CLIENTS’ EXPERIENCE ON THE FRONTLINE SERVICES OF

SLSU – TOMAS OPPUS

Frederick C. Aniga Journal of Educational and Human Resource Development

Abstract

The Southern Leyte State University – Tomas Oppus implemented RA

9485 or the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007 (ARTA) that aimed to provide
efficient service to the public. This study sought to determine the level
of compliance of the university to the requirements of ARTA through
students’ experiences during the school year 2012 – 2013.The study
showed that frontline services of SLSU- Tomas Oppus complied with
the requirements of ARTA. It can be inferred that the objectives of
ARTA had been met. Moreover, the students indicated that their level of
satisfaction on the services provided was “Very Satisfactory”.

Keywords: client’s experience, client’s satisfaction, frontline services,

Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007.

1.0 Introduction responsibility, integrity, competence

“Public office is not a vehicle
for personal aggrandizement, nor is
it a license for abuse; public office is
not a private property, but one
impressed with public
accountability” (La Viña, 2012). It is
on this principle that each
government worker must always put
in his heart and mind that to be
working for the government is a
sacrifice of oneself for the sake of
the country. Along this line, Section
2 of R.A. 6713 (Code of Conduct
and Ethical Standards for Public
Officials and Employees) provide “It
is the policy of the State to promote
a high standard of ethics in public
service. Public officials and
employees shall at all times be
accountable to the people and shall
discharge their duties with utmost
and loyalty, act with patriotism and
justice, lead modest lives, and
uphold the public interest over
personal interest.”
With this objective, the
government passed RA 9485 or the
Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) into law
where one of its essential features is
the Citizen’s Charter. The Southern
Leyte State University – Tomas
Oppus as a government institution is
required to implement the ARTA
and the Citizen’s Charter. With this
implementation, it is the claim of the
study that the university has become
more efficient in the delivery of its
service to the students. The efficient
service extended by the university to
the students result to a positive
impression and satisfaction.
Citizen’s Charter refers to an
official document, a service

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Frederick C. Aniga
standard, or pledge that
communicates, in simple terms,
information on the services provided
by the government to its clients. It
describes the step-by-step procedure
for availing a particular service, and
the guaranteed performance level
that they may posted in a
conspicuous place such as the main
entrance or facade of the building of
a government agency. The general
public should be made to understand
of the use and importance of the
Citizen’s Charter. Meanwhile,
Government personnel particularly
those in the frontline service are
required to follow what is indicated
in the Citizen’s Charter and will be
penalized if they fail to comply with
it. This requirement attempts to fight
corruption in the Philippines, a
glaring reality (Anti-Corruption and
Governance: The Philippine
Experience, 2006), that resulted to
inefficiency in the government
service and mistrust of the people in
government institutions.
In order to win back the trust
and confidence of the people, the
government is implementing
measures to make the services of the
government be of high caliber. For
one, the Philippine government
instituted the Filipino Report Card –
the results throw light on the
constraints Filipinos face in
accessing public services, their
views about quality and adequacy of
services, and the responsiveness of
government officials. The Filipino
Report Card is a means by which
citizens can provide credible and
collective feedback to public
agencies about their performance. It
brings forth information on users’
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Journal of Educational and Human Resource Development
awareness, access, use, and
satisfaction with public services
(World Bank, 2001). The DBM, for
example, increase public
accountability by seeking client
feedback on major programs and
expenditures of government
agencies and by using the results as
an input into the budget allocation
process. Moreover, three key areas
are proposed for measurement of
results and performance: outputs,
processes, and client satisfaction.
Since its implementation, the
university has not conducted an
assessment that will determine
whether or not the goals of ARTA
have been achieved. For this reason,
the study will be made to know
whether or not the university has
satisfied the ARTA requirement and
has improved the quality of its
service. The students who have
experienced the services provided by
the university will assess the
services extended based on the
ARTA requirements.
2.0 Conceptual Framework of the
Study
From the sociological point
of view, the efforts of the
government to improve the
efficiency of the bureaucracy can be
grounded on the principle of
Functionalism (Anderson, 2009).
This view interprets each part of
society in terms of how it contributes
to the stability of the whole society.
The different parts are primarily the
institutions of society, each of which
is organized to fill different needs of
the members of the society. The
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Frederick C. Aniga
parts all depend with each other.
When one part of the system is not
working or is dysfunctional, other
parts are affected that creates social
problems, which leads to social
change.
In the context of the
Southern Leyte State University –
Tomas Oppus, it is an organization
that is composed of various units
including frontline services. The
effectiveness of the university
depends on the effectiveness of the
performance of these frontline
services. The compliance of the
university to the ARTA
requirements is dependent on the
performance of the frontline services
in the accordance to the
requirements of the ARTA.
Students’ perception then about the
university depends on how they
experienced the services of these
various frontline services. This
perception may be influenced by the
students’ sex; course or program
pursued; and year level. Moreover,
the student will also indicate the
degree of compliance of these
frontline services and the level of
4.0 Results and Discussion
The respondents of this study
were the students enrolled during the
second semester of the school year
2012 – 2013. Table 1 presents the
profile of the respondents in terms of
sex, year level, and course or degree
pursued.
In this study, majority of the
respondents who participated were
female. About the classification of
the respondents based on course/
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satisfaction in relation to the services
extended to them. It is presumed that
significant difference can be gleaned
from the responses of the students
based on their profile.
3.0 Methodology
The study utilized the
descriptive survey method of
research utilizing a researcher-made
questionnaire. Names of all the
enrolled students during the second
semester of the school year 2012 –
2013 was obtained from the office
the College Registrar and the
respondents were identified using
the stratified sampling. Most of the
items contained in the tool were
based on the requirements set in
ARTA and indicated in the IRR and
other issuances of the CSC. The
questionnaires were given to the
respondents during their classes and
were retrieved at once after they had
filled out the needed information.
For the analysis of data, frequency,
percentages, and T-test and ANOVA
were used.
program pursued, BSED has the
biggest number while DBET has the
smallest number of respondents.
Two respondents, however, did not
indicate their course/program
pursued. Data shows that most of the
respondents are first year college
students and the least number of
respondents are the fourth year
college students. Compliance of the
Registrar’s Office to the
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Table 1. Profile of the respondents.

requirements of ARTA is illustrated indicates that the Registrar’s Office

in Table 2. It is shown that as has followed what the ARTA
experienced by the students, the requires and that the office workers
office’s compliance to the have delivered the quality service
requirements of ARTA ranged from expected of them by the students.
“almost always” to “always.” This

Table 2. Compliance of the registrar’s office to the ARTA requirements.

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Frederick C. Aniga
Table 3 shows the observation of
the respondents on the services
provided by the Cashiers’ Office. As
shown, the respondents found the
office of the Cashier to observe the
requirements of ARTA from “almost
always” to “always.” This rating
implies that the Cashier’s Office, as
an identified frontline service
provider of the school complied with
the requirements of the ARTA to
Table 3. Compliance of the cashier’s office to the ARTA requirements.
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provide efficient service to its
clienteles. However, there is one
indicator that the respondents
indicated “seldom”, and that is to
provide service to the customers
even beyond 5:00 o’clock in the
afternoon. This one requirement of
ARTA is something that the school
needs to look into and find
alternatives in order to improve in
this area.
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Frederick C. Aniga
The Library’s compliance to the
ARTA is presented in Table 4.
Responses of the participants show
that the Library complied with the
ARTA as indicated with “almost
always” to “always.” This rating
Table 4. Compliance of the library to the ARTA requirements.
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means that the respondents are
served by the Library personnel as
required by the ARTA so that they
experienced efficient service by the
frontline service provider.
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Frederick C. Aniga Journal of Educational and Human Resource Development

The respondents’ experience provided service as required by the

on the services provided by the ARTA “almost always” to “always.”
school clinic is shown in Table 5. This rating implies that the clinic is
Based on their responses, the ARTA compliant and that the
respondent observed that the clinic students are served with efficiency.

Table 5. Compliance of the clinic to the ARTA requirements.

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Frederick C. Aniga
Table 6 shows the responses
of the respondents regarding the
services provided by the Office of
Student Affairs and Services. As can
be gleaned from the data, the
respondents experienced efficient
Table 6. Compliance of the Office of Student Affairs and Services to the
ARTA requirements.
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service from this office evidenced by
“almost always” to “always”
compliance to the requirements of
ARTA. This rating implies then that
the Office of Student Affairs and
Services is ARTA compliant.
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Frederick C. Aniga
The Internet Café’s
compliance to ARTA is illustrated in
Table 7. Based on the responses of
the respondents, the Internet Café
provides services that are in
accordance to the requirements of
Table 7. Compliance of the Internet Café to the ARTA requirements.
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ARTA indicating “almost always” to
“always” in terms of complying with
the ARTA requirements. This rating
implies that the service provided by
the Internet Café to the students is
efficient as intended by ARTA.
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Frederick C. Aniga
Table 8 shows the
assessment of the respondents on the
compliance of the office of the
Guidance Counselor to the ARTA.
As experienced by the respondents,
the office’s services complied with
the requirements of ARTA as they
indicated in their responses ranging
Table 8. Compliance of the Office of the Guidance Counselor to the ARTA.
requirements.
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from “almost always” to “always.”
This rating indicates that the
Guidance Counselor’s office is
observant of the ARTA and that the
office workers are delivering
valuable service to the clientele as
required by the law.
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The respondents’ level of on this finding, it can be inferred that

satisfaction with the services
provided by various frontline
services of the university is shown in
Table 9. Data show that among the
seven frontline services of the
school, the respondents rated the
services of the Office of the
Guidance Counselor as “Excellent”
and the rest of the identified
frontline services with “very
satisfactory.” In a similar study,
Saguin (2012) indicated that 90% of
the respondents were either very
satisfied or satisfied with the
services provided by the Local
Government Units when the ARTA
was implemented. He also took note
of high satisfaction levels as
reported by Makati at 89%. Based
the university has attained the
objectives of ARTA since students
indicated positive evaluation on the
services provided to them by the
university. With this efficient
service, the students are satisfied.
Meanwhile, it can be noted that
among the frontline services, the
Office of the Guidance Counselor is
ranked 1 in terms of level of
satisfaction while the Cashier is the
least. This can be attributed to the
kind of service that each frontline
service extends to the students, for
instance the services of the Guidance
Counselor’s office is more personal
as compared to other frontline
services.

Table 9. Respondents’ level of satisfaction with the services provided.

Table 10 illustrates significant differences in the experience of the

respondents with the services provided by the identified frontline services of
the school based on the profile of students.
Based on sex, no significant difference in the experience on the various
frontline services offered by the school is observed. Non-significance of
perception in relation to sex was also observed in the study of Wood (2012),
where statistically significant difference between perceptions of female and
male teachers was not found. However, Korte (2009) in their study on cross
gender comparison of student perception and appreciation of instructor
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Table 10. Significant difference in the experience of the respondents on the

*if p-value is < 0.05 level of significance, then the test is significant.

preparation discovered that there instructors.

was a difference in the perception This finding shows that the
between female and male students. students’ experiences on the services
Whereas, female students showed provided by the frontline services of
positive reaction and recognition on the university do not differ
the preparations made by their significantly, or that both male and
teachers, male students only female students have more or less
recognized the preparations done but the same experiences from these
did not show appreciation for such frontline services.
preparations made by their

Table 11. Significant difference in the experience of the respondents on the

services provided by the frontline services in terms of course
program pursued.

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As regards the experiences of education student. In this study,

the students of the frontline services however, these differences can be
of the university relative to their attributed to the preference of the
course or program pursued, a students enrolled in various
significant difference is observed in programs. For example, education
Office of Student Services, Internet students are more likely to avail the
Café, and Guidance Counselor. In a services of the Office of the Student
study conducted by Richardson and Services and the Guidance
Newby (2006), it was noted that Counselor while Information
students’ perception on the benefit Technology students most often are
of online learning experiences availing the services of the Internet
significantly differed. They Café. Applied to the current study,
explained this occurrence saying that the academic training and the
students in different program areas developed orientation of the students
are differently prepared to benefit as per educational program
from online learning experiences. influenced and effect significant
The same observation is noted in the difference on their view about
study of Ertmer (2008) where they services provided by the Office of
compared undergraduate knowledge Students Services, Internet Café and
of the value of online discussion the Guidance Counselor’s office.
between engineering students and

Table 12. Significant difference in the experience of the respondents on the

services provided by the frontline services in terms of year level.

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Frederick C. Aniga
The finding of the study
shows significant difference in the
experience of the students in the
services provided by the Office of
the Guidance Counselor and year
level. This finding is in contrasts
with the finding of the study of Ross
(2004) and Caipang (2013) who both
claimed that there was no significant
difference of the students’
perception in relation to year level.
In the context of this study, the first
year college students may have
availed less the services of the office
as compared to the students in the
higher level, or that the degree of the
service needed by the students in the
higher levels may be greater than
that of the freshmen.
4.0 Conclusion
Based on the findings of the
study, all the frontline services of the
university have delivered quality
service to the students in compliance
to the requirements of ARTA. The
university, as an organization with
all its units that are functional, is an
institution that is effective in
delivering quality service to the
public.
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Becerra, D. (2009). Differences in
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