Teleserv says helpline contract deal with PSA already renewed

The contractor for the government’s statistic’s bureau’s helpline said that their service agreement has already been renewed shortly after its short termination in 2020.

In a statement sent to the Inquirer recently, Pilipinas Teleserv, Inc. marketing officer Camille Abada said that their partnership with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) resumed in December 2020, clarifying their past troubled situation with the government bureau.

“Pilipinas Teleserv, through our brand PSAHelpline.ph, is now fully authorized to handle online ordering and delivery of PSA certificates nationwide,” Abada said.

Under their memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the PSA, Abada said that there is no definite timeline and that there is no expiration or maturity.

“It is an agreement that we shall provide the online channel for Filipinos to order their PSA certificate and that we will take care of the timely and secure delivery of the documents to its rightful owners,” she said, highlighting that it is the same arrangement that they have had with the PSA since 2000.

In January 2020, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said that their bureau ended Pilipinas Teleserv, Inc’s Helpline Plus service earlier on December 20, 2019 after they found that the company was responsible for two complaints of data privacy breach that were filed before the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

READ: PSA ends Teleserv deal over data breach complaints

Despite that, the PSA official said they would continue to deliver civil registry documents online through its in-house Serbilis.

Back then, Mapa said Pilipinas Teleserv, Inc. received 5,000 to 6,000 requests a day, while Serbilis had 1,500 to 2000.

After the agreement with the firm ended, Serbilis got 5,500 to 6,000 requests daily, according to the PSA official.