DAVAO City councilors are set to receive P50,000 worth of laptops each due to the proposed "paperless session" scheme which will take effect next year.
Davao City Councilor Bernard Al-ag on Tuesday, November 14, said that the council plans to use laptops instead to decrease by 80 percent their paper usage brought about by multiple attachments.
“We are using about 50 kilos of paper every (council session) day and we are using 8,000 kilos of paper (annually). The city council purchased laptop for all the members of the council, but before we use the laptop we will have training this November 29 for our new system which will use less paper,” he said.
Al-ag said that they will be using their laptop for their agenda, and for their attachments.
“As you can look at our folder every session, it is very thick. (About) 80 percent of these are attachments so we want to put that in a scanned form which will be placed in the laptop,” he said, adding that the laptop will be used exclusively by the councilors every session, and during the review of their agenda.
He said the reduction of paper usage is a good move, and they are also planning to apply this to all city departments.
“May gagawin din na ordinance ang city council with the request of the city mayor to create a Department of City Archive Office, and the City Archive Office will be the one in charged with the project of reducing paper usage not only in the Sangguniang Panlungsod (City Councl) but also in all other departments (The city council will also craft an ordinance with the request of the city mayor to create a Department of City Archive Office, and this office will be the one in charged with the project of reducing paper usage not only in the City Council but also in the other departments),” he said.
Al-ag also added that the brand of laptop is definitely not Apple because they need to use Windows programs.
“Nandyan na sa Davao City General Services Office, they called me na ready na daw ang laptop, sabi ko huwag niyo munang i-release, we will release that during the training (The laptops are already at the Davao City General Service Office, they already called me, but I told them that we will release these during the training),” he said.
He said that the training will be conducted by the City Archive Office and City Information and Technology Center.
“Eventually all the signatures of the department heads and the city council will be in digital form na rin, so once this will be implemented the use of paper will really be reduced,” he said.