Philippines plans presidential complaints office

The Philippines is planning a central complaints hotline direct to the presidential palace. “l am setting up a complaint office: 24 hours, manned by 10 operators, covering the entire country.

The number will be 8888,” has said President Rodrigo Duterte in his first Cabinet meeting. “They can report to me any complaint and there will be a manager who will redirect the complaint to the proper office,” he added.

In Davao, he launched the country’s first central emergency hotline in 2002 as the city’s mayor. In his inaugural speech as President last week, Duterte directed agency heads to cut down processing times for citizen services.

“I direct all department secretaries and the heads of agencies to reduce requirements and the processing time of all applications, from the submission to the release,” he said.

Rodrigo is following a regional trend that has seen governments set up central offices to handle citizens’ complaints. Singapore has set up the Municipal Services Office to handle complaints submitted through the OneService app.

Meanwhile, Indonesia has a unit in its presidential office that oversees complaints handling via SMS, mobile app and social media. Image from President Rodrigo Duterte's Facebook page.