The challenge

For entertainment value, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, with his precious scream, gets the top rating in the Pinoy ice bucket challenge.

Number cruncher Kim Henares has no future in entertainment. There were unconfirmed reports that at least one business group, with communication problems like Edwin Lacierda, initially offered to assist the revenue chief in taking the challenge, but backed out after learning that she would be hit only with the water, bucket excluded.

The real entertainer, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, said he saw no need to take the challenge since he does enough to help the needy.

Instead of taking the ice bucket challenge for a disease we can’t pronounce, people are proposing that lawmakers, Cabinet non-performers and other public officials who are wasting (or stealing) taxpayers’ money should take the boiling oil challenge.

Cooking oil discarded by fast-food chains, used by the extremely poor to cook pagpag or scavenged food, can be used for the challenge.

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I guess we can use entertaining distraction from many of our daily woes. Those long lines of people waiting with their umbrellas in the rain for their MRT ride yesterday must have wanted not only to douse transportation officials with ice water but also subject them to waterboarding.

We are currently distracted by the desperate Liberal Party’s trial balloons on President Aquino’s term extension through political Charter change.

Last week’s joke was that P-Noy would get two terms: a presidential term and a jail term. It seems Palace officials aren’t laughing.

Avoiding a jail term, not only for P-Noy but also for his other BFF Butch Abad, is widely seen as the reason for the unusual clause in the draft bill Malacañang sent to the House of Representatives, seeking a retroactive application of a new definition of “savings” that will save those responsible for the Disbursement Acceleration Program from prosecution.

The congressman who endorses the retroactive clause deserves to be the first to take the boiling oil challenge.

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When we’re done watching people having fun with ice water, our officials can return their attention to the problems plaguing our country.

Yesterday a top executive of Moody’s Investors Service said more than lifting restrictions on foreign ownership through Charter change, we must cut power costs and untangle the cargo mess in Manila’s ports if we wanted to draw foreign direct investment (FDI).

Last year Moody’s and the two other major credit rating agencies raised their outlook for the Philippines for the first time to investment grade. So far the investment grade has not translated into significant levels of job-generating FDI.

Earlier this month the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc. submitted a letter to the heads of the House committees on economic affairs and trade and industry, listing impediments to Philippine competitiveness as the country prepares to join the ASEAN Economic Community.

The Americans are trying to allay Philippine fears that free trade can be bad news for local producers especially in areas such as agriculture.

There are vast export opportunities for Filipinos in Southeast Asia’s population of over 625 million, AmCham pointed out. With ASEAN partners Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, the potential market balloons to more than three billion.

AmCham acknowledges that while free trade opens opportunities for Philippine exporters, local firms may be challenged by a flood of cheap imports and competition from regional service providers.

The AmCham letter, signed by John Forbes, senior adviser of the Arangkada Philippines Project, urged Congress to remove impediments that increase the cost of doing business in this country and make it difficult for domestic enterprises to compete with imports. AmCham’s views are shared by other foreign chambers.

High power cost tops the list of impediments. Forbes noted that electricity costs $0.20 per kilowatt-hour in the Philippines compared to just $0.085 cents in Indonesia. AmCham is proposing a waiver of the 12 percent value-added tax on power and fuel for industrial and commercial services.

Next on the list is transportation with its high costs. “Congestion on roads and at airports and seaports adds to business costs and reduces competitiveness,” Forbes wrote.

Shipping costs and complicated port and maritime industry rules constitute the third category of impediments.

Inadequate road infrastructure is fourth on the list, followed by poor rail services. “Unfortunately, the Philippines has a record of very slow implementation of major projects,” Forbes observed, citing the NAIA Terminal 3 and construction of new light rail systems.

Seaports also need to be optimized, AmCham said, and limits set on container traffic in Manila’s ports.

Non-working holidays are also considered a disincentive for FDI. The regional average is 15 a year; the Philippines has 20 non-working holidays this year, with several more being proposed in Congress to honor farmers and fisherfolk and to provide a rest day after elections. Investors are pushing for the approval of a law rationalizing holidays.

Smuggling is of course on the list, with AmCham noting that the illegal activity in this country “does not occur offshore or over remote beaches but in the ports of Manila, Batangas, Subic, Cebu, and elsewhere,” with importers in cahoots with Bureau of Customs personnel. Investors want a law that will bring Customs procedures up to international standards.

Corporate income taxes in the country are among the highest in the region. Tax filing, although simplified, still takes longer than in more efficient economies such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

Business regulations need to be simplified to compete with the rest of the region. AmCham is suggesting a program similar to the Repeal Days introduced in the Australian Parliament, to streamline business rules, eliminate redundancy and cut red tape. On March 26 this year, the first Repeal Day, the Aussies repealed more than 10,000 laws and 50,000 pages of regulation.

AmCham also points out that the country is lagging regionally in broadband speed, and wants telecommunications to be opened up to more competition. This can be done by removing telecommunications from its classification as a public utility, AmCham wrote.

Investors want online business transactions, which are simpler and faster, to be promoted. This will eliminate layers of bureaucracy that feed corruption.

We know the response of those who benefit from the inefficient and graft-ridden status quo: pour cold water on any attempt at reform.

Changing that mindset is a serious challenge.