Tangled in bureaucratic red tape - A Voice From America

Sometime last year, this columnist and his CPA-wife, Benita Rivera Delfin, were invited to a forum of Filipino community leaders hosted by Consul General Josue De Villa. The guest speaker was House Speaker Manny B. Villar. My wife and I agreed 100 percent with his message. He challenged the Filipino-American audience never to go back home if their sole objective was to seek employment or position in the government or private sector because there is already an oversupply of manpower.

The best way to help build our country, he said, is for them to go into entrepreneurial endeavors to provide employment opportunities for others, as well as to increase the three percent of the population who are entrepreneurs. Imagine that small percentage employing the 97 percent of the rest of the population.

Also a retired CPA, Villar is an extraordinary entrepreneur and has achieved spectacular success as a businessman. But to be a very successful entrepreneur in the Philippines is easier said than done because it is a fact that it is not what you know that matters but whom you know. I have a feeling that I could not have done my present business endeavors if I were in the Philippines as I never had any influential padrinos or a big capital to start a business. While the biggest business people in the country come from wealthy and prominent families in the Philippines, this is not the case in the US. The founders of Microsoft (Bill Gates et al), Wal Mart (Sam Walton) or McDonald's (Ray Krock) came from unknown families before they became legends.

Compared to the Philippine setting, we in the US. can obtain a city business license with one visit to the City Hall, pay a minimal fee to the city clerk in person . Or if you do not have the time, it can also be done by mail with just a 33-cent postage stamp!

In the Philippines, I heard that before a business license in most cities, especially metropolitan cities like Manila, Quezon City, Makati (and even in Cebu City now!) one has to invest not only considerable time but also extreme patience to undergo red tape and run-around that can only be avoided by lagay or grease money! I heard that before a project is approved, around 25 percent of the "equity" or future profit is already allocated as the protective tax (euphemism for lagay) among the members of the invisible syndicate.

So, if the would-be-entrepreneur has very limited cash resources, he has already exhausted his meager resources or severely reduced his capital even before he opens his business! To legally conduct or operate his business enterprise, he must deal with many hungry tentacles of the government from the Office of the City Clerk to the Fire Department to the Health Department (especially if you are in the restaurant business) to the Buildings & Safety Department to the BIR or Customs.

In the United States, many businesses can do most of these things via electronic commerce: you can download government forms, submit them on-line and we may pay our government fees with our credit cards. No red tape, lagay and wasted man-hours.

Video conferencing and on-line meeting with clients are also becoming commonplace. Are these also common practices in Manila?

In the past, I have seriously considered doing business in the Philippines, but it might be unhealthy for my kind of impatient personality to go through this kind of inefficient cycle of business. From the practice of "Filipino time" (a breakfast appointment becoming a lunch appointment!) to traffic gridlock are just too much for me. I easily get stressed out and frustrated just waiting in line or in traffic needlessly . In business, we trade our time for money. To succeed in the professional and business world, our time must be billable hours.

I know of some Filipinos in America who had never made it in there. They went home to become the "bridge" between some gullible clients and the powers-that-be. Without knowing anybody in the right office, they say, your business documents move slower than a turtle in the desert.

In the United States, we still practice that old-fashioned system of first-come, first-served amidst the strides in technology. Whether you are multi-millionaire or just a janitor, you wait in line at the City Hall or the Internal Revenue Service. Customers now also have the option to call for an appointment, like in renewing your driver's license. You can also do these DMV transactions either by e-mail or the traditional post office, unless we have to have our pictures taken by a DMV clerk.

I strongly recommend for the Philippines to attract progressive- minded and independent entrepreneurs to invest and create business and employment opportunities, especially in the electronic commerce and technology where there are many opportunities.

The present administration must also have the will to address the concerns of many business people in the areas of graft and corruption, law and order, and the justice system. It must also create an environment conducive to commerce and eliminate overlapping government positions that often cause massive inefficiency, institutional bribery and economic stagnation.

In the US, America On Line (AOL) has merged with another giant, Time-Warner; Bank of America is joining hands with Norwest and many other business giants are merging in their quest for optimum efficiency and profitability. Our Bank of the Philippine Islands is also doing revolutionary expansion by buying/merging with other banks. Progressive organizations are never afraid to shake and reorganize the wheels of organizations that have become quite obsolete like the dinosaur.

Unfortunately, there will be victims of change but there will also be beneficiaries of change. That is the unwritten law of nature. Forest fires were necessary to crack new seeds, fertilize the soil and to kill useless brushes and dying trees. As an American saying goes, "it is necessary to break some eggs in order to make an omelet."

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For a colorful contrast, visualize this scenario: When President Bill & Hillary Clinton were buying their house in New York last year in preparation for Hillary's running for the senate seat in New York, they were compelled to ask a couple of their Cabinet members to co-sign and guarantee the mortgage loan as part of the lender's requirements! Some of my Filipino friends laughed and said it was almost unreal. One even commented that in the Philippine setting, if the president wants a nice house, a mansion will probably just be "donated" to him and his family as the donor's "political investment". The powers and influences of the Office of the Philippine President can expand and extend to family members, friends, cronies and savvy political investors. These practices are obviously prevalent in the Philippines but in the United States, such occurrences will cause a tsunami in the media and the Internet.

In the United States, we have the freedom, the temerity and the audacity to embarrass the president, the most powerful person in the world, by impeaching him in Congress because of his uncontrolled libido that led to some inappropriate sexual relations. In the Philippines, I believe that such inappropriate practices will never cause a furor in Congress or be on the headlines. Amusingly, I was told that the reaction of the culprit will likely be "inggit lang sila" or "mas guwapo yata ako kaysa sa presidente ng America!"

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The author can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected]; or visit his website at http://www.progressivetimes.com