Philippine Good Regulatory Principles Recognition and Awards Program (PGRP RAP)

The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) and Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) officially launch their public-private partnership dubbed, ‘Paspas Pilipinas Paspas’ Project, at the Novotel in Quezon City on March 17, 2023.

The ‘Paspas Pilipinas Paspas’ aims to boost the streamlining and digitalization of business permits, related clearances, licenses and authorizations of local government units (LGUs) across the country by providing them with computer units and capacity building trainings.

This is in fulfillment of the directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to streamline and automate government services to ensure regulatory competitiveness that will entice foreign and local investments, thereby improving the country’s economy and more importantly, provide a more responsive and efficient public service delivery to the Filipino people.

Forming part of today’s program is the ceremonial turnover of computers to LGUs. A total of 500 computer units will be distributed to 27 LGU beneficiaries, alongside the trainings that will be led by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). details from Mikhail Requilman of ARTA

-30-

STATEMENT OF SECRETARY ERNESTO V. PEREZ ON ANTI-RED TAPE AUTHORITY’S (ARTA) ‘GOOD PRACTICE’ RATING ON PPA ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER 04-2021

08 March 2023 – The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) recognizes the need for a more efficient logistics system to facilitate economic development.

In this regard, ARTA fully supports and heeds President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s directive to pursue bureaucratic efficiency across all non-regulating and regulating government bodies through streamlining and digitalization of government processes.

Section 5 of Republic Act 11032, or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018, and as reiterated in Section 5 of its Implementing Rules and Regulations, mandates that all proposed regulations of covered government offices shall undergo a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) to ensure that these will not add undue burden and cost to stakeholders and to avoid overlapping of regulations.

It also states that, when necessary, any proposed regulation may undergo pilot implementation to assess regulatory impact subject to the clearance of the heads of agencies.

Under Section 17 of the same law, ARTA also has the power and functions to review proposed major regulations of government agencies using submitted RIS subject to proportionality rules, provide recommendations to improve regulatory management and provide technical assistance and advisory opinions in the review of proposed national or local legislation, regulations or procedures.

Pursuant to this, ARTA recommended to the Philippine Port Authority (PPA) the conduct of a full RIA and submission of a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) on Administrative Order 04-2021 or the Policy on the Registration and Monitoring of Containers covering containers originating from foreign ports that will be unloaded at government and/or private ports under the administrative jurisdiction of the PPA. ARTA received the RIS last 30 January 2023 from the PPA.

After a series of revisions, PPA submitted its final RIS, and on 3 March 2023, ARTA sent to PPA the result of its evaluation of the agency’s RIS, which garnered a score of 36 out of 40 or a Good Practice rating.

ARTA highlighted in its letter to PPA that “as part of Section 8 of the RIS or the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, the PPA has signified that the IOG [Implementing Operational Guidelines] will be subjected to a pilot implementation and will be amended accordingly to address any issues and concerns that may arise.”

ARTA provides ratings on the quality of analysis in the submitted RIS, which are categorized according to the RIS score: Best Practice (40), Good Practice (30-39), Satisfactory RIS (24 – 29), and Insufficient RIS (8-23).

Best Practice RIS is deemed to be an exemplary model in policymaking. A Good Practice RIS has elements where analysis or the process were not of exceptional quality and could have been improved. Meanwhile, a Satisfactory RIS indicates adequate performance but contains a number of shortcomings. Lastly, Insufficient RIS needs to be overhauled.

To reiterate, the RIA helps policymakers, like the PPA, to examine the impacts and consequences of different policy options and enables them to form a sound decision based on their understanding on whether a proposed regulation will achieve its policy objectives. The decision to implement the regulation, despite of the results of ARTA’s assessment, is subject to the discretion of the heads of agencies.

ARTA, pursuant to its mandate, will continue to utilize the whole-of-nation approach to streamline and digitalize government processes and services to realize the President’s aspiration of achieving bureaucratic efficiency.

As such, ARTA signifies its full commitment to continuously interconnect the stakeholders and PPA to ensure the proper finalization of the IOG which will consider the issues and concerns raised by the stakeholders.

END