Issues concerning the ease of doing business in the government is one common
situation we encountered when having government transactions especially
in the Licensing Division where we are applying and renewing business
permits. This is I think one of so many issues in the government that should not
be neglected and instead improve. Eventhough not big as graft and corruption,
but it is where much of the public are having their transactions, from getting
Barangay Clearance, Community Tax Certifi cate, Building Permit, Zooning,
Sanitary, Fire Permit and many more which also had their own requirements
before getting those documents.
A term streamlining in government is a way to innovate eff ectiveness of the
processes and procedures in any government transactions, a public servant being
competent enough to act promptly, just and with standards, often by making the
way of activities in the government performed or delivered simpler.
These is not only present in applying or renewing business permits but also
happened in the Bureau of Immigration in Manila, where a Filipino traveler as
she was not allowed to board her plane going to Taiwan and allegedly required
to submit 10 Birth Certifi cates of her ancestors to show her relationship to her
sponsor in Taiwan. This issue bombarded the Bureau of Immigration in the news
and social media worldwide. This may or may not be true, but still happened
to some but somehow with diff erent encounter or approach. Assume, that she
is really required to submit 10 Birth Certifi cates of her ancestors, I think is
useless and just mocking the process of getting a tourist visa wherein it should
be way easier only to have basic requirements such as unexpired passport,
round-trip plane tickets, a pocket money/show money, other government issued
identification cards and an affidavit showing the responsibilities of the traveler’s
host or sponsor of your trip to their countries and when they will be asking your
relationship to your sponsor you just need one or two documents as proof of
being your relative. No required 10 Birth Certificates or any other documents
that are somehow irrelevant and no more other questions that your great great
grandfather or grandmother could only answer.
This is not just happened to our fellow countryman who also intimidated
by fellow Filipinos but also to foreign national who are here to visit our beautiful
beaches. That is why many of them who experienced corruption here are being
so opened to talk about it publicly and are getting negative implication to other
nationalities, our tourism had been affected and having low morale from what
our countryman did to our foreign friends.
One instance also happened to many of us, when we are processing for
government issued ID for us to have one, some agencies doesn’t have any sense
of thinking to review their procedures for requiring us another two or more IDs
in order to get what we are processing. This is insane!
The redundancy and incompetency on the government services are
long issues we are experiencing always even the government employees we
encounter. Some of them have conscience of making our transactions easier
some are always irritated when so many questions we raised.
Streamlining of the redundant services should not be taken for granted and
forgotten. The what they called ‘Citizen Charter’ should also be experience by
the one who made it so that they could review the procedures in order for them to
amend some procedures that could make the public services simpler.
