I have heard that it is easy to spend other people’s money, and I guess this is one of the reasons our national budget has been increasing by leaps and bounds with very little to show for it. Here are some of my ideas on how to trim down our budget, while improving the service to the people.
The top 3 things I have in mind are to reduce the documentary requirements from the citizenry; lengthen the validity period of permits and licenses; and make use of Internet-based transactions, instead of personal appearance.
It is absolutely mind boggling what the documentary requirements are to put up a legitimate business, even a small one, anywhere in the Philippines. Just to start up a business, you need to get your Bureau of Internal Revenue, Social Security System, Home Development Mutual Fund, Philippine Health Insurance Corp., Department of Trade and Industry registration and a mayor’s permit, which in itself requires many other documents. That is just the start. You will also need to submit your monthly, quarterly and annual reports, and file payments to the various government agencies. On top of that, you get subjected to inspection and audit from various local and national government agencies. This situation is not only applicable to businesses, but to private individuals, as well. As an example, just to get a permit to carry your firearms has so many requirements and incurs so much cost that many people are tempted to just break the law.
To impose this burden on the citizenry, the bureaucracy matches all these requirements with the manpower, resources and infrastructure. Not only that, each stage of this arduous process provides room for corruption. The irony of it all is that the money to make the life of the people more difficult comes from the people! What is the purpose of all of these requirements? Have we made the lives of the people better? We all know that the answer to that is that it empowers the people in government to commit abuses and act like gods over the common people. We should simplify the process and reduce the documentary requirements so that we can have our lives back.
Lengthening the validity period of permits and license is a fairly straightforward concept to understand. As an example, driver’s licenses that are good for three years can be made valid for six years. This means that you as the driver will only go to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) once every six years, instead of once every three years. This will also mean that the people getting their driver’s licenses renewed in the LTO will only be half, lessening the burden on the LTO, reducing the waiting time in the LTO and lessening the traffic flow to the LTO and, perhaps, helping reduce the traffic, in general.
The same can be done for mayor’s permits, instead on an annual validity, perhaps it should be for the term of the mayor for three years. Of course, the local government unit (LGU) will argue that having the mayor’s permit annually will give them a chance to monitor and evaluate the business for any invalid acts and in the interest of the general public. We all know that this is not the case, since if the business does something wrong, the LGU knows where the business is and can take corrective action to even shut it down. This will force these government employees to act more like civil servants than jail wardens.
Finally, all transactions regarding permits, licenses, reports and payments dealing with the government should be done through the Internet. This will definitely unclog the government offices, reduce the opportunity for corruption and make the life of the citizenry better. I am certain that such an action will also dramatically reduce our traffic-congestion problem and save the people a lot of time and money, which can be now used toward more productive endeavors that will add to the economic growth and development of the Philippines.
I can only hope and pray that someone who can do something about this actually considers my suggestions. We Filipinos deserve something better and, maybe, this time we will get it.
Comments may be sent to georgechuaph@yahoo.com.