Abstract
This paper details the development and implementation of an online report management system, referred to as “e-Reklamo” system, to help the local government constituents’ express views, disputes, and complaints in the form of online reports reach the authorities. The primary target end-user of this system is the “barangay” – a smallest geographic, administrative, and political unit in the Philippines. Barangay, a small territory of a city or municipality, is governed by a council, locally called as “Sangguniang Barangay.” Its primary function is to plan and implement government policies and programs in the community. With the e-Reklamo, officials can quickly respond to the concerns of its residents, hence providing a more convenient way to send reports and receive immediate feedback or actions. Through the created Android-based mobile application, reports can be created and sent to the admin website for the barangay official to respond. It includes features such as a chat system, locator using Global Positioning System (GPS), and image sending, to assist barangay officials in acquiring more accurate information on reported cases. Application trials and testing, and end-user surveys were conducted to evaluate its functionalities and features. This resulted to an overall satisfactory rating from the respondents on their experience with the mobile application and its admin website.
Keywords: admin website, barangay, mobile application, online reporting, web application
Introduction
A barangay is the smallest and primary administrative and political unit of the local government. Ranges of activities and events happen in the barangay that affects the lives of each citizen. There may be quarrels, squabbles, crimes, or even problems that concern the community in general. According to Mr. Reynaldo Roxas, Chairman1 of Barangay 757 in the City of Manila, under the administrative district of Sta. Ana, they do not have an online for their residents to report their concerns and problems. Most of which are gathered reports received in their offices or relayed through barangay officials2 roaming around the barangay. In case that all barangay officials are engaged in addressing the needs of their constituents, or if they are limited with the number, they will not be able to take reports from the residents. Instead, they will have to wait for the officials to be present simply to report. The employees of the barangay are at times faced with large numbers of reports and a day can simply not be enough for the employees to sort and file all the reports which can stack up. This in turn will make it harder for the barangay to take action with regard to the reports. Some reports may be simple but unsolved because the officials do not know about it yet. Some could be getting worse by the day as it does not take any action making the situation worse than it already is.
Reporting incidents, such as crimes, consumes time and effort and sometimes is ignored (Imus, Magloeo, Soriano, & Olalia, 2018). The inconvenience created by this long and tedious procedure tends to result in the resident turning a blind eye to the concerns in their barangay and often can lead to issues not being resolved. Reports that are ignored can become a big issue down the line and might even affect the entirety of the barangay if not resolved. Reporting systems can be a cornerstone to improving the overall condition of an organization. There are systems created to help track individual incidents and responses over time and helpful for common people, government organizations and different societies (Priya, Srivastava, Islam, & AMIT, 2019). Local Government Units (LGUs) have started to deploy technological solutions to further improve the efficiency and effectiveness of management and delivery of services to its residents (Garcia, 2021). The Butuan City Police Office or BCPO had the iPolice Information System – developed to help the BCPO personnel with solutions to solve the problems they are experiencing and make the response time better. The developed system used Rapid Application Development (RAD) as a development methodology along with Agile Prototyping as an approach. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) together with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) integrated models so that software quality of such a system can be measured (Bustillo, Patrimonio, & Mateo, 2020). Another application was evaluated and got good results for evaluation as it is very usable for its portability and ability to report crime covertly from a mobile phone (Sakpere, Kayem, & Ndlovu, 2015). A good management reporting system is the foundation of a successful strategy for execution of plans in running an effective local government (Knutson, 2018). People tend to ignore or avoid reporting to the authorities incidents, and the response time of police officers to a report, including verification of report, are the other challenges that (Ocay, Trecenio, & Mairina, 2016) have been enumerated in their research.
For the barangay citizens conveniently create and send incident reports to barangay authorities, e-Reklamo3 has a mobile application to create and send detailed information proposed to offer a faster and time-efficient reporting and filing of incident reports or complaints. The mobile application will categorize the reports received and will help record the reports more easily for the barangay personnel. The mobile application will also help encourage residents to become more responsible residents, hence enabling the barangay to be more alert and ready to respond to a report at the soonest time. Figure 1 illustrates the input, process, and output of the proposed system.
Figure 1
Barangay Reporting System Conceptual Framework
The general objective of this research is to develop a system for the people of the barangay to send reports and barangay officials to manage and respond to the reports. In addition to this, it aims to (1) enable the people of the barangay community to conveniently report issues of the barangay, (2) create a user-friendly system that is accessible to job orders and records, and (3) to provide a time efficient reporting system. While being constrained by these factors, the scope of the application would be one barangay only, when one or more barangay uses the application, the application between two or more barangays cannot communicate, and the handling of the user’s data is not guaranteed to be protected even though the user agreed to the terms and agreement.
Table 1
Objective Metrics Description and Scale Measurement
| Objectives | Definitions | Metrics | Description | Scale |
| Convenience | Less effort or difficulty in reporting/receiving reports | Measured through survey like Likert Scale | Excellent | 5 |
| Good | 4.00-4.99 | |||
| Average | 3.00-3.99 | |||
| Below Average | 2.00-2.99 | |||
| Poor | 1-1.99 | |||
| User-friendliness | Easy access and navigation of the system and information are displayed clearly | Measured through survey like Likert Scale | Excellent | 5 |
| Good | 4.00-4.99 | |||
| Average | 3.00-3.99 | |||
| Below Average | 2.00-2.99 | |||
| Poor | 1-1.99 | |||
| Time Efficiency | Time invested to report or execute task in the system | Technical performance specifications testing for improved average time from reporting to receiving | Excellent | < 1 sec |
| Good | 1-5 sec | |||
| Average | 5-20 sec | |||
| Below Average | 20 sec – 1 min | |||
| Poor | > 1 min |
Table 1 summarizes the objectives and its metrics to be used in evaluating the proposed system. These will be evaluated through a survey via Google Forms which will be sent to the barangay officials and its residents based on a 1 to 5 scale, at 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest rating, and then getting the average scale for the final rating.
The e-Reklamo would improve response to crimes that happen in the barangay level and constituents will be more willing to take responsibility in reporting issues and pressing matters. With the convenience of this reporting system, people will be more vigilant and barangay officials will be alert so that they can respond quickly to the needs of their barangay. Because reporting incidents in the barangay may involve barangay officials who are not doing their jobs diligently or involved in corruption activities, the personal information of residents who sent reports is ensured to be kept in confidentiality.
Software Application Design
Figure 2
System Block Diagram
Figure 2 shows the different functions that the barangay reporting system is expected to perform. The system will start by acquiring the report from the user through the application installed in their Android mobile device. This will include the login or registration of the user, input of user details, and editing of user’s information on the page. As the report details are entered, data will be transmitted into the database where it will be processed. Report can then be viewed by the user which includes the status of the report and see the updates until the report is completed.
As the data is transmitted, the admin will be able to view the data. The admin is always logged in so that they are available to respond 24/7. The application will sort the data so that the admin can determine the level of priority and assign officials who can respond to the report. With this, the report details are checked, and response is made to the reports and status is updated. Once status is updated, the data is then allowed to be viewed by the user to see whether the report is responded to and completed.
For the mobile side, the user login/registration, input user information, edit user information, enter report details, and search for report functions are to be accomplished by using Android Studio as it has the edge over Visual studio for mobile android application. Conversion of coordinates to exact locations will use Geocoder with HERE as back-up. For the get location function, Location Manager will be used, as it is already built in Android Studio. It is more user- friendly as compared to Fused Location. For the upload photo function, Picasso will be used, since it has a lot of positive feedback, and it is also easier to implement compared to other external image uploading libraries. For the website side, the log on/register, input user information, edit user information, view reports, check report details, respond to reports, edit status of report, manage users/admins, delete user accounts, and change admin password function are to be accomplished using Visual Studio Code for its support. HTML Graphs were used for generating reports and statistics, while Bootstrap tables for sorting data, for their user-friendliness and easy implementation. To store data in database, cloud-based Firebase was used as it provides a lot of functionality without having to spend a lot of time, effort, and money for its resources. Wi-Fi connection is preferred over mobile networks for faster and more stable internet in transmitting data to the database function.
Figure 3
Mobile Application Flowchart (for residents)
The mobile application process flowchart, as illustrated in Figure 3, starts with user log in or registration. If user registration is selected, it transmits the registered data to the database, while when logs on, the system will check user credentials. If the user’s credentials are not recognized it loops back (i.e., connector C) to the start of the system. If it is recognized, the user is given the option to edit user information, enter report details, or view report details. Edit user information allows the user to edit his/her information and it is updated on the database (cf. connectors A, D). Enter report details lets the user input the details of the report they want. After which, the user coordinates are acquired and transmitted to the database which is accessed by the website. The user is then asked if they want to Create Another Report. If yes, it loops back to the previous choices (i.e., connector B). Otherwise, the system process ends. View report details presents the user their report details and allows the user to send a message to the website for the admin to view.
Figure 4
Website Flowchart (for barangay officials)
Figure 4 shows the system flowchart of the admin website. The process starts with the admin’s choice to either log on or register. If the admin chooses to register a new user account, credentials are transmitted to the database (i.e., connectors A, B) for it to be stored and loops it back to the start of the system. If the admin chooses to log on, the system will check the credentials inputted. If it is not recognized, it will loop back to the start of the system (i.e., connector D) but if it is accepted, the system retrieves the required data from the database and is then presented with two options: manage accounts or view reports. When the manage accounts, option is selected, the admin can edit his/her account details and the changes made are transmitted to the database (i.e., connector A). On the other hand, when the view reports option is selected, functions enable the admin to view the reports in the database and generate a visual and check report details (i.e., connector C). This gives the admin a choice to either respond to the report or edit report details. From there, the system gets the coordinates of the report to be displayed on the map. Both choices transmit data to the database after which the admin is asked whether to view reports again or exit the program.
Figure 5
Admin Website User-Interface: a. Login Page, b. Report Details, c. Statistics Page, d. Top Report Page
The user interface included in the admin website are pages for both login and sign-up, a homepage that displays all the reports information that were received from the mobile application presented in tabular and graphical form, and another page to display and manage users. Figure 5 shows screenshots of the login, and report pages.
Shown in Figure 6 are screenshots of the mobile app pages that a user will be able to access depending on which (user-type) module are they in (i.e., admin/official, or resident). The first module that they will see is the home screen of e-Reklamo, and once it is loaded, the user will be directed to the login module where there are several options for them to choose from. The terms and agreements page shows specific details, requirements, and other information about the use of application, including information and laws on the gathering of personal information and recording of the LGU for data recording purposes. The report submission page is classified into either general or emergency. In its location textbox, the resident can opt to either manually input the location or address of concern or click the map pin to use the GPS functionality of the phone which uses their coordinates for their current location. Additionally, the user may add a description of the situation under the report description and likewise attach a picture to support the report. Once the report is submitted, they will get a report code that can be searched in the report status page.