The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strengthened its presence in Negros Island with the opening of its Negros Oriental Satellite Office in Dumaguete City.
The SEC Negros Oriental Satellite Office is located inside the Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NOCCI) at the old CruzTelco Building, Capitol Area, Dumaguete City.
SEC Bacolod Extension Office Director III Atty. Annabelle Corral-Respall and information officer Ma. Laarni Dilag-King together with NOCCI president Edward Du held a press conference on Jan. 22 to mark the opening of SEC’s office.
Respall said the satellite office in Negros Oriental isin line with the commission’s mandate to bring its services closer to its clients.
“It’s a serious commitment of the Commission to be one with our people,” Respall said.
“We are becoming more present in Negros Oriental because the goal of our office is to make sure we are able to serve everyone, especially here and in Siquijor,” Dilag-King added.
The SEC Negros Oriental Satellite Office will be led by officer-in-charge Atty. Leo Futalan Salvador.
The SEC Negros Oriental Satellite Office can provide technical assistance to stock and non-stock corporations in registering their organizations with the Commission, amending the articles of incorporation, application for secondary license for head office and branch (lending or financing), monitoring of compliance of reportorial requirements, trainings and seminars for SEC processes and financial literacy, and other regular services of the Commission.
Respall noted that for now, the satellite office will be open every Thursday and Friday due to limited personnel.
She, however, assured that SEC will hire additional plantilla positions in the future to cater to the processing of highly technical applications and for regular transactions who will be stationed in the satellite office for the entire week.
SEC clients can still reach them as most of the transactions are done online.
“SEC is a trailblazer in the digitization program. Most, if not all, of our processes and services are already online. We also posted our contact numbers and we have posted our e-mail addresses. We can be reached in four contact details; two cell phone numbers, two landlines, and two e-mail addresses,” Respall said.
Clients may reach them through landline numbers (034) 445-5713, 445-5714 or through 0961-603-5772, 0905-568-8256 or via email at secbacolod2018@gmail.com, secbcdextension@gmail.com.
Meanwhile, Du said the opening of the SEC satellite office in Dumaguete City is a welcome development for the business sector, stressing that corporations will save a lot of resources which they normally would spend when they transact with SEC extension offices in Cebu or in Bacolod City.
“Most of the private corporations, family corporations, non-stock, non-profit corporations deal a lot with the SEC. Now that we have an office, many people welcome this. We are happy to host SEC here because most of our members are family corporations,” Du said.
Based on the records of SEC Bacolod Extension Office, there are 2,309 stock corporations, 1,808 non-stock corporations, and 314 partnerships in Negros Oriental registered with the Commission. | NWI
