We are drowning in the deluge of laws that we have to make the government responsive to the peope’s needs, and yet so many people are still desperate and do other things that sabotage their and others’ existence. That hostage taking in San Juan City and the shooting of the van of a popular actress are just two of the incidents that show people’s disbelief in the capability to govern or to receive redress of their grievances under the existing dispensation.

One problem I see is that PDD has appointed military people who view their leadership in a very authoritarian way and use militaristic methods, as well as create puppet small leaders in their midst to serve their positions.

The presence of puppet leaders or petty bureaucrats in government services, who think that their position justifies their assuming powers themselves equal to the strength of their bosses makes our government a ridiculous set-up.

I sent a letter to a government agency asking for help in putting up a show. Do you know that he never saw my letter and it was farmed out to another bureaucrat who sent it to another office until it died there?

Yet, I had given enough justification for our show – sending him a CD of the songs that will be sung as well as another list of songs for children and the environment, a copy of the story in Pilipino complete with illustrations, and several tickets for his employees to attend.

But when I followed it up in another office, the officer just pushed my papers to another office – the personnel for distribution of the tickets, and it ended there.

Now what kind of action is that?

When I called up if I could be paid for the tickets, I was asked to go and call up the personnel myself. Now why could that person not call up that office herself? This is where I see petty bureaucrats, little despots in the office. Anyway, she told me to call back in the afternoon, at 2 pm exact, but when I did, nobody answered the phone. Until 5 pm her phone was ringing but no answer. What do you call that? Imperiousness? Bureaucratic imperialism?

Yet, If you look at the laws that the Civil Service Commission should enforce, the methods of checking government agencies operations, behavior of personnel, etcetera are glittering, except that they are just generalities, and nothing more.

Take this: the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007 (Republic Act No. 9485)

The Anti-Red Tape Act or ARTA is a law that seeks to reduce bureaucratic red tape and to curb corruption brought about by inefficient and unclear frontline service procedures.

Can we really enforce that? Have we heard its being enforced at all? Who have been the victims and have they complained? Who are the government personnel that have been subject of complaints?

No we do not hear anything at all.

Yet the CSC claims to “build a civil service imbued not only with the value of excellence but also with integrity. It continually upholds the principle that “Public office is a public trust” and, thus, has undertaken various programs specifically to curb corruption and promote good governance.” It has

“Contact Center ng Bayan (CCB), a “feedback mechanism designated as the government’s main helpdesk where citizens can request for information and assistance on government frontline service procedures, and report commendations, appreciation, complaints, and feedback.

The CCB was established by the Civil Service Commission and the Information and Communications Technology Office-National Computer Center (ICTO-NCC) to support the implementation of Republic Act No. 9485 or the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) of 2007.”

Serves as a centralized contact point where all communications from the public may be routed, logged, responded to, and ultimately distributed to the different government agencies for proper handling and resolution, and follow through if necessary

• Data out of these communications can be collected, processed, and converted into useful information and reports to assist the government in performance evaluation and to seek improvement of its system of service delivery to the people.

The CCB may be reached via the following platforms:

• Hotline: 1-6565 accessible via PLDT and Smart landlines nationwide
• SMS/Text Access: 0908-8816565
• Email: email@contactcenterngbayan.gov.ph
• Website: www.contactcenterngbayan.gov.ph
• Facebook page: www.facebook.com/contactcenterngbayan

Alternatively, the CSC Public Assistance Center (PAC) offers the following feedback facilities:

• TextCSC: 0917-8398272
• Hotline: (02)932-0111
• Email: paio@csc.gov.ph
• Walk-in/personal visit to the PAC at Ground Floor, Civil Service Commission Central Office, Batasan Hills, Diliman, Quezon City.”

What I have always used has been the 8888 which is directly under Malacanang.

The 8888 is not capable of handling complaints against government agencies and personnel. It just relays or passed on to the government agency itself the received complaints. And if you follow up your complaints, you have to dial another number. So you must have strong forefingers to press buttons where you are directed. Sometimes the complaints are lost in the barrage of complaints they have received. And more often than not, the operators of 8888 are not knowledgeable about how the whole bureaucracy works. They only know the names of agencies and have a little knowledge of how they function.

Here are my suggestions:

1. The CSC must have a stronger hotline that will readily accept complaints. In this age of smartphones, the people need not spend so much for transportation nor paperworks in order to lodge complaints.

2. Then at the office of CSC, a tickler board will describe all the complaints per day: a. Which government agency is involved; b.. Name of employee that is being complained about; c. Date and time of malfeasance; 5. Action done by CSC, and many more;

3. Also, the CSC must provide honoraria to the complainants to cover their expenses, chargeable to the office concerned which must have a budget for the said purpose;

4. At every agency, the public must be able to see this CONTACT CENTER NG BAYAN NOTICE, together with all the numbers and the CSC person in charge of that department and/or agency to be contacted;

5. It must be a rule that at the end of the year, a statistical study and results of this operation must be made – citing gender of every complainant, the nature of the complaints, the actions taken, and the status of each complaints. We should be able to see if there is a progressive development in terms of operations of every agency of the government;

6. The hotline should be published in all the papers, broadsheets and tabloids; announced over facebook and messenger, and on radio and TV. In this manner, the people will be aware that it exists and is an important component of good governance;

7. The CSC must have a POINTPERSON OR SEVERAL per department who will take charge of the complaints. So that when the public follows up, they know the person who will answer and this person readily knows the history of the case. Most of the time, when I file a complaint and follow up, the person who answers has to refer the matter to another all the time and so “kuwento-kuwento” occurs again and again. “Nakakapagod, nakaka drain sa totoo lang;”

and

8. Then there should be a timetable for addressing the problem. I will cite an example of a complaint I made to 8888. As early as 2018, I filed a complaint against a poultry business at my residence. My complaint got lost and so I filed another similar complaints in November 2019. Worse, it takes ages to get a response from 8888, dial 2 or 3 for follow up. Meanwhile, I suffer from sleepless nights as the roosters crow either at 12 midnight or 4 am, rather regularly. I have found out that it is a policeman who owns the roosters for “sabong.” Untouchable? Figure it out yourself.

By the way, a poultry business in the heart of MetroManila? Unthinkable! The dream of having a recording outfit in my residence is gone because of the noise that persists.