"Daang Matuwid" has made our country less competitive globally
As a business investment area, the Philippines has become very bad under this government. The best witness is the World Bank and the best evidence is the bank's latest global report on competitiveness. On the area of ease in doing business, the Philippines has been rated as 103rd out of 189 countries and economies. We had been downgraded by six notches from our rating last rating period which was already very bad enough being 97th. Among our ASEAN and Asian neighbors, the Philippines is ''kulelat'' or ''iwit." Singapore is first, South Korea is fourth, and the rest have much better ratings, like Hong Kong (5th), Taiwan (11th), Malaysia (18th), Japan (34th), Thailand (49th), China (84th), and Vietnam (9th). Is this going to be continued and perpetuated by Mar Roxas if he wins?
The World Bank has eleven specific criteria: starting a business, getting construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting loans (access to financing), paying taxes, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency, exporting and importing, sealing with workers, and protecting minority stockholders. To have been rated 97th in the last rating period was already dismal enough. To be downgraded further down to 103rd in a field of 189 countries could be considered as a despicable disaster by itself. The President can no longer lay the blame on former presidents GMA, Erap, and Marcos. His government has been in office for almost six years now. If this is DAANG MATUWID, then this deterioration is bound to worsen under an LP presidency again. Look at our airports, unreliable internet connections, horrendous traffic, crimes, drugs, kidnappings.
This administration should be alarmed, or, at least be embarrassed that the Philippines, under this administration, is now being outranked by such unlikely competitors as Latvia (22nd), Slovak Republic (29th), Slovenia (also 29th), Armenia (35th), Croatia (40th), Kazakstan (41st), Belarus (44th), Montenegro (46th), Cyprus (47th), Moldova ( 52nd), Mongolia (56th), Serbia (59th), Rwanda (62nd), Azerjbajan (63rd), Jamaica (64th), Kyrgyz Republic (67th), Bhutan (71st),Botswana (72nd), Tunisia (74th), San Marino (76th), Bosnia and Herzegovina (79th), Malta (80th), Ukraine (83rd), Fiji (88th), Trinidad and Tobago (also 88th), Vanuatu (94th), Samoa (96th), Zambia, (97th), Nepal (99th), and Namibia (101st). How can our country be outranked by these countries like Fiji and Nepal?
The Philippines has one of the lowest scores among the ASEAN nations. Singapore is number one, Malaysia is number 15. Thailand is number 49 and Vietnam is number 90. How can the Philippines be number 103? The government has not addressed the massive red tapes and bureaucratic gobbledygook in the procedures of transacting official business with government agencies. The earliest that the procedures of starting a business in our country can be completed is 29 days. In Singapore, it is less than one day. In the Philippines, it takes 16 procedures. In Singapore, it is only one procedure and only one office. On starting business as a specific criterion, the Philippines is rated 165th out of 189 countries, while Singapore is first and Malaysia is fourteenth.
On registering a property, the Philippines is rated number 112 out of 189 countries. On protecting minority investors, we are number 155, and on paying taxes, we are number 126. On enforcing contracts, we have a dismal rank as 140th out of 189, and on getting credit or access to financing, we have a very embarrassing score of being 109th. How can this country attract direct foreign investments with these kinds of business fundamentals? This government has complete control over procedures and business regulations. The ruling party has been in charge of this government for almost six years now. They are directly responsible for this mess.
How can this country claim that it is a haven for foreign investment if we cannot even fix this mess? That is why Grace Poe's ad on 'AYOSIN NATIN ANG PILIPINAS'' is resonating well with the people because, indeed, there are a lot of fundamentals that have to be fixed? That is why the people are very much overjoyed by the Rody Duterte candidacy because the mayor is known to be a man of action. He has the guts, the will and the passion to make things happen. He is not ''teka teka'' or a soft, sweet American style of red tapes and bureaucratic rigmarole. Digong is not likely to indulge in verbal calisthenics or waste his time on out-of-this world philosophies. This dismal and disastrous ranking of the Philippines can only be fixed by such an action man as Duterte. No more, no less.
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