LAWMAKERS on Sunday directed the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to explain its abrupt termination of PSAHelpline.
House Deputy Speaker Johnny Pimentel said he would call a congressional inquiry should National Statistician and PSA Head Dr. Dennis Mapa fail to explain why the operations of PSAHelpline were stopped.
The PSA terminated PSAHelpline last January 4, prompting the online service portal to stop accepting applications for various documents such as birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate and certificate of no marriage record (Cenomar). This prompted complaints from applicants because of the increasing volume of requests and leaving PSASerbilis as the lone online provider.
PSAHelpline and PSA Serbilis coexisted for 10 years as the two online service providers since the defunct National Statistics Office (NSO).
“I think that is not right. They are depriving ordinary citizens of good basic service from the national government. This is contrary to pronouncements of President Duterte that all government agencies should provide fast, and efficient, service to Filipinos and cut the red tape. I am considering to request for a legislative inquiry on this matter,” said Pimentel.
Also, House Assistant Majority Leader and Quezon City Rep. Precious Hipolito Castelo said the PSA should assess if the remaining online provider can still extend better service to public.
“We must get to the bottom of…why a tested, efficient and corruption-free practice shall be shelved. They must be ready to explain, otherwise their decision would be tainted.
It was reported before that NSO application [process] has been a source of graft from brokers, peddlers and solicitors,” Castelo added.
For his part, House Committee on Public Accounts Mike Defensor urged PSA to address people’s complaints.
He said efficient online service was one of the best innovations done previously by the defunct NSO, where Filipinos enjoyed the convenience of acquiring the documents through online application without taking a day’s leave to work to line up and apply for copies of the documents.
“As a public agency, serving thousands of people everyday, they should have made a proper announcement or at least an explanation regarding this. The public deserves that,” said Defensor.
“The way of the world is now online. Government transactions, from local to national, bus permits to clearances, from DoTr [Department of Transportation] to DOF [Department of Finance] are directed to be online not only for efficiency but also for transparency,” added Defensor.
1 comment
With this stoppage, what are the available options on how we can request for our needed documents from PSA e.g. birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc?