EDITORIAL - Complicating instead of simplifying

It should be the goal of government, whether local or national, to make it easy for the people to do business with its different offices, bureaus and agencies. The less complicated it is for this interaction, the more efficient governance will be.

Unfortunately, the Cebu City Council, is about to embark on a journey that will take it precisely in the opposite direction. The council wants to takes away from the Cebu City Zoning Board the power to approve zoning permits.

And the only reason why it wants to do so is because it wants to play plain old dirty politics. Oh yes the councilors behind this initiative will swear to the contrary. But who are they kidding?

By its very name, the power to approve and grant zoning permits lies with the zoning board. It has always been that way because that is the way it should be. And because that is the way it should be, everything has always been hunky-dory.

But then one day the zoning board gave a zoning clearance to a project vehemently opposed by former mayor and now congressman Tomas Osmeña. It is no coincidence that shortly thereafter the city council, controlled by Osmeña, would want to take that power away.

And that is how dirty politics is. A vital engine of government that has been functioning well will have to be taken apart and “cannibalized” just to please some high and mighty political master.

If the city council proceeds with its foolish idea, then it might as well scrap the zoning board altogether and take over all of its functions. That way, even if its action is driven by politics, at least all the zoning processes will stay in one office.

If the crippled zoning board, which by the way is the expert in what it does, is allowed to survive with some of its functions while the rest is performed by the council, the resulting complicated mess will become yet another disincentive to doing business in Cebu City.

So, instead of attracting investments with smooth governmental processes, we will drive them away with the unappealing prospect of being shunted from one office to another for permits. Investors will be turned off having to deal with that lair of politicians called city council.