Exploring Challenges and Opportunities: Evaluating the Awareness and Readiness of Selected Government Agencies in Adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This study undertakes a comprehensive examination of the awareness, skills, attitude, and readiness of respondents regarding the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in their professional settings. While the research evaluates respondents' familiarity with AI tools, proficiency levels, and overall attitude towards AI integration, it also strives to present a nuanced perspective by exploring potential challenges and reservations. The data, collected through a structured survey employing a Likert scale, captures diverse viewpoints on awareness, skills, attitude, and readiness towards AI applications. The findings reveal a generally positive outlook among respondents, emphasizing their commendable awareness of AI technologies and a strong inclination towards potential benefits. Despite varying levels of proficiency with specific AI tools, respondents express a collective willingness to embrace new technologies. The study identifies a positive attitude towards AI integration in work processes, accompanied by a proactive approach towards skill development and troubleshooting. However, it is crucial to note the potential challenges and reservations reported by some respondents, offering a balanced view of their preparedness for AI adoption. While the overall disposition towards AI technologies is favorable, the study underscores the importance of tailored training and development programs. The varying levels of proficiency reported highlight the need for targeted initiatives to address specific skill gaps. Organizations aiming to leverage AI technologies can benefit from the insights provided, emphasizing the significance of accessible training and creating a supportive environment for employees. By acknowledging challenges and reservations, this study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the landscape, facilitating informed strategies for successful AI integration in the workplace

Assessing The Country’s Legal Framework for Taxing Digital Transactions: A Basis for Recommending Policy Measures

This study aims to assess the country’s legal framework for taxing digital transactions. Specifically, the extensiveness of which the provisions of the legal framework can implement the value of digital transactions to taxpayers. This study employs a qualitative method by reviewing and further analyzing relevant case studies, recent gap analysis, policies, and literature on taxing digital transactions, and conducting interviews with policy experts from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). Recent study recommends enhanced policy measures based on the findings on new digital technology and its possible interactions with both current and proposed tax policies, three (3) policies were recommended. First, optimizing existing authority to tax over online platforms. Second, to have a digital-ready tax administration. Finally, to have an expanded and continued investigation for enhancement and liability regarding these digital transactions. Findings include that the BIR doesn’t have enough systems to capture all revenue-generated digital service providers and is unable to track all revenue-generating digital platforms. The Philippines should continue improving taxing rights and administration pursuant to modern times. This study concluded that digital platforms can be designated as withholding agents, improve communication channels with these digital platforms and tie them up with BIR exclusively for data access, and finally, a centralized BIR portal where all digital service providers will be registered and monitored. This will be the tax platform for online transactions that is convenient and accessible for taxpayers and is deemed a highly resilient revenue generation and imposition of tax administration as time changes

Knowledge and Beliefs on Mental Illness among Church Leaders: Basis for Training and Development

Mental health awareness and support have become increasingly important worldwide, including in the Philippines. In this context, religious institutions play a crucial role in shaping societal beliefs, attitudes, and approaches to mental illness. This study investigates the knowledge and beliefs about mental illness among church leaders in the Philippines, with a focus on five religious’ denominations: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptist, Born Again, Iglesia Ni Cristo, and Roman Catholic. One of the primary objectives of this research was to assess the level of knowledge church leaders possess regarding mental health. The findings indicate that church leaders in the Philippines have a moderate level of knowledge about mental health issues. The mean knowledge score, computed from their responses to a set of Likert-scale questions, falls into the category of "A little." While this level of knowledge may not be extensive, it is a positive starting point for discussions surrounding mental health within religious communities. In terms of beliefs, the respondents exhibited a somewhat agreeable perspective.  In conclusion, this study sheds light on the knowledge and beliefs of church leaders in the Philippines regarding mental illness. While they possess a moderate level of knowledge and hold diverse beliefs about the causes and remedies for mental health challenges, their perspectives reflect a nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between religion and mental health. These findings have significant implications for mental health care and support within religious communities and provide a foundation for future research and intervention programs

Impacts of Digitization of Business Permits and Licenses in District 3 Quezon City

This study aimed to determine the Impacts of Digitization of Business Permits and Licenses in District 3 Quezon City in terms of service satisfaction on time efficiency, reliability, cost-effectiveness, and convenience in business permit and license application of the business owners as the respondents of the study. The researchers used a descriptive method of research instruments to gather vital data from 380 business owners and guided the researchers in determining the result of the study. The researchers found that the respondents were very satisfied with digitizing business permits and licenses.             It was recommended by the researchers that in order to enhance e-governance, the Business Permit and Licensing Department must include alert/reminder messages thru Short Message Service (SMS) in informing the status and deficiency of business permit and license application documents submitted by the business owners. Furthermore, there must be a system integration of all departments involved in processing business permits and licenses to ensure complete compliance in order not to hamper the business owners’ applications

Effectiveness on the Implementation of Curfew in the Municipality of Di-lasag, Aurora

The study identified the effectiveness of implementing curfew in the Municipality of Dilasag adopted from the Executive Order (E.O.) No. 2020-0025 s.2020 from the Provincial Government of Aurora. It was focused on the profile, the implementation of curfew regarding security, discipline, health, and crimes, and the citizens' recommendations as part of the research. The study used the descriptive research method to identify the perceptions of 359 respondents selected by Slovin's formula and systematic random sampling who had also answered the survey questionnaire. The average weighted mean revealed that curfew implementation was effective and improved the community's security, discipline, health, and crime prevention. The chi-square test as the utilized statistical treatment revealed that profile such as sex, educational attainment, and occupation has no significant difference in implementing a curfew. However, it was shown in the study that age profile has a highly significant difference in health and crime prevention and has a significant difference in security and discipline. Furthermore, the study signified that the age group was correlated to the curfew implementation, that older respondents perceived a high level of effectiveness of curfew implementation compared to younger respondents. Finally, parents' participation is an important recommendation and is still needed to improve curfew implementation in the community., and supporting political and security stability

Evaluation of the Implementation of Crime Prevention Strategies of the Philippine National Police in Ormoc City, Leyte in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 Pandemic had made the Philippines to face various expanding crime rates which became a valuable issue in the country. These wrongdoings had operationally pushed the Philippine National Police to see and assess different crime activities that had been concurring consistently. This made the PNP to established community public security which then is called to be crime prevention strategies. This confronts the transition of different conflicting state including actions that inflicts harm to the populace. However, the known implemented strategies were not observed whether these promotes consistent advantage security or implementation were not addressed properly. Therefore, this study aims to determine the evaluation of the implementation of crime prevention strategies of the Philippine National Police in Ormoc City, Leyte in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic. A descriptive quantitative was used in purposive sampling was employed to obtain the 125 respondents of the study mainly PNP personnel and barangay captain. A self-constructed questionnaire with 4-point Likert scale has undergone a pilot study among 25 known respondents wherein the actual run was done through online survey. The result had shown that indicators including the crime prevention activities as to prevention strategies shows no significant differences. However, sustainability of the strategies establishes relationship with the demographic profile. Therefore, the study had concluded that the null hypothesis must be accepted which pertains that the strategies of the PNP towards crime prevention is not highly significant with the demographic profile

Seaborne Patrollers Performance Evaluation: A Framework for A Proposed Development Plan

The study focused on the analysis of the work performance of the seaborne patrollers through their individual performance evaluation reports. The study aimed to evaluate the overall performance standing of the police officers in terms of their output, core competencies, and personal qualities which would be the basis for a proposed developmental framework that would maximize the capacity and capability of the personnel of the PNP Maritime Group. The respondents of the study were the police officers of the PNP Maritime Group in the municipality of Pangasinan composed of sixty-six (66) police non-commissioned officers and nine (9) police commissioned officers. The researcher used the descriptive method of research to obtain factual and quality data and aided the researchers in describing and explaining the current situation. The researchers used Individual Performance Evaluation Report (IPER) to measure the respondents' work and personal qualities. The data was manually encoded by the researchers using Microsoft Excel accurately to attain descriptive validity. Upon analyzing the gathered data, it was found that the high level of scores extracted from the respondents' Individual Performance Evaluation Report (IPER) is highly capable of their mandate as police officers. There are also enhancements presented in the study that needs to be integrated with the need to be integrated with the existing program to create opportunities to develop personal and professional qualities. In turn, this better and more responsive organization. Among the recommendations observed in the study are the following:  maintaining the practice of the Individual Performance Evaluation Report (IPER);  adopting the developmental plan; crafting the scorecard as an instrument that would translate the aspects of the Individual Performance Evaluation Report (IPER)  into a more understandable and detailed plan for the development of the individual; implementing refresher course and orientation for new police officers on the importance of  Individual Performance Evaluation Report (IPER)  not only as compliance at work but more so as an instrument to grow and develop personally and professionally;  the implementation of the Individual Performance Evaluation Report (IPER) program must be further studied in terms of process and evaluation; there must be a holistic evaluation and monitoring process for every project or program in connection with the Individual Performance Evaluation Report (IPER), and lastly, there must be a program to monitor the effectiveness of the Individual Performance Evaluation Report (IPER)  as time continues, checking on its relevance, and looking for weak points to improve and strong points to standardize

Demographics and Awareness of Pag-Ibig Fund’s E-Government Service Among Private Employees in the Philippines

E-government is gaining prominence, and more research is being conducted on the topic. This study aims to find out how familiar people are with e-government services, why they use or don't use them, and if there is a significant link between demographics and client awareness of e-governance Pag-IBIG Fund offers. A survey using Google forms was carried out to obtain the necessary information on the individuals working for Mang Inasal in Nueva Vizcaya. The study analyzed 191 replies to discover the characteristics that influenced their awareness and use of Pag-IBIG Fund's e-government services. Contrary to what has always been assumed, 71.2% of the respondents are aware of the E-Government services offered by Pag-IBIG Fund - this number shows a formidable familiarity among the people of Mang Inasal in Nueva Vizcaya. Using Spearman’s Correlation and analysis, it also indicated that there is no significant relationship between age (p=.247), educational degree (p=.391), and Income (p=.113) over the awareness of the E-Government Services offered by Pag-IBIG Fund. These insights should be helpful to academics, professionals, and decision-makers

Problems and Concerns at the Sheriff’s Office of the National Labor Rela-tions Commission – National Capital Region Arbitration Branch (Nlrc-Ncrab) with the Writ of Execution

This study aims to address the encountered problems and concerns of the National Labor Relations Commission – National Capital Region Arbitration Branch (NLRC-NCRAB) Sheriffs in implementing the writ of execution. A quantitative and descriptive research approach was used, with a survey questionnaire as the research instrument tool. 29 active sheriffs in the NLRC-NCRAB were the respondents of this study. Findings show that most of the incumbent sheriffs at the NLRC- NCRAB are 51-65 years old, have been in the service for at least 6-10 years, and are college graduates. A substantial number received more or less 11-20 writs of execution in a month; a more significant number satisfied an average of 1-10 writs. It was concluded that among the problems and concerns at the Sheriff’s Office regarding the issuance of the writ is the “non-issuance of the break-open, contempt order, and show-cause order” being the top compared to other raised issues encountered by them (M=3.93). It also reveals that parties' compliance relative to the writ, a predominant calculated mean of 3.86, points to the “no coordination by the prevailing parties with the sheriff assigned to the case” and is considered similarly “serious.” Correlatively, the results reveal that in terms of writ implementation, the “non-provision of bonded warehouse and towing vehicles” exhibited the most rated among the enumerated issues and was interpreted “very serious” problem being encountered by the NLRC-NCRAB Sheriffs with a determined mean average of 4.28

Patient Satisfaction on Services Rendered by Malasakit Center in Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center

This study was carried out to determine the level of patient satisfaction with the services rendered by the Malasakit Center in Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center. It aimed to identify the service frequently requested by the patient and/or their representative and its frequency, as well as the level of satisfaction. This study employed descriptive research to describe the nature of the situation that existed in the study together with a survey questionnaire as the research instrument tool. The 125 respondents were selected through convenience sampling. The findings of this study revealed that most of the patients and their representatives’ access Malasakit centers with the query on the document requirement. Eight other services were also sought from the Malasakit Center such as medical help/aid, follow up and status of the documents submitted. These services were rated with a high level of satisfaction with a weighted mean rating of 3.84. The study concluded that various services were accessed by the patients and/or patients' representatives. The patients' and/or patients' representatives' degree of satisfaction with the service of the Malasakit Center at the Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center is extremely high or highly satisfactory. The health practitioners will be educated and equipped to handle the services provided by the Malasakit Center as a result of these measures