Davao City eyes collaboration with companies engaged in AI and robotics to realize project
The local government of Davao City is looking to use artificial intelligence and robotics in government services, cybersecurity, public safety, disaster risk reduction management, agriculture, and tourism.
“We’re planning AI for cybersecurity for our Data center, and actually Davao City is already using AI. Previously, we approved the ordinance on AI facial recognition and geolocator. We are planning robotics AI that we are going to implement in the city in terms of disaster response, public safety, tourism, smart agriculture,” says Davao City First District Councilor Bonz Andre Militar, current chairperson of the City Council Committee on Information Technology.
He says one of their plans is having robots with AI capability deployed in different parts of the city that can help tourists and those lining up for government transactions.
“We’re still planning to implement robotics at city. For robotics, we are going to install robots in parks, airports, government agencies; they can use AI to ask questions what is needed, any questions they ask our AI robot, it will guide them—like for online transactions, they can use the robot.” Councilor Militar said.
To realize the project, they are eyeing collaboration with companies engaged in AI and robotics. Militar said he already met with several such companies during the recently held Asean Innovation Summit held at the SMX Convention Center Davao, an event organized by the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industries Inc.
AI Ready
Militar said the City Government of Davao, particularly the City Information Technology Center, is AI-ready.
“So far, our employees from DCITC from the City Government of Davao are AI-ready by the way, of course, training is included in our plans.
In a recent study published by the Philippine Institute of Development Studies, the majority of local government units in the Philippines scored low in AI adoption readiness.
Militar said the city government is among the few LGUs that are crafting ordinances on AI and developing the capacity of its personnel.
Late last year, the City Council approved “AI-Powered Border and Public Safety Surveillance Ordinance of Davao City.” The project’s initial funding would enable the city to procure 150 cameras with AI features capable of facial recognition.
Militar is confident that Mayor Sebastian Z. Duterte will support their investments in AI and robotics, stating that the current thrust of the city government is geared towards digital transformation.
“In terms of digitalization, in terms of making the transaction in the government very fast, the Mayor is very supportive in terms of digital transformation of the city because we are already engaging in innovation and now we are adopting AI and it is possible robotics will come,” Militar said.
Data Center
Another newly approved digital transformation ordinance is the creation of a centralized data center for the safekeeping of government records.
The councilor said the aim of having a centralized data center is for cybersecurity, as currently the data are in silos kept in different servers.
“So we’ll make one area for the CITC so we can easily guard our data. The data center is also a requirement.for us to upgrade for our digitalization,” Militar said.
(The data center is one of the requirements for us to upgrade for our digitalization)
The data center will also house the data for the coming Davao City Citizen ID as the identification card will be used for all transactions in the city government offices.
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Dieser Artikel ist neu veröffentlicht von / This article is republished from: Sun Star, 01.10.2026
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