Frequently Asked Questions

The City Hall is open Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, with a lunch break from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM. We are closed on weekends and national/local holidays.

Visit our Government Directory page to find contact information for all city offices and department heads.

Currently, most services require in-person applications. However, we are working on implementing online services for select transactions. Check individual service pages for updates.

For birth certificates registered in Bayawan City, it typically takes 15-30 minutes while you wait, provided the record is readily available.

Yes, but they must bring:

• An authorization letter signed by you
• Valid ID of both you and the representative
• Photocopy of your valid ID

Both are certified true copies. PSA certificates are the nationally-recognized version required for passport and visa applications. Local civil registrar certificates are accepted for most local transactions and are often processed faster.

Business permits must be renewed annually, preferably in January. The deadline for penalty-free renewal is typically January 20th of each year.

To start a new business, you'll need:

• DTI Registration (for sole proprietorship) or SEC Registration (for corporation)
• Barangay Clearance
• Community Tax Certificate (Cedula)
• Location Sketch/Map
• Contract of Lease (if renting)

Visit our Business Permit page for complete details.

Currently, we accept cash payments at the City Treasurer's Office. We are working on implementing online payment options for taxes and fees.

Visit the City Treasurer's Office at the City Hall with your Tax Declaration or latest Official Receipt. Payment is in cash. Property taxes are due quarterly, but you may pay annually to avail of discounts.

Go to the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) with:

• Birth Certificate or any valid ID showing your age (60 and above)
• 1x1 ID photo
• Barangay Residence Certificate

The ID is issued for free.

Senior citizens enjoy 20% discount and VAT exemption on purchases (with a minimum purchase amount per establishment), priority lanes, and access to special programs and medical assistance from the City.

Thank you for helping us improve! Please send us message at volunteer@BetterBayawan.org and write "Website Issue" as the subject. Describe the problem and include the page URL if possible.

Yes! Better Bayawan is fully responsive and optimized for mobile phones, tablets, and desktop computers.

Rodney Dela Cruz is a local student and full-stack developer from Bayawan City, Negros Oriental. He built BetterBayawan.org as a community-driven initiative to build a digital bridge between the residents of Bayawan City and the local government. Rodney specializes in full-stack development and automation, and has worked on open-source civic-tech projects that help modernize Philippine local governments.

BetterBayawan.org is part of the BetterGov.ph BetterLGU initiative and follows a template based on the open-source BetterSolano.org by Ramon Logan, which was modified and adapted for Bayawan City. The project carries a version badge in the site footer, and the source is maintained openly so improvements are transparent and reproducible.

BetterBayawan.org is an open-source project released under MIT | CC BY 4.0 to empower community-driven development. Contributions are warmly welcomed from everyone — whether you are a developer, data researcher, designer, content writer, translator, or a concerned citizen of Bayawan City — your participation helps shape the project for all.

Please note that BetterBayawan.org is an independent, open-source community project. It is not affiliated with, funded by, or endorsed by the Bayawan City government. All content is based on publicly available information sourced from official government portals. For official transactions and authoritative updates, always refer directly to your local government office.

Yes. BetterBayawan.org is a fully open-source, community-driven project. The complete source code is publicly available so that anyone can inspect how the site works, verify the information it publishes, and reuse the templates for their own community. As an open civic-tech project, it is built to be shared and improved upon by others — not locked away.

BetterBayawan.org is released under a dual license: the MIT License for the software (code, scripts, and technical infrastructure) and Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) for the content (text, data, and documentation). This dual approach means the code can be freely used, modified, and redistributed, while the published content can be reused provided proper attribution is given to the source.

The site is a fast, static website built with plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — no heavy frameworks are required to run it, which keeps pages light and quick to load even on older devices. A companion React application powers the more dynamic service pages, and the whole project is designed to integrate with PHP and MySQL for any server-side data needs. Translations are handled client-side through a lightweight dictionary system supporting English, Filipino, and Bisaya.

Contributions are warmly welcomed from everyone — whether you are a developer, data researcher, designer, content writer, translator, or a concerned citizen of Bayawan City. You can help by reporting errors in the information published, suggesting new services to add, helping with translations into English, Filipino, or Bisaya, improving accessibility, or contributing code and fixes. Your participation helps shape the project for all residents.

No. BetterBayawan.org is an independent, open-source community project. It is not affiliated with, funded by, or endorsed by the Bayawan City government or any official government body. All content is based on publicly available information sourced from official government portals and is published for the convenience of residents. For official transactions and authoritative updates, please always refer directly to your local government office.

BetterBayawan.org was developed by Rodney Dela Cruz. It is part of the BetterGov.ph BetterLGU initiative, using a template derived from the open-source BetterSolano.org project by Ramon Logan, which was modified and adapted for Bayawan City. When reusing the code or content, please credit the original author (Ramon Logan), the BetterGov.ph initiative, and the Better Bayawan maintainers accordingly.