Republic Act 12254, the E-Governance Act, requires every Philippine government agency and LGU to digitize public services — an online portal (or the DICT eLGU system), digital payments, e-Bulletin Boards, accessibility standards, and citizen status-tracking. Signed September 5, 2025. LGUs must stand up their own system or adopt eLGU within one year — roughly September 5, 2026.
Republic Act 12254 is a Philippine statute, the E-Governance Act, that mandates the digitization of government and local-government services. It requires agencies and LGUs to deliver public services online, accept digital payments, publish notices on e-Bulletin Boards, let citizens track the status of their transactions, and report annually on their progress.
All Philippine national government agencies and all local government units — provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays — must comply. At the LGU level the work sits with the local chief executive, the IT or MIS office, and the frontline offices that handle transactions and payments. LGUs without the capacity to build their own system can adopt the DICT eLGU platform to meet the requirement.
For LGU officials, RA 12254 turns digital service delivery into a legal obligation with a deadline. Standing up an online portal, e-payments, and status-tracking within the one-year window is now a compliance requirement, not a nice-to-have — and it feeds into broader good-governance assessments like the SGLG. For citizens, it means filing requests, paying, and tracking transactions from a phone instead of lining up at a counter.
Under RA 12254, each LGU must establish its own online service system within one year of the law taking effect, or adopt the DICT eLGU platform in the meantime. With the law signed September 5, 2025, that puts the practical LGU digitization deadline at roughly September 5, 2026. Building a compliant portal from scratch is the slow path; adopting a ready platform is the fast one.
RA 12254 is sometimes confused with land use planning. It is not a land use law. Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUPs) and zoning are governed separately by the Local Government Code (RA 7160), Executive Order 72, and the DHSUD CLUP/CDRA guidebooks — with DHSUD reviewing and the Provincial Land Use Committee handling provincial-level submissions. If you came here looking for CLUP requirements, see the dedicated CLUP glossary entry.
Nova Gov gives an LGU both halves of the E-Governance Act at once. The Nova citizen app lets residents submit and track requests, payments, and reports online and check their status from a phone. The Nova LGU dashboard lets officials manage those transactions, publish notices to the e-Bulletin Board, and generate the status-tracking and annual reporting the law requires. It is a fast path to a compliant own-system option without building a portal from scratch. LGUs in the first Founding Partner cohort get the platform free for Year 1.
September 5, 2025.
Within one year of effectivity, each LGU must establish its own online service system or adopt the DICT eLGU platform — roughly September 5, 2026.
The DICT digital service platform LGUs can adopt to meet RA 12254 if they don't build their own — online portals, e-payments, and citizen transaction-tracking out of the box.
No. It's a digital governance law. CLUPs are governed separately by RA 7160, EO 72, and the DHSUD guidebooks. See our CLUP entry.
The DICT leads, providing the eLGU platform and standards; agencies and LGUs report their e-governance progress annually.
The eLGU mandate's compliance deadline is roughly October 2026. Our eLGU compliance guide walks LGUs through the two Section 9(b) options — build your own portal or adopt the DICT eLGU — and how Nova Gov helps you stand up your own.
See the eLGU compliance guide Join Founding Partners