Our recent family trip to the US made me realize something about how things are done here in the Philippines. It's something I never thought about twice even when I had an exchange with my American uncle who made passing remarks about things that shouldn't be.
The hot topic at the time was about the government wanting to restrict drivers in Cebu by limiting the days of the week you're allowed to bring your car out or what Manila people would call, "coding". He commented that that's scary. At the time, I didn't get what he meant but after our recent trip, it does make sense. Car owners buy cars for the convenience that cars can give them meaning, they should be allowed to use them whenever they want to. But this is just a side issue.
The real issue here is how much restrictions our government puts on us. You're not allowed to build a small structure without a building permit. You're not allowed to construct it without a construction permit. You're not allowed to occupy it without an occupancy permit. If it's a business, to operate, you'd need a business permit. Also, certain businesses you're not allowed to go into unless you meet certain requirements.
One cannot simply open a taxi company or operate a taxi service unless they pay a franchise fee and since the government has ceased releasing franchises, the people who used to own taxis are the ones who have taxis now. This is exactly the rule that made Uber merge with Grab! Some businesses are easier to go into. But some are very difficult. Owning large parcels of agricultural land can have your land distributed to other farmers (CARP). Car service businesses also have a harder time with the bureau-CRAZY.
It makes me wonder how much freedom we really have as a people. Wanna start a business? You need to ask permission from the government. Wanna build a house? You need a permit. Wanna occupy said house? You need a permit. Wanna
Now, don't get me wrong. Permits aren't all that bad. But when it comes to things you own and have, you shouldn't need to get a permit to use them! I would understand if the government requires permits for holding run or a triathlon or a march in the city. But those are cases where individual citizens are asking to use public property - not cases where individual citizens are getting permission to use their own property.
And if you look at what permits are, they're simply more paperwork which may or may not be read at all! Building permits for example, usually require 5 sets to be given to the city or municipality to be (quite frankly) stored.
And this is where most of the corruption comes into play. Imagine having to get a permit for practically everything you need to do. Permits are just another piece of paperwork which need either approval or denial from a person in authority. You can then easily see how this power can easily be abused. These people in authority can say what is wrong is right and vice versa with practically no accountability. Once they leave office, there's almost no way to hold them accountable. And if the system does catch them, guess what? It's another case of you can simply pay someone else to right your wrong.
It's a vicious cycle that needs to stop. We, as a people shouldn't be asking for more regulation on anything! If we should be fighting for anything, it should be less regulation. Keep the government out of things we can do by ourselves.
It's a vicious cycle that needs to stop. We, as a people shouldn't be asking for more regulation on anything! If we should be fighting for anything, it should be less regulation. Keep the government out of things we can do by ourselves.
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