109-yr-old Philpost bent on staying relevant in Internet age
Aside from a P6-billion modernization project to increase efficiency, the Philippine Postal Corporation is mounting efforts to curb theft and restore the public’s trust in their services.
Philpost, which celebrated its 109th anniversary Monday, is bent on remaining relevant despite the emergence of Internet and text messaging, said postmaster general Hector Villanueva.
To show its seriousness on pilferage issues, the Philpost has dismissed 129 employees, suspended 26, reprimanded 33, fined 100, forced 30 to resign and closed 49 cases from 2004-2006.
The P6-billion computerization with the help of Japanese investors, he stressed, will make Philpost competitive once more in the delivery service in a year’s time.
“This will bring the Post Office to the 21st century. We will more than double our revenue, and be able to trace every letter. With our Internet capability we will be able to compete with money order, both international and domestic,” he said, adding that modernization is expected to bring billions more to their yearly USD 3 billion income.
Even without computers, Villanueva said OFW relatives will get their money’s worth since the Philpost only charges USD 3-USD 4 for USD 500 remittances against USD 57 from private companies. To attract more OFWs, Philpost will launch its “International Money Order” on Nov. 12 to service their needs.
Relatives of OFWs in Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand and United Arab Emirates will benefit from the IMO since they will only need an ATM account to send or retrieve money.
The IMO is covered by bilateral agreements that Philpost signed with postal administrations in the countries that had large concentrations of Filipinos.
This Christmas season, Villanueva said sending greeting cards and personalized letters were in fashion again–though he admitted the figures were still much lower than before.
“Text messaging affected us because we used to handle six million letters a day around 1992. Now it’s less than 1 million … Still we’re the only one with the capability to deliver to the remotest barrios,” he said.
The negative effect, however, remained manageable since Philpost’s core business now focused on “bulk and parcels.”
1 USD = 43.2735 PHP
