PACC to ask heads of regional line agencies to commit to fight corruption, red tape

Dante Jimenez,chairman of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, attends burial of slain teen Christine Lee Silawan in Lapu-Lapu City on March 23, 2019. |CDND Photo/Delta Dyrecka Letigio

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) will call the regional directors of government agencies in Central Visayas to a directors’ meeting to remind the latter to uphold and rally behind the government programs against red tape and corruption.

The directors’ meeting, which will be held in a hotel in Mandaue City on Monday, March 25, will be hosted by PACC Chairman Dante Jimenez and Commissioner Manuelito Luna.

Jimenez, who headed the Volunteer Against Crime and Corruption (VACC),  was appointed PACC chairman in January by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Read more: Duterte appoints Dante Jimenez as Anti-Corruption Commission chairman

Presidential Assistant to the Visayas Michael Dino will also be joining the meeting to address the regional directors.

John Paul Raña, the executive assistant to the chairman, said the directors’ meeting and dialogue with the PACC officials will be their way to “introduce” the commission and to remind the government officials to uphold clean governance in their respective offices.

“Some Region VII issues may be tackled but mostly it’s to get the commitment of the regional directors of all agencies to rally behind the President’s thrust of clean governance,” Raña said in a text reply to CDN Digital.

“We will also discuss issues on red tape and Ease of Doing Business (EODB) law which the local government tends to ‘forget’ the most,” Raña added.

In July 2018, President Duterte signed into law the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018 (RA 11032), which amends the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007.

Under RA 11032, government offices should enforce the ‘3-7-20’ formula in handling transactions. This means that simple transactions or document requests should be completed within three working days; complex transactions should be completed in no longer than 7 days; while highly technical requests should done in 20 days.

Highly technical requests refer to those that require the “use of technical knowledge, specialized skills and/or training in the processing and/or evaluation thereof.”

Read more: Salient points of RA 11201

Jimenez has been in Cebu since Saturday, March 23, to attend the burial of slain 16-year-old Christine Lee Silawan and to attend to other official functions. /elb