Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Aῆo confirmed on Monday night that around 75 percent of the applications for telco towers have been approved by local governments.
Año reported during the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) meeting with President Rodrigo R. Duterte that out of 1,930 applications, 1,502 have been approved while 428 are pending.
The approval for the construction of telco towers previously takes up to 241 days but has been accelerated to 16 days, following President Duterte’s warning against the slow processing of such applications.
The Chief Executive earlier requested for the improvement of services of telecommunication companies amid the pandemic.
“The reason why mga telco nahihirapan kasi mga tower nila (The reason why telcos are having difficulty is that [the application for] their towers) is not being acted upon and there are so many requirements being asked by the LGU,” President Duterte said.
“The delay of 200 days is totally unacceptable to me,” he pointed out. – Report from Naomi Tiburcio
