When government is the problem

Pilipinas, kay hirap mong mahalin.

I don’t know who came up with the expression but he or she certainly summed it all up. In spite of it all, we generally trust our institutions such as the SSS, PhilHealth, GSIS, the PNP, public hospitals, even the BIR. Sorry but not so much the NBI.

But as I explained to a foreigner recently, our perceived mistrust or distrust is often caused by politicians, legislators or members of the local and national executive department.

The local and national officials promise so much, raise expectations, create positive impressions but end up creating rules and regulations meant as “fund raising projects” that are unnecessary to the conduct of business.

I remember when a foreign national found herself going up and down the four floors of the Bureau of Immigration, then being told to go to the NBI where she was told she had to pay several thousands of pesos for visa extension. Only to discover that she didn’t.

I explained to her that the BI was not corrupt in the political or moral sense of the word but corrupted in the “operational sense,” meaning what used to be, no longer is, but no one bothered or had time enough to broadcast to the world that visa policies and rules were constantly changing in real time.

BI officers are insufficiently informed and trained on changes and answers to all possible questions. I wish the Bureau of Immigration can upload it on Google or AI if they feel they don’t have enough funds to train their officers.

As I travel around the Philippines, I notice that so many provinces, cities and municipalities have been moving to newer, modern capitols, city halls or municipios. They are in the right direction since new townships are developing while old ones are growing.

But while the buildings are new, the politics is old and the personnel or staff running the services or business of government remain old, jobs generationally inherited, inexperienced and apparently not closely monitored for competence and efficiency by the Civil Service Commission and ARTA.

All that regulatory and taxation burden is, at the very least, annoying and expensive. But what many Filipinos take for granted is the actual threat to their health if not lives that LGUs and the national government takes for granted.

Who is checking water quality and hygiene of those mineral water dispensing stores that sell us bottled water, sari-sari stores dispensing OTC medicines, medical laboratories, tiny clinics and kidney dialysis centers.

I have experienced discomfort, serious illness, repeated testing due to poor water quality, fake anti-diarrhea medicines, laboratory oversight and have heard nightmare stories concerning dialysis where the patient suffered a heart attack and died on the spot.

The DILG and the DOH, especially the DTI, should all be on top of these in the interest of public safety and health, not acting like influencers present and posting about the latest gathering or arrest they participated in.

I am sharing here an email of one of our readers that highlights our common hardship with Philippine institutions:

“I put up a small business and you can’t believe how many trips I have taken just to secure permits from city hall to operate it. Yes, of course at first I was learning, and the BPLO people seemed helpful, but in hindsight they have no clue as well.

“And then comes cedula, health card for which I need to get X-ray from their doctor, line up for up to five hours to secure the card that I have to laminate myself.

“The mayor changed, so everything changed. Now they required me to secure fire permit even if my current one is not expired and will only do so in six months’ time; so much for money making.

“Next was an app, the new mayor required all the business owners to download an app (geotagging with pictures) and take pictures again of our establishments with this new app (I am sure mayor’s kin has developed it and making money).

“Then we were subjected to buying specially printed waste can stickers from city hall with mayor’s slogan printed on them and take pictures for the lip service that is called CENRO (environmental compliance).

“BIR was a mess the first time, you won’t believe, first time I went to BIR at like 9 a.m., I was told there are over 200 people ahead of me, so next morning I decided to go early, real early, reached BIR Tarlac at 6 a.m.

“I was still some 50 people behind for an office that will only open at 8 a.m. One person told me she lined up at 4:30 a.m. to be first so she can finish multiple municipalities she was to represent that day. Amazing, right?

“I have seen many small time businesses extremely struggle to comply with their requirements. I had a lady in front of me who was begging that she has to leave her store to come here and if she doesn’t make the daily sales, they won’t eat that night.

“I felt such pity as she didn’t understand any of these requirements but needed to sell something to feed her family. Bizarre, to say the least.

“Every country has their challenges, just somehow I feel we are challenged only by politicians who create rules to punish small business owners to make their livelihoods. Real punishment.”

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