88 government agencies commit to cut red tape

When was the last time you had to apply for a permit in a government agency? Did you have to return another day because your documents were incomplete? How long did it take before the permit was issued to you?

To address ordinary Filipinos’ difficulty in processing public sector paperwork, 88 government agencies have committed to “Cut the red tape!” by participating in Project Repeal, which was initiated by the National Competitiveness Council in March 2016.

Tuesday, December 12, marked the third “Repeal Day”, held at Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria in Quezon City, where NCC co-chairman Guillermo Luz declared that 976 rules and issuances have been repealed by 13 participating agencies alone. These agencies are: * National Food Administration

* Sugar Regulatory Administration

* Bureau of Local Government Finance

* Securities and Exchange Commission

* Bureau of Small and Medium Enterprise

* Technical Education and Skills Development Authority

* Department of Transportation

* Department of the Interior and Local Government

* Office of the Transportation Cooperatives

* Cooperative Development Authority

* Philippine Coast Guard

* Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board

* Clark International Airport Corporation

Repealing involves eliminating, consolidating, amending, delisting, or retaining rules and issuances in an effort to cut red tape and enable Filipinos to save time and money, and ultimately lead better lives.

Some 3,777 rules and issuances were repealed on the first Repeal Day, while 1,098 were repealed on the second Repeal Day.

The initiative is envisioned to attract more investors to the country, and facilitate ease of doing business.

For example, it takes 16 steps and 28 days to start a software business in the Philippines. In Canada, it takes two steps and one and a half days, said Transportation Undersecretary Gary de Guzman. With the DOTr taking part in Project Repeal, 12 issuances have already been consolidated and amended into four issuances.

He also noted that, in line with the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program, the DOTr released a joint memorandum circular (JMC) with the DILG regarding the issuance and preparation of local public transit route plans, amending the previous JMC from 2008.

This acknowledges that local government units are in the best position to plan their jurisdiction’s transit system, and requires them to prepare route plans that meet the commuters’ demand, in line with the LGUs’ development and land use plans.

Meanwhile, DOTr attached agency Office of Transportation Cooperatives issued a JMC with the Cooperative Development Authority to regulate the issuance of certificates of compliance and certificates of good standing to transport cooperatives.

An example of the positive outcomes of similar initiatives is the expansion of the validity of the driver’s license from one to five years, said Luz.

According to him, Filipinos are inundated by a lot of rules and regulations from national to local government, which have built up over time. The question is, are all these necessary?

This prompted NCC to start Project Repeal.

Too much regulation limits the potential of the country to become competitive, said Department of Trade and Industry Assistant Secretary Ireneo Vizmonte. The inefficiencies connected with red tape drive them towards neighboring countries, instead.

In fact, the Philippines has slipped in its ranking according to the World Bank’s ease of doing business.

While the Philippines has been undertaking reforms year after year to facilitate ease of doing business, it is doing so at a slower pace compared to other countries, Vizmonte said. Speeding this up begins with “cleaning house” and getting rid of the rules and issuances that bog agencies down.

Each participating agency has a technical working group that cooperates with NCC in examining each issuance and rule that is subject for repeal. This means going through thousands of pages of documents each year, Luz explained.

According to Luz, a foreign academic institution expressed interest in helping speed up this filtering process through the use of artificial intelligence. Out of the hundreds of documents weeded out, people will then be able to examine those left more thoroughly and decide on repeal.

There are five options for a rule or issuance that is submitted for review:

1. Repeal – full elimination of a rule or issuance that is deemed no longer necessary;

2. Consolidate – integration of multiple, similar regulations into one legal document;

3. Amend – addition, deletion, and/or change of a certain provision of a rule or regulation;

4. Delist – removal of invalid rules and regulations from an agency’s website and roster of active issuances; and

5. Retain – to keep in possession of issuances which are still relevant and effective.

After this, the new document is submitted to the Office of the National Administrative Register (ONAR) at the University of the Philippines Law Center. It is also published on The Official Gazette and newspapers.

With the help of Jose Rizal University, the NCC arrived at a standard cost model, with which the impact of the repeal will be measured. How much does it save the people in terms of time and money to comply with the rules and issuances, and how much does it save the government in terms of time and money to enforce these rules and issuances?

The NCC will be doing this impact assessment soon.

Aside from the mountains of documents dating as far back as to the 1950s that the NCC and the technical working groups have to go through, Luz raised other challenges to the work.

First is informing the public about which rules and issuances have been repealed. What they found with the 976 items that were repealed on the third Repeal Day was that the majority of them – 708 rules and issuances – had been long ago repealed but were still listed on the agencies’ web sites and, therefore, were still being enforced on the ground because of lack of awareness.

Luz said NCC is considering the development of a website that acts like a search engine for users to know which rules and issuances are still enforced, and which ones have been delisted.

Another challenge is that some agencies themselves do not understand the full process of repealing. For example, they may not know that they have to file the information about the repeal with the UP Law Center, which serves as the national archive, for it to take effect.

Manpower is also an issue. “We need to have more staff, more trainers,” Luz said.

But, more and more people from government are believing in what Project Repeal does, and are doing the work, he said.