The Quezon City government has launched a one-stop shop (OSS) to cut to only five days the issuance of business permits, licenses and clearances in the city.
This is in compliance with President Duterte’s directive to expedite government transactions.
Mayor Herbert M. Bautista said the OSS aims to hasten the processing of business registration and construction-related permits.
During the launch over the weekend, Bautista showed Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, Interior Undersecretary Austere Panadero and National Competitiveness Council Cochairman Guillermo M. Luz the city’s new two-step business-registration process.
Bautista said applicants could wait comfortably, as a concierge would provide assistance throughout the business permit-application process.
This measure is expected to shorten the entire process of obtaining business and construction permits from 22 days to just five days.
Located at the 14th floor of the Quezon City Hall’s main building, the OSS houses the offices of evaluators of business permits, licenses and locational clearances, and the Bureau of Fire Protection, which inspects establishments for fire safety.
It is also a centralized center that receives and evaluates applications for building permits, occupancy permits, fire-safety inspection and applications for electric meters.
Bautista also said the OSS could promote the establishment of more businesses and provide additional jobs to Filipinos.
“This will prevent them from working abroad, make them stay here…grow their own businesses,” he added.
Meanwhile, Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte has proposed a ‘house for work’ program to resolve the increase in number of informal-settler families (ISFs) in the city.
In an interview, Belmonte said beneficiaries of the local government’s housing program could just work at the city hall as payment for the houses they would receive.
“In exchange for a house, they give work. Instead of giving them salaries, we give them [housing] units,” Belmonte said.
As most ISFs consider the housing units from the government to be expensive, Belmonte thought of a scheme where they can pay through service.
Belmonte likened it to the “food for work” program, where local government employees are compensated with food rations, instead of money.
“The father, for example, can work as gardener for eight hours a day in the park so they can pay through their labor. You see, there are many ways to address the housing issue,” Belmonte added.
Belmonte said ISFs with permanent jobs are the only ones who could afford the government’s low-cost housing projects.
This leaves the poorest of the ISFs, who are non-Pag-ibig members, unqualified for housing loans.
Quezon City local government records show there are around 190,000 ISFs in the city, but Belmonte believes there are more ISFs that have not been documented.
Belmonte said she would draft a housing code that could provide decent homes, which the poorest ISFs could pay with their meager income.
“We are currently preparing a Housing Code because I think housing is one of the main problems of our city,” she said.
Belmonte also thought of building bamboo houses that are durable and affordable for ISFs.
She said the bamboo-housing project was tackled in a conference by the Vincentian Missionaries Social Development Foundation Inc. to help the poor residents of Barangay Silangan, Quezon City.
1 comment
I doubt but let us see. ATM you have to give for the boys b4 you get a permit