I have been looking into info on "PEZA" - the Philippines Economic Zone Authority. It appears that for corporations which have 100% income coming in from abroad (which I assume you qualify for) you can get around many of the painful things that other corporations have to do.
For example, your corporation could be 100% foreign owned. Could you have just started a new corporation and simply started all business as part of that new corporation without "Karen's" involvement?
I don't think this is a PEZA item, I believe this is the case for any business in this situation.
ETA:
You probably can't answer this, but I noticed that if you are in a free economic zone with the same situation as above, you can get a tax holiday for X years. To get this, your business has to be physically located in one of these zones though. I'm wondering about the possibility of setting up a mail drop with a virtual office company which is located in a "PEZA" building.
ETA ETA: I can definitely identify with the feeling you get when you believe someone is trying to rip you off. I think that's unfortunate and may hold people back. In some cases, I see foreigners lose their professionalism and take things way too personally. Good job on getting through this.