Starting a business in the Philippines is a struggle and one of the biggest reason is regulatory friction. This makes the process more complicated for entrepreneurs. I previously wrote about how corruption discourages Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in the Philippines, especially judicial and regulatory corruption. While true, that’s just the surface of a much bigger problem. The reality is that starting and operating a business is a struggle for everyone, including local Filipino entrepreneurs. There’s a massive barrier to entry that most people simply accept as “part of doing business.” For many entrepreneurs, regulatory friction and “SOPs” (which we’ll call bribery or grease money) are normalized as necessary operating costs. Furthermore, this normalization is the true hurdle for the ease of doing business in the