EDITORIAL - Faithful implementation

This is a country of laws… that are poorly enforced. President Duterte, in his third State of the Nation Address last Monday, stressed the importance of “faithfully implementing” Republic Act 11032, the Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018. RA 11032 enhances the Anti-Red Tape Act or RA 9485, signed back in 2007.

The President’s message was directed at local government executives and agency heads, who are at the forefront of his campaign to eradicate red tape. RA 9485, however, failed to live up to its promise, which necessitated the passage of RA 11032. This failure can be attributed to its chief implementers.

“Corruption must stop,” the President said in his SONA as he told local and national agencies to make their services “truly customer-friendly.” The people, he said, deserve “efficient, effective and responsive government services.”

To stop corruption and cut red tape, the President must have an effective system of monitoring the performance of local government units and national agencies in rendering services. When it comes to ease of doing business, LGU performance is uneven. There is a rating system for gauging the quality of services. Picking some of the consistently poor performers for sanctions can put everyone on notice that the President means business.

To enhance performance monitoring, mechanisms can also be put in place for the public to report complaints and perhaps even rate the quality of service. Technology can be tapped for this; there are already rating systems in place for a great deal of services and establishments.

Laws are best enforced when accompanies by structural reforms. The Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007 failed to achieve its objective because those reforms were lacking. The Ease of Doing Business Act should not suffer the same fate.