A former official of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has claimed that internal disputes and budget constraints contributed to operational challenges faced by the government’s eGovPH platform, including recent service disruptions.
In a public Facebook post, Tirso Raymond “Mon” Gutierrez, former chief of staff of DICT undersecretary David Almirol Jr., said the e-government program struggled with limited funding, particularly for cloud services, despite rising user adoption.
“I was there, I was Usec. Dave’s chief of staff. Seen and heard all, kasi nandun ako mismo,” Gutierrez said, adding that the eGov initiative initially had no dedicated team or sufficient resources when it was launched.
Gutierrez described how the eGov team was built from scratch, with a small group working to develop multiple digital platforms aimed at improving government services and supporting ease of doing business.
According to his account, some members of the team were even supported financially through private means due to low government salaries for technical experts.
“Thus, the eGov team was born… walang may gustong mag join na IT experts at magagaling na programmers sa gobyerno kasi ang baba ng sweldo,” he said.
He also alleged that the eGov program received “zero” Tier 2 budget allocation in 2025 while other divisions were funded, claiming this was part of pressure on Almirol’s leadership.
Gutierrez further said funding intended for cloud services — critical for scaling the platform — was not released, despite prior approval and increasing demand from users.
The DICT earlier attributed the disruption of eGovPH services to a surge in user activity that strained system capacity, saying technical teams responded immediately and restored affected services.
The agency said the outage reflected growing public reliance on digital government platforms and acknowledged the need to upgrade infrastructure as demand increases.
The incident also coincided with a Senate hearing where DICT officials raised funding concerns, including the cost of cloud services supporting government systems.
The department said it is coordinating with the Department of Budget and Management and other agencies to address long-term resource requirements and sustain digital public services.
Gutierrez’s account suggests that beyond technical constraints, organizational and funding issues may have affected the platform’s stability.
He also highlighted the rapid rollout of multiple e-government systems over a short period, claiming these were developed largely in-house and gained traction among millions of users.
“Millions of people started using them because it provided real support to the Ease of Doing Business Law,” he said.
The DICT has not issued a response to the specific allegations as of this posting.
The eGovPH platform is a key component of the government’s digital transformation efforts, integrating services such as digital ID, travel systems, and local government applications into a single ecosystem.
