Secretary Ronnie Puno of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has ordered a stepped-up campaign at the local government units on the implementation of the anti-red tape law in line with ongoing efforts to help LGUs improve the delivery of services to their respective constituencies.
Puno said the DILG is serious in implementing provisions of Republic Act 9485, also known as the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, at the local government level and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), where the Department has been tasked to act as facilitators of this law.
The Civil Service Commission, which is the lead agency in implementing the law at the national level, is now finalizing the implementing rules and regulations of RA 9485, Puno said.
He said that under the law, government officials or employees found to be the cause of the delay in the provision of frontline government services, such as the processing of fees and transactions, face tough sanctions, including removal from the service.
“We are very serious in implementing the provisions of the law on the level of the LGUs and at the Bureau of Fire Protection,” Puno said.
Puno said the Comprehensive and Unified Response to Eliminate Red Tape or CURE project is among the priority initiatives of the Department this year to enhance the delivery of basic services to the people, particularly at the level of LGUs.
The CURE project, which is being carried out in tandem with other government agencies, including the Civil Service Commission and the Office of the Ombudsman, aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of LGUs in their delivery of basic public goods and services to the public through the elimination of red tape practices.
He noted that one of the key provisions of the Anti-Red Tape Law is the formulation of the Citizen’s Charter by the LGUs, which the Department will strictly monitor in terms of their compliance.
The Citizen’s Charter is a document that contains relevant information on the frontline services and goods provided by LGUs to its citizens and serves as the standard of the local government unit in delivering these services and goods to the public.
Earlier, Puno had called on provincial governors, city and municipal mayors and barangay chairmen nationwide to strictly implement the Anti-Red Tape law.
In a memorandum circular, Puno had reminded local chief executives and other local officials and employees of the mandatory requirement of the anti-red tape law for officials and employees to accept written applications, requests and documents being submitted by their clientele, which is the citizenry.
He explained that all applications or requests for frontline services should be acted upon within the period prescribed under the Citizen’s Charter, which in no case shall be no longer than five working days for simple transactions, and 10 working days for complex transactions. No application or request shall be returned to the client without appropriate action, as stated under RA 9485.
In his circular, Puno also cited other significant provisions of the law, such as: limiting the number of signatories for a basic transaction to a maximum of five signatures; adopting appropriate working schedules to ensure that all clients are attended to and served during lunch breaks and after regular working hours; providing frontline services as early as 7 AM, and as late as 7 PM; and establishing public assistance or complaints desks, hotline numbers, and one-stop-shops.
Puno said that in the same way that the Department wants LGUs to enhance the delivery of basic services to the people through projects such as CURE, it also wants LGUs to harness their powers specified under the Local Government Code, particularly in tapping alternative sources of financing for their development projects.
He said local government units should be given a substantial voice in the decision-making process for development projects selected by the national government on their behalf by giving them official representation in national agencies and offices that oversee countryside development and other LGU-related concerns.
Pointing out the need to “take LGU empowerment to a much higher plane,” Puno said he has given up his seat at the board of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) in favor of a representative from the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP)—the umbrella group of all organizations of elective local executives from the provincial to barangay levels—to help ensure that big-ticket projects being approved by the national government truly dovetail with the needs of the localities where these high-impact plans are supposed to be implemented or built.
