Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 12) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approves the creation of a single operating system for transactions across all government agencies to reduce requirements and fast-track procedures.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said Marcos directed different agencies to consider the differences between the national bureaucracy and local government units (LGUs) when developing a code or a policy.Marcos pointed out that the government still has to take into account various technological, political, and local factors in order to uphold the law.“Those are the things that we still work with. The questions we were trying to bring it down to that level, and the local governments are really part of that thing. You’ve seen how it can happen. That’s what we need to address,” Marcos said during a sectoral meeting on improving bureaucratic efficiency.Marcos was met by Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr., Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary David Almirol Jr., Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) Director General Ernesto Perez, and Customs Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio.According to the PCO, government officials informed the president that his concern is being addressed, with the DICT and ARTA now mapping various agencies’ operations in order to compile them into a single system. On the other hand, the chief executive has also instructed the DICT and ARTA to assist LGUs in adopting the Business Permits and Licensing Systems (BPLS) system in all cities and municipalities.The officials added that they held stakeholder discussions with representatives from every government agency to examine their procedures and needs in an effort to encourage them to use a single application form that connects them to a “one-stop-shop” network.They further stressed that the “best way” to reduce requirements and the processing time is for government agencies to adopt data sharing so that documents submitted in one agency are no longer necessary in another.
