President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. leads the multi-sectoral meeting of different government agencies on Tuesday, April 11, 2023 in Malacañang Palace. Photo by Yummie Dingding/ PPA POOL
MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. has approved the creation of a single system that would streamline government transactions at the national and local level, Malacañang said on Wednesday.
Marcos approved this on Tuesday during a sectoral meeting in the Palace, the Presidential Communications Office said, citing the need to further improve doing business in the country.
Government agencies and localities "working on a code" for the system, he said, must take into consideration nuances when it comes to local and national-level transactions, as well as the technology being used and their compliance with the law.
"You’re going to have to think about the differences between the national bureaucracy and the different [local government units]" he said, based on a Palace statement.
“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,” he added.
The Palace however did not mention what the system would look like and when it would be implemented. ABS-CBN News already reached out to Press Secretary Cheloy Garafil on the issue but she has yet to respond to our message as of this posting.
Marcos though ordered the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Anti-Red Tape Authority ARTA) to assist local government units in implementing the system for business permits and licensing in cities and towns.
The Palace said the two agencies are currently mapping out different government agencies' processes "so they can be able to collate them in a single system."
Aside from this, the two agencies are planning to integrate "all the processes for migrant workers, maritime, and shipping industries" given how government processes have already improved through data sharing and integration.
"The best way to reduce requirements and processing time, they said, is for government agencies to adopt data sharing so that documents submitted in one agency should no longer be required in another agency," the statement read.
Malacañang said ARTA has requested the approval of the amendments in Executive Order No. 482 series of 2005 or the order that created a task force for the National Single Window Task Force for Cargo Clearance.
For ARTA, the amendments will "make it responsive to the current situation and also the issuance of corresponding Administrative Orders and EOs," the statement showed.
Last February, Marcos ordered the creation of green lanes in government offices and a "One Stop Action Center" to ease the entry of strategic investments into the country.
It will serve as "the single point of entry for the projects qualified under the strategic investments", address investor concerns, produce a guidebook on government requirements, and provide "aftercare or post-investment assistance"
The President earlier tasked the trade department to address the challenges in the entry of investments to the Philippines.