City SP nods on to new bldg permit process

THE continuing effort to cut red tape as well give its clients a good venue for time management has led the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) to give its nod to the One-Stop Shop for building permits. A proposed resolution 156-06 has the SP explicitly concurring to the proposed new building permit process center for the City of Tagbilaran. A brainchild of Mayor Dan Nerio Lim and designed in a flowchart by City Administrator Walter Toston, the new scheme affords applicants the convenience of a one stop building that houses applications processed quickly. The proposed resolution has the City Building Official as the responsible person monitoring the paper trail. Tagbilaran City has City Engr. Moises Millanar as its city engineer and building official. Moreover, personnel from the City Planning, Fire and Engineering departments shall man the shop.

The plan features one thing, it boasts of its being an easier paper trail than the applicant can easily see his paper movement. This makes the system entirely different from the former practice when applicants accompany the paper, sometimes in the inconvenience of moving from one building to another to secure approval of their papers. The new one-stop-shop for building permits will be located at the third floor of the new city hall, adjacent to the mayor's office. While there, payments would will still be at the treasurer's office at the ground floor, despite the billing, which would be at the one-stop-shop. “With the City Building Official exercising control on all steps of the process and the personnel from the different departments involved in processing are housed in one office, the one-stop-shop becomes transparent, a good check-and-balance between departments and the building official will be exercised, a City Hall official shared.

“The proposal is in accordance with the provisions of the National Building Code”, according to Kagawad Oscar Glovasa, chair of the SP committee on engineering and public works in his committee report. “While the old system takes more than three months before the permits get approved, the new system is ideally set to cut the time to around 15 days. This is the time span from the time the application is received until the permit is approved by the Office of the City Mayor and released to the applicant,” City Hall insiders said. The new time frame assumes that all requirements have been complied with. However, even if a paper encounters a problem at a certain point, action can immediately be taken, as coordination between processors and the applicant is just a desk away, sources believe. Inspections are conducted four times during the construction period, and applicants are also informed once the permit is approved. According to Engr. Millanar, the new system is expected to start either this last week of November or the first week of December of this year.

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