Remember that BIR certification adventure from March? The one where I played phone tag with a government office for an entire afternoon? Well, I have an update. It only took four months.
BIR finally replied. And they said no.
The reason? They're changing the rules. Revising the whole certification process. And while they figure that out, the entire certification program is—you guessed it—suspended. Indefinitely. "We'll get back to you when we know," they said, which in government speak means "don't hold your breath."
But here's the kicker. The subtext I got was pretty clear: a small company like mine shouldn't be applying for this. We're too small. Too new. Too… something. The certification is apparently for bigger players, and my little startup daring to apply was cute but ultimately not what they had in mind.
I mean, I get it. Sort of. Bureaucracies love neat little boxes, and a two-person startup doesn't fit neatly into any of them. But also… how else are small companies supposed to grow? You can't get certified without being big, and you can't get big without being certified. It's the entrepreneurial equivalent of needing experience to get a job but needing a job to get experience.
So here we are. It's July. I applied in March. After four months of silence, the answer is: "Sorry, we're closed for renovations. Come back when we figure out what we're doing."
Honestly? It's frustrating, but it's not stopping us. We've been building without the certification anyway. UniSMS is live and the code keeps shipping. A piece of paper from BIR would be nice, but it's not what makes the business run.
But I gotta be real with you. This whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. The government keeps saying they think of the small companies, that they want to work with tech, that they're pro-innovation. But when push comes to shove, they're the ones preventing their own progress. They talk a big game, then suspend the very programs that are supposed to help. It's all pretend.
And that's what gets me. I despise pretending to work. I can't stand unsolved problems that just sit there forever because nobody wants to move the damn needle. Filing taxes is a pain point for me every single month. I live it. And they won't let me fix my own problem.
So yeah, I'm not sure I can work with that. Maybe things will change. Maybe they won't. But I'm not holding my breath.