MANILA, Philippines--Business owners are finding it easier to deal with the Department of Trade and Industry as it "significantly reduced" the waiting time for frontline services, according to the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission.

PAGC Chairperson Constancia de Guzman said in a statement that business name registration was shortened by an hour to just one or two hours while having documents amended, verified or certified now takes 45 minutes from the usual one hour.

Also, processing at the DTI of applications for sales promotion permits now takes two hours instead of three.

"The DTI also increased the resolution rate for consumer complaints, which should be acted on within 30 days, from 20 percent to 50 percent," De Guzman said.

Further, she cited the DTI's National Economic Research and Business Assistance Centers (Nerbac), which serve as one-stop shops for business registration and licensing, investment and incentives facilitation, export documentation and business information.

A Nerbac is an office that gathers various government and private-sector agencies into a single location where their services are available.

These include the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Social Security System, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippine Health Insurance Corp., Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig), Cooperative Development Authority, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Mines and Geo-Science Bureau, Philippine Exporters Confederation, Mindanao Trade and Export Foundation and local government units.

"The Nerbacs have generally brought processing time down to only two weeks or even 30 minutes (for some papers)," De Guzman said. "This had allowed the convergence of government agencies in assisting investors."

The official explained that the DTI efforts were linked to the national government's Integrity Development Action Plan (Idap), which the PAGC is implementing and monitoring.

She said the Idap involves 22 anticorruption measures under four major areas of implementation—prevention, education, investigation and enforcement and strategic partnership.

"Graft-prevention measures under the Idap essentially require the reduction of red tape, which breeds corruption along the line of agency operations, especially in areas where an official or employee can exercise discretion based solely on his judgment," she said.

The PAGC is the government watchdog mandated to watch over all presidential appointees, from assistant director to higher ranks.