Duterte orders gov’t agencies to stop “overregulation”

February 27, 2020

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered all national government agencies to eliminate "overregulation" to ease doing business in the country.

This was contained in Administrative Order No. 23, entitled "Eliminating Overregulation to Promote Efficiency of Government Processes," which Duterte signed on February 21.

"All national government agencies covered by Section 3 RA (Republic Act) No. 9485, as amended, are directed to hasten the reform of their processes in order to eliminate overregulation," the AO read.

Section 3 of RA No. 9485, as amended by RA No. 11032, otherwise known as the "Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018," covers all government offices and agencies including local government units, government-owned or controlled corporations and other government instrumentalities, whether located in the Philippines or abroad, that provide services covering business and non-business related transactions as defined in this Act.

The AO said all these agencies "shall retain only such steps, procedures and requirements as may be necessary to fulfill their legal mandates and policy objectives."

"All processes in excess thereof, including those which are redundant or burdensome to the public, shall be deemed manifestations of overregulation and shall be removed accordingly," it added.

It said the entirety of an agency's processes for the availing of its services shall be subject to scrutiny, from the most established and longstanding aspects to the most recent.

"The imposition of tedious or time-consuming regulations on socially beneficial activities, as to render such activity impossible or extremely difficult to undertake, shall be especially targeted for reform," the AO said.

Duterte tasked the Anti-Red Tape Authority, in coordination with the Anti-Red Tape Unit established per covered agency, to monitor and ensure compliance with the directive to stop overregulation.

All the covered national government agencies have to provide the ARTA, copy furnished the Office of the President, a compliance report on how their respective Citizen's Charters conform with the requirements of RA No. 9485, as amended, within 60 working days from the effectivity of the Order.

According to the AO, ARTA shall review and evaluate the compliance reports submitted by the covered agencies, and within six months from deadline of submission of the said reports shall submit to the Office of the President, through the Executive Secretary, its findings and recommendation, including the compliance of covered agencies , as well as date on the total number of regulations repealed, percentage of rules cut or simplified, and estimated amount of regulatory costs saved by the government per covered agency as a result of implementing the Order.

Those agencies with processes failing with the scope of RA No. 11234 or the "Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop Act," the ARTA shall review and evaluate their compliance reports, and formulate its findings and recommendations, in coordination with the EVOSS Steering Committee.

Government officials who would fail to comply with the AO could face appropriate administrative cases.

The Order shall take effect immediately. Celerina Monte/DMS



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