The city of Manila’s Bureau of Permits has achieved 105 percent of its target collection compared to the same period last year and registered the highest number of new businesses in 2023 than in previous years and continues to do so.
For this, Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna lauded and thanked permits bureau chief Levi Facundo and his team and stressed to all revenue-generating departments, bureaus and offices that “kung ang ginagawa ay episyente, maganda ang magiging takbo ng Maynila.”
Facundo, for his part, thanked the mayor and Vice Mayor Yul Servo without whose support the bureau would not have achieved the said collection, stressing that “malakas at maayos ngayon ang kalagayan ng pagnenegosyo sa Maynila.”
It was learned that to date, the permits bureau has exceeded by 2,507 the number of business permits it processed compared to 2023 and that the city is now at 98 percent compared to the figures for the whole year 2023.
With five months still remaining, he said that the bureau will certainly reach if not exceed its target.
As a whole, he said that the bureau has already reached 71 percent of its budget of 400 million which he said is achievable based on data, with about 3,000 applications for new businesses and around 2,000 already sent notices for yet settling their statements of account (SOA) and thousands more who are yet to renew.
Facundo cited the support given by Lacuna and Servo and his own staff, to the programs launched by his bureau such as the first wedding expo in the city, saying the projects injected P10 million to the city’s economy and created about 400 jobs for Manila residents.
Meanwhile, Lacuna called on business owners to heed the advice of Facundo for them to go online for inquiries and other transactions with the bureau of permits, saying this is more efficient and faster and would save them time, effort and money entailed by going all the way to the Manila City Hall to do the same.
According to Facundo, business inquiries may now be just emailed to [email protected] and that a reply will be received on a 24-hour basis.
Knowing the status of one’s application, he added, is also faster if the business owner would join the viber of the bureau of permits help desk,which will reply from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
