Doing business in Phl

Did you know that Philippine mayors are among the most powerful public officials in the world?

This is because our mayors can delay or refuse to issue the annual business permits to businessmen and entrepreneurs and there is nothing the applicant can do about it.

Not even the chiefs of the powerful Anti-Red Tape Authority (Secretary Ernesto V. Perez, a lawyer) and the even more powerful Department of the Interior and Local Government (Secretary BenHur Abalos, a lawyer and a former mayor himself) can do anything. ARTA and DILG have no punitive powers to discipline a recalcitrant mayor who delays or refuses to issue a business permit, which is normally a yearly routine and perfunctory exercise, done in ten minutes, or 20 days, max.

Except perhaps for the applicant to pay homage to, kneel before, start a novena or simply give the mayor what he wants – usually money or some concession or contract or making him your business partner.

Deck Go’s advice to businessmen refused a business permit or made a victim of an oppressive mayor? Vote with your feet. Relocate your business or factory to a more hospitable place. In his 33 years leading one of the largest and most innovative property companies with a nationwide presence, Deck says “the mayors have been generally good.”

The omnipotence of Philippine mayors surfaced during the hugely successful Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) “Investment Night” with Secretary Deck Go, the economic czar or Special Assistant to the President for investment and economic affairs, Tuesday night (June 25) at the Fairmont Makati.  Guests included diplomats, senior journalists, executives of the nation’s leading companies and groups SM Investments Corp., Ayala Corp., BDO Unibank (led by no less than CEO Nestor Tan and Ed Francisco of BDO’s investment house), GSIS, PAGCOR, Global Ferronickel, San Miguel, FFCCII and ARTA, “the most relevant stakeholders,” Go noted.

“If there’s any doubt that this administration means business, you can put that to rest,” Secretary Go told the full ballroom of guests. The dapper no-nonsense alter ego of President Marcos Jr. on investment and economic matters shared “some of the most significant strides the administration has achieved, as well as our plans towards building an inclusive, resilient and investment-led economy.” These include:

First, green lanes for strategic investments, which expedite, streamline and automate government registration processes.

Second, EO32 streamlines the permitting process for the construction of telecommunications and internet infrastructure.

Third, the ease of paying taxes law modernizes and simplifies tax administration while strengthening taxpayer rights.

Fourth, the new Public-Private Partnership Code updates the 29-year-old Build Operate Transfer Law, to revitalize PPPs and encourage unsolicited joint ventures as a PPP model for the delivery of high-quality and cost-effective infrastructure projects.

The biggest PPP deal so far: the privatization or award to San Miguel to rehabilitate the decrepit Manila International Airport. SMC pledged to deliver up to P1 trillion to the government for the right to manage NAIA for the next 30 years, and increase passenger traffic from 35 million a year to 62 million. Next to be privatized: Cagayan de Oro’s Laguindingan airport, the gateway to Northern Mindanao.

Fifth, a massive P9-trillion, 185-project Build Better More program.

Sixth, revitalizing the stock and capital markets to encourage IPOs and more stock market investors, such as allowing after-hours volume-weighted average price trading on the same day; a two-day, from three, settlement of payments for stock market transactions; simplified and shortened IPO requirements and processes and, after 27 years, allowing short-selling – “and this administration is not even two-years old,” gushed Go.

Seventh, launched two weeks ago, a fully working and operational Philippine Digital National ID, “proof of the administration’s strive to promote more efficient and effective governance through digitalization.” National ID is now used by a dozen government agencies, four private banks and the largest local e-wallet platform. Digital ID eases assistance – social, educational, medical – to the poor.

Go is working on a CREATE More bill to encourage foreign direct investments by (1) restoring the right of investment promotion agencies (IPAs) like the BOI and PEZA to grant tax incentives to foreign direct investors; (2) simplifying the VAT and (3) putting a sunset clause (expiration date) to income tax holidays while continuing with duty-free importations, VAT exemptions or VAT zero ratings.

The economic czar is also working on the Luzon Economic Corridor, a project of the G7 Global Infrastructure Partners and which connects the ports of Subic, Clark, Manila and Batangas which handle 80 percent of all cargo traffic, to lower the cost of doing business, attract investments in an area that provides 60 percent of our GDP and enhance economic dynamism.

Other projects assigned to Deck:

• Upskilling and reskilling workers for cybersecurity jobs which fetch local salaries of $1,000 to $2,000 monthly, from $500 for an ordinary BPO worker;

• Revitalizing mining. Chamber of Mines president Mike Toledo, a lawyer and a member of the MOPC board, says a mining project requires 1,000 – yes, one thousand – signatures to be operational. Gestation is ten years. Sad. Go says the Philippines sits on minerals worth $7 trillion. In Indonesia, mining is a $30 billion a year business.

Says the economic czar: “We have six other sectors we should focus on: renewable energy, tourism, semiconductors or electronics, food production or agriculture, pharmaceutical industries to bring down the cost of health care in our country and lastly, steel, the foundation of any industrialization effort.”

Why did Deck join government? After his business success, he says: “I want to do something good for my country.”

“If in four and a half years, I am able to fix a few things, it can do a lot of difference. A rising tide brings up all ships.”

And China? “We are open to do business with them,” Go says.

*      *      *

Email: [email protected]