Cagayan de Oro City shared its experience in integrating the Barangay Clearance into its business permitting process with Tagbilaran and Puerto Princesa cities through a Peer-to-Peer Session facilitated by the Strengthening Urban Resilience for Growth with Equity (SURGE)  Project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in coordination with the Cagayan de Oro Trade and Investment Promotions Center (Oro-TIPC).

Present for the session were key personnel in Puerto Princesa’s and Tagbilaran’s business permits and licensing offices, including their legal officers and building officials.

Cagayan de Oro’s Technical Working Group (TWG) for One-Stop Construction Permit (OSCP) and Business One-Stop Shop (BOSS) was likewise present in full force, with key people from the city’s finance, planning, building, legal, information systems and investment promotions offices.

Teamwork is key

Oro-TIPC’s Oxanna Custodio recounted the team’s journey from the first workshop in November 2019 to the launch in January of this year.

“The team seized the opportunity that arose with the pandemic,” she said, maximizing online platforms to conduct a series of meetings, workshops, and consultations, including training the barangays in the Barangay Clearance Approval System (BCAS), as well as drafting and shepherding the city’s Ease of Doing Business Ordinance (No. 13992-2020) through to photofinish passage.

Tech it away

Using technology to connect the players, the City Management Information Systems (CMIS) Office developed the BCAS in-house to enable barangays to remotely monitor and approve barangay clearances for business.

This runs alongside one of the first online business permit application and tax payment systems in the country, which won for Cagayan de Oro the Best in Digital Payment grand prize at the Digital Governance Awards in 2017, and one of the country’s first automated building permit management systems, a runner-up that same year in the Business Empowerment category.

Another innovation in a long line of automation solutions introduced by the city named Most e-Ready by the Department of Science and Technology in 2014.

Let there be law

“The road was long and at times arduous,” Ms. Custodio continued. But guided by national law and local ordinances, the team worked with the barangays, taking small but persistent steps toward the launch in January of this year, checking in with the implementing offices and the barangays throughout the process as well as in the midst of implementation, she concluded.