The Philippine province uses blockchain technology, eye tokenization
Bataan Governor Joet Garcia. Photo: Bataan.gov.ph
The provincial government of Bataan in the Philippines plans to enact the Community-Based Monitory System Act (CBMS) with blockchain technology, Governor Joet Garcia said in an interview with The Daily Rejection.
“Through data sharing agreements and in addition to getting consent from our citizens about what information can be shared, what information can be sent to local authorities, what information can be used by the national government body that provides such services, blockchain can help here”, said Garcia.
Bataan is located southwest of central Luzon, the country’s largest island. Last month, the provincial government announced that it is making a major leap in digitization by utilizing blockchain technology.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the national agency mandated to implement the law, CBMS is an organized technology-based system to collect, process and validate disaggregated data, which can be used for planning, program implementation and impact monitoring at the local level while providing local communities the opportunity to participate in the process.
To implement CBMS, the Bataan provincial government has signed a memorandum of agreement with global blockchain firm nChain.
“The right data collected at the right time can fuel the transformation of an organisation. And think if this can be done in government, said Garcia. “Just imagine the impact this will have on the citizens, our constituents.”
See tokenization
Bataan province also plans to come up with asset-backed tokens for government projects.
“We also see how blockchain can help us raise funds and allow us to quickly implement various projects,” Garcia said. “I’m talking about tokenization – how we can use the blockchain, how we can tokenize our assets. we want to come up with asset-backed tokens.”
Garcia added that tokenization in government projects could be attractive to the province’s potential investors and that it could be a template for other projects.
See related article: Philippine President Marcos Jr is pushing for a tax on digital services
The Filipino Advantage
The Southeast Asian nation is no stranger to blockchain. At the height of play-to-earn game Axie Infinity’s popularity in mid-2021, the Philippines accounted for around 40% of players.
Last year, the country’s central bank launched its wholesale digital currency project for the central bank.
The country also ranks second in the latest global crypto adoption index by blockchain research firm Chainalysis, with high scores on both centralized and decentralized metrics.
“The Philippines is in a really unique and opportunistic position to be able to seize the technology, having learned from what everyone else has done or not done, and deploy that technology for its own benefit, leapfrogging other countries in the process. But also to be able to jump over other countries in the creation of new developments, said Stefan Matthews, chairman of nChain, in an interview with The Daily Rejection.
Matthews added that provincial governments in the Philippines intend to adopt blockchain and move quickly with development.
Public-private partnerships
A program of the Philippine government is the Public-Private Partnership (PPP). It is one of the government’s solutions to accelerate infrastructure development and sustained economic growth.
Garcia and Matthews both believe that PPP is the way to go when using blockchain technology for government use in the country.
“We believe in blockchain technology, but I don’t think (the) government is the best entity to learn everything and run it on its own. The private sector can do better,” Garcia said.
“If you look at infrastructure projects that have been going on in the Philippines for the last 25 years, that is the case – roads, bridges, massive government infrastructure development projects that will be run as PPPs. And the same, I expect, will be the case with the rollout of the design and deployment of large-scale blockchain solutions in the country, particularly at the government level,” Matthews added.
See related article: Philippine Central Bank Governor Says No Plan to Ban Crypto
