THE GOVERNMENT plans to accelerate the processing of benefit claims by uniformed personnel with the creation of regional one-stop shops and an online claims system.
Various agencies signed a joint circular creating a task force overseeing streamlining efforts for the processing of claims from the military and police.
The regional claims processing centers will be set up in the third quarter, while integration of processes into an online system will come in the fourth quarter, Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) Undersecretary Carlos F. Quita said in a briefing Thursday.
“The very purpose of this is… to improve existing systems and integrate them into one streamlined system that can be managed both at the local and national level that allows claimants to access the system online,” he said.
The circular was signed by representatives from ARTA, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the National Police Commission, Philippine Statistics Authority, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Philippine Coast Guard, the Bureau of Fire Protection, and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
The task force is in charge of fast-tracking death benefit claims and other entitlements for personnel and their legal beneficiaries, which ARTA Director General Jeremiah B. Belgica said required travel to the capital.
“Some of them even travel from provinces (to Metro Manila) and spend money from their own pockets in order to obtain the benefits that their honorable loved ones left them,” he said. — Jenina P. Ibañez