Our generation needs an ENTREPRENEURIAL REVOLUTION.
I have been often asked by students as to whether in my business practice, I come across shakedown deals by revenue, customs, and LGU officials and employees, as if it is a trap question when the Lord was asked as to whether he would pay taxes to Cesar.
Well, I usually answer, if you were in a pig sty, would you not eat mud?
Can you succeed despite bad deeds around you? You give back what is Cesars. And hopefully Cesar would benefit from what he got from you. You got your permits anyway. And you can do business and you are on your way to serve your customers better with better products.
Obviously, whether there is "Tuwid na Daan" or not, the enterprising (or entrepissing) government minions will always have their way. I had two former classmates who did not last long in Cabinet positions (under an upright President) because:
> the technocrats he inherited have their own syndicates of suppliers and auditors; he could not bend mend their ways;
> he could not get a budget approval from the approving body unless he appoints a less qualified protege or crony
Another colleague who also teaches, formerly a senior military officer, and was absorbed in a Cabinet position resigned because his colleagues concocted cases against him; and since he did not have the money, he could not bribe COA or the Ombudsman. The corrupt, the crooked path (baluktot na daan most of the time wins, whatever the dispensation)
Despite the effort of the President to go after the Big Fish, the small fishes, I was informed by friends, are finding excuses to exact higher bribes and toll from small traders and businessmen because "Mahigpit eh" (It is stricter) Despite paying taxes to the government, their toll (bribes) have to be bigger, at this time that the former President GMA was served a WOA (Warrant of Arrest), It has no effect on them. " Tsk tsk tsk maski sinampolan"
The LGUs are very exacting. No PHP, no No wad of Ninoys, no permit, no clearances. And they could reach millions. Barangay clearances sometime run into hundreds of thousand. What the local government code had wrought, more crooks and bolder too, because they have more powers to veto.
Well power corrupts and it corrupts absolutely. People in the government, wield power and mighty power too: legislators, judges, police officers, revenue officers, tax collectors, approving officers. The brother of a friend had to sell his trucking business after he was fleeced of P5million, after the brother of mayor in Luzon rammed into his truck.
And we entrepreneurs must live with that, to kowtow to power wielders, and brokers. I hope the President is successful in his dream to rid the government of crooks.
Well, I usually answer, if you were in a pig sty, would you not eat mud?
Can you succeed despite bad deeds around you? You give back what is Cesars. And hopefully Cesar would benefit from what he got from you. You got your permits anyway. And you can do business and you are on your way to serve your customers better with better products.
Obviously, whether there is "Tuwid na Daan" or not, the enterprising (or entrepissing) government minions will always have their way. I had two former classmates who did not last long in Cabinet positions (under an upright President) because:
> the technocrats he inherited have their own syndicates of suppliers and auditors; he could not bend mend their ways;
> he could not get a budget approval from the approving body unless he appoints a less qualified protege or crony
Another colleague who also teaches, formerly a senior military officer, and was absorbed in a Cabinet position resigned because his colleagues concocted cases against him; and since he did not have the money, he could not bribe COA or the Ombudsman. The corrupt, the crooked path (baluktot na daan most of the time wins, whatever the dispensation)
Despite the effort of the President to go after the Big Fish, the small fishes, I was informed by friends, are finding excuses to exact higher bribes and toll from small traders and businessmen because "Mahigpit eh" (It is stricter) Despite paying taxes to the government, their toll (bribes) have to be bigger, at this time that the former President GMA was served a WOA (Warrant of Arrest), It has no effect on them. " Tsk tsk tsk maski sinampolan"
The LGUs are very exacting. No PHP, no No wad of Ninoys, no permit, no clearances. And they could reach millions. Barangay clearances sometime run into hundreds of thousand. What the local government code had wrought, more crooks and bolder too, because they have more powers to veto.
Well power corrupts and it corrupts absolutely. People in the government, wield power and mighty power too: legislators, judges, police officers, revenue officers, tax collectors, approving officers. The brother of a friend had to sell his trucking business after he was fleeced of P5million, after the brother of mayor in Luzon rammed into his truck.
And we entrepreneurs must live with that, to kowtow to power wielders, and brokers. I hope the President is successful in his dream to rid the government of crooks.
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