CALOOCAN CITY, Dec. 14 (PIA) -- San Juan City won in the recently concluded Digital Governance Awards 2020 of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, landing in first place in the eGOV Customer Empowerment (G2C) Category for Cities with its entry, “Education in the time of COVID-19.”
Manila and Cauayan City, Isabela won second and third place, respectively.
The city’s entry, “Education in time of COVID-19,” highlights the city’s efforts in providing gadgets such as tablets and laptops as well as fast and reliable internet connection to all public school students of San Juan City studying in its public schools and living in the city totaling approximately 13,000 children.
“One of my promises to our constituents when they elected me in office was for San Juan to become a Smart City. Just a few months after I was sworn in, 338 WiFi access points were installed. Six months into office, before the pandemic hit, all our 375 public school teachers received their laptops with a few more to spare for new hires, giving us a 1 is to 1 ratio between laptops and public school teachers,” Mayor Francis Zamora said.
“We are forging ahead with our Smart City initiative with connectivity being one of our top priorities in this pandemic to avoid having our teachers and students step out of their houses and put themselves at risk of contracting COVID-19,” Mayor Francis added.
The Digital Governance Awards is headed by the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) and the DILG, and in partnership with the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP), wherein they recognize and showcase the best practices of LGUs by integrating ICT in enhancing their local governance processes to deliver basic services and to inspire other LGUs to replicate.
In his acceptance speech on behalf of the mayor, San Juan City Administration lawyer Dennis Albert Pamintuan thanked the institutions who spearheaded the awards and revealed more efforts from the city to improve connectivity.
“Aside from the Free WiFi For All, we are currently installing fiber optic internet connection to 8,000 households in San Juan City for the 13,000 students enrolled in our public schools specifically for online education. We were able to negotiate a great value for our constituents at a very low cost.
“This is a very precious Christmas gift, being recognized for our efforts in providing good governance in San Juan City.
This award will surely fuel our drive to provide even better services to the San Juaneños in the coming months and years,” Zamora said when informed of this achievement.
“With the support of the national government, our beloved Congressman Ronny Zamora, our city council, city officials, and our dear San Juaneños, greater things are in store for us here in San Juan. We are bringing the city forward from the backwaters of the old to the Smart, Progressive and Eco-friendly Makabagong San Juan,” he added. (PIA NCR)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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