NTC to pilot-test online public hearings

THE NATIONAL Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is making final preparations to conduct a trial run of online public hearings, officials said.
The e-Rulemaking Program, under development by the NTC and the Cyberspace Policy Center for Asia-Pacific CPCAP, may be launched by the end of April, they said.

The project will allow government agencies to conduct scheduled public hearings without members of the public having to be physically present.
It will permit comments and position papers on issues at hand to be submitted electronically.

Deputy Commissioner Jorge Sarmiento said in an interview that the pilot test would serve as a model for other government agencies to improve public discussions on legislative and regulatory topics.

He noted traditional public hearings take weeks to plan and implement.
CPCAP Director lawyer Claro Parlade said that the NTC's e-Rulemaking project would run on specially developed software that features working group models and public consultation message boards. From there, NTC officials can organize discussions and get immediate feedback.

Parlade added that e-Rulemaking follows a lot of ideas from the US government's Regulations.gov portal (www.regulations.gov), which is pursuing a similar initiative.

He also noted that the CPCAP has partnered with the United States Assistance for International Development, the Asia Foundation, Microsoft, and SoftTrigger for the project.