30 July 2018

Ramon M. Lopez
Secretary
Department of Trade and Industry
3F Trade and Industry Bldg.
361 Sen. Gil J. Puyat Ave., Makati City

THRU: Rowel S. Barba

Undersecretary
Competitiveness and Ease of Doing Business Group

Dear Secretary Lopez and Usec. Barba:

This letter is to formally request for the kind assistance of the Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI) in the processing and renewal of its business permits
which has already suffered an inordinate delay due to additional bureaucratic
layers and deliberate inaction of the Majayjay LGU to the prejudice of our
business operations and beneficiaries.

The Case

The undersigned is the Chairman of the following businesses located in Bgy.

Gagalot, Majayjay, Laguna; Costales Nature Farms Inc. (CNFI), Costales
Agricultural and Skills Development Center Institute Inc. (CASDII) and
Costales Nature Farms and Technological Center (CNFTC).

All three business entities are engaged in organic farming, organic technology
and organic agriculture training. We are one of the very few farms in the
country that offer skills training in the field of organic agriculture. As such, we
are an accredited government learning partner of both TESDA (Technical
Education and Skills Development Authority) and ATI (Agricultural Training
Institute).

All three companies have been issued with respective business permit and
supporting locational and zonal clearance from 2016-2017.
On January 2018, we commenced the process of business permit renewal, as
required by law.

On__________________, the LGU of Majayjay, through Municipal Planning

Development Coordinator (MPDC) Ariel Rosas, has required us to submit
additional documents. These are;__________

On 14 March 2018, the undersigned submitted all additional documents

required by MPDC for Locational Clearance.1

On________________, the undersigned followed up with the MPDC the status of

our application, but there was no response.

On___________the undersigned, referred the issue to Mayor Carlo Invinzor B.

Clado, who has referred us back to MPDC Ariel Rosas.

On 02 May 2018, the undersigned wrote the MPDC and formally sought the
official requirements and other additional items in applying for business
permits.2

On 23 May 2018, Mr. Ramil B. Opinion, MPDC Staff wrote a letter-reply3 with
checklist for Locational Clearance and Certificate of Zoning Compliance.

18 June 2018 Submission of the Requirements

On 18 June the undersigned wrote a letter of transmittal to Mr. Opinion (MPDC

Staff) complying with the pending requirements and a checklist/matrix4 and
explanation. The MPDC Office however, refused to accept our documents.

Instead, we were given the same list of requirements which we have previously
complied with5.

1
Annex______
2
Annex______
3
Annex______
4
Annex__ Requirements and Matrix
5
Annex__List of Requirements
On the same day, we sent our documents through registered mail instead.

This inaction is obviously contrary to the Expanded Anti Red Tape Act6 which
states that acceptance of documents in frontline services is mandatory;

Section 9. Accessing Frontline Services- The following shall be

adopted by all government offices and agencies:

"(a) Acceptance of Applications and Request- (1) All officers or

employees shall accept written applications, requests, and/or
documents being submitted by clients of the office of agencies. (2)
The responsible officer or employee shall acknowledge receipt of
such application and/or request by writing, or printing clearly
thereon his/her name the unit where he/she is connected with,
and the time and date of receipt."

On 25 June 2018, the document sent via registered mail was received7 by Mr.
Opinion of the MPDC Office.

Up to date, we have not yet received any feedback from the office of the MPDC
contrary to the provisions set forth in the Expanded Anti Red Tape Act which
states;

Section 9, Access to Government Services.

"(4) The receiving officer or employee shall issue an

acknowledgement receipt containing the seal of the agency, the
name of the responsible officer or employee, his/her unit and
designation, and the date and time of receipt of such application or
request. "(b) Action of Offices. — "(1) All applications or requests
submitted shall be acted upon by the assigned officer or
employee within the prescribed processing time stated in the
Citizen's Charter which shall not be longer than three (3) working
days in the case of simple transactions and seven (7) working
days in the case of complex transactions from the date the
request and/or complete application or request was received.”

6
RA 11032
7
Annex_______Registry receipt
Although we have exerted judicious efforts to comply with the additional
requirements set forth by Municipal Planning Development Coordinator
8(MPDC) Arnel S. Rosas, our companies still were not able to obtain locational

clearance from the MPDC. This is despite the fact that per Citizens’ Charter
provided for in the Mayor’s office, only new establishments are required to
get locational and zoning clearance.9

The Citizen’s Charter at the Mayor’s office also spoke of “other needed
requirements if necessary”, but it was not made clear if such other
requirements are prior to the getting hold of the locational clearance under the
MPDC or prior to the issuance of the business permit from the Office of the
Mayor.

Explanation on “Other Needed Requirements if Necessary”

Taking the abovementioned clause literally, it provides that other requirements

will only be required on a case to case basis. While the rest of the requirements
have been attached10 herewith, some of it are worthy of discussion.

To reiterate, Costales Nature Farms Inc. and its allied businesses are engaged
in organic farming. In fact, Costales Nature Farms Inc. is a holder of
Compliance Certificate from Negros Island Certification Services, (NICERT).

As such, although we engage in commercial farming, we are not considered as

an industrial farm for we do not use any type of chemicals in our farm.

As a business enterprise engaged in organic farming, we do not use chemical

based pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers. Our livestock animals receive vitamins
and boosters that we ourselves concocted, from organic and all natural
materials.

In this regard, some of the additional requirements are no longer applicable to

our business, hence should no longer be required.

We have exerted best effort to explain our side to the MPDC but to no avail.
While our previous discussions with our Mayor proved futile since he only
referred us back to the MPDC.
8
Annex_______NICERT Compliance Certificate
9
Annex_______Citizens’ Charter
10
Annex___Matrix of Requirements
Requirements and Explanation as Provided in the Matrix

 Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC)- Although our company has

been previously issued by the DENR with Certificate of Non Coverage
(CNC), the MPDC has insisted on us getting an ECC. We managed to get
an ECC for the whole property, but the MPDC has required to get for
each business covering the same property, instead. We have already
complied with this requirement as of March this year.

 Conversion Order/Exemption Certificate from DAR, whichever is

applicable- There was no conversion of any of our real properties to other
category so far.

 SB Ordinance for Reclassification of Lots- There was no SB ordinance to

this effect so far.

 PCO (Pollution Control Officer) Certificate of Accreditation- Per DAO-

2014-02 of the DENR, a PCO is required for entities emitting certain
levels of toxic and hazardous substances. The MPDC/Municipal Mayor
should first evaluate whether it is necessary for our farm to hire a PCO
given that we do not reach the levels of emission mentioned in the DENR
DAO. Although we are a commercial farm, our farm does not engage in
industrial farming. We are a certified organic farm and we do own some
equipment that help us mechanize some of our operations. We do not,
however use, any type of chemical based intervention in our farming
operations.

 LLDA Clearance/Exemption- According to LLDA, there is no need for the

Costales Group to secure LLDA clearance because it is classified as
agricultural business, within the agricultural zone and in no way near
any sewerage system.

Prayer

Wherefore, we respectfully invoke Section 10 of the Expanded Anti Red Tape

Act;
 "Sec. 10. Extension of License, Clearance, Permit, Certification or
Authorization. — If a government office or agency fails to approve
or disapprove an original application or request for issuance of
license, clearance, permit, certification or authorization within the
prescribed processing time, said application or request shall be
deemed approved: Provided, That all required documents have
been submitted and all required fees and charges have been paid.
The acknowledgement receipt together with the official receipt for
payment of all required fees issued to the applicant or requesting
party shall be enough proof or has the same force and effect of a
license, clearance, permit, certification or authorization under this
automatic approval mechanism.

"If a government office or agency fails to action an application or

request for renewal of a license, clearance, permit, certification or
authorization subject for renewal within the prescribed processing
time, said license, clearance, permit, certification or authorization
shall automatically be extended: Provided, that the Authority, in
coordination with the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Department
of Trade and Industry (DTI), Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)
and other agencies which shall formulate the IRR of this Act, shall
provide a listing of simple, complex, highly technical applications,
and activities which pose danger to public health, public safety,
public morals or to public policy."

The business operations of our farm has already been inordinately

compromised and prejudiced, since our business documents are still pending
at the Office of the Mayor and the MPDC. With that, we have yet to renew our
learning partnerships with the TESDA and ATI pending our government
required documents.

More than the economic losses suffered by our farm, we are more worried by
the fact that absent our business permit, we could not offer our learning
packages and trainings to our target beneficiaries.

Our farm, Costales Nature Farms, is one of the very few government accredited
organic farms in the country that provide scholarship in organic agriculture to
our farmers and impoverished beneficiaries through TESDA and ATI. We pride
ourselves with this tiny contribution to good governance and poverty
alleviation, particularly in our host community, the Municipality of Majayjay,
Laguna.

We wish to reiterate that we are more than willing to cooperate and work with
the Municipality of Majayjay to put our business affairs in order, but we can
only do so, if they hear us out and evaluate our case.

So far, our pleas have fallen into deaf ears. It has been more than six months
already since we have commenced our business renewal.

Consistent with the President’s call during his last SONA, may we humbly
request the DTI to intervene and apply the pertinent laws to help break this
impasse and to compel Majayjay LGU to improve delivery of services. At the
moment, the additional bureaucratic layer imposed by the MPDC which do not
have basis in fact or in law, is not customer friendly and it utterly lacks
efficiency. We, the people do not deserve it.