THE 34 REFORMS IN PHILIPPINE BUREAUCRACY UNDER DUTERTE ADMINISTRATION

December 7, 2020 utakhenyo

THE 34 REFORMS IN PHILIPPINE BUREAUCRACY UNDER DUTERTE ADMINISTRATION

The view of Weber on social order can be witnessed in the Philippine Bureaucracy under Duterte Administration. Initially, the word Bureaucracy had been usually associated in the Philippines with red tape, graft and corruption, slow service, bribery, “fixers” etcetera. Is that the original meaning of Bureaucracy?

The original meaning of Bureaucracy can be found from Max Weber, an important figure in the field of Sociology in the 20th Century. Weber discussed about the concept on his work “Economies of Antiquity” in 1908 and explained elaborately in “Economy and Society”. Weber defined bureaucracy “not as a type of political system, but as a continuous, professionalized and rule-governed form of administration”(Beetham,1993:971).

Morrison’s summarized the characteristics of the concept of Weber’s Bureaucracy:

Presence of organizational structure
System of Impersonal rules
Job description of Officials and subordinates
Contracts and fixed salaries
Guidelines of Operation
Clearly defined mission and vision
Code of Conduct
Decision making based from technical knowledge and expertise, and evidences.
Impersonal contacts of officials and the public

Bennagen simplified it:

“Bureaucracy is characterized by the following characteristics: precision, speed, unambiguity, knowledge of the files, continuity, discretion, unity, strict subordination; the bureaucratic office has a clearly defined sphere of competence, its officials organized in a clearly defined hierarchy of positions, and appointed, not elected, on the basis of technical qualifications. All personal and irrational elements in favor of specialists and experts.”

Weber’s Bureaucracy gave importance on effectiveness (Doing the right things) and efficiency (Doing the right things right), and the rationality behind the planning, process, and action.

The original meaning of Bureaucracy is too far from the concept of contemporary Philippine bureaucracy. What are the movements in Duterte Administration to improve the Philippine bureaucracy?

Creation of ARTA.

ANTI-RED TAPE AUTHORITY(ARTA) under the Office of the President was created by virtue of R.A 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018. ARTA created National Effort for the Harmonization of Efficiency Measures of Inter-related Agencies (NEHEMIA) to speed up the realization of the Socio-Economic Agenda of the Duterte Administration reducing 52% of “time, costs, requirements, or procedures within 52 weeks for the key sectors of society in 2020.” The

What are the current improvements? There are 55 reforms on five sectors: Connectivity Telecommunications, Housing and Construction, Food and Pharmacology, Logistics, and Power and Energy as reported by ARTA. Here are some of the improvements:

A.IN STARTING A BUSINESS

Removal of Notarization (Procedure 1)
Removal of Notarization (1 day)
Removal of Notarization (Php500)
SEC Registration (from 2 weeks to 3 days)
QC LGU Business One-Stop Shop (reduction from 6 to 3 days)
Pag-IBIG final registration require separate visit to Pag-IBIG branch office, which is completed within a maximum of 3 days; procedure is simultaneously undertaken with that of the SSS and PhilHealth registration. Thus, time should increase by 2 days.

B.DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS

Removal of Procedures 1 (geotechnical study); 2 (topo/geodetic survey; 3 (lot plan with site map)
Removal of Time (total of 25 days) for Procedures 1 (geotechnical study – 15D); 2(topo/geodetic survey – 13D simultaneous); 3 (lot plan with site map – 10D)
Removal of Associated costs of Php 125,000 – Procedures 1 (geotechnical study – PHP70K); 2 (topo/geodetic survey – PHP35K); 3 (lot plan with site map -PHP20K)
10.OSSCP Pre-construction permits/clearances (Procedures 6,7,8,9,10) should be amended to reflect streamlined preconstruction permits/ clearances, to wit: Procedure 2 – 1-time application for locational clearance, building permit and FSEC; Procedure 3 – Obtain building permit and ancillary permits
The time to complete the streamlined Procedures 2 (One-time application and submission of requirements for building permit; Procedure 3 obtain building permit and ancillary permits) should be reflected as 6 days. This replaces the time to complete old procedures 6,7,8,9,10 of 52 days.
Remove former 9 post-construction procedures 11 to 16, 20 to 22 and replace with streamline OSSCP Procedures for post-construction clearances: Procedure 4 (One-time application and submission requirements for a FSIC, tax declaration, and certificate of occupancy); Procedure 5 (Receive joint postconstruction inspection); and Procedure 6 (Obtain the FSI report, tax declaration & certificate of occupancy).
The time to complete streamlined OSSCP Procedures for post-construction clearances should be reflected as 6 days

C. GETTING ELECTRICITY

14. QC MERALCO MOU on electronic CFEI transmittal to Meralco by QC DBO; incorporated in improved Procedure 2 payment of service deposit and await contract approval.

15. CFEI is already applied for as part of DWCP and should not be doubly counted. This is bolstered by QC MERALCO MOU where CFEI is just transmitted electronically to Meralco

16.Meralco launched Meralco Online; PEC Program; Design Categorization Program. Thus, improving procedures: (1) Combine Procedures 1 and 2 and (2) change description to “Submit application with supporting requirements via Meralco Online and await contract ap

17.Associated costs of Php7,500 should be removed. CFEI is already applied for as part of DWCP and should not be doubly counted. This is bolstered by QC MERALCO MOU where CFEI is just transmitted electronically to Meralco.

D.REGISTERING PROPERTY

18.The public may readily access official statistics (number of transactions) from the LRA, through this link: http://lra.gov.ph/propertytransactionstatistics.html) or by going to LRA’s website (www.lra.gov.ph) and click the “Property Transaction Statistics” tab.

19. eCARs can be issued within 5 days from 14 days thru the BIR One-time-Transactions (ONETT) fast lane. Notably, in the majority of instances when the processing time took longer than 5 days, the identified cause was system failure. To address this, the BIR is already working on its Digital Transformation Program and is in the pilot implementation stage of its web-based modern platform – the Internal Revenue Integrated System (IRIS). Once deployed in all BIR offices nationwide, IRIS will replace the BIR’s 24-year-old Integrated Tax System, which is already costly and difficult to use and maintain.

E.GETTING CREDIT

20. Data Sharing Agreement between DTI and TransUnion

21. Section 66 of the PPSA and Sec. 9.01(b)(iii) of its PPSA IRR expressly repealed Article 2241 and 2243 of the New Civil Code of the Philippines (NCC), which provided for preference of credits over specific movable property (special preferred credits). All other laws, orders, issuances or portions thereof, which are inconsistent with the provisions of the PPSA and its IRR are likewise repealed. Since the NCC provisions were expressly repealed under the PPSA and the PPSA IRR, the preference of credits under the PPSA applies to ALL FORMS OF SECURITY created over specific movable property.

F. PROTECTING MINORITY INVESTORS

22. SEC MC 3-2020 was issued on 21 February 2020, effective on 27 February 2020 on the “Notice of Regular Meetings of Stockholders/Members,” applicable to all corporations, including Publicly Listed Companies (PLCs). MC 3-2020 provides that written notice of regular meetings shall be sent to all stockholders/members of record at least 21 days prior to the date of the meeting

23. Section 1 of MC 14-2020 (issued 28 April 2020, effective on 30 April 2020) provides that, “Shareholders who, alone or together with other shareholders, hold at least five percent (5%) of the outstanding capital stock of a publicly listed company (PLC) shall have the right to include items on the agenda prior to the regular/special stockholders’ meeting.” The SEC issued the above MC pursuant to the authority granted to it by Section 179(d) of the RCC to issue rules and regulations to promote good corporate governance and protection of minority shareholders consistent with international best practices

24. Section 1 of MC 12-2020 (issued 07 April 2020, effective on 15 April 2020) provides that, “The sale or disposal of corporate property and assets amounting to at least 51% of the corporation’s total assets shall be considered as sale of all or substantially all of corporate property and assets, whether such sale accrued in a single transaction or in several transactions taking place within one (1) year from the date of the first transaction (aggregate sale transactions).”

25. The right of a plaintiff to request for categories of documents from a defendant as part of court process is provided for under Rules 21 (Subpoena) and 27 (Production or Inspection of Documents or Things) of the Rules of Court, as amended. Section 3 of Rule 21 of the Rules of Court, provides that a “subpoena shall state the name of the court and the title of the action or investigation, x x x in case of a subpoena duces tecum, it shall also contain a reasonable description of the books, documents or things demanded which must appear to the court prima facie relevant.”

26. Under Article 2208(2) of the Civil Code of the Philippines, attorney’s fees and expenses of litigation shall be recovered by the party entitled to it (including plaintiffs in a shareholder suit to protect their interest) when the defendant’s act or omission (i.e., entering into a related party transaction) has compelled the plaintiff to, among others, incur expenses to protect his interest

27. Section 30 of Republic Act No. 11232, or the Revised Corporation Code, provides for the liability of directors who, fall under any of the following: “(1) willfully and knowingly vote for or assent to patently unlawful acts of the corporation OR (2) assent to patently unlawful acts of the corporation OR (3) who are guilty of gross negligence or bad faith in directing the affairs of the corporation OR (4) acquire any personal or pecuniary interest in conflict with their duty as such directors shall be liable jointly and severally for all damages resulting therefrom suffered by the corporation, its stockholders xxx“ The use of the word “OR” preceding each of the conditions under which a director may be held liable for damages provide for a clear and plain meaning that merely satisfying any one of the conditions in the list provides sufficient basis for liability.

G. ENFORCING CONTRACTS (EC)

28.The Supreme Court of the Philippines en banc raised the jurisdictional values for filing of small claims before the MeTC (local first instance court in Quezon City), from Php300K toPhp400K, beginning 01 April 2019.

29.This increase in jurisdictional value resulted in the simplification of resolving commercial disputes via small claims cases, such as those solely for payment or reimbursement or sum of money, coupled with relaxed rules of civil procedure and evidence

30.This increase in jurisdictional value for the MeTCs resulted in not only the simplification of enforcing contracts through small claims procedures, prohibition of lawyers and use of standard forms, but also in the reduction of associated costs, as follows: (1) removal of average attorney’s fees of 20%, in toto, and (2) reduction of 6% court costs to no higher than 2% 30. Commencing on 11 April 2019, the public can already access and search judgments of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals at http://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/ and http://services.ca.judiciary.gov.ph/casestatusinquirywar/faces/jsp/view/CaseStatusMain.jsp, respectively, free of charge. Judgments of the Honorable Courts may be accessed, including on commercial cases, through the use of keywords on the search portal of the respective websites

31. Effective 01 April 2019, the applicable rules of procedure for enforcing cases before the MeTC are the 2016 Revised Rules of Procedure for Small Claims Cases. Section 21 of the 2016 Revised Rules clearly provide that “A request for postponement of a hearing may be granted only upon proof of the physical inability of the party to appear before the court on the scheduled date and time. A party may avail of only one (1) postponement.”

32.Coupled with the applicable rules of procedure (Small Claims Cases), information provided by QC Metropolitan Trial Court (Annex D) on disposition of small claims cases, show that the time standards for key court events are respected in more than 50% of the cases

33. In order for the Supreme Court to ensure that all cases falling under the jurisdiction of the MeTC, MTC, MCTC are resolved in an expeditious manner, the Court resolved to adopt the Rule on Summary Procedure. All parties in cases falling under such rule, are prohibited to file dilatory motions or such other pleadings that would delay the resolution of cases. Similarly, small claims cases are governed by the stringent Revised Rules of Procedure for Small Claims Cases, as amended. This is further enhanced by the Supreme Court’s promulgation of the Revised Rules on Evidence and the Revised Rules of Civil Procedure.

34. Performance measurement reports, such as the Judiciary Annual Report, are regularly published by the Supreme Court. It provides a clear snapshot of the court system’s “impartial and timely adjudication of cases and the efficient administration of justice”, which includes but is not limited to: clearance rate reports, age of pending case report, disposition rate, single case progress reports, amongst others. It may readily be accessed from the Supreme Court’s website, under the Media Releases tab, and Annual Reports sub-tab, the earliest available of which is the 2005 Annual Report.

References

Bennagen, Pia del Campo. 2002. A Study Guide to Social, Economic and Political Thought. Quezon City: UP Open University Press.
“Accomplishment Report: Anti-Red Tape Authority.” n.d. AntiRed Tape Authority. Accessed December 6, 2020. https://arta.gov.ph/about/accomplishment-report/.

(The author is dedicating this article to his UP, PNU, and Ateneo Professors: Dr Myla Arcinas, Dr Lars Ubaldo, Mam Portia Soriano  and Dr Danilo Gerona, Filipino Historian}

About the Author

Peter Dadis Breboneria II (Formerly Peter Reganit Breboneria II) is the founder of the International Center for Youth Development (ICYD) and the program author/ developer of the Philippines first internet-based Alternative Learning System and Utak Henyo Program of the Department of Education featured by GMA News & Public Affairs and ABS-CBN and MOA signed by Department of Education, Voice of the Youth Network, Junior Chamber International (JCI), and the Philippine Music and the Arts. You may visit his website at www.peterbreboneria.com.