Congress said on Saturday that it wants the Philippine Statistics Authority to explain the abrupt termination of the PSA Helpline, which resulted in complaints for alleged poor online service for requests on authenticated birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate, and certificate of no marriage.
House Deputy Speaker and Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel said he would call a congressional inquiry should national statistician and PSA head Dr. Dennis Mapa fail to intelligently explain why the operations of PSA Helpline, the leading service provider in terms of volume, were stopped.
“I think that is not right. They are depriving ordinary citizens of good basic service from the national government. This is contrary to pronouncements of President Rodrigo Duterte that all government agencies should provide fast and efficient service to Filipinos and cut the red tape. I am considering to request for a legislative inquiry on this matter,” he reacted.
House Assistant Majority Leader and Quezon City Rep. Precious Hipolito-Castelo said Congress must look into if the remaining online provider could be able to provide better service.
“We must get to the bottom of it why a tested, efficient and corruption-free practice shall be shelved. They must be ready to explain, otherwise their decision would be tainted. It was reported before that National Statistics Office application has been a source of graft from brokers, peddlers and solicitors,” she said.
On the other hand, Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor said PSA must address the mounting complaints of the public.
“I don’t exactly know what the problem of the PSA is but they should fix this as soon as possible for the convenience of the public. Also, as a public agency serving thousands of people everyday, they should have made a proper announcement or at least an explanation regarding this. The public deserves that,” he said.
PBA Party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles said he was “dismayed as a frequent user of that service.”
“I am awaiting the PSA’s explanation on how they intend to match or provide better service and convenience to the public. Otherwise, if they just stopped without thinking about the hassle to the public, then that is definitely a disservice to the public,” he said.
Last Jan. 4, PSA terminated its PSAHelpline that stopped accepting applications for security papers.
Since Jan. 8, PSAHelpline received 5,049 calls and 40,591 users visited the PSA website for requests of various important documents.