Thursday, June 21, 2007 Toral: 7th year of the E-Commerce Law By Janette Toral Digital Filipino
ON June 19, 2000, Republic Act 8792, otherwise known as the Philippines E-Commerce Law, took effect. It’s been seven years and I’m optimistic as ever, although a bit nervous too.
After the 2004 elections, Sen. Mar Roxas and Rep. Junie Cua took over the chairmanship of the Congressional Oversight Committee for the E-Commerce Law (Cocec). To their credit, eight major developments happened and their effects can be seen in the years to come.
SME-FIT or Financing for Information Technology Build-Up by SB Corp. was launched last March 2006. It provides credit facility to information technology (IT) service providers who, in turn, can offer easy installment terms of their services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Those who are into computer hardware, software development, web-site development, e-commerce services, and ICT (information and communication technology) training can be accredited in this program.
Department of Trade and Industry Department Administrative Order (DTI-DAO) 8 was issued last end of July to further explain the application of the E-Commerce Law with regard the protection of personal data processed using ICT. This is an in-between measure until a full privacy legislation gets passed.
In response to the concerns raised by the Cebu Software Association (CebuSoft) to Cocec on ICT project opportunities alienating local IT providers, the Government Procurement Policy Board issued a resolution last July 2006 that highlights the importance of experience and skill as equal parameters for selecting suppliers.
To boost consumer confidence on e-banking, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) issued Circular 542 that provides consumer protection and complaints handling guidelines to be followed by banks.
The BSP is expected to issue a follow-up regulation that establishes its help desk and details how complaints are handled by their office.
To address concerns on non-implementation of the E-Commerce Law in government, the DTI and the Department of Finance issued a joint order, DAO 2, on Government Electronic Payment and Collection System.
All revenue generating agencies, and local government units (LGUs) are required to follow this guidelines to accept e-payment such as credit card, mobile payments, interbank fund transfer and use of cash registers.
In the Government Appropriations Act of 2007, Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and Congressman Cua were instrumental in having inserted RA 8792 implementation, including e-payment in government and anti-cybercrime infrastructure investment, as a major priority in so far as E-Government Fund spen-ding is concern.
The DBM created such fund using RA 8792 as its basis. It mandated the office to set aside funds from savings to mobilize the implementation of the law in government. The defunct Information Technology E-Commerce Council chaired by the President and DTI secretary (as E-Commerce czar) pushed for the creation of the said fund.
Last Friday, the National Telecommunications Commission released its consumer protection guidelines and data log retention circular. This is to aid standard process in handling consumer complaints on poor telecommunication and including Internet service provider services. This also provided clear guidelines on requesting data logs to facilitate investigation to validate received complaints.
There is much to be done to make e-commerce a reality in this country. The above became possible as Cocec called on the DTI to fully implement its mandate under the E-Commerce Law. Although there are efforts on the creation of a Department of Information and Communications Technology, that should not be used as basis to ignore or set aside DTI’s supervisory mandate under the law.
