B.I.R. + Manila City Hall = Corruption

I was having a late Chinese dinner last week with some of my friends who happen to own restaurants in the Binondo, Chinatown area. They were lamenting about the fact that they are being harrassed by B.I.R. (Bureau of Internal Revenue) staff to pay their annual 'grease' money. And its no small amount, I'm telling you. Grease money could start from Php150,000 to Php500,000 depending on the size of your business and it doesn't matter whether you are earning or not! What do you get out of paying this grease money? Businesses won't be harrassed further and they will cleared in supposedly paying the right taxes to the government. Out of the Php150,000-Php500,000, Php 20,000 is reportedly submitted to the local government coffers and the rest is pocketed by the B.I.R. staff to enrich themselves. Even people who want to start a business in Manila are discouraged by the fact that they have to give grease money to practically everyone (the guy who signs the fire permit (on top of the grease money, you have to buy his overpriced fire extinguisher), the guy who signs the building permit, etc...its a long list, I'm telling you.) What I'm saying is, isn't the Manila mayor, Alfredo Lim supposed to be the Dirty Harry of the Philippines since he supposedly doesn't allow corruption and is as straight as an arrow. I used to admire this guy since he had the gung-ho attitude that the city needed but apparently, he is one 'dirty' guy that needs to be cleaned up as well. Mind you, I checked with my friends who wanted to start businesses in other cities and they told me this was not the case in their city. Clean it up, Mr. Dirty Harry!