Siay Community eCenter

Notably, the eLGU CeC Project, in partnership with the LGU, opened up a world of possibilities in ICT to the whole municipality with the hosting of BREQS at the LGU-based CeC.

Mayor Luspo initially planned to set up a local Serbilis outlet in the municipality after a fire ravaged the local Civil Registry Office in hopes that the LGU can access NSO’s central files and issue the more commonly requested Security Paper (SECPA) copy of civil registry documents.

However, Mayor Luspo later learned that the plan would require the employment of a local liaison officer for the purpose, and this would undoubtedly eat up a portion of the municipality’s already limited resources. Moreover, he found out that SECPA documents can only be issued at NSO’s Regional Office IX in Zamboanga City.

As such, Mayor Luspo decided to just enhance the process of securing an application or request for civil registry documents at the Serbilis Center in NSO IX. He resolved that instead of sending a liaison officer to submit BREQS applications in floppy disks, the Internet facility located at the CeC will be utilized to email all requests directly to the BREQS Serbilis Coordinator to avoid delays and unnecessary expenses.

Siay’s BREQS activities started in January 2007. The timing was rather convenient as the mobile nature of the document processing enabled the municipality to set up a processing booth at the provincial grounds of Zamboanga Sibugay during its week-long 5th founding anniversary celebration upon the invitation of Sibugay Governor George T. Hofer.

For a period of five days, Siay was able to process ninety-eight applications for SECPA documents from a variety of clients ranging from students to local employees and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

This then created awareness of the service offered by the Municipality of Siay that, soon, people came to the LGU in droves. The shortened processing time, which took only a day or two, coupled with the prompt and courteous service by Siay personnel and the steadfast support of the executive and legislative departments of the local government, all contributed to the prodigious performance of the project. Within five months after its implementation, over 1000 applications had been received and processed.

The project which was originally intended to cater only to Siay constituents and the immediate neighboring municipalities expanded its coverage to also serve the needs of residents of the nearby provinces of Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur.

In a related development, the municipality is currently pursuing its plan to offer another citizen-centric service - the issuance of NBI clearance at the Siay CeC. Indeed, this is how the CeC in Siay is seriously manifesting its efforts as an enabler in delivering the much-needed information and service requirements of its citizenry.