Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Sunday, August 2, assured telco players that securing government permits to build cellular towers would now only take less than a month to process, instead of six to seven months.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Anti-Red Tape Authority, together with other national government agencies have issued a joint memorandum circular (JMC) on the required documents and processing time for permit applications.
“Dati po inaabot ng 200 days `yung pag-apply ng permit. Dito po sa bagong JMC namin kasama ang lahat ng ahensiya at mga local government units (LGUs), sabay-sabay na ang pag-process, makukuha po lahat ng permit in less than a month,” Año said.
This was the DILG’s response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to improve digital infrastructure in the country.
Año said homeowners association and city or municipal council resolutions were no longer part of the requirements as they only slowed down the process.
The only requirements are barangay clearance; documentary requirements for building permit applications on common towers such as unified application form for locational permit, fire safety evaluation certificate, building permit, property documents, and select ancillary permit and accessory permits.
Año said the prescribed processing time for construction-related permits for common towers would be counted from the date the complete application was submitted to the concerned agency. Jessica Ivy Zapata