Frozen ‘Ease of Doing Business’ law

With much hype and in the presence of legislative leaders, President Duterte signed into law in May Republic Act No. 11032 or the Ease in Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Act of 2018.

He said the law met his campaign promise to apply nationwide the systems and procedures in Davao City that assure hassle-free transactions with the government.

Under the law, simple transactions should be acted upon by the government offices concerned within three working days, and within seven working days if complex.

A transaction is considered complex if it necessitates the evaluation or resolution of complicated issues by an officer or employee of the government office.

If it involves “activities which pose danger to public health, public safety, public morals, public policy and highly technical application,” the processing should not exceed 20 working days.

The maximum processing period may be extended for the same number of days on condition the applicant is informed of the extension prior to the deadline, the reasons behind the delay and the final date of release or approval of the document or service applied for.

Complementing the time limits is the requirement that only the signatures of the three officers who directly supervise the office concerned should appear on the documents.

To accomplish its objectives, the law has created the Anti-Red Tape Authority (Arta) which consists of a director general and three deputy director generals.

It was ordered to get organized and issue implementing rules and regulations (IRR) within six months from the effectivity of the law.

The local business community and foreign chambers of commerce in the Philippines hailed the enactment of the law. They said the speedy processing of government transactions would attract additional foreign investments and contribute substantially to the development of the economy.

Ahead of Arta’s organization, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) prepared the draft IRR within the Oct. 22, 2018 deadline.

Unfortunately, the DTI’s efforts went for naught because Arta, the IRR’s approving authority had not been formally organized. It was reported the President was considering appointing a retired military or police officer to head Arta.

To date, only an officer-in-charge cum deputy director general, Ernesto Perez, has been appointed to Arta.

Without a full complement of officers, Arta is virtually a paper office. As OIC, Perez acts as its “caretaker” and his authority is limited to routine administrative activities.

So what’s keeping the President from organizing Arta almost a year after the law took effect?

Surely, there is no dearth of qualified retired or incumbent government officials, or management professionals who have the expertise to craft rules on easing doing business with the government and efficiently implement them.

Whipping government officials and employees into line to meet the objective of the law to cut red tape and make government transactions seamless is not going to be an easy job.

It will require strong resolve from Arta’s leadership because corrupt officials and employees will not easily give up or accept changes in systems that assure them of extra compensation from the transacting public.

If similar efforts in the past are taken into account, the task of changing a kind of lifestyle that some government officers have been used to and consider as par for the course in government service may even be hazardous to life or health.

It would be a pity if this law that provides relief from the difficulties or hardships of doing business with government offices joins the ranks of hundreds of other laws that are good on paper but short on enforcement.