Boracay: The economics of non-compliance Dominguez urges Swiss to invest more in PH
Malacañang announced last week the Cabinet decision to close Boracay temporarily (six months at the minimum) to allow businesses there to comply with sanitation and environmental rules, LGU rules on construction and development, garbage disposal, safety standards, etc.
For six months, it is expected that establishments with obvious violations or lapses in their construction, would repair, reconstruct, redesign, change or limit their existing structures in order to comply.
And to do this may not be easy at all.
Recommended changes, for it to comply with international standards, should be planned well – complete with architectural and engineering designs, and all the necessary documents for both the LGU and national supervisory agencies like DENR for the review and approval.
Let us not forget that services of these offices have a price to pay.
Reconstruction would not be easy. Material may come from outside Boracay even as far as Cebu and Manila. Labor could be imported from other parts of the country and to ensure compliance, maybe project managers and consultants have to be brought in.
During the construction period, business of course could either be partially open or stopped totally. This means revenues would drop automatically. Workers, from chef to bartenders, to helpers to busboys have to stop or report part-time affecting their capacity to earn. These of course would also have direct impact to the Consumption of Utilities like water, gas and electricity . And revenue share of the local government unit and the national government for their share in taxes and registration fees will drop proportionately to the decision to close either totally or partially.
And if the islands would be closed, even on a temporary basis, the airline industry also suffers. The boatmen also losses their daily source of income and services – barbershops, massage parlors, beauty salons, and even the operation of water transport will surely get a share of the beating.
Then we ask, would it have been different if from the very beginning, the LGUs strictly enforced the laws? And the National Government has an active role in the approval of the kind of businesses that would be established in the island. And what about the business owners ?Why was politics seemed to be the agenda of the day? Had they complied with all the requirements of constructions these new capital outlay for the reconstruction would have been avoided. But why did this all happened? When it was decided to promote Boracay, was there a national plan how it should develop thru the years or was the LGU left on its own just to approve if locators submits construction plan and able to pay the required taxes? How come nobody paid attention to the required easement of the structures from the beachline? How come no one saw that Sanitation and Waste disposal do not even exists or are included in the individual plan?
Or the only plan that we have is how to promote it with its white back and clear sea waters. I am not privy to any Plan. Maybe there was, maybe there was none. How in the world, development was left solely in the hands of the LGU?
Evidently, if you follow the development of Boracay’s rise to fame, it only boast of the first class hotel accommodations that sprouted year in year out. Who cares about the food? Not even the transportation that we offer to bring tourists to the islands. It was purely commercialism.
And when everything is done, how do you think these establishments would recover their costs? Would they still be competitive to the new tourists spots in Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia. Can you still compete with Maldives and Santorini? Do we end up just catering to local tourists?
Think about it – The Cost of Compliance is not that simple. How do we ensure that we will not just be running in circles?
tedestacio@yahoo.com
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III has told Swiss investors now is the right time for them to set up shop in the Philippines when it has a president who has both the political will and capital to pursue bold reforms.
During a recent meeting with members of the Philippine-Swiss Business Council, Dominguez said the Duterte administration is determined to sustain the nation’s economic growth momentum and improve the ease of doing business in the country.
Dominguez also said that the government would transform the country into one of the world's top investment destinations.
The finance official added that initial reforms have already borne fruit, citing the record collections of the Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR) and of Customs (BOC) two months into the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law this year.
He said “this is a good time to do tax reform because we have a leader with both the political will and the political capital to bring about meaningful change. President Rodrigo Duterte has thrown his full support behind the tax reform effort.”
“This is the best time to do reform. It allows us the leisure to carefully calibrate the reform measures for optimal economic impact. Free from any pressing economic distress, we have the opportunity to rally public support for this program,” Dominguez said.
“We are able to look far into the future and build towards the inclusive and dynamic economy our people deserve,” he added during their meeting.
Dominguez said both the BIR and Customs have exceeded their revenue collection targets in the first two months of the year since the TRAIN began implementation on January 1.
The Customs bureau raised its collections by 26.5 percent and the BIR by 10.8 percent for the first two months of 2018 as against the same period last year.
The finance chief said the government remains on track to push the economy’s growth rate to seven percent or better this year, and attain its goal of investment-led growth and more inclusive development.
“We hope Swiss businesses could find a home here — a happy one. We are working very hard to improve the ease of doing business and reducing our (Foreign) Investment Negative List to the bare minimum,” Dominguez said.
“From being mocked as ‘The Sick Man of Asia,’ the Philippines is now seen as the region’s next economic powerhouse,” he added.
The finance chief said the Philippines’ “young and talented labor force, our large consumer mar- ket and our determined participation in building a Southeast Asian common market produce much headroom for sustainable growth.”
Dominguez issued the call as Swiss Ambassador to the Philippines Andrea Reichlin commended the Philippine government for implementing the TRAIN’s provisions, which she described as “potential game changers,” as well as for being voted recently as the world’s No. 1 “Best Country to Invest In” by global business decision makers.
“I think everybody has read the results of the (survey published by) Business Insider. We should give a round of applause for having the Philippines on the first, I think this is the first time in history,” Reichlin said at the start of the meeting.
The ambassador was referring to a recent survey conducted by the US News and World Report in coordination with the Wharton School of Business and Y&R’s BAV Group and published by Business Insider on its website.
The survey, which ranked the Philippines as the world’s No. 1 “Best Country to Invest In,” was conducted among more than 6,000 business decision makers and used World Bank data to come up with the results.