Ten Years of War Against Red Tape:

Breakthroughs,
Challenges
&
Possibilities

Submitted by:

Ma. Joahnna C. Rendon

Submitted to:

Dr. Lizan Perante-Calina

PA 209- Ethics and Accountability

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 I. INTRODUCTION
A. Background

“I order all department secretaries and heads of agencies to remove

redundant requirements and compliance with one department or
agency, shall be accepted as sufficient for all,”

– President Rodrigo R. Duterte

History has proven that in order for any development or reform to take place, the
government should be strong and ready to serve as the forerunner. As such, the importance
of a strong political will cannot be overemphasized realizing reform goals. Collorarily, the
above pronouncements of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte during his 2016 State of the
Nation Address expresses a strong sense of urgency in addressing the dilemma which has
long been crippling public service delivery- bureaucratic red tape and inefficiency.

Alongside corruption, the Philippine bureaucracy has become an abode of rampant

red tape. The tedious processes and procedures, the penitence brought by long queues in
frontline services, the clearances and the fees collected were viewed by many as deliberate
practices in order to provoke corrupt activities such as fixing. Some however argued that
these procedures, fees and clearances may just be a form of legalism or formalism.
Whichever it is, whether or not red tape and corruption are mutually exclusive, the tedious
processes and procedures in frontline service delivery have created distrust on the capacity
of our government to perform and become efficient at serving its people.

Worst, it has resulted to the Philippine government becoming one of the least
business-friendly and least trusted bureaucracies in the world.

In an effort to address red tape, the Civil Service Commission as the central HR
agency of the Philippine government has established various advocacy programs for

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 efficient frontline service delivery. These initiatives include sMamamayan Muna, Hindi
Mamaya Na in 1994 and the Public Service Delivery Audit (PASADA) in 2003.

Relative thereto, the effort to cut red tape and fixing has culminated on June 2,
2007 with the passage of Republic Act no. 9485 or the Anti –Red Tape Act of 2007 (ARTA),
an “Act to Improve Efficiency in the Delivery of Government Service to the Public by
Reducing Bureaucratic Red Tape and Preventing Graft and Corruption, and Providing
Penalties Therefor.”

The ARTA Law has salient provisions on (1) posting of the Citizen’s Charter (2) the
Report Card Survey (RCS) (3) Reingineering Systems and Procedures (4) Public Assistance
and Complaints Desk (5) Accountability of officials (6) Timeliness of action (7) Limit on the
No. of Signatories, five (5) at most; and (6) Penal/ Disciplinary Provisions.
http://contactcenterngbayan.gov.ph/images/pdf_file/IRR-RA-9485-ARTA.pdf.

The integrated ARTA (iARTA) program has likewise established the Contact Center
ng Bayan which now services the Citizens’ Complaints Hotline 8888, the “No Noon Break
Policy,” Service Delivery Excellence Program (SDEP) and the Seal of Excellence as a form of
rewards and recognition for agencies with exemplary and improved performance on ARTA
measures.

Ten years into the passage of the ARTA, where are we now on the war against red
tape? Were there improvements in frontline service delivery?

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of ARTA, the

breakthroughs if there were any, and the existing issues/challenges in implementation. It
shall also recommend timely solutions to improve enforcement which may be applied
contextually in the Philippine’s case.

A. Purpose of the Paper

This paper aims to answer the following questions:

a. Has ARTA improved frontline service delivery?

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 b. What are the existing issues and challenges in ARTA implemnetation?
c. What other solutions will improve its enforcement?

II. METHODOLOGY

The development of this paper entailed the review of relevant articles and
researches on Philippine red tape within the purview of international and local scholars,
evaluation of data from the Civil Service Commission as the Project Manager and
forerunner in the fight against red tape.

III. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

According to Osborne and Gaebler (1992), the kind of bureaucracies during the

industrial era, which are sluggish, centralized, preoccupied with rules, and with hierarchical

chains of command, may no longer work or serve well today (Denhardt and Denhardt, 2011,

p.23). Thus, it is important that approaches to governance are revisited constantly, renewed

and improved on to be at par with the growing demands of the people and the changing

times.

Osborne and Gaebler’s account of the industrial era-type of governance is a fitting

description of the quality of bureaucracy that the Philippines have. In spite of efforts to

reform our bureaucracy, there were minimal improvements, or if there were any, these

were not as impacting to be felt by the whole of our citizenry. Suffice to say, our

bureaucracy is still stuck with traces of the Traditional/Old Public Administration.

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 IV. Did ARTA Improve Frontline Service Delivery?
Improvement in frontline service delivery due to ARTA was evident based on
specific performance criteria, such as (1) Ease of Doing Business Index (2) Passing in the
ARTA RCS; and (3) Breakthroughs/ Success stories

Performance Indicator No. 1: Ease of Doing Business

The Ease of doing business Ranking of the World Bank is one of the empirical
measures of the performance of the Philippines in streamlining its processes and
procedures. It measures sub-indices such as procedures, time, cost accrued in starting a
business, dealing with permits and licenses, property registration, application for
electricity, paying taxes, among others.

Since the ease of doing business index is meant to measure regulations directly
affecting businesses, it reflects how business-friendly or investment-friendly a
bureaucratic environment is. The higher the ranking of a particular country in ease of
doing business, the more likely that foreign investors will invest, which in turn, will
boost its economy. The report is above all, a benchmark study of regulation (Ease of
doing business, Wikipedia.com).

The 2007 Report on the Ease of Doing Business of the World Bank shows that the
Philippines was rank No. 126. It should be noted that the ARTA was passed on the same
year that the report was released, hence enforcement was not yet ripe. Ten (10) years
later, after support mechanisms against red tape were installed, the Philippines was
Rank No. 99 (2017 Ease of Doing Business Report,
www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/philippines). The Ease of Doing
Business Comparative Graph (Table 1) below shows performance of the Philippines in
Ease of Doing Business across the years.

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 Table 1. Ease of Doing Business Report 2008-2016

The ranking of the Philippines has improved over the years except in 2015 where
the Philippines dropped 2 notches lower from rank 97 th to 99th. In 2016 however, the
ranking of the country remained constant at No.99.

Generally, the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) said that the country has
gained 49 spots in the Doing Business report since 2011. Suffice to say, the ARTA has in
some way, helped improve business processes and procedures, alongside agency -
specific (DTI, SEC) reform efforts and strategies.

Performance Indicator No. 2: Percentage of Agencies Passing the Report Card Survey
(RCS)

The ARTA Report Card Survey (RCS) is one of the many support mechanisms to
check red tape, as it is grounded on the greatest outcome indicator, client
satisfaction/feedback.

Selection of agencies that were subjected to RCS were based on high-density

transactions and number of complaints or feedback received. It also focused on local
Government Units (LGUs) and agencies providing social services.

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 The table below shows a comparative percentage of agencies passing the RCS
across the years.

Qualitative Rating % OF AGENCIES WITH RELEVANT QUALITATIVE RATING IN THE RCS

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Excellent/Outstanding 4% 8% 22% 26% 32.5% 14.06%

Good 27% 52% 60% 62% 62.5 66.64%
Acceptable 42% 15% 7% 8% 4% 7.84%
Failed 27% 25% 7% 4% 1% 11.45%

Sources: 2011-2014 RCS- Breakthrough, Game Changers in Public Frontline Service Delivery
Coffee Table Book; 2015 RCS- https://inaracetoserve.wordpress.com; 2016 RCS- http://news.pia.gov.ph

The 2011- 2014 data showed improved percentage of agencies passing the RCS
(Acceptable to Excellent/Outstanding) with decreasing percentage of agencies failing.
While the percentage of agencies passing the RCS (Acceptable-Excelent/Outstanding) in
2016 was lower when compared to 2015 data, generally, the percentage of agencies
passing the RCS has improved over the last six (6) years.

Performance Indicator No.3: Breakthroughs & Successes

Stories and paradigm shifts, alongside positive client feedback also prove
relevant to improved frontline service delivery because of ARTA. The Coffee Table Book
on ARTA, Breakthrough: Game Changers in public frontline service delivery published by
the Civil Service Commission in 2015 reflects success stories of agencies on
reengineering their systems and procedures to improve client satisfaction.

 PhilHealth
Philhealth members felt the benefits of streamlining of introduced by Philhealth
in its systems and processes. As part of its operational improvement, Philhealth has
stopped requiring birth certificate, marriage certificate, voter’s ID. Atty. Padilla, the
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 Prseident and CEO of Philhealth said that the agency has veered away from the usual
attitude of mistrust towards the transacting public. Atty. Padilla said, “We simply trust
our members when they fill-up a statement at the end of the form which states that all
their written information are true.”(ARTA Cofee Table Book, 2015)

 Department of Trade and Industry

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