Filipinos now have a better view of
where their tax pesos go, thanks to the government’s new open data portal,
Data.gov.ph. Easy access to information about government spending helps citizens evaluate how their representatives are performing and allows policymakers to better plan for the future development of our country.
Last week’s launch of Data.gov.ph — a website where public-sector datasets can be viewed, downloaded, and transformed into apps by anyone, free of charge — puts the Philippines at the forefront of open data initiatives in South East Asia. Data.gov.ph is a product of the Philippine government as part of its commitment to the
Open Government Partnership (OGP), an alliance between government and civil society to improve governance through greater transparency, with over
60 member countries.
As well as offering downloadable information related to government spending, education, traffic and more, Data.gov.ph contains a number of neat infographics and “dashboards”. These provide snapshots of things like the price of
consumer goods and
medicines,
import revenue collection and even
ambient water quality (see below).
Already, we’re seeing some impressive (and practical) uses of open data across the region:
- The Great Singapore Rat Race visualizes government data about income and wages across age groups, industries and occupations to give fresh graduates and professionals insight into salary levels and wage progression in the island state
- Traffic Spot Hong Kong gives commuters real-time traffic information to help them map out the fastest way to get from A to B
- Rollcall.ph tracks the attendance rates of elected officials in the Philippine House of Representatives and presents the data in a graphic format.
We hope such examples together with the launch of Data.gov.ph will make people’s lives better across the region, by increasing transparency and improving citizen services for all.
Posted by Aileen Apolo, Outreach Program Manager, Google Southeast Asia
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