MY DEAR countrymen,
Have you ever wondered why we are so proud to be the “texting capital of the world”, and yet we could not even text our own government?
Why is it that we could text our relatives, our friends and our neighbors, and yet we could not text most of our government agencies?
I say that because I send messages to our government agencies everyday via email and Facebook Messenger, and that is why I know for a fact that very few government agencies have mobile numbers, and even if they do, they do not have Viber or Telegram.
Never mind WhatsApp, because of some concerns about its data security, but why are these National Government Agencies (NGAs) and local government units (LGUs) not using Viber and Telegram?
Since these two messaging apps are available for free, we can be sure that the reason is not money. And so, if it is not money, what could be the reason?
I could only think of two reasons. It’s either they are lazy, or they do not want the public to contact them.
By my own estimate, based on my own experience, less than 20% of NGAs and LGUs publish their mobile numbers, meaning that they only publish their landlines. That by itself is really a problem, because not too many people have landlines nowadays anymore.
According to Microsoft Copilot, “it is generally more expensive to call a landline number from a mobile phone in the Philippines compared to calling another mobile phone. For example, calling a landline number typically costs around P7.50 per minute with most mobile service providers like Globe and Smart. In contrast, calling another mobile phone is usually cheaper, often around P6. per minute or less, depending on the plan.”
But my point is, why would anyone spend P7.50 per minute to call another mobile phone if they could just send a text for only one peso?
Better than that, why not send a message for free via Viber or Telegram?
For so long a time now, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has been calling on the NGAs and LGUs to move towards digitalization. Unfortunately, their compliance has been rather slow, as reported by Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) secretary Ivan Uy.
If they are really having a hard time obeying the President’s orders, perhaps they could start by buying a simple mobile phone, subscribe to Viber and Telegram, and then post that number in their websites and Facebook pages?
Since Instagram and Twitter (X) are also free, why not post that number there too? It is not really rocket-science, but if the heads of these NGAs and LGUs do not know how to do it, I can teach them how to use Google’s “Messages for the Web” app so that they do not have to send and receive text from a small mobile phone, and do it instead from a computer, meaning a larger tablet, laptop or desktop.
It’s also not a big deal, but I could also teach them how to download and install Viber and Telegram into both their mobile phones and their computers. Perhaps they would be happy to know that they could use these apps interchangeably and simultaneously in their mobile phones and their computers, just like Facebook Messenger.|
