relevant information; information that

has not been manipulated; and, through a medium that is

understandable.

Affiliation Being able to interact socially and have the freedom to

assemble.

The first of the capabilities is ‘access.’ Access refers to the ability of citizens to utilize

ICTs to interact with government. These include computers, laptops, smart phones and

other communication devices. Included in this, are the fees associated with connecting to

a digital network and/or access to public networks such as TV White Space or Tech4Ed

centers in the Philippines. Additionally, access is defined as the capability of citizens to

use e-Government services provided by the local government. The next capability

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‘expression,’ overlaps with Martha Nussbaum’s core capability of ‘control over one's

environment,’ which highlights the need to be able to speak freely and exercise one’s

political choice (Nussbaum, 2011). Incorporated into this is the technical literacy to

participation in the governance process through Web2.0 technologies. The third

capability is ‘equality.’ Equality means having the same opportunity to access

information as every other person; not only information, but also services. It means to be

free of discriminatory behavior by government, citizens and third party providers such as

Web2.0 platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or communications service provider

such as Globe and Smart in the Philippines. This brings us to ‘knowledge acquisition.’

Knowledge Acquisition means being able to access information that is relevant to the

person looking for it. While the information does not necessarily need to be accurate, it

does need to be un-manipulated. Moreover, it should be in a format that is understandable

to the user. One of the main criticisms derived from stage one and two of this study was

that e-Government content is only in English, which for a country with two official

languages and eight major dialects poses a significant barrier to knowledge acquisition.

The final capability, which is also one of Nussbaum’s core capabilities, introduced in her

book Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach is ‘affiliation.’

Affiliation is the capability to interact socially and have the freedom to assemble.

Affiliation overlaps with many of Nussbaum’s core capabilities, it is also the most

difficult capability to quantify. Within this paper the construct of affiliation will be

measured in terms of social arrangements and political ties.

To generate and substantiate the capability set within the framework of this study, a

mixed method approach was taken to identify the valued functionings which lead to e-

Participation. The next two sections examine these functionings, while providing

evidence to support the theory.

Qualitative Findings

This study used a semi-inductive approach to arrive at the capabilities set

introduced in Table 2. As with traditional inductive models that use a ‘bottom-up’

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approach, this study, uses both inductive and deductive reasoning by first examining the

field of e-Participation to identify factors for study and then uses inductive inference to

determine if these factors have an influence on e-Participation within the Philippine

context. The multidimensional components of e-Participation were each examined to gain

a broad generalization of the situation in the Philippines in order to identify patterns and

understand the capabilities needed to participate in the governance process through

technology. In doing so a theoretical model could be created that will allow practitioners

and policy makers to better understand the empowerment loop and the capability set that

influences e-Participation by citizens in the Philippines.

E-Government

E-Government crosses two components, technology and government. These components

were studied by looking at two national programs, TV White Space and Tech4ed as well

as e-Government applications at the local level. At the local level the City of Cebu was

selected as a case study. The City of Cebu was selected as a case study site after winning

the e-Governance Award for utilizing ICT in the delivery of public services. This annual

award is named after the honorable Jesse Robredo and is given to the Local Government

Unit (LGU) that best exemplifying good governance through ICT.

The two national programs TV White Space and Tech4ed are programs born out of the

government’s E-Government Master Plan, which is part of the Philippine Digital Strategy

2011-2016. TV White Space is the government’s effort to reduce the ‘digital divide’ by

enhancing internet accessibility for all Filipinos. This is being done by repurposing

portions of frequency (wireless spectrum) previously allocated for broadcast television.15

Once fully implemented, this service will provide low-cost and in some cases free wifi to

citizens throughout the country. After conducting interviews with key Project Officers

working on this program and testing connectivity at one of the test sites, it has been

concluded that, for now, TV White Space will have little affect on ‘access’ in the near

15 TV White Space refers to the vacant frequencies located between broadcast TV channels in the UHF and VHF range between 54 MHz and 806 MHz.

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future. This is because deployment is being slowed by policies that protect the

government but do not provide incentives to private sector communication providers. The

communication providers have to invest substantial amounts of money into information

and communication infrastructure (ICI) with little guarantees that their contracts will be

renewed past their initial year. Additionally, unlike traditional broadband fiber optic

services, TV White Space is built on a platform that can not provide ‘high-speed’ internet.

Tests conducted in Quezon City revealed low data throughput in the range of 0 to 2Mbps,

while personnel working on the project say 6Mbps is possible. To put this in perspective,

broadband services from Globe and Smart reach download speeds as high as 30Mbps.16

The second project, Tech4ED is an award winning project, which won the 2016 World

Summit of Information Society (WSIS) prize in the eEmployment category. It has the

potential to influence capabilities across the capability set. The benefits of the project

include providing a platform for e-Participation, upgrading digital literacy and starting a

source of livelihood for citizens, just to name a few. While the business model for the

project is excellent, it highlights the importance of converting capabilities into valued

fuctionings and the need to focus on utility. The findings from the research show that a

large potion of Philippine society is shut-out from benefitting from this project. For

example, while visiting a Tech4ED center in Quezon City, only students were allowed to

use the computers. Moreover, all content is in English. As discussed earlier in this paper,

by providing services only in English ‘knowledge acquisition’ for non-English speaking

Filippinos becomes a tremendous barrier. This was echoed by students during the round

table discussions conducted at UP Diliman and Ateneo de Manila University.

The City of Cebu is promoting e-Participation through a number of offerings. The two

most impactful is the City’s website and the World Bank funded project, FixMyBuragay.

Unlike the politicians which were studied in this paper, the City has not effectively

utilized social media such as facebook.

16 This speed test was conducted in Mandaue City on 11/26/15.

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The digital face of most government institutions is their website. Government websites

are often the platform on which citizens communication with government actors. As of

2016, all members of the United Nations now have a web presence (UNPAN, 2015). The

industry standard for measuring the effectiveness of a website is called the bounce rate.

The bounce rate is a formula that determines the effectiveness of a website in keeping

visitors engaged and is often used as an indicator of a site’s relevance and ability to

generate interest (Farris et al, 2010).17 In the case of the City of Cebu, the overall bounce

rate was 57.72%. A score of 50% is average; anything above 60% is considered

problematic.18 Under these conditions, the City of Cebu’s website is considered to be

effective. Table 3 shows a breakdown of site traffic.

Table 3: City of Cebu Location, Duration, and Bounce Rate Statistics

Visits % New Visits

New Visits Bounce

Rate Pages / Visit

Avg. Visit Duration

Philippines 472,939 76.4% 361,206 57.2% 2.84 0:02:57

Source: City of Cebu, note: The raw data was pulled off the web server using Google Analytics but was compiled by the Author

While the city’s website is effective, the only page that promotes citizen participation is

the ‘Bids and Awards’ page. The bounce rate for this page is 35.50%, which is

considered highly effective based on industry standards. This web page invites

manufacturers, suppliers, dealers and distributors to bid on contracts. It provides search

filters to query the backend database, downloadable documents, and records the number

of hits per article title. Additionally, the service lists the author of the bid and the officials

involved in the bidding process. So in addition to being reliable, it is also transparent. As

17 The formula is as follows: Rb = Bounce Rate (%); Tv = Visits that access only a single page (#); Ve = Total entry (#) to the website, where Rb is the percent of Tv/Ve. 18 Based on the article How to Reduce Your Website’s Bounce Rate. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/guides/2011/01/how-to-reduce-your-website-bounce-rate.html on July 4, 2016.

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a G2C platform for promoting e-Participation, the city’s website ‘as a whole’ is not

effective. Moreover, the Bulletin Broad System (BBS) managed by the outgoing

administration was taken down due to negative feedback from citizens. This reinforces

the viewpoint that governments control over information can easily be manipulated by

government actors.

The second application, FixMyBrangay is an idealized example of using Web 2.0

technologies to promote e-Participation. FixMyBarangay is a project jointly funded by

the World Bank, which allows local citizens to report local issues to the City of Cebu.

The project is unique, in that it employs SMS technology to submit request to the city and

report updates back to the citizen. The city also uses a mash-up to plot the requests on a

map using Open Source Map. Table 4 illustrates the steps it takes to resolve an issue like

a pothole or broken streetlight under the traditional route and using the City’s e-

Participatory service.

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Table 4: FixMyBuragay Request for Service

Traditional Route Time

(in days) FixMyBrangay

Time

(in days)

Citizen uses the City’s website

to file a complaint either

through email or by calling-in 0

Citizen submits a report through

the City’s website or via text

message and an incident number is

created

0

The complaint gets passed to

the proper person and is logged

into the logbook

1 ~ 28* Brangay Captain is contacted to do

a physical inspection of the issue 1 ~ 2

Brangay Captain is contacted to

do a physical inspection of the

issue 1 ~ 2

Depending on inventory, the

Department of Engineering and

Public Works is sent to fix the

issue

2 ~ 3

Depending on inventory, the

Department of Engineering and

Public Works is sent to fix the

issue

1 ~ 2

Citizens are able to receive

updates and can inquire about the

request for service

Total Days 30+ 3 ~ 5

Source: Author Note: the data was collected through two separate interviews with the MISC and CITOM departments * In some cases the requests get misplaced and go unresolved.

As Table 4 shows, the problem the city has with responding to service requests is in the

logging process. Once a request gets logged, there is no accountability and unless the

request gets logged, there is no way for the citizen to know what happened. This reduces

the trust citizens have in their local government. By taking advantage of Web 2.0

technologies, all records are accessible via the web, which improves transparency.

20

Additionally, the service request fulfillments, and the time it takes to process a request,

are logged in the system. Moreover, the speed at which the service requests are fulfilled

count on staff performance records, which are appraised every six months. While this

project looks very good on paper and has shown great promise in Europe, it has failed to

meet expectations at the City of Cebu. An investigation reviled that while the back-end

technical side of the project was working exceptionally well, as Table 4 indicates; the

problem is with the work-flow between departments. Of the 43 service request recorded,

none of the requests have been completed. Also an assessment has not been done and the

World Bank has already pulled out of the project. This was most likely due to the fact

that the project team from MISC were all let go of when the previous mayor took office.

In order for e-Participation to have value to citizens, the capacity of the local

governments to manage the technologies on their side is an important component, in

promoting participator governance.

Government Actors

Ethnographic observation was used to study the political careers of three local politicians

during their three year terms that ended in June of 2016. Two of the politicians were city

councilors for the City of Cebu and one is the current Mayor of Tagbilaran City. Unlike

the City of Cebu, which focuses its interaction with citizens through its website, all three

case subjects preferred to use facebook as a means of interacting with their constituents.

By examining e-Particiaption between the politicians and citizens, patterns could be

established to provide guidance in identifying and substantiating the capability set that

was introduced in Table 2.

21

Baba Yap

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

6/30

/201

3

7/16

/201

3

7/27

/201

3

8/5/

2013

8/29

/201

3

9/29

/201

3

10/1

3/20

13

11/1

0/20

13

12/1

9/20

13

1/4/

2014

1/26

/201

4

2/17

/201

4

3/23

/201

4

3/31

/201

4

4/11

/201

4

4/24

/201

4

5/5/

2014

5/25

/201

4

6/13

/201

4

6/30

/201

4

7/12

/201

4

8/5/

2014

9/1/

2014

9/16

/201

4

10/1

6/20

14

11/1

3/20

14

12/1

3/20

14

1/5/

2015

1/26

/201

5

2/21

/201

5

3/11

/201

5

3/29

/201

5

4/13

/201

5

4/27

/201

5

5/10

/201

5

5/30

/201

5

6/12

/201

5

6/29

/201

5

7/14

/201

5

7/26

/201

5

8/7/

2015

8/21

/201

5

9/6/

2015

9/15

/201

5

9/28

/201

5

10/1

1/20

15

10/2

6/20

15

11/1

3/20

15

12/3

/201

5

12/1

3/20

15

12/2

2/20

15

1/20

/201

6

2/22

/201

6

3/11

/201

6

4/4/

2016

4/19

/201

6

4/29

/201

6

5/13

/201

6

5/30

/201

6

6/12

/201

6

6/21

/201

6

Likes Comments Shares

As is the case with many politicians, their time is limited and their ability to directly

communicate with citizens or hear there concerns can be challenging. To identify the

valued functionings that can lead to utility, both intrinsic and instrumental, a two pronged

approach was taken. The first was direct interviews with the politicians and/or there staff,

while observing traditional forms of interaction such as office visits, political rallies,

pulongpulong (public meetings), policy meetings, city council meetings, and direct

observation of their daily activities. The second was to document interactions conducted

through social media, specifically Facebook. What was found is that both methods were

often used. In fact, all three politicians used social media as a tool to enhance their public

service efforts. Both formal and informal channels were observed.

Over a three year period, a plethora of data was collected on each politician. Facebook

was selected as the social media tool of choice by each politician. A review of all posts,

comments, shared posts and ‘likes’ were recorded. Figures 5~7 show a breakdown of the

records for each politician.

Figure 5: Mayor Baba Yap

Source author

2

2

Figu

re 6: C

oun

cilor N

ida C

abrera

Nid

a Cab

rera

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

6/29/2013

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10/25/2015

11/5/2015

11/17/2015

11/29/2015

12/21/2015

1/9/2016

1/22/2016

1/30/2016

2/6/2016

2/18/2016

2/25/2016

3/5/2016

3/10/2016

3/20/2016

3/31/2016

4/8/2016

4/17/2016

4/26/2016

5/4/2016

5/18/2016

6/10/2016

6/26/2016

Likes

Co

mm

ents

Sha

res

Sou

rce auth

or

Figu

re 7: C

oun

cilor B

ob C

abarru

bias

Bo

b C

abarru

bias

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

6/29/2013

7/22/2013

7/27/2013

7/30/2013

8/22/2013

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1/5/2014

1/17/2014

2/8/2014

2/20/2014

3/6/2014

3/9/2014

3/21/2014

3/31/2014

4/10/2014

4/21/2014

4/26/2014

5/6/2014

5/18/2014

5/29/2014

6/4/2014

6/5/2014

6/13/2014

6/22/2014

6/25/2014

6/29/2014

7/2/2014

7/3/2014

7/13/2014

7/21/2014

7/25/2014

7/29/2014

8/7/2014

8/15/2014

8/28/2014

9/4/2014

9/9/2014

9/25/2014

10/10/2014

10/23/2014

10/28/2014

11/1/2014

11/9/2014

11/18/2014

11/26/2014

12/3/2014

12/6/2014

12/16/2014

12/20/2014

12/24/2014

1/5/2015

1/15/2015

1/23/2015

2/2/2015

2/6/2015

2/14/2015

2/23/2015

2/27/2015

3/9/2015

3/13/2015

3/20/2015

3/26/2015

4/9/2015

6/14/2015

6/21/2015

6/28/2015

7/8/2015

7/15/2015

7/23/2015

8/2/2015

8/18/2015

9/16/2015

10/9/2015

11/4/2015

1/24/2016

2/24/2016

4/6/2016

4/24/2016

5/1/2016

LikesC

omm

entsS

hares

Sou

rce auth

or

Each

of th

e politician

s used so

cial media in

differ

ent wa

ys. Ma

yor Baba Y

ap received

a

tremen

dou

s amou

nt o

f com

ments and

shares arou

nd th

e tim

e of the B

oho

l earthq

uake and

subseq

uent typ

hoo

n Y

oland

a.1

9 Th

e City o

f Ta

gbilaran

is the largest city on

the island

of

19 T

here w

ere 3.8

1 mo

re com

men

ts on avera

ge and

56.9

8 m

ore shares. T

his n

um

ber is even

mo

re m

eaningfu

l given the fact th

at man

y citizens w

ere with

out p

ower an

d/or Intern

et service.

23

Bohol and is also its capital. During the earthquake the City’s website and all its servers

went down; however, since Facebook is a third party platform, it continued to function.

Mayor Yap was able to interact with citizens providing them with incident reports, where

to find relief goods, power updates, class suspensions and advisories, as well as ‘hotline’

information for contacting public safety services. While early in his term, feedback was

limited, later on; he assigned staff to provide feedback to citizens via his Facebook

account. Other successful examples include working with citizens on legislation such as

Republic Act 9994 related to senior citizens. Additional uses included updates on road

repairs and power outages as well as public appreciation for honesty, such as the Tricycle

drivers that would return forgotten property. Mayor Yap’s most successfully use of social

media is offering prize money for citizens that can guess the outcome of NBA playoff

games.20 In some ways this reinforces the old patron-client relationship, but from

speaking with local citizens, none of them felt they were in a ‘client’ position. Councilor

Cabrera balanced her traditional political interactions with her social media interactions,

often using Facebook as a way to promote her environmental agenda as Environmental

committee Chairperson. Unlike Mayor Yap’s who uses a ‘Public Figure’ Facebook page,

Councilor Cabrera uses a personal account. As a ‘regular’ Facebook user, her government

work is sometimes overshadowed by her personal posts. Additionally, her wall becomes a

sounding board for other politicians and environmentally conscious NGOs such as the

Coastline Management Board (CMB). She generated e-Participation with citizens by

providing them with information regarding proposed ordinances whereby fostering e-

Democracy. Additionally she posts information regarding public hearings as well as

livelihood training to improve the daily lives of her constituents. She equally would take

the time to meet with citizens in-person or at functions organized by the city and her

political party. Councilor Bob Cabarrubias linked social media platforms together such

as Skype, YouTub and Facebook. All City Council sessions were streamed live via Skype,

which could be accessed from his Facebook page. Citizens could quickly interact with

him and he often responded to inquires in-person. Similar to Councilor Cabrera,

Councilor Cabarrubias used Facebook as a portal to introduce ordinances and provide

20 Success was measured by taking the average like, comment and share for any given post and comparing it to the post being referenced. The average post receives 158.6 likes, 9.3 comments and 13.5 shares. Mayor Yap’s largest NBA prize post received 2,375 likes, 3,281 comments and 2,570 shares.

24

information on training. Additionally, he would provide information on job opportunities.

It was also common practice for Courcilor Cabarrubias to post photos and information

regarding citizens that would visit his office. Unlike the national government which only

operates in English, all politicians studied used Cebuano (Visayan) interchangeable when

communicating with citizens. They understood how to utilize social media as a tool to

promote e-Participation.

Citizens Perspective

To understand the perspective of citizens as it relates to the conditions affecting their

interest in participating in the governance process, round table discussions and random

interviews were conducted. The responses from citizens in the early stages were reflected

in the questionnaire/survey.

Five key points were taken from the 6 round table discussions. The first is that Internet

access is expensive and slow. While this is an important factor, no one said Internet

service is not available, which is an import point to take note of. The gap between the

haves and have-nots has shrunk substantially. It was not long ago when the dominate

discourse related to e-Governance was connectivity and the ‘digital divide’ (Huffman,

2002). The second point taken from the discussion is that students found no value in

accessing government websites except for research. The majority of students had never

accessed their local government websites, but for the ones that did, they found the site to

be static and difficult to navigate. Third, the overall feeling towards government is that it

is corrupt. Not necessarily any one politician, but taken as a whole character plays an

important role. The forth point taken from the discussions is that the content being

provided on government websites is only in English. The feeling is that government

needs to cater more to the needs of the local citizen. The fifth and final point was that

allocation of government resources should be used for other social services. While

students did understand the intrinsic value of participating in the governance process,

such as feeling empowered and having their voices heard, they did not see the

instrumental value. Nevertheless, their interest in promoting e-Governance is a good

25

starting point for development. While for many students the topic of e-Governance was

something new, they rightly identified many of the barriers affecting citizens

participation and were enthusiastic about engaging in governance process.

When interviewing citizens at random, about participation in the governance process,

responses varied. Trust was a reoccurring theme. Trust in government and trust in the

technology. Especially in the rural areas like Bohol, citizens rather visit government

offices than interact with government agents through the Internet. In 17 cases, the citizen

being interviewed had no idea there was a local government website. Of the ones that did,

only 4 citizens had positive comments such as it makes things easier, convenient and

hassle free; it’s effective; and it’s important for accessing all e-Government services. As

for e-Participation, the responses were more positive. Citizens felt they could use ICTs to

exercise their right to be heard; to expand their network; to find work; to gain information

about their government; and to share their concerns with other like minded people. The

most heated subject centered on the power relationship between citizens and government

actors. Some citizens felt that politicians are only visible or accessible to people during

campaigns and “become invisible after they win the election.” However, the research

showed that Mayor Yap and Councilor Cabrera’s posting patterns did not deviate from

the norm between the time of ‘filing’ until the election results were announced. Still

others felt politicians can still control the information released and while the people can

easily express their views, they sometimes do so “under threat;” moreover, e-

Participation can have the reverse effect, “politicians use ICT to gain fame and have the

citizen patronize them.” Other citizens saw no change or that their problems never change,

“the only difference is we have technology”; “although the people have more information

and easier access to those information, politicians are still unshakeable with their power;”

for these people the value of participating in the governance process is “still what it is

after the social media started becoming active.” However, the majority of citizens see the

power relationship shifting towards the citizen. This will be validated in the quantitative

results introduced in the next section. For most Filipinos e-Participation has changed the

balance of power. “The people, especially the youth, have become more exposed to the

happenings in government through ICTs. They have also been more vocal online on their

26

opinions regarding the government as compared to 10 years ago”; a pattern is starting to

develop, citizens have more power because they can “point out the flaws of the

government” using social media; moreover, “people acquire the power to express

themselves because of this, “the voice of the people cannot easily be ignored.” One of the

most absorbing comments came from a young male from the Calabarzon/Mimaropa

region who said “social media has become the modern EDSA for people to protest for or

against something or someone;” or put simply, “the masses uses social media therefore,

more people are able to see opinions and in turn, change other people’s opinions.” Never

was this more evident than during the so-called Million People March, which aimed to

abolish the Priority Development Assistance (PDA) Fund or more commonly referred to

as the Pork Barrel fund. On August 26, 2013, Filipinos and other concerned citizens

gathered in Luneta Park in Metro Manila and other venues across the world to protest the

corrupt behavior of Pork Barreling by the politicians. This protest that was organized

through social media was able to overturn the PDA Fund when the courts finally declared

the fund to be unconstitutional.

A young lady from Metro Manila, was able to sum up the overall feelings of citizens

when she said, “because the government is ruled by officials who are easily

corrupt…people in the online world or netizens get to express freely their thoughts about

politicians and the like…more people are voicing out their concerns, disappointments and

such to the politicians...it's easier to have your voice heard…therefore allowing a more

transparent, participative, and democratic society.”

The findings from stage one and two of the qualitative research, along with the sample

survey are reflected in the questionnaire/survey. The next section introduces those results,

tying-in the methodologies to corroborate the capability set and fuctionings that create

value to citizens. The results of these findings will be used to validate the theoretical

model presented in the final section of this paper.

27

Quantitative Analysis and Results

In total, 466 questionnaire/surveys were carried out.21 Best efforts were made to obtain a

random sample. Sampling took place in shopping centers, on the street, in informal

settlements, inside Cebu City Hall, at Quzeon City’s voter registration center, on

university campuses and around small villages in the Bohol region. The results for some

questions were stratified because it is important to understand citizen’s e-Participation

habits across gender and socioeconomic groupings (Lehtonen, 2007). Moreover, stratified

sampling overcomes the limitations of trying to obtaining a purely random sample. Of the

466 Filipinos surveyed, 249 were female and 217 were male. The age of respondents

totaled 275 between the ages of 15~21; 115 between 22~34; 64 between 35~54; and 12

respondents were over the age of 55. Of the 14 regions that make-up the Philippines,

which includes the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) only regions 11

was not represented.22 The classification of citizens by income was reasonably distributed

with 27% coming from Class E, 31% coming from Class D; 29% coming from Class C;

and 13% coming from the upper class, Class A&B.23

While the central government has made substantial efforts to improve ICI and service,

9% of Filipinos surveyed still do not have access to Internet service where they live.

Moreover the cost of Internet Service is still perceived as being high as indicated in

Figure 8. A key component to e-Participation is the ability for citizens to access and use

Internet Services. Although not every citizen has direct access to the Internet, there are

many 3rd party options besides government funded services – many ‘cyber cafés’ offer

Internet access for as little as 5 php. While interviewing a young pregnant woman from

Cebu, she was asked how she met her partner. She said she found him through facebook

at a cyber café. Even though she was homeless, she had the capability to access Web 2.0

technologies without substantial barriers to entry. 21 Based on a population of 100,998,376, a sample size of 466 can guarantee a margin of error between 4~5% with a 95% confidence level, which is within research standards for the social sciences. A sample size calculator from surveysystem.com was used to determine this number. 22 It should be noted that two citizens were interviewed that came from region 11, so viewpoints from all regions are represented in this paper. 23 Income level by class: Class E 0~5200php; Class D 5201~1600php; Class C 16001~50000php; Class A&B 50001~150000php.

28

Figure 8: Cost of Internet Service

Cost of Internet Service

0 50 100 150 200

Very expensive

Expensive

Average

Not expensive

Cheap

Number of Respondents 76 170 184 19 1

Very expensive Expensive Average Not expensive Cheap

It is evident from interviewing citizens that e-Participation is not their main reason for

accessing the Internet. This is especially true in the rural areas and with citizens that have

less formal education. For example, a middle aged tricycle driver from Bohal said that

while he is interested in politics, he is not interested in e-Participation. For him,

politicians are “like royalty and can not be touched.” He felt that if he is happy and can

enjoy watching basketball with his friends, then “life is good enough;” he has no reason

to use ICTs to interact with government. However, for citizens that do want to obtain

information from the local government, the most preferred method is the Internet. Figure

9 breaks-down the preferences of Filipinos wishing to access information on their local

government.

29

Figure 9: Preferred way to Obtain Information on Local Government

Preferred way to Obtain Information on Local Government

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Re

spo

nd

en

ts

Access Point 75 15 20 5 49 4 111 24

Visit City HallMake a phone

callNewspaper Radio TV

Text with

Friends/Family

Website/Social

Media

Talk with

Friend/Family

While social media and the web is the clear choice for obtaining information, the

traditional path of visiting City Hall is still a strong option. In order to determine why

citizens did not use e-Government services a regression was run to determine the barriers

preventing citizens from converting ‘fuctionings’ into value. Table 5 shows those results.

Table 5: Barriers to Interacting with Local Government through ICTs

Factors Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)

Not Interested -0.58734 0.03752 -15.655 < 2e-16 ***

To Difficult -0.07520 0.07839 -0.959 0.337993

No Access -0.47280 0.05137 -9.204 < 2e-16 ***

Do Not Trust Government 0.09804 0.07486 1.310 0.191091

Inconvenient -0.05953 0.06294 -0.946 0.344806

Government is Ineffective -0.16777 0.06300 -2.663 0.008049 **

Not Time -0.19740 0.05163 -3.824 0.000152 ***

Do Not Expect a Response -0.20482 0.05152 -3.976 8.29e-05 ***

Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1

30

Based on these findings access still remains a barrier; however technical literacy is not.

Additionally, trust was not seen as a barrier, even though findings from the interviews

suggest that trust is a influencing factor in e-Participation. Where trust plays an important

role is in the preferred characteristics of local politicians. Figure 10 summarizes the

findings

Figure 10: Preferred Characteristics of Local Politicians

Preferred Characteristics of Local Politicians

Honesty/Trust, 162,

40%

Generosity, 7, 2%

Accessibility, 14, 4%

Integrity, 95, 24%

Charisma, 0, 0%

Reliability, 119, 30%

A component of this research included looking at e-Participations as it relates to the 2016

General Election. A key element of e-Participation is E-Democracy. When looking at the

preferred characteristics of local politicians, trust, honesty, reliability and integrity are

dominate values. A noteworthy finding is that only 2% of citizens felt generosity was and

important factor, reveling that the patron client-relationship may be a thing of the past;

this falls in-line with the findings concluded from the qualitative results. An additional

regression was run to see if there was a correlation between valuing generosity and

income, but there was no correlation – Class D citizens represented the largest majority,

which only amounted to 3 citizens. In addition to characteristics, citizens were asked for

31

their criteria when voting for their local politicians. The top six choices from the test

survey were provided as options. Figure 11 illustrates the distribution.

Figure 11: Criteria When Voting for Local Politicians

Criteria When Voting for Local Politicians

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

Personally being helped

Improving social welfare

Improving the local economy

Improving transportation

Improving ICT services

Having your opinions heard

This question was asked in reference to another question regarding the reason for not

using social media to write about politics. The popular response to that question was that

citizens found posting their option would be useless; however, as a criterion for voting

for a politician, “improving the local economy” far outpaces “having your opinions

heard.” Figure 12 presents the results from the aforementioned question.

32

Figure 12: Reasons for Not Using Social Media for E-Democracy

Reasons for Not Using Social Media to

Writing About Politics I am afraid to

write my

opinion, 9, 16%

I think it would

be useless to

post my

opinion, 36,

63%

I am not

interested in

politics, 12,

21%

While 153 participants did use social media to discuss politics, out of the ones that did

not, 63% felt there was no value in posting their opinion. Findings from the qualitative

research show that from the perspective on the politicians, citizen’s posts do get

consideration. Over the 3 year period of documenting e-Participation habits of the 3 case

subjects, two out of the three politicians often took the time to respond to posts, while the

third, Mayor Yap recently assigned a person to provide feedback. Still, the preferred

option for interacting with local politicians is to visit their office; yet e-Participation

methods are gaining traction. Figure 13 shows the distribution of preference.

33

Figure 13: Citizens Choice for Interacting with Local Politicians

Citizens Choice for Interacting with Local

Politicians

Go to their office,

138, 37%

Call their office, 58,

16%

Text Message, 13,

3%

Some other way, 37,

10%

Website or

Facebook, 104, 28%

No reason to talk to

them, 22, 6%

At Cebu City Hall when interviewing citizens about their preference to meet their local

politicians in person, most stated that they prefer face-to-face contact even if it meant

taking time off work. A small number of citizens were not aware that e-Government

services were an option. When surveyed about the value of e-Participation citizens

viewed better governance as the major motivating factor. While there was no difference

between men and women, there was a strong correlation between higher income and

having more transparency.24 Figure 14 looks at the motivating factors for converting

capabilities into valued functionings.

24 Pr(>|t|) of 0.0056 **

34

Figure 14: Value of e-Participation

Value of e-Particiaption

Empowerment, 143, 10%

Inclusion, 135, 9%

More Transparent, 212, 14%

Save Money, 128, 9%

Save Time, 163, 11%Better Goverance, 236, 16%

Respect, 98, 7%

Having Your Voice Heard, 218, 15%

Accountablitiy, 135, 9%

In addition to better governance, having your voice heard is a highly valued factor for

participating in e-Governance. So while, citizens feel their opinions do not matter and

that politicians do not listen to them; they also believe e-Particpation will give them a

voice in the governance process.

As this research has shown, having a voice is a valued functioning that relates to two

capabilities, expression and affiliation. It also has an affect on the power relations

between citizen and politician. Citizens perceive social media as a tool to ‘level the

playing field.’ Figure 15 highlights this fact.

35

Figure 15: Social Media’s Affect on the Power Relations

Social Media's Affect on the Power Relations

Between Citizens and Politicians

No Change, 77,

18%

More power to

the politicians,

70, 16%

More power to

the people, 280,

66%

The results of the quantitative data hold true to the results of the qualitative interviews

that social media is changing the rules of the game and leveling the playing field for

citizens. Regressions were run to see if income or gender had any bearing on the results,

but no linkages could be found.

The final finding this paper would like to introduce pertains to the source of news

information. With the exception of television, online news and more specifically

Facebook news is now dominating citizen’s headlines. Figure 16 shows a breakdown of

where citizens go for information.

36

Figure 16: News Sources

News Source

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Newspapers

Blogs

Facebook Newsfeed

TV

Radio

Online News

Preferrence 25 4 74 114 10 91

Newspapers BlogsFacebook

NewsfeedTV Radio Online News

This paradigm shift in the way citizens access information has not been lost on the

politicians. Politicians understand the importance of meeting the citizens where they

congregate, and where they are currently congregating is on Facebook. Moreover, Mayor

Yap and Councilor Cabrera were able to move forward with their political agendas in a

way that supported their parties and promoted their campaigns – allowing voters to

engage them throughout the democratic process. Although Councilor Cabrera was

defeated in the General Election she effectively used social media to draw attention to the

negative-side of the electoral politics by providing evidence of vote buying by one of the

rival political parties. It should be noted that unlike traditional news media, the validity of

stories being ‘broke’ through social media is completely at the discretion of the reporter.

How the findings from this paper affect the capabilities of citizens to achieve value

through e-Participation will be discussed in the final section.

37

Conclusion and Policy Recommendations

Overall, e-Participation has had a positive influence on governance; however, the

value of e-Participation on the everyday lives of citizens has not yet been realized.

Furthermore, government actors, still have control of the information, but that control is

slowly shifting towards the masses. The barriers to e-Participation still influence the

capabilities of citizens to achieve value from the governance process, which has slowed

the information and resource cycle. By creating a model to assist policy makers and

practitioners understand the needs of the citizens, through identifying a core set of

capabilities, may alter the traditional resource driven approach of e-Governance to one

that focuses further on what citizens have reason to value. All is not lost though;

investments in e-Government services and infrastructure have expanded the choices of

citizens hoping to participate in the governance process. Additionally, the uprising

intellectual class is putting pressure on the Philippine government to reform old habits

and streamline ICT services.

Through the three stages of research a core set of capabilities emerged. Figure 17

summarizes the theoretical model that shifts the focus from resources to utility. This

demand-driven approach for appraising e-Participation within the governance process

will hopefully provide a framework for practitioners looking to improve e-Governance at

the local level.

38

Figure 17: Capability Approach Model for E-Participation

The Capability Approach Model for E-Participation is separated into six segments. The

first, citizens represent the diverse set of actors regardless of age, income, gender or

education. The second segment is the ‘resource’ component. While this component is at

the heart of the Evolutionary E-Governance 2.0 Model presented in Figure 1, the findings

show that resources, while expanding the choices for participating in the governance

process, has little affect on the value citizens place on engaging with governments

through the use of technology. Moreover, e-Government services that do not meet the

needs of citizens have little influence in supporting their well-being. The third segment

lays down the foundation for policy makers and practitioners to consider when devising

e-Government initiatives. As the research showed, while not all ‘fuctionings’ hold value

to each individual, the core set of capabilities are fundamental to all people regardless of

age, gender or socioeconomic status. The forth segment introduces the final distinctive

sphere presented in Figure 4: Multidimensional Components. Government and its actors

play an important role as facilitator and/or obstructer in the governance process. While

there were no identifiable correlations between formal and informal channels,

government actors play an important role in helping citizens convert capabilities into

valued functionings. The use or misuse of information can directly impact citizens’ well-

being. Moreover, unless citizens know, and can comprehend, what the benefits are of

Capability Set Access Expression Equality Knowledge Acquisition Affiliation

Citizens

Government & Government Actors

Intrinsic and Instrumental Value for Citizens

Information & Communication Technologies(ICT) Information & Communication Infrastructure (ICI) E-Government Services

Conversion Process

Empowerment Loop

Governance Process

39

participating in e-Government programs and services, when the empowerment loop will

break down. The fifth segment recognizes the barriers as well as freedoms which citizens

are afforded, many of which were discussed in the earlier sections. The conversion

process itself is meant to serve as a method for obtaining utility, both intrinsic and

instrumental because if utility can not be achieved, citizens will not participate in e-

Governance through e-Participation. The final segment is the one that needs to be focused

on, while citizens may have the capability to convert resources into utility and/or value,

without a clear motive for doing so, e-Participation will not take place.

The conditions affecting citizens’ real opportunities to achieve value through e-

Participation are now well documented within the context of the Philippines. Information

is moving that the speed of thought, while governments try to keep pace – the evolution

of technology has stimulated a revolution in e-Governance.

40

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