Tuesday, January 30, 2007 Document processing at stat office slows down By Carlo P. Mallo
IT TAKES at least half a day to process documents at the National Statistics Office (NSO)- Southern Mindanao these days, but people from other regions still prefer to travel the distance and get their documents processed here as it is still faster than in their provinces.
For this, the already long queues outside the NSO-Southern Mindanao office along Bangoy Street gets even longer.
NSO is the government arm that produces authenticated documents, such as Birth Certificates and Certificate of No Marriage.
Other government agencies, such as the Professional Regulatory Commission, Department of Foreign Affairs, Consular Offices, and schools would require the documents as authenticated by NSO.
Raul Gomez, officer-in-charge of NSO-Southern Mindanao, admitted that there is an undeniable long line of people and it takes sometime for the processing of documents because there is only one Civil Registry System (CRS) Outlet for the whole region.
"Aside from serving the people in Southern Mindanao, we are also serving people from as far as Tandag, Butuan, Armm (Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao), and Caraga," Gomez said, adding that this despite the fact that there are other CRS outlets in these areas.
The CRS outlet in Davao has shorter processing time of the documents compared to other CRS outlets. This is in addition to the woes of NSO that January is a peak month.
On the average, during off peak season, the processing of documents would only take about 15 minutes a stark contrast to the half-day processing it takes during peak months.
In order to resolve the long queuing time and processing of documents, NSO-Southern Mindanao has already proposed to the NSO central office in Manila that they would put up another CRS outlet in Tagum City, Davao del Norte.
Gomez said NSO-Southern Mindanao is scouting for another building wherein the CRS outlet would be on the ground floor, in order to provide convenience for the elderly and the differently-abled. At the present office, the CRS outlet is located on the third floor.
Gomez, however, assures the public that his office has always considered the convenience of the public.
"It is the primary concern of the department to ensure an efficient and swift processing of their documents," he said.
Gomez is set to replace outgoing NSO-Southern Mindanao chief Virgilio Fusilero on January 31.
