Manaoag Mayor Joins Fight vs. Corruption, Red Tape

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MANAOAG, Pangasinan – To battle against the evil of corruption and civil workers' procrastination advocated by the national government, the mayor of this pilgrimage town attended a forum about them held recently in Clark, Pampanga.

Mayor Jeremy Agerico Rosario joined the noble advocacy of the central government through the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) to end the scourge of corruption that weakened the fiber of society and expedite the transaction of the citizens with the government through modernization and digitalization of the local government units (LGU) all over the country.

MAYORS JOIN FIGHT VS. CORRUPTION in a forum sponsored by the Anti Red Tape Authority (ARTA) held recently in Clark, Pampanga. (From left to right of photo) Malasiqui Mayor Noel Geslani, Anda Mayor Joganie Rarang, Basista Mayor J.R Resuello, Urbiztondo Mayor Modeng Operania and Manaoag Mayor Ming Rosario.

“Tayo ay makakatanggap ng three desktop computer units mula sa public-private partnership project na 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙥𝙖𝙨 𝙋𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙨 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙥𝙖𝙨 bilang dagdag kagamitan. Personal akong dumalo sa forum sa Clark, Pampanga ngayong araw bilang pagbibigay suporta sa layuning ito ng ating pamahalaan,” he wrote at his Facebook Page about the tools needed by the local government unit to expedite the transaction of its consitituents.

As mandated by the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, some of the excerpts of the law are the following:

All offices and agencies which provide frontline services are hereby mandated to regularly undertake time and motion studies, undergo evaluation and improvement of their transaction systems and procedures and re-engineer the same if deemed necessary to reduce bureaucratic red tape and processing time (Section 5);

Government offices shall set up their respective service standards to be known as the Citizen's Charter in the form of information billboards which should be posted at the main entrance of offices or at the most conspicuous place, and in the form of published materials written either in English, Filipino, or in the local dialect, that detail: a. The procedure to obtain a particular service; the person/s responsible for each step; c. the maximum time to conclude the process; d. the document/s to be presented by the customer, if necessary; e. The amount of fees, if necessary; and; f. the procedure for filing complaints (Section 6).

 The law also provides various criminal, administrative and civil liabilities to erring government officials and employees that violated the expeditious conclusion of the transaction of the citizen to a particular office.