Taguig City Hall opens extension office at SM Aura, BGC

MANILA, Philippines - The Taguig City Hall on Monday opened for business its extension offices at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC).

Located at the SM Aura Tower, the extension offices will be open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano said the extension offices would make business transactions more accessible and convenient to companies located at the BGC.

“To add to this achievement, we are very pleased to announce also that our extension office in BGC is now ready to serve our resident business firms in that area,” Mayor Cayetano said.

Mayor Cayetano said the BGC extension office has ample parking for clients. It features state-of-the-art facilities which are fully air-conditioned. It has a modern queuing and paging system for customers. There  is also a  help desk area and a pantry for those who would want to have free coffee or water.

Companies outside BGC would still be able to do their regular business routines at the City Hall.

“It is still business-as-usual here. We just want to have our constituents and investors to have more options for registrations, renewals, and payments,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mayor Cayetano announced that Taguig City has also received from the Office of the Ombudsman a Blue Certification Award which is proof that the local city government has passed the anti-graft agency’s anti-red tape standards and its system conformed to the ease of doing business standards.

“We are very proud that we were given this seal of approval by the Ombudsman despite being in office for only three-and-a-half years at the time the audit was conducted,” said Cayetano.

The Blue Certificate is issued by the Office of the Ombudsman as part of it’s anti-red tape program and in recognition of cities that exert efforts in reducing the burden of red tape in doing business in the Philippines.

The Blue Certificate is the equivalent of an ISO certification for compliance with prescribed management system standards in the private sector.

In issuing the Blue Certificate, the Ombudsman prescribes certain standards in addressing the problem of red tape in the regulation of business by LGUs and assesses the level of compliance by the LGUs with such standards.

“It is a great honor and blessing that the city has received yet another recognition, especially now that it is from the Office of the Ombudsman,” said Mayor Cayetano.

“The ease of doing business with the city is very evident, with the city’s continuous effort to improve the transparency and accountability of the transactions, it is not far that we will completely eliminate red tape in all of the transactions. Transparency and accountability, coupled with good business policies make Taguig City the successful and competitive financial district it is today,” the Mayor added.

In 2010, the World Bank ranked Taguig first among cities in Metro Manila in the ease of doing business study.