Iloilo City gov't boasts of biz permit release in 20 minutes

ILOILO CITY ,Philippines  - Good news for those who want to apply for business permits from the Iloilo City Hall.

Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog said the city government will cut the processing time of applying for business permits from 15 days to only 20 minutes.

"I have made a commitment that from almost 10 months in 2010 to make the processing of business permits to 15 days in 2011. Now, I made a commitment that by 2012, we'll make the processing time of business permits in only 20 minutes," the mayor said.

Mabilog made this announcement during the signing and launching of the partnership project on breastfeeding at a mall in this city over the weekend. This drew applause from the audience, especially the members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Iloilo Inc.

The mayor also said he wanted to make Iloilo a business-friendly city by addressing the concerns of the investors particularly on flooding, high cost of electricity, lack of water and bureaucratic red tape in the city.

"This is to show how sincere the city government is in improving its service to the public," Mabilog said adding that, under his administration, the city government will continue implementing a lot of "firsts."

He said the new City Hall building at the Plaza Libertad, which is expected to be operational before this year ends, will be the first "green building" of the government.

The air conditioning units in the new City Hall will be solar-powered and it will also have a rainwater harvesting system to collect rainwater that would be used in the toilets of the building. These systems are expected to lower down the electricity and water consumption of the city, he said.

Mabilog further said the new building will have a breastfeeding and child minding center, which is another first in a government building.

The P710 million new City Hall building, which broke ground in February 2010, courted a lot of controversy because of allegations of overpricing, corruption and delay in its construction but these were all denied by city officials.