The challenge

In the 2000s, citizens in the Philippines have faced significant difficulties in receiving prompt and efficient
service from government departments and agencies. For example, in order to start a business Filipinos had
to complete 11 individual procedures and wait for at least 48 days for governmental approval. This excluded
the application for a business permit at the local mayor’s office and waiting for designated print shops to
issue receipts, which added even more time. As a result, in its Doing Business 2007 report the World Bank
ranked the Philippines 126th out of 175 countries for its "ease of doing business".[1] These long waiting
times and complicated bureaucratic procedures were common to all the ministries that provided services to
citizens, from supplying business permits to issuing driving licences.

Given these complex procedures, many citizens sought illegal, corrupt ways to speed up the process. Public
servants were used to bribes, and they routinely demanded them: “many of the people who used frontline
services – and the officials who delivered them – considered bribery and inefficiency routine”.[2] It was
common to hire so-called "fixers", who made special arrangements to speed up transactions in exchange for
a fee. This, in turn, meant that the government was unable to collect adequate revenue for the provision
of its services, while citizens became increasingly disillusioned with the amount of red tape they
encountered.

Public Confidence Fair

Filipinos were used to a “red-tape culture" in government services, and it was hard to change these deep-
rooted perceptions. “Here, corrupt acts facilitate the daily transactions between citizens and institutions,
providing a survival mechanism which serves as a palliative to the myriad inconveniences produced by
public bureaucracies.”[15]

The Philippines' "social weather station survey" of December 2007 measured public opinion on "eradicating
graft and corruption" after the first six months of ARTA. It found that 55 percent of the population were
dissatisfied with the government's anti-corruption measures immediately after the enactment of ARTA.[16]
However, by 2010 the public’s support for the anti-corruption strategy had increased, in the wake of the
election of Benigno Aquino III

In 2009, the OMB and the CSC ran a campaign against "fixers" and the activity of fixing, “an act that
involves undue facilitation of transactions for pecuniary gain or any other advantage”.[17] This campaign
called on all government agencies to set up anti-fixer posters in their entrance and distribute "anti-fixer
calling cards" to their clients, informing them how to contact the CSC and the OMB in case they were
approached by fixers.

However, the CSC struggled to connect with the public and raise awareness of ARTA and its initiatives such
as the Citizen's Charter. As such, it was recommended by a study reviewing the implementation of the
Charter in 2012 that public awareness needed to be raised.