The second part of the “Bayanihan, Bakunahana’’ in the areas that will be hit by tropical storm "Odette" has been rescheduled to Dec. 20 to 22, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said on Tuesday, DEc. 14.

Following the issuance of the DILG advisories to the concerned local government units (LGUs), Año reminded the local chief executives (LCE) to make the necessary preparations before, during and after the weather disturbance in compliance with the department’s “Oplan:Listo’’ directive.

In a news briefing Monday night, Dec 13, Año disclosed that at present, 32 provinces had at least 70 percent of their target population inoculated with the first dose against coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).

He added that 50 percent and up of the target population in the 22 provinces were administered with the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“After po ng bakunahan, Bayanihan, Bakunahan part 2 (vaccination drive) ay magbibigay ako ng ulat sa mga indibidwal na performances ng ating region, probinsiya, cities, and highly urbanized cities, and even iyong tinatawag nating ‘yung independent component cities (After the vaccination, Bayanihan, Bakunahan part 2, I will report on the individual performance of our region, province, cities and highly urbanized cities and even the areas known as the independent component cities,),’’ Año told President Duterte.

Año also noted that a total of 4,172 permits were approved or given clearances to be built in 538 localities while there are 1,087 pending permit applications in 273 cities and municipalities.

“Pina-simplify po natin ang mga (application) requirements kaya napakabilis na po ang pag-i-issue ng mga permit (We have simplified the requirements that is why the permits were issued expeditiously),’’ he added.

Earlier, the President ordered the LGUs and other concerned agencies to facilitate the approval of the communication line applications.

In his State-of-the-Nation-Address (SONA) last year, Duterte warned the telecommunication firms that they will be shut down in December that year if they fail to improve the delivery of their services.

However, Globe Telecom president Ernest Cu met the President three days after his SONA and attributed the lack of cell sites for the poor signals of the communication lines.

In the said meeting, Cu noted a telecom company needs to get 28 to 30 permits for one cell tower with the process taking around eight months.

To address the problem, Año earlier noted that the DILG, Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) together with the other national government agencies (NGAs) have agreed to streamline the documentary requirements and processing time for building permit applications on shared passive telecommunications tower infrastructure also known as common telecommunications towers.

With the signing of the Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC), Año explained that this will do away with the resolutions from the homeowners’ associations, city and municipal resolutions and all other processes that delay the acquisition of the permits. (Chito A. Chavez)