ARTA commends Baguio for biz one-stop shop compliance

BAGUIO CITY – The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) on Friday commended the Baguio City government for its compliance with the requirement of the Ease of Doing Business law, in line with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s directive against red tape. 

“Baguio is the 36th local government unit out of the more than 1,400 in the country that we have issued commendation for fully complying with the electronic Business One-Stop Shop (eBOSS). We hope that the others will follow soon,” ARTA Secretary Ernesto Perez, who led the awarding of the commendation to the city government here, said. 

Perez said they target to have at least 200 local government units (LGUs) to be eBOSS compliant this year. 

Data provided by the local government showed that 18,917 businesses registered and applied for permits in the first quarter of this year, up from 16,850 same period last year.

This resulted in the PHP85 million increase in fee collections, Allan Abayao, chief of the city’s Permits and Licensing Division, told the Philippine News Agency Friday. 

Abayao said the online registration and permit application process takes around 20 minutes. 

While the online registration and permit application greatly eases the tasks, he said, this did not come without challenges, foremost of which is clients’ difficulty in adopting  to technology using the eBOSS portal.

“Because they needed to learn the processes and have their electronic gadgets at home, they (eventually) adjusted. We help them during the process and they also endeavored to teach themselves along with their families and staff,” he said.

Abayao said they continue to assign persons to help clients having difficulties in complying with the online system.