The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) is poised to issue circulars that would fasttrack the processing of permits for socialized housing as well as for construction.
Jeremiah Belgica, director-general of ARTA, said a joint memorandum circular (JMC) has recently been signed on the issuance of construction permits, where the number of requisite permits will be reduced from 22 to three, and the processing time will be cut from 120 to three days for simple transactions, 7 days for complex transactions, and 20 days for highly technical transactions.
Belgica also said another JMC will be signed reducing the number of permits for socialized housing from 11 to one and the processing time from 475 to 108 days for the acquisition of land for socialized housing.
According to Belgica, previous circulars facilitating permits on telecommunication towers had been largely responsible for the faster rollout of such towers.
Some 33,748 permits had been issued as of September since ARTA’s National Effort for the Harmonization of Efficiency Measures of Inter-related Agencies (NEHEMIA) program in 2020 from 6,000 a year previously.
The NEHEMIA Program has a definite period and clear target which is 52 percent reduction of time, costs, requirements or procedures within 52 weeks in five priority sectors connectivity, logistics, food and Pharma, socialized housing and construction. Irma Isip
