CamNorte Gov faces complaints for violating ease of doing business rules

MANILA, Philippines – Complaints for the alleged violation of laws on the ease of doing business were filed against Camarines Norte Governor Edgardo Tallado before the Office of the Ombudsman on Thursday.

According to the report submitted by the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) to the Ombudsman, Tallado is accused of violating Section 21 of Republic Act No. 11032 which amended the original Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007 when he allegedly failed to render government services to the complainant, identified as a certain Henry Zabala.

Zabala was seeking the renewal of his business permit and permit to extract sand and gravel, but Tallado allegedly refused to take action. ARTA is seeking for the filing of appropriate charges against Tallado.

“A perusal of the Citizen’s Charter submitted by Governor Tallado will show that there is an indefinite period of time for the processing of an application for Commercial Sand and Gravel Permit since some of the procedures depend on the availability of the signatory,” ARTA said.

“Under the facts of the case, even assuming that Mr. Zabala’s application is classified as highly technical and that processing time is 20 days, there is still a clear violation of the act since the last document submitted dates back to November 13, 2018, way beyond the processing time required by the law,” it added.

The report, signed by ARTA’s Director-General Jeremiah Belgica and Deputy Director-General Ernesto Perez, said Tallado also failed to provide Zabala a notice of disapproval — another violation under Section 21(d) of R.A. 11032.  /muf