QUEZON CITY, Dec. 14 (PIA) – Anti-Red Tape Authority Director General Jeremiah Belgica in Thursday’s Palace virtual press briefing reported issues resolved between local government units and telecommunication companies (Telcos) following President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to LGU’s to fast track the issuance of permits to Telcos to improve the country’s internet connectivity.
Belgica said under ARTA’s 1-2 Punch for Paspas Permit project, automatic approval will be granted to permit application after seven processing days, as long as the applicant has complete requirements and paid fees.
However, Belgica said upon review of the 1,572 pending permit applications of telco companies, only 132 have complied in submitting complete documentary requirements, and payment of fees. The companies explained that the delay of payment was caused by local government units' (LGUs) non-issuance of orders of payment.
According to Belgica, the telco companies have since begun to complete their requirements and LGUs have already started releasing orders of payment after a series of hearings.
The second component of the 1-2 Punch Paspas permit project is the streamlining of guidelines among concerned government agencies on the issuance of certain permits, licenses, and certificates for the construction of passive telecommunications tower infrastructures (PTTI) under Joint Memorandum Circular 2020-01.
Since the issuance of the JMT, the processing of applications for Telco connectivity has been streamlined since the number of necessary permits was reduced from 13 to 8, required documents, from 86 to 35, and their processing days, from 241 to just 16.
The streamlined processes resulted in the issuance of a total of 9,737 permits by LGUs to the three major telcos from July to December 2020, which cover applications for both wired and wireless projects necessary to improve the country's internet connection speed.
Also, in the press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque relayed improvement in the average mobile broadband speed of 7.44 megabytes per second (mbps) in 2016 almost doubling to 14.46 mbps in 2019.
He however expressed dismay over the Philippine ranking of 34th place in Asia in terms of mobile broadband speed as of October 2020 according to Speedtest Global Index.
Sec. Roque said the Philippines should at least be at par with countries that are of similar qualities as the country in terms of economic development like Vietnam and Thailand, which are ranked 18th and 16th, respectively. (JKC/PIA-IDPD)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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