THE 20th Davao City Council bared on Tuesday, September 19, that it allocated P4 million to implement the Paperless Session System and the Legislative Information System of the Sanguniang Panglungsod.
According to a Committee on Information Technology report, City Budget Officer Ermelinda F. Gallego confirmed the allocation of P4,836,570 for upgrading the Legislative Information Support System (LISSP) to implement the Less Paper Session System on September 6.
Of this amount, approximately P2,525,000 will be used for the Less Paper Session System hardware, P550,000 for the firewall, around P63,500 for broadband, P699,864 for a one-year Cloud subscription, and P990,000 for LISSP Phase 2.
The remaining funds will be used to purchase 30 tablets, one document camera, eight notebooks or laptops, and six indoor access points.
Davao City Councilor Bonz Andrei Militar, chair of the committee on information technology, said during the 35th session that the existing method used by the council consumes about 9,075 sheets of paper or 18 reams per session.
By reducing paper usage, they can save on printing and storage costs. The suggested setup would require printing only three hard copies for the vice mayor or presiding officer, the floor leader, and the secretariat instead of the previous 45 copies per session.
However, Councilor Diosdado Mahipus Jr. questioned the necessity of the firewall system and cloud information.
He asked, "What information are we really going to put into our servers that would necessitate including a P550,000 firewall system?"
Militar explained that the firewall is essential to protect the system from unauthorized access when connected to the internet.
Meanwhile, Diosdado Lopez, the acting head of the City Information Technology Center (CITC) Acting Head of the Network Facility and Management Division, clarified that the firewall is a hardware appliance designed to safeguard user privacy while browsing the internet.
"Ito yung naga protect for yung mga malware, threats, and other related na malware (This will protect [users] from malware, threats, and other related malware)," Lopez said.
Mahipus then suggested using the previous program without additional expenses. Still, Lopez explained that this was impossible as the council has a separate subscription not connected to the internet.
Mahipus further emphasized that his inquiry about the firewall's nature and cost was motivated by the need to ensure its efficiency in protecting sensitive information.
"This is a matter of security; of course, this system is going be accessed by the city councilors, and you know there are programs such as key ladders wherein outside users can access what we are typing in the budgets and even have access to what we are doing in our screens and we don't want that," Mahipus said. RGP
