THE new Philippine National Police Claims Inquiry System (PNPCIS) which aims to provide fast and quality service to active and retired members of the 209,000-strong police force is getting very good feedbacks from its clients who have acknowledged the noble project, the Journal Group learned yesterday.
The PNP Directorate for Comptrollership headed by Major General Emmanuel Luis D. Licup has pushed for the continuing implementation of the PNPCIS as part of the PNP leadership headed by General Camilo Pancratius P. Cascolan’s commitment to pursue innovative and responsive systems that will provide fast and quality services to their personnel and their dependents.
Since its realization in November 2019 and until last month, the PNPCIS has answered 23,484 calls, of which 13,102 were found to be valid claims while 3,661 are invalid claims. Another 6,721 were follow-up calls made by previous callers.
Licup said that of the valid claims, a total of 13,042 had been resolved with all of the queries answered translating to a 99.54 percent solution efficiency as a result of the system while effectively addressing the presence of ‘fixers’ preying on claimants for a fee.
The PNPCIS receives an average of 120 calls per day with the caller spending an average 8-10 minutes to air a concern. The average response time of focal persons is 5-10 hours, Licup said.
Hundreds of ‘very good feedbacks’ have been received by the PNPCIS with majority of the clients thanking the PNPCIS, including the PNP Retirement and Benefits Administration Service for their ‘unbelievable experience with focal persons who provided them very satisfactory response and actions’ specially during the pandemic.
A PNP memorandum circular prescribed the guidelines and procedures in the implementation of the system which was also implemented to prevent corruption in the release of PNP claims which is a perennial complaint before the Duterte administration. The system in particular prevents the presence of so-called ‘fixers’ known for preying on claimants especially those coming from the provinces.
Licup said that with the help of the PNPCIS, they are not only enhancing the quality of service they are offering to claimants but are also seeing to it that people specifically those from areas outside of Metro Manila could literally save money, time and effort in following-up their claims.
The system was conceptualized in 2019 amid findings that the PNP then has no centralized inquiry system or feedback mechanisms to efficiently address the queries of its nearly 200,000 active personnel and 89,998 retirees regarding their salaries, collateral allowances, bonuses, incentives and retirement benefits and other claims such as lump sum, CAL (Commutation of Accumulated Leave) and differential.
The PNP leadership learned then that claims pass thru several processes in different offices with the claimants having to inquire from eight different shops just to know the status of their applications.
Though all concerned offices maintain basic inquiry systems of their own, personal query is still deemed a tedious leg work for each claim and the same is true with queries being made through phone calls since the claimant has to call each concerned office to trace the status of a claim.
Officials agreed that the practice is ‘counter-productive’ on the part of the claimants as they have to spend money, time and effort without complete assurance that their queries would be satisfactorily answered.
The inaccessibility of information and lack of knowledge in the status of claims prompted many claimants to complain before the media and as far as the Office of the President to the detriment of the PNP image.
This prompted the PNP leadership to establish and maintain a ‘call center set up’ wherein trained personnel receive and answer queries accurately.
Licup said that thru the PNPCIS, callers are given accurate and timely information on the status of their claims and are assured that the remunerations due them are intact and are will be released as soon as the required processing is done.
BIRTH OF PNPCIS
The creation of the PNPCIS actually provided a convenient system for clients to inquire about the status of their claims using a standard hotline and phone number designed to eliminate so-called ‘follow-up fixers’ who solicit fees from the claimants, said Licup.
He added that apart from providing an efficient and quality service in line with the ‘Pulis, Pulis Kung Umaksyon ay Mahusay at Mabilis’ program, the system likewise provided an avenue for clients to make comments or suggestions to further improve existing processes.
Licup said the creation of a single database for all incoming inquiries and outgoing actions taken, whether by phone call or SMS is also important in their efforts to have future retrieval and review of claims when the need arises.
At present, the PNPCIS is under the administrative and operational control of the PNP-DC and is being manned by dedicated Police Commissioned and Non-Commissioned Officers. It has dedicated Smart (0920-1227222) , Globe (0927-0088868) and PLDT (723-4790) lines in which callers are asked to establish their proof of identity like rank, name, badge number, birthdate and actual claim.
Inquiries may also be made thru [email protected].
The system operates from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Fridays excluding holidays with all calls and messages being answered by the assigned Inquiry Officer. All conversations are recorded to prevent prank calls.
Licup said that any call or SMS that is considered as ‘prank, threatening or nuisance’ shall be investigated and blocked. The person liable will be facing charges in accordance with Presidential Decree 1727 which penalizes malicious and false information.
The PNP will award the Medalya ng Katangitanging Gawa or PNP Outstanding Achievement Medal to Licup, former PNP Comptrollers, Major Generals Marni C. Marcos Jr. and Jose Ma. Victor DF Ramos, PNP Deputy Comptroller, Brigadier Gen. Ronaldo E. Olay, former DC deputy director,, Brig. Gen. Ferdinand B. Daway, project supervisor, Lieutenant Colonel Dennis C. de Guzman and the officers and members of the Claims Inquiry Office led by Major Ma. Carolina P. Abelarde, Captain Jay Walter S. Santos and Patrolman Cherrydine C. Evangelista, Thessa Marie D. Bugtong, Efren F. Abaoag Jr. and Jayvee B. Minieda for their role in the successful crafting and implementation of the PNPCIS.
