QUEZON CITY, (PIA) – The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) conferred the Accelerating Reforms for Improved Service Efficiency (ARISE) Award on Monday, May 29, recognizing the city governments that have demonstrated efforts in reducing the instances of bureaucratic red tape. 

The provision of the award is in line with the 5th anniversary of ARTA whose creation stems from the enactment of the Republic Act No. 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Services Delivery Act of 2018. 

A total of seven (7) local government units from the National Capital Region (NCR) received the ARISE award for their compliance to the Electronic Business One Stop Shop (E-BOSS) initiative that is aimed at streamlining and digitalizing business registration processes towards ending excessive bureaucracy and overregulation which impede economic growth. 

These include the city governments of Parañaque, Manila, Navotas, Valenzuela, Marikina, Muntinlupa, and Quezon City, which all shared an experience of collective increase in business registration and revenue collections from 2021 to 2022 following their implementation of E-BOSS platforms. 

In his speech, ARTA Secretary Ernesto V. Perez expressed hopes for national government agencies (NGAs) as well as LGUs to continuously promote a citizen-centric governance by keeping their regulatory procedures at par with the growing demand for digitalization. 

“Indeed, we have made significant progress in streamlining the Philippines for effective and efficient digitalization but this is just the start of our long and fast journey towards bureaucratic efficiency. We are committed to continuing our stride to reduce red tape, improve government service delivery, make it easier for business to operate, and improve the lives of the transacting public and investors in the country,” said Secretary Perez. 

Meanwhile, as an agency partner of the ARTA in advancing the ease of doing business law in the country, Secretary Ivan John Uy of the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) also iterates its commitment to support smart innovations that will put forward the strengthening of anti-red tape policies. 

“The DICT expresses its unwavering support to help ARTA fulfill its mandate to promoting efficiency in stamping out graft and corruption in government. The partnership between ARTA and the DICT is a very strong partnership. We have a horizontal mandate in order to improve interoperability, improve data sharing, improve the data standards, and improve the efficiency. But at the same time, we also have a vertical mandate which is to streamline the bureaucratic red tape within each agency and that requires not only strong and determined political leadership but at the same time requires good foresight and innovation,” said Secretary Uy. 

Meanwhile, other accolades were also presented in different categories of ARISE Awards which comprise of the Digitalization of Services Award for NGAs, Adherence to the Philippine Good Regulatory Principles Award, Accomplishment in the Report Card Survey 2.0 Award, and Philippine Ease of Doing Business Reporting System Award. 

With the conferment of ARISE Awards, the ARTA culminates the commemoration of its 5th anniversary that was celebrated along the theme ‘ARTA@5: Streamlining the Philippines for Effective and Efficient Digitalization (S.P.E.E.D)'. (PIA-NCR)