Permits, visas for sale

You can call it whatever you want, depending on where you are, who you are and which Philippine office you’re dealing with.

“For the boys,” “SOP,” “ECC – early campaign contribution (not environmental compliance certificate),” “payola” are just some of the common terms used to refer to grease money.

Businesses in the Philippines know all too well that it’s part of doing business in the country. As I’ve noted in past columns, the bureaucracy is flawed by design because there is a universe of syndicates benefitting from it.

This means that when dealing with a government office, more often than not, your transaction will take time or you will be given the runaround and then when you’re at your wits’ end, you’re then offered an option wherein you can just pay some fixers or brokers to speed things up.

Foreign nationals know this, too. What an embarrassment for us and yet we want the world to Love the Philippines.

I hope that this new year, we will see an end to this practice.

I’m writing about this now because just before 2023 ended, I heard some disturbing extortion stories.

Some two months ago, embassy workers from a Philippine embassy abroad extorted money from foreign nationals applying for a visa to go to the Philippines, industry sources told me.

Workers from this Philippine embassy were asking P40,000 from each visa applicant. This is on top of the standard visa fee and the applicants were told that if they don’t pay, their visa application will not be facilitated.

Some of the victims are Chinese nationals and some of them are here in the Philippines because they decided to just pay the P40,000, rather than not have their visa processed.

However, other foreign nationals, I’m told, are opting to just visit other countries.

Here at home, we’re hearing that some local fire departments are demanding higher-than-usual cash payments for fire permits, which are necessary for businesses to secure their business permits from a locality.

Aside from raising the cost of doing business in the Philippines, this is also a very dangerous practice. If fire permits are just for sale, does that mean that the structures aren’t necessarily safe? Does that mean you can get your permit as long as you pay the exorbitant fees, whether or not your building, condominium, mall or store is safe?

Some sources in the business grapevine are particularly heaving a big sigh of frustration over Bulacan fire departments which are using fire permits to get easy cash from businesses.

General alarm

The cash demands are high, say my sources. This means that greed level has gone up to the General Alarm, the highest fire alarm in the Philippines.

There are many ways they do this. One is from the purchase of fire extinguishers.

As buildings need to have a specific number of fire extinguishers, some of these local fire departments insist that you acquire the necessary extinguishers from their suppliers.

And guess what? The prices are many times more expensive than those available in the market.

Another scheme is a delay in inspection. Inspectors will take their time before they visit your site. They will then give you the runaround and find an endless number of issues unless you give them what they want.

In one instance, a fire permit that would normally cost just P20,000 has gone up to at least a million.

The effect of this is that businesses, big or small, would be forced to recover their costs. Because there is no way on earth businessmen would shoulder additional costs of doing business, they will make sure they pass on the additional costs to their customers or clients.

Unfortunately, this is not a one-time deal. This extortion is a regular enterprise as business permits have to be renewed. Come renewal time, there will even be additional requirements.

It is sad that our fire departments are into this racket, making it difficult to do business in the Philippines.

Over in Mindanao, in Cagayan de Oro, one small family business also experienced the same hitches from the local government unit. Their necessary permits from the LGU have been delayed because they refuse to give in to the demands of corrupt local executives.

Telcos, power companies, water utility operators are likewise experiencing all sorts of extortion activities from local officials.

Every signature has a cost

It must be very frustrating for businessmen who just want to do business. The result of all this corruption is that businesses have to pass on these costs to customers.

They could be using the grease money to improve their services or raise the wages of their workers. Unfortunately, they are unable to do this because graft and corruption remains rampant in the Philippines.

And apparently, because of inflation, this SOP, ECC, payola or ‘for the boys’ has gone up too.

I hope the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of the Interior and Local Government will look into the recent incidents I discussed.

We cannot go on this way. It is wrong on so many levels because it robs ordinary Filipino taxpayers’ money that should otherwise go to social services such as health and education.

Money that businesses spend on corruption has to be recouped elsewhere and, as I mentioned, we are all affected by this, either through higher prices of goods and services or less wages for employees of the affected businesses.

President Marcos has until 2028 to fix this social ill. We can only hope the ongoing political showdown doesn’t get in the way.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen (Iris Gonzales) on Facebook.