PhilHealth Joins the "Contact Center ng Bayan" October 2, 2012

THE Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) join hands with the Civil Service Commission (CSC) in its endeavor to provide a much better frontline services to the Filipino people through its "Contact Center ng Bayan (CCB)."

Together with six other government partner agencies, including the National Computer Center of the Information and Communications Technology Office
(NCC-ICTO), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Department of Health (DOH), and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Contact Center ng Bayan was launched at the CSC Bulwagang Serbisyo Sibil on September 27, 2012 . It is conceived to be the Philippine Government’s main helpdesk where general information on the policies and procedures of participating agencies will be provided, as well as act as a two-way platform to allow citizens, civil society organizations and other entities to voice out their concerns, complaints, recommendations, including positive feedbacks regarding the quality of public service delivery a particular government agency provides. They just have to dial 1-6565. They will be charged P5 per call. The CCB is in consonance with the provisions of Republic Act No. 9485, the Anti-Red Tape Act or ARTA of 2007 requiring all government agencies to interconnect their public assistance systems with the government-wide citizens’ direct helpline. All gathered information will be processed and produce analytics to aid government agencies in improving their systems and procedures, and continuously improve the Philippines global competitiveness ranking.

Let's us look at this as a preliminary effort for us to make government accessible, and where complaints will be heard and addressed. Eventually, we expect this to be improved, but for now, at least people have another venue, another avenue where they could raise their concerns, have answers to their questions, and expect government to take actions on these concerns." Philhealth President and CEO Dr. Eduardo P. Banzon said.

On the other hand, CSC Chairman Dr. Francisco T. Duque III said that "This initiative is a fulfillment of His Excellency President Benigno S. Aquino III's agenda of making public governance more transparent, accessible, accountable and participatory. It reflects our collective aspiration of treading the "Tuwid na Daan" and of advancing broader people empowerment." (END)

(L-R): BIR Deputy Commissioner-Lilia Guillermo, ICTO Executive Director - Louis Napoleon Casambre, DTI Undersecretary-Zenaida Cuison-Maglaya, CSC Chairman - Francisco Duque III, DOH Undersecretary-Nemesio Gako, and PhilHealth Group Vice President - Gregorio Rulloda