Sad thing is that our politicians are only interested in things that would line their pockets. The administration would only try to do something that would raise taxes (look at the new Sin Tax Bill, people in government are fighting between figures only – 15 billion, 60 billion and are not even asking if the new taxes is good at all, or if the sectors concerned are ready and prepared to line their pockets for life in the form of new taxes), and laws that would protect themselves from public scrutiny (look at the New Cybercrime Law, and now the ignored, and probably forgotten Freedom of Information Bill).
Now, The country ranked 138th out of 185 nations in the International Finance Corp. and World Bank's latest "Ease of Doing Business" report compared to 136th out of 183 last year. The Philippines' ranking dropped in seven of the 10 indicators in the report.
Why is this so?
Sadly, every level in government is too keen of getting their share of the loot! They will hassle you as much as they could so you would be forced to line their pockets.
And sadly again, once you are in business, you have to watch out from other government agencies like NLRC or the National Labor Relations Commissions whose arbiters would blindedly play in cahoots with complainants to milk money from businesses (example a lady arbiter in Leyte).
The number of procedures rose to 16 this year from 15, making it the country with the third most number of procedures, topped only by Venezuela with 17 procedures and Equitorial Guinea, 18. In South East Asia, the Philippines ranks in the bottom lower even than Cambodia in ease of doing business!
One comment I like the most in yahoo regarding doing business in the Philippines is as follows, and I quote:
“If you take out 60/40 rule, there will be more foreign investors. Dont tax local businesses too much, lahat nalang puro tax. gagawa ng permit, tax. uupa ng pwesto, tax. BIR every month, tax. Every quarter, tax. rerehistro ng resibo, tax. rerehistro sa city hall, tax. bayad sa SSS, byad sa philhealth, bayad kuryente doble ang rate, bayad sa tubig doble ang rate, bayad sa telepono. bago pa man makapagumpisa ang negosyo ubos na ang pera mo.”
Sad, but true! We can only hope this government of Pinoy is listening.