Senator President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Sunday called on the govenment to create a unified 24-hour call center that will reply to queries on oft-transacted documents or most sought-after services in government.
The administration that will assume office on June 30 should consider “pooling the resources of the top 10 government agencies in terms of clientele base” in building “a common hotline service,” he said.
“There should be a go-to number, a one-stop national helpline,” said Recto, adding that the country maybe called the world’s superpower in the business process outsourcing trade.
“If a refrigerator maker has a 24-hour helpline, why can’t a government agency which earns more money from more clients not maintain one?” Recto said.
Such a hotline or government call center will benefit users of public documents.
‘“If you’re an overseas contract worker, you need to have one number you can call, which will then route your calls to the responsible agency, instead of spending hours in traffic going to the offices of POEA, Owwa, Marina, NBI, Tesda, SSS and many more,” he said.
Recto said if a single hotline number is not feasible at the moment, then one of the first executive orders the next president must issue is the mandatory putting up of a round-the-clock hotline by agencies serving a large clientele base.
“One good candidate,” Recto said, is the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth). “If HMOs [Health Maintenance Organizations] can afford to maintain 24-hour call numbers, then PhilHealth certainly could,” he said.
The reelectionist senator said profitable pension agencies or government-run mutual funds, with their good bottomlines, should be able to expand their hotline services.
To their credit, GSIS, Pag-IBIG and SSS have their own 24-hour hotlines, but the challenge, according to Recto, “is to designate more customer care representatives and expand capacity, because as they become more popular, more satisfied customers will be using them.”
Recto said agencies that earn billions yearly from the documents they issue should use part of their income in establishing 24/7 helplines.
Among these are DFA, which would earn P4.6 billion from passport issuance this year; NBI, with a 2016 forecast revenue of P594 million from clearances; POEA, which will collect P496 million in clearances; and LTO, which will rake in P14.5 billion in vehicle registration fees and P1.6 billion in driving licenses.
Recto said that while “there may be self-help apps for many problems or queries in applying for a government document or service, there are complicated queries that can only be answered by a human voice at the other end of the phone. “
He also pointed out that building a “customer care culture” through easy to access help and information is one way to cut red tape in the country, Recto said.
Government must also maximize information technology, he said. “Documents can be applied for online and released online.”
Recto added that another hotline which needs fixing is the Philippine National Police’s 117 emergency numbers.
“You can call pizza delivery and it arrives in 30 minutes. You call the police and you don’t know when they would show up,” Recto said.