The Pasay City government bagged an award for its fast issuance of birth certificate and for obtaining a “very good rating” for beating red tape in the delivery of basic services.

Mayor Peewee Trinidad lauded the Civil Registry Office, headed by Ma. Puirisima Santiago, and her staff for effectively implementing programs and projects.

Trinidad said the award was given by the Civil Service Commission under its Public Service Delivery Audit/Assistance (Pasada) program which examines the quality of frontline service delivery of various agencies frequented by the public.

He said the assessment is based on several criteria, the core of which is the full compliance and implementation of Republic Act. 9485, or the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007.

“We receive more than a 100 requests for birth, marriage and death certificates daily and I am proud to say that it only takes about 15 minutes to 20 minutes for us to release these certificates,” Trinidad said.

He also said that the city’s registry office is being consistently cited in the top 10 for the mobile registration program of the National Statistics Office for four years now.

Prior to the enactment of the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, the mayor said, the city’s civil registry office had already been noted for releasing documents in less than an hour.

Trinidad also said that Santiago has expedited the release of documents since 2001 even when there are more than a hundred requests a day.

“The longest time it takes for the civil registry office to release a document is 30 minutes for birth certificates.

And that is only so because it takes time for our staff to look for records on whether a child is born in the house or in the hospital or clinic,” Purisima pointed out, saying that full automation of their datebase is underway.

The Civil Registry Office also plans to expand their space to make more room for state-of-the-art equipment that will enhance the delivery of their frontline services.

Purisima vowed that city residents can look forward to a faster release of their documents as soon as their office is fully automated.