The Philippine Statistics Authority-Negros Oriental will co-locate with the Department of Social Welfare and Development-Negros Island Region (DSWD-NIR) for faster release of documents required for government programs.
Engineer Ariel Fortuito, PSA-Negros Oriental chief statistical specialist and provincial head, told the Philippine News Agency Aug. 26 that sharing space with the DSWD-NIR will fast-track the processing of documents.
“We will be facilitating the enrollment of beneficiaries to the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) and the registration of live births for those who have not been registered yet,” Fortuito said.
The DSWD is currently processing enrollment to its “Walang Gutom” program while also catering to other government initiatives, like the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program here.
Fortuito said it would be easier and faster for the beneficiaries to obtain their birth certificates and/or register for the national ID program if the PSA was easily accessible instead of having to go to its main office in the city.
A beneficiary may secure an e-Phil ID immediately onsite, while individuals applying for late registration have to wait as there is a required 10-day posting before the issuance of a birth certificate.
The PSA-Negros Oriental will co-locate with the DSWD-NIR at the latter’s regional office in the outskirt barangay of Talay in Dumaguete this week.
Meanwhile, Fortuito said that correction of clerical errors and entries in civil registry documents will soon be easier and faster with the Administrative Petition for Correction of Automated System (APCAS) of the PSA.
APCAS was recently pilot-tested in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental.
The APCAS setup is still ongoing, as it is an online platform for processing documents to streamline and digitalize the correction process, thereby cutting processing time, Fortuito said. “Currently, the processing of documents requires sending hard copies to the PSA main office in Manila for approval.”
With the APCAS, the PSA will go online, allowing all documents to be validated at the provincial office, and soft copies will be forwarded to its central office for validation, he added.
The current process involves the Local Civil Registry Office (LCRO) sending documents to the PSA central office for validation.
These would then be sent back to the LCRO before submission to the provincial PSA office, Fortuito said.
A birth certificate with a petition for correction of a misspelled name, for instance, will take at least five months before the new document is released to the petitioner.
Fortuito is optimistic that the APCAS will be operational before the end of the year. ||
