COTABATO CITY – A regional lawmaker has filed a bill before the Bangsamoro Transition Authority – Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BTA-BARMM) calling for a regionwide geotagging system for infrastructure projects for updates and transparency.
Member of Parliament (MP), engineer Don Mustapha Loong, the principal author of BTA Parliament Bill 95, said Friday the proposal intends to ensure efficient government project monitoring in the region.
Geotagging, as described in the proposed bill, is the process of adding metadata and geographical information to the physical or site location of government infrastructure projects and uploading them to a web-based application.
Loong said it also includes the project’s name, location, and cost to allow the public and netizens to check the progress of projects in real-time.
“Geotagging of all infrastructure projects in the BARMM will allow for more effective policy-making, improve the planning and programming of development projects, cumulative location of development projects, and track and monitor the progress of government projects,” he said in his explanatory note.
In 2020, the Department of Public Works and Highways’ national office required mandatory geotagging of all infrastructure projects to improve planning, budgeting, project monitoring, and contract management processes.
Loong, former regional public works secretary of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, also explained that geotagging would serve as a transparency mechanism that allows the citizens to monitor developments in their communities, and avoid duplication and overlapping infrastructure projects.
“It will also allow the government agencies to determine which areas are receiving development projects,” he said.
Co-authors of the bill were BTA members engineer Baintan Ampatuan, Amilbahar Mawallil, lawyers Laisa Alamia, Rasol Mitmug, Jr., Suharto Ambolodto, and Rasul Ismael. (PNA)
*Originally published on Philippine News Agency (https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1145050)