EVERYBODY’S eyes are on one thing, and one thing only: a black screen flashing red numbers.
Whether fanning themselves or sipping a bottled water for the nth time, people queued inside the National Statistics Office (NSO) room continuously stare at that screen waiting for their number to be flashed and signal their turn to process papers. The minimum wait’s an hour.
For Paolo Jay Martinez, 21, it was four. “Last February I went to the NSO in Pasig at around 8 a.m. to get my birth certificate and got past 12 noon already,” Martinez, 21, said. According to him, there were many windows available. However, only one was open.
“It took the NSO almost two-and-a-half hours before they could process my birth certificate,” Carlos Villareal, 20, shared his experience at NSO in May.
Processing papers online will also take two to three business days after which the documents will be delivered to one’s home.
Citizens like Martinez and Villareal still experience the snail-paced processing of documents, even after the government spent nearly a quarter of a billion (P246.81 million) every year for the first phase of the Civil Registry System-Information Technology project (CSR-ITP).
Begun in the year 2000 under President Joseph Estrada, the CSR-ITP Phase 1 project costs $65 million (P2.87 billion at 2000 foreign exchange rate of $1=P44.138). The project was implemented via a build-transfer-operate scheme with the Unisys Public Sector Services (Upss) Corp.
The money allowed the NSO to open external offices in Metro Manila and other provinces. Called the “Serbilis Center,” the NSO facility is for walk-in clients applying for copies of birth, marriage, death certificates and certificate-of-no-marriage records.
The first phase of the project also promised a transaction would be accomplished within 30 minutes.
However, despite its aim of developing an IT solution for the Philippines’s civil registry system, the project still required maintenance and upgrades.
“We think that technology would be big one time investment but that could actually [be] one of those things worth spending on,” National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Assistant Director General Rosemarie Edillon said.
Edillon explained the contract with Upss has already expired, “so the government needs a new one.” She added there will be “additionalities” with a new contract since “there is technological advancement.”
Thus, the Neda Board, chaired by President Benigno S. Aquino III, approved on July 15 the second phase of the CRS-ITP. CRS-ITP 2 is the country’s IT project under the public-private partnership (PPP) framework.
Costing P1.59 billion ($35.3 million in current exchange rates), the CRS-IT 2 is being touted by government to “revolutionize” the civil registry operation of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) through the computerization of collected public data and making these services available nationwide.
However, the PSA and PPP have not disclosed how they would manage the project
According to documents, the CRS-ITP 2 will use what is called “imaging technology,” or the application of materials and methods to create, preserve and duplicate images. Project implementors are expected to use this method to collect, store, maintain and manage civil registry documents and specimen signatures of all city and municipal registrars.
However, some Filipinos are skeptic about the idea while some still hope for the best.
“I think, even if this will be passed, there will be something wrong in the long run. I [also] think the processing fee will increase. I mean, if you process you birth certificate online, it will cost you P350,” Jianne Piguing, 20, said.
“At least the Filipinos will be spared of the hassle in processing their certificates because time is really gold. I hope this project will succeed,” Marionne Lopez, 19, added.
For Edillon, “that’s the challenge: make data reporting more timely; make use of technology.”
Elisse Leonne Perez and Janine Marie Soliman