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Old and new

September 1, 2006 by mlq3  
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The following will be my columns for Monday and Thursday, but I’d like to present them here, intact. They were remarks I delivered last night before the Rotary Club of Manila Bay. I am behind in other work (in large part because of two consecutive speaking engagements), and so this will be my entry for the next couple of days.

IT seems to me, more often than not, when a choir performs for professional gatherings their performance invariably includes a song or two from Les Miserables.

A musical Freudian slip? Are we living in “the best of times, the worst of times,” as dangerous, ominous, yet exciting, as Charles Dickens’ and Victor Hugo’s accounts of the French Revolution? I believe so. The Philippines is dying. A new Philippines is being born.

Which is which?

I recently had a conversation with a Filipino in his 70s, who spoke fondly of prewar optimism –the country had, alone of the colonies of the West in our part of the world, secured, prior to World War II,  a guarantee of political independence by a fixed date, and was the envy of our neighbors.

The Japanese Occupation swept all of prewar certainties, even arrogance, away; national solidarity, even identity, certainly the economy, was shattered. Our leadership was divided; our political cohesion fractured; our youth decimated; and out of the cracks emerged the violence that has characterized our political life ever since.

Still, things were slowly, if not very neatly, put back together in the 50s, reaching a high point with the Magsaysay administration; but that era, along with Magsaysay’s leadership, was short-lived. The younger generation of guerilleros who catapulted him to power, in a vote of protest against their elders, were left politically orphaned; and sooner than they could imagine, they, who were once the young and idealistic, found themselves challenged by their own children, who no longer looked to Jefferson but instead turned to Mao.

The signs of those times was not, to my mind, the Diliman Commune, but a parallel effort overlooked because it’s inconvenient. When the Diliman Commune, the revolt by students in the University of the Philippines in 1971 took place, some residents of the area banded together and hunted down the radical students. They were defending order and their property rights. There’s a similar political vigilantism among the middle and upper classes today.

The virtue of democracy is it permits the transition from one generation to the next, with as little bloodshed as possible, and hopefully everyone feels they had a say in what happened. It’s not a numbers game or merely following rules. It’s protecting the minority so that when they inevitably become the majority, they aren’t dying to strangle those that led before. But when Marcos’s pomaded generation decided they couldn’t surrender power to long-haired hippies, they consigned the successor generation to limbo –and our country to an escalating cycle of violence, hate, and fear.

Defective as the period transfers of power before martial law were, even that cycle was stopped. Anyone with an independent mind had three miserable choices: shut up, ship out, or shoot it out.

As an academic recently told me, with martial law, the country lost an entire generation of intellectuals. It lost an entire generation, period. Some went to the hills. Others sold out. Still more shipped out, returning only now, to retire.

It’s no wonder that politically, most ideas seem to be frozen in time, somewhere in the 1960s, and these ideas were themselves questioned by those who to my generation seem the hopelessly unhip hippie crowd. The hippies of yesterday have grey hair today; but what’s worse is the increasingly hairless but still dominant generation that the hippies questioned continue to rule today.

An economist also told me recently that when the economy collapsed in 1983, a significant transformation also took place. It was, he argued, the first time corruption became endemic in Philippine society. More so than during the Japanese Occupation, when, as you can read in Agoncillo’s account, the pretensions of the ruling class were punctured by their having to pawn their possessions and scramble for survival alongside the poor.

The poor have always been called criminal by the rich, even though all the poor are trying to do is survive; but when the middle class and the rich either abandon, or are stripped, of  all pretenses to public and private decency, you have a truly dangerous situation. No one is left with any moral authority over anyone else; what once served to keep everything cozy and looking good, proves as rotten and corrupt as those once considered moral, political, and social inferiors. So who has any incentive to worship anything except power and wealth? Why should anyone help or believe anyone else?

With martial law, Marcos secured the support of the middle and upper crust, who only abandoned him when he proved too greedy and then, incompetent; when Edsa I restored the premarital law leadership, who, lean and hungry from their exclusion from the rigodon of power, grew fat while the middle class allied with them discovered there was nothing for them; an entire generation of retired middle class professionals were stripped of their dozens of hectares of honestly-bought land, while the political class retains their thousand-hectare haciendas.

In Edsa Dos, in a last hurrah, the tired relicts of Edsa I were joined by the martial law babies, thrilling at the chance to reenact People Power, only to discover within weeks it was only Nani power, and Chavit power…

And again, there was Edsa Tres which failed, because it was not sincerely led, but which gave the downtrodden a taste of something they’d never savored in an urban setting before: they scared the daylights out of their social, political, and economic bosses. The end result was 2004, when I am sure many of your friends said to you what they told me: “victory at whatever price, rather than let the opposition come back to power.”

LEON Ma. Guerrero the great writer and diplomat, once wrote an apologia for martial law titled “Today began yesterday.” And he was right. The problems that horrify our middle and upper classes began yesterday, too.

The ability of showbiz personalities to steal the thunder of our traditional politicians didn’t begin with Estrada; it began with the election of movie idol Rogelio dela Rosa to the senate over half a century ago; about the same time that institutional supports for strong political parties began to be dismantled with the abolition of block voting.

The educational crisis we face today didn’t begin last year; it began under Ferdinand Marcos, when obedience was substituted for critical thinking. The old pillars of our communities –lawyer, doctor, dentist, engineer- cannot eat prestige today; and we already see a tomorrow in which our country will barely have a handful of them left.

The empowerment of places outside Manila didn’t begin last year; it began in the 1950s, when the presidency was stripped of its power of appointment over the mayors of chartered cities. It would have come sooner, if leaders like Raul Manglapus hadn’t been forced into exile. It was made inevitable under the present constitution, which abandoned the purely unitary state. It was given life with the Local Government Code, which remains underutilized to this day. It was delayed by Marcos who replaced the worst aspect of the urge towards autonomy, warlordism, with his dictatorship; and it is sadly being confused with a restoration of warlordism today. The autonomy too many of our local officials want, is entirely different from the autonomy their provincial constituencies actually desire.

Anyone who’se been in a meeting run according to parliamentary procedure knows that before new business can be tackled, old business has to be dispensed with. If our problem is that there’s so much old business that needs to be addressed, at least we have the freedom to inquire into new business.

You and I have a lot more in common, not only with each other, but most Filipinos of our generations, than we do with Filipinos of subsequent generations. I am, what they call, a martial law baby; and we martial law babies in turn have more in common with those who grew up under martial law, than those who’ve grown up knowing only relative freedom after Edsa.

The reason for this is whether in Manila or elsewhere, the things that make for familiarity, for a common culture and thus, a similar frame of reference, were enjoyed by my generation but have been beyond the reach of the Edsa babies.

Church, club, school, and community perhaps accounted for a greater continuity between your parent’s generation, and yours, and yours and mine –but there was a sharp drop, like a plunge at top speed off a cliff, which is what took place during the war and again in 1983.

But there is hope.

It’s in Naga City, Roxas City, General Santos City, San Carlos City, new urban areas where partnerships are being built between officials and the citizenry; where technology is being harnessed effectively without waste and window-dressing; where what matters less is what an official’s family has done before, but rather, what they’re doing now –and how they’re doing it, without need of bribery, intimidation, or a new constitution.

Let me briefly describe something I saw in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental. There’s a gated community there; but the homes being built in it aren’t being financed with inherited sugar money. These are homes built by nurses, seamen, contract workers, nannies and caregivers. People whose parents were sacadas told what to do by the hacenderos –or else. To have grown up in a feudal society, then, in one lifetime, to break that society’s shackles: the result can only be something new, unpredictable, and better. They did not go to the schools that tried to produce carbon copies of La Salle, Ateneo, UST or UP; they will never be Rotarians; but they will also probably never settle for a return to the old ways and the old obedience.

Add to their ranks the millions of Filipinos who have migrated within our country, breaking free of the old ties that bind; self-made people who can’t be expected to be as obedient to the local powers-that-be than they may have been from whence they came.

Add Filipinos who can’t continue schooling, or buy books, but who wear out display copies in the bookstores, and who seek alternative sources of learning. They do not obey the “no browsing” signs; good for them.

And yes, add the efforts of the clubs that do medical missions, not because an election’s due, but because it’s simply their civic duty; it’s in Gawad Kalinga that is building and rebuilding communities without asking anyone to be grateful. Though I do think a crisis is on the horizon, when newly-empowered communities start discovering they’re on a collision course with the traditional powers-that-be who hate empowerment. Today’s achievement –to get the comfortable and the poor working together- will become a tomorrow’s call to political action.

You know, the slogan during Edsa Dos was right, after all: “resign all!” But if you won’t go that far, consider what Winston Churchill once said. Explaining his view of his own role in World War II, he remarked, “the pomp and vanity must go; the old world will have had the honor of leading the way into the new.”  Those of us who are comfortable, cannot afford the illusion that politics is a waste of time. You cannot switch off the political noise. You can cover your ears, to be sure, but it will only mean you will, one day, get hit by a truck. Neither bribery, nor force of arms, ever replaced noise with harmony -unless your idea of peace is the stillness of the grave. Noise only becomes music with practice and patience.

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80 Comments on "Old and new"

  1. Chabeli on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 2:01 am 

    Beautiful piece, mlq3.

  2. vic on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 2:23 am 

    Politics is not a waste of time, never is and never will. It will always be a part of our existence whether we like it or not. Bad politicians as we had seen them, will set us years behind as good ones will propel as forward years ahead. Such is the case of the hapless politicians we have in the country. We had seen the unity the country has shown during the very short era of the Man we had known as the “Guy”, showing to the world , we were capable of uniting and moving forward ourselves even at that time. Sadly events abruptly “killed” that process. And we stuck since then. We never had a leader who has the noble purpose of serving the nation and its people sole interests ever since but their own. To this day, the same crisis after crisis mire the politicians who instead of working toward the nations and its subject prosperity, have only time to spend working out trying to get themselves out crisis of their own creation.

    In Celebration of my niece Bibs, and her two brothers “Lolo Munding” and my brother-in-law and my sister “uncle” 99 birthday anniversary, I wish the whole Philippines the Best to come..

  3. Karl on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 7:50 am 

    Beautiful,indeed.

    Hope that one day you will run for president!

  4. andre on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 9:42 am 

    i don’t know if you would appreciate me linking to the Singaw ng Bayan web site here :P but here’s a surprising new twist:

    http://www.sigawngbayan.com/042006/pages/0831c_story.htm

    it’s smear campaign time from the SnB group! para na rin nilang inamin ang katotohanan tungkol sa pekeng pangulo.

  5. Carl on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 10:16 am 

    “An economist also told me recently that when the economy collapsed in 1983, a significant transformation also took place. It was, he argued, the first time corruption became endemic in Philippine society. More so than during the Japanese Occupation, when, as you can read in Agoncillo’s account, the pretensions of the ruling class were punctured by their having to pawn their possessions and scramble for survival alongside the poor.”

    My father told me that, before WWII, Filipino politicians and bureaucrats were generally very conscientious and honest. People were law-abiding and there was a deeper sense of empathy. This was also confirmed by many who were of my father’s generation. In their view, WWII really turned values and perceptions upside-down. That was when black and white turned into different shades of grey. It became permissible to steal, even to kill, depending on the circumstances. The tendency to look out for one’s self and to try to get away with misconduct became more common.

    Magsaysay may have gone through WWII, but he was formed by the pre-war years. Marcos was molded by WWII. And the difference between both leaders is obvious.

    While I do agree that 1983 was historic in the transformation of our values, I am not sure whether it can approximate WWII as a milestone. I wasn’t around during WWII, but I was a teen, old enough to remember, in 1983. The economic meltdown, especially for the middle class, was truly unsettling. After the IMF default, when the value of the peso collapsed from P7 to a dollar to more than P20/dollar, the purchasing power of wage and fixed income earners eroded to only a third of what it was. Price increases of goods and commodities were almost a daily event. Hoarding was rampant. There was a great sense of anxiety about the future. And the reality that Marcos failed to look after the country’s well-being, only himself and his clique, dawned on the everyone. That was the powder keg that was ignited by Ninoy Aquino’s murder. That is why the middle class, more than anybody else, was at the forefront of the protest movement that ensued.

    Significant as 1983 may be, I still think that, based on the older generation’s take on events, WWII struck a deeper blow on our psyche.

  6. justice league on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 10:47 am 

    Manolo

    If you remember what I told you before and look at the last paragraph of andre’s sigaw ng bayan article; you’d see them practically the same. THose and other provisions make the ingredients for a bad parliamentary government.

    Though there are certain parts of the article that are puzzling. The last paragraph are for desynchronization of national and local officials. I thought the proponents are aiming for abolition of national elections since MP’s will be elected locally and there will be no more Senate, VP, and Presidential elections that are held nationally.

    BTW, I wonder why no one is willing to defend the specifics of the provisions of Chacha.

  7. taipan88 on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 11:00 am 

    Great piece, indeed!…as only mlq3 can muster….

    But the silence remains…..hanggang kailan kaya magtitiis ang taumbayan?

  8. mlq3 on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 11:45 am 

    Carl, the big difference I can see is that most people stayed home after the war, to rebuild and when they got pissed off, they demanded changes reflected in the elections. the only group that preferred to leave rather than stay, from what i heard, were the mestizos.

    during martial law people could leave and so many from the “best and brightest” left; then they were joined by people that until then, had no prospects of leaving -construction workers, etc. they leapfrogged over the local obstacles. it’s become a way of life.

    it seems to me the middle class had three waves in their exodus: during martial law, immediately after edsa 1, and over the past couple of years; from what i hear, there’s an even greater stampede for the exits going on right now. so the political and business elite now have a very big problem: where will their managers, etc. come from? SME’s are disappearing and the big players are at a loss as to who will staff their offices in the years to come.

    there’s no incentive to stay if you’re middle class and have middle class values: you are out-voted by the masses; you will never rise beyond a particular point because of the increasingly frantic stranglehold the bosses have; life’s no picnic overseas, but for someone raising a family or who is a professional, you can risk life abroad because it offers you more of a positive return for what you put in in terms of time, trouble, and talent.

    the french revolutionary danton explained his becoming a rebel in this manner: “the old regime drove us to it [revolution] by giving us a good education without opening up any opportunities for our talents.” though for us, instead of revolution, it’s emigration.

  9. Jon Mariano on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 12:02 pm 

    MLQ3, I can definitely relate to your last comment. So true, emigration is a great economic equalizer.

  10. cvj on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 12:57 pm 

    Singapore has a similar problem with getting skilled professionals and they address this by importing labor (like me). The Philippines should do the same. We need to complete the circle to sustain our momentum towards development.

  11. juan makabayann on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 1:48 pm 

    mlq3,

    “the slogan during Edsa Dos was right, after all: ‘resign all!’”

    I stood up and spoke at a forum at that time. My call then was ‘repent all’ — “mea culpa”, starting with one’s self. Then might have been the season for it. Is it still?

    Was EDSA II a choice (or a showdown) between an unrepentenant sinner and an arrogant self-righteous?

    Apathy is the harvest of a season of mutual animosity that was EDSAII.

    “But there is hope.” Indeed! In deed! (more than in words.)

  12. antonio walanglaban on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 2:08 pm 

    there’s no incentive to stay if you’re middle class and have middle class values: you are out-voted by the masses; you will never rise beyond a particular point because of the increasingly frantic stranglehold the bosses have; life’s no picnic overseas, but for someone raising a family or who is a professional, you can risk life abroad because it offers you more of a positive return for what you put in in terms of time, trouble, and talent.

    this is precisely the kind of reasoning that is enervating this country. there are too many of us who are too preoccupied with what we can get from the country, rather than what we can give to it.

    the middle-class is outvoted by the masses? then the middle class should stay to uplift the masses and teach them how to be more discerning. instead of being in competition with the masses, instead of giving up on them, engage them as fellow citizens with an equal burden to uplift society.

    lack of advancement prospects? this is nonsense. advancement favors those who work for it. not those who take millions from their parents, sink it into fancy business concepts aped from european or american models, and then sit back in a cafe and whine about the inefficieny of government. advancement is not the vested right of those educated in expensive schools or those who come from the moneyed middle class. advancement comes to those who are willing to work long and hard for their upward mobility. There are many of those, but maybe they don’t show up on the radar as much and so are left out of the reckoning of most analysts – when you’re hunched over with your nose to the grindstone, you’re easy to pass-over in favor of the whiny ones with their noses all up in the air.

    i spoke with a girl one time, who was going on and on about how terrible life was in the philippines and about how she couldn’t wait to get to america for good. i asked her if she was ready for the sort of hard-scrabble independent living america required. She answered – with amusing candor – not yet. but she was preparing for it. How? I asked. She replies:

    My dad has stopped giving me an allowance, I live alone in my condo and I drive myself to work. What she didn’t say was that her dad paid for the condo, paid for half the monthly bills and dues, bought her the car, gave her gas allowance every week, and paid for all necessary repairs. Oh, and her mother slips her 10thousand every week – for emergencies, she says.

    And she isn’t unique either. She is a clone of almost every girl in her batch at that hoity-toity school along taft; she is a clone of every girl in her batch at every other high-ticket university, including (and this is heartbreaking) the UP.

    This is the middle class that wants to leave the country and blames everyone else for it. The truth is, manolo, more middle class people are leaving the country now because this country just doesn’t quite match the glamor of living abroad. We have become a nation of sybarites and hedonists whose standard of success is how many hours one can spend doing nothing at Seattle’s best.

    Is there hope for the country? I would like to think so. But it does not rest on the shoulders of this merry-making generation that persistently inflicts its continued vacuousness upon our country; they should just go ahead and leave the country. Let others, less privileged and less complainy step up. Maybe then we’ll get somewhere.

  13. mlq3 on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 2:20 pm 

    antonio, i don’t disagree with you. i’m simply explaining how the current middle class sees it.

    my argument is (as far back as before the 2004 elections) is that the old middle class was created in the image of the old upper class. their eras are at an end. we’re simply figuring out what will replace them. i happen to think it’s a new middle class not as divorced from the majority as the old middle class always insisted they should be.

    i think a more democratic and thus unpredictable filipino is emerging.

  14. cvj on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 2:27 pm 

    manuelbuencamino, sounds to me like this is the essay on the new Filipino that you said you were waiting for Manolo to write about.

  15. iloilocityboy on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 2:51 pm 

    Bravo Bravo

  16. Carl on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 2:58 pm 

    Thank you for explaining, mlq3. Yes, from a purely middle class perspective, the 1980’s were indeed very harrowing. The prospect of economic stagnation or ruin stared many in the face. And the scarcity of opportunity at home drove the middle class to seek greener pastures abroad. WWII saw the middle class trying to rebuild from the rubble, but there was optimism and hope.

    What the old folk said about WWII, is that it was a “defining” moment because much of what was once thought to be sacrosanct, no longer was so. Hunger and deprivation led to rampant theft and crime. Respect for authority was eroded by calls to resist those who stayed behind to keep some semblance of order. Debate over who were collaborators or who were “patriots” was never fully resolved and caused a rift in the national psyche. Faith in the once Almighty America was shaken by her retreat and the subsequent Japanese occupation. Large-scale corruption was thought to have been kindled through the shenanigans with the post-war reparations and the war “surplus”, which were cornered by a favored few. Rebuilding after the war spurred world-wide demand in metal and lumber, leading to granting of money-making mining and timber concessions to chosen cronies or politicians.

    Aside from human casualties and damage to our values and beliefs, there was the destruction of many historical landmarks. Somehow, the disappearance of structures that bonded us to the past gave a new generation a less profound appreciation of our heritage.

  17. cocoy on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 2:59 pm 

    *nods* excellent piece!

    you said po: “i think a more democratic and thus unpredictable filipino is emerging.” maybe a smarter one.

  18. Jeg on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 3:17 pm 

    The new middle class: Born from the sweat of the deserts of the Middle East, the nursing homes in Boston and London, the kitchens and bathrooms of Italy, and the engine rooms of ships all over the world. I like it. I can talk to those people; sit down with them and have a beer. And if carlos celdran and leah navarro can sit and have a beer with them, too, so they can learn about the finer things… Hoo boy! Me like. :-)

  19. mlq3 on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 3:42 pm 

    knowi ng both carlos and leah, i think they are the last people who would ever have a problerm having a beer and a heart to heart talk with anyone.

  20. Jon Mariano on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 4:43 pm 

    Antonio,
    That condo girl you described is middle class? Wow, I thought that kind of living is not! That’s a rich man’s life having parents that can buy you a condo, car, and 10k weekly allowance…

  21. Karl on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 4:50 pm 

    Carl said,
    “Magsaysay may have gone through WWII, but he was formed by the pre-war years. Marcos was molded by WWII. ”

    I believe they only got 10-12 years difference between them and both were molded pre world war II,but the difference is indeed obvious.

    About the post world war II shocking change of values,I agree and I think the circumstances turned an anti Japanese revolutionary group to evolve to communism and this evolution contineued during martial law.

    About people leaving the country, what will happen if the geniuses pegged the dollar to let say 60 to one,will it result to growth in exports or more people leaving.

  22. emilie on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 6:30 pm 

    karl, if you go by history from P 7 :1 to its present level and nothing is done to change the economic laws of this country then you get the same result a small growth in export but more more people leaving because the level of opportunity for middle class to lower class people (aggravated by uncontrolled growth in population) remains very low. The size of any market in this country is very very low compared to our neighbors. Only the very rich Filipinos become richer and richer because they alone can exploit the opportunities be it banking..natural resources, media, public utilities, telecom name it even the quality of their service is despicable which is like ..the consumer is the sacada and they are the landlord and by golly even the cost of their failures in foreign exchange management and system losses have to be borne by the helpless consumer. Its not enough that they are incompetent Karl we helpless consumers will even guarantee their return!

  23. cvj on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 7:18 pm 

    Good thing there is the One Voice position paper to explain why changing the economic provisions of the constitution is at most peripheral to attracting foreign investors.

  24. The Most Useless President(?) That Ever Was « manila needs dextrose !! on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 10:10 pm 

    [...] Let us see. Manolo Quezon has an interesting take on this, discussing our history since post war Philippines till today. Who knows how many more decades of disastrous the country will go through. Worst than an oil spill is the bigger crime of shoosing to neglect a problem, and hoping to awake one day to realize it was just a bad nightmare. Maybe that is why she is sleeping earlier these days. [...]

  25. justice league on Fri, 1st Sep 2006 11:47 pm 

    Emilie

    Your reply comes across in a way that implies that you are in favor of the economic changes proposed in the revision of the Charter.

    Your statement “Only the very rich Filipinos become richer and richer because they alone can exploit the opportunities …..” says as much.

    Unfortunately, there is no current mode proposed by the proponents that will give you your economic changes without the “other provisions”.

    Even if your economic changes are supposed to uplift the country; those changes will not come about without the acceptance of the other provisions.

    The House resolution of their proposed revision w/c is being circulated in the House will be asked to be accepted IN TOTO. The so called People’s Initiative will first mandate “other” provisions before your economic changes are even acted upon. The ConCom recommendations also lump together the economic changes with other revisions.

    It is practically fruitless to talk about economic revisions without the other revisions since one will not come without the other.

    The other revisions are also likely to affect the benefits of the economic changes that economic uplift is unlikely to be attained.

    Last night during the “DEBATE with Mare and Pare”, Sigaw ng Bayan’s Atty. Lambino had a faux pas when he stated that the interim Parliament will have 3 years to debate the other amendments. He has therefore admitted that Sigaw ng Bayan stands for the deferment of the 2007 elections even though they continuosly trumpet that they are for the holding of elections in 2007.

    Should the people realize that Sigaw is fooling them, there will be hell to pay!

    But first things first, are you prepared to defend the other changes that will come along or even come befere your economic changes?

  26. antonio walanglaban on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 12:21 am 

    hi jl. you seem real eager to debate charter change. care to post the address of that forum you mentioned? sounds like a lively place to visit.

  27. manuelbuencamino on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 12:27 am 

    “my argument is (as far back as before the 2004 elections) is that the old middle class was created in the image of the old upper class. their eras are at an end. we’re simply figuring out what will replace them. “- mlq3

    I agree and even more so now that ten percent of our people are out there learning, adapting, and adopting many different cultures.

    How much influence will returning OFWs have ? And which infuences will dominate – middle east. europe. southeast asiam. northern asian, north american? How will they grow when they are replanted or grafted here?

    We are turning into an america, a nation of many different cultures, except that the foreign influence or culture will be brought in by our own people and not by foreigners themselves. These new ways will be grafted not melted into our culture.

    Remember how those Filipinos who studied in Spain came back with ideas that changed our country? And those pensionados who were sent to study in america in order to change our country? They were the first bureaucrats etc. But in both cases we are talking about less than ten thousand people bringing home foreign influence, Now we have ten percent of our population out there and a tectonic change is unevitable except I don’t know what it will be.

  28. antonio walanglaban on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 12:31 am 

    mb, are we getting better?

  29. mlq3 on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 12:35 am 

    i don’t think it will be the ones from america, but maybe i’m being biased (along the lines antonio walanglaban described above). the old middle class that goes to america does not come back, or if they do, their children don’t. again, it’s just my hunch, but a filipino middle class person who does well in america comes home to join the upper class at home, or begins to behave like the old upper class among filipinos in america.

    since those who go to europe and m.e. more likely end up coming back, they probably have a more enduring influence. thing is, there isn’t much that’s inspiring or that can be transplanted from the oppressive circumstances filipinos find themselves in the m.e. i think the main effect those from the m.e. and asia will have, is that they build up a new middle class in terms of property and aspirations, but it isn’t an imitation of america, but instead, the middle classes in asia and m.e.

    so my bet is for the ones in asia (but i do hear of filipinos, for example, in china, who become quite authoritarian in their attitudes), and the ones in europe, but that again may be my bias for the western european welfare state. i’d like to think filipinos exposed to benelex, france, the uk, etc. will have a more political influence…

  30. justice league on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 12:45 am 

    Mukamo forum= http://forums.mukamo.com/index.php?act=idx

    I could direct you to other fora.

    But those sites have admins and mods that do not appear to favor revison of the charter as it is proposed right now.

    Mukamo forum have mods that favor the present Charter Change who are active in the discussion. They will be professional in their job but pro chachas will at least feel secure that most of the mods who are active in that thread will be on their side.

    Pag sa iba ko kayo dinala ay baka mods pa ang makaargumento nyo and you might feel intimidated in one way or another.

    However, you must sign on as a member before you actually even get to read the discussions. Guests only get to see the topics discussed and the last poster.

    The thread for Charter Change is inside ISYU 101 discussion board.

    My arguments are already posted there. I’ll be waiting for you.

  31. antonio walanglaban on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 12:48 am 

    whatever effect the european culture may have on the way filipinos think may be overwhelmed, manolo, with the all-pervasive trappings of americana.

    with regard to the welfare state concept, hasn’t that been discredited of late? I mean most of europe is in the economic doldrums owing to their youth not being too eager to work; germany in particular and some of the slavic states.

  32. DatuPanot on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 1:47 am 

    don manolo et al,

    the multi-cultural filipino, the end product of filipino diaspora is an interesting phenomenon. it’s already happening…just look around. i just hope that something good comes out of this phenomena.

  33. TalkIsCheap on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 8:51 am 

    Oh my God! This essay is amazing. I bet GMA is trembling as of this moment. The IMF and World Bank are also now considering to forgive our loans! Such is the power of blogging!

  34. Karl on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 9:45 am 

    Nice to hear from you Emilie! Long time no see,I thought that iniduro was your OTHER ID but after looking at it,iniduro is a toilet seat, kaya imposible.
    I wanted to butt in when inidurio says that you are pro GMA,that you already mentioned that you are not,and you are against a parliamentary but open to ammendments in certain economic provisions.That cannot happen if the PI or conass succeeds ,the certain economic ammendments can only happen if the parliamentary trump card can be defeated.Having said that I think Justice League is correct.

  35. Carl on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 9:50 am 

    Regarding the Filipino diaspora most likely to influence the country in the future, mlq said: “i don’t think it will be the ones from america”

    My own experience with friends and relatives who have immigrated to the USA is as Manolo describes. Most will not come home or, if they do, it will only be as a second home when they retire, commuting back and forth with the US. Certainly, their children won’t come home. Most Filipinos who are raised in the US become totally Americanized and don’t exactly have a very flattering concept of the Philippines.

    As a matter of fact, and I don’t know if others have had the same experience, I am often astonished at how many Filipinos in the US have embraced conservative politics. While they may not necessarily be card-carrying Republicans, most hew along a conservative line of thinking. Some even evoke redneck attitudes, such as contempt for blacks, Muslims and Mexicans and, believe it or not, support racial profiling in order to wage the war on terror.

    On Marcos and Magsaysay, Karl said: “I believe they only got 10-12 years difference between them and both were molded pre world war II, but the difference is indeed obvious”.

    10-12 years can be a generation when it concerns a defining period like WWII. While Magsaysay was already a grown man with a family, Marcos was still a young man who could have been very much influenced by the circumstances during that period. The lack of clear moral guidelines due to the prevailing disorder, for example, permitted Marcos to engage in a lucrative business of selling scrap and other supplies to the Japanese while at the same time working for the guerillas (and manufacturing the stories that would award him medals for valor, post-WWII). WWII also presented Marcos the opportunity to use his legal skills to make big money. After the war, Marcos made a name and a fortune by falsifying documents so that he and his clients could claim huge compensations via the war reparations.

    Of course, it could be said that Marcos was naturally devious. But I also believe that the circumstances brought it out.

  36. Karl on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 10:33 am 

    Thank You Carl, for that WWII generation gap explanation.

    On another note….
    On brain gain from those coming back from the U.S. unfortunately did not do much for our country.Without naming names , I think We had many a finance secretary,trade secretary
    who had agood life in the states and went back only to be frustrated and finally decide that the private sector is much better.
    There seems to be may root causes for our problems some say its governance, but good people were made to lead and it is still a failure,some say it is education..our best and the brightest leaves..our best nurses leave,our best pilots leave.

    But I am not hopeless,but again the answer is not the public sector. Gawad Kalinga’s model is now to be adopted by a group of rich people to apply it then to education…

    So we do not need a foreign model to emulate to make our country better,the GK model even amazed foreign scholars who had a model of their own.

  37. Karl on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 10:42 am 

    I forgot to mention the bloated bureacracy…
    As to my question which was answered by Emilie on pegging our peso to 60 ,70 or even 80 to make our exports competitive is useless with our bloated bureaucracy … To be able to complete the export process,you need to pass through 35 or more signatories and that happens not only in exports…To have a business permit 6 months is a conservative estimate.

    There are many people in the public sector,so it is quite amazing that many people blame the government.
    We cannot solve our problems if we really do not have a clear unerstanding of what our problem really is.
    We have many ambiguous symptoms and our doctors give the wrong medicines.

  38. Karl on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 11:27 am 

    Antonio said,
    “lack of advancement prospects? this is nonsense. advancement favors those who work for it. not those who take millions from their parents, sink it into fancy business concepts aped from european or american models, and then sit back in a cafe and whine about the inefficieny of government. ”

    Everything is a case to case basis..the commeent above maybe right in many ways unless….

    You work your butt off but failed to advanmce because your boss is so young (even younger than you)and has a long way to go for you to bypass him or her…

    Getting money from parents to sink it to a fancy buisiness maybe good if that fancy business helps people get jobs and is useful to many.I know people who did get money from their parents and set up fancy businesses based on eurpean concepts who does well for themselves and the society…
    again antonio i am not disagreeing with you tatally,but everything is a case to case basis.

    As to the whining,even barbers and cigarette vendors do that,not only those who spend hours in Seattle’s best.

  39. cvj on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 11:56 am 

    Carl, on Filipinos in America tending to go conservative, i share your observation. One of my cousins in Texas is a member of the local Republican party. Back in 2003, around the time of Saddam’s statue was being torn down, he told me that he was confident that Iraq would open up a lot of business opportunities. My own guess on why many Filipinos in the US go conservative is because of the abortion issue. The racist attitude is probably a result of their (or their parent’s) upbringing over here as our culture tends to be racist under the covers. And maybe a lot of them also have pretensions of belonging to the upper class as touched upon by Manolo and Antonio above. What I find amusing is that many of these Filipino-American conservatives would look down on those who voted for Erap or FPJ only to end up voting for George W. Bush themselves.

  40. Carl on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 2:45 pm 

    Karl, I agree that prospects for advancement are on “a case to case basis”.

    My younger cousins, who have recently graduated from college, complain that starting salaries are really very low here. Even for graduates from elite universities, the usual starting pay is around P15,000 to P20,000 a month. While that may not require Mom and Dad to provide a condo and a fat allowance just to survive, it’s really not very much when you consider the cost of things nowadays. For one, most have to travel to work. Depending on the distance, that could mean from P50 to as much as P150 a day in Metro Manila (in the provinces, it’s less). For those fortunate enough to have a vehicle, the gas bills can run up to anywhere from P4,000 to P6,000 a month. Board and lodging can cost anywhere from P5,000 to P10.000 a month, depending on the quality and comfort preferred. There are attendant expenses such as clothes, make-up (for women), etc. You add all expenses up and, unless you’re still living with your parents or were provided a condo, a car plus an allowance, it makes for a pretty frugal existence. “Gimik” will have to be few and far between. Savings is definitely out of the question.

    What makes these young people even more anxious is that, even if they get promoted or get pay increases in the future, it still won’t give them enough to save. For example if, after 5 years, they get their pay up 100% to P40,000 but by then they’re married and have a family to support, there still won’t be much left after expenses. If a person were to rely on salary alone, one would be hard put to buy a family car, let alone a decent home. Entrepreneurship, while it can be a solution, is not for everyone. It can be very competitive and there simply aren’t that many opportunities out there. Much more so when a big chunk of disposable income is diverted into the prevailing high cost of energy.

    The attraction of working abroad, especially the US, is that pay is much better. Salaries of $2,000 or more per month are quite normal. Nurses, physical therapists, computer technicians, chefs (or even kitchen assistants), and teachers can get much more. There is also the prospect of holding more than one job or doing more overtime. These people aren’t going abroad to have a ball. They’re going because that is the only prospect they have of being able to afford a decent way of life on their own. And they’ll sacrifice their leisure to at least earn more in order to save and provide something for their families in the future.

  41. hvrds on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 4:13 pm 

    The ADB came out with report recently that the country will not be able to solve its unemployment problems by depending on call centers and inflows from foreign workers. The report stated that we have to go through the evolutionary process of agricultural and thence industrial development.

    It is most interesting to note that Adam Smith pointed out that enclave city development that was the developmental story of Europe that preceeded the normal evolutionary process of agricultural to the developemnt in his words of manufactures was retrograde and very difficult to correct. Hence the continous periods of struggles. His basis of compairson then was real not theoretical. America.
    The Philippines unfortunately has the same model as of Europe being first colonied by Europeans then the new Empire by the Americans. Colonial enclave development that integrated Manila first with Europe then to the U.S.
    Hence the mix of Judeo Christian (Latin & Catholic- pre reformation and Vatican II)culture intermixed with tribal beliefs.
    The Philippines has a serious problem of underdevelopment of structures hence we see the effect which is structural poverty. Hence the perspective from the top fails to comprehend the problems of the country as a problem of economic, political and cultural development. (EVOLUION)

    The major bulk of the demographic portion of the Filipino people are those up to the age of 40. They unfortunately have no clue as to the historical origins of Philippines so called statehood and all it means.

    Hence the intellectual dominance of the post Keynesian (post 1972) age of neo-liberal theology combined with the push for liberal democratic regimes. All part of the new religion of empire. A part of the new creative destruction process instituted from the top. Others call it globalization.

    Hence you have a disconnect as the country slowly dis-integrates itself from the U.S. and starts a new integration process with Asia – (Greater China, China, South Korea and Japan.) Please note they are more advanced economies.

    The labor migration to the Middle East was mainly due to our lack of hard currency and we had to send labor to build up the development of the Middle East to pay our oil bills.

    The present push to change the form of government to solve the problems of development is a clear case in point. How could people be so stupid to believe that premise. Onli in da Philippines. I am not talking about the massa. But the so called middle classes in that demographic. They are lost.

  42. antonio walanglaban on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 4:29 pm 

    hi karl. salamat sa mga komento mo. i hope you don’t mind a few of my own. 1. If you have a young boss you can’t get past, find another job. makipagsapalaran ka. that’s what our parents did. instead of tryin fruitlessly to advance along the well-trodden path, they carved out new roads for themselves, blazing frontiers where they could be the bosses, and so helped society develop. 2.You are right Karl, most everything in life should be dealt with on a case-to-case basis. I guess I was speaking more of those people who go in and out of business depending on their mood: also known as dilettantes. 3. And yes, I hear the whining of barbers and vendors. But karl, they live a hard scrabble life where the days earnings are only enough to tide them over for a day or maybe less. I think they can be forgiven if they whine. Not so kids and young professionals who whine while enjoying luxuries the barber cannot even imagine affording. That’s the kind of whining I’m talking about.

  43. fabian on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 7:28 pm 

    thanks mq3 for the good piece

  44. Sidney on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 8:47 pm 

    Congrats! A very intelligent entry!
    A lot to think about…

  45. vic on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 9:05 pm 

    In contrast to the Filipino-Americans as most analysis and they are all very impressive, my own observation about Filipino-Canadian ( we are discouraged to use hyphenated nationality) are somehow in the apposite side. As Carl et al, correctly surmised that they tend to become conservative, we in turn tend to become Liberal. Even our fellow Pinoy Americans are quite surprised of our easy and somewhat laid back and relax life style and sense of security. We don’t work as hard, although our rate of taxes is a bit higher. We don’t save as much, not because we don’t earn more, but because we spend more. Some would ask me why this is so.

    First, I’ll tell them that our Health Care is Universal, one less worry.

    Second, our social Security is also Universal. That even those who has not work all his life upon residing for l0 years at age 65 is entitled to social assistance to the minimum of Cost of Living with free medical and health coverage.

    That is one reason why most retirees will only make their original homeland as their second home at retirement. And also one reason why my sister and her husband don’t give up their Canadian Citizenship even they both are working in the U.S. (Just in case).

    Although the U.S. is our biggest trading partner and our closest ally, our foreign policy, our internal policy and our attitudes towards multiculturalism is of the opposite end. But we never let our difference hinder our relationship as good neighbors. Again more than half of my immediate family are Americans.

  46. Paeng on Sat, 2nd Sep 2006 11:39 pm 

    Carl said “My younger cousins, who have recently graduated from college, complain that starting salaries are really very low here. Even for graduates from elite universities, the usual starting pay is around P15,000 to P20,000 a month. While that may not require Mom and Dad to provide a condo and a fat allowance just to survive, it’s really not very much when you consider the cost of things nowadays. For one, most have to travel to work. Depending on the distance, that could mean from P50 to as much as P150 a day in Metro Manila (in the provinces, it’s less). For those fortunate enough to have a vehicle, the gas bills can run up to anywhere from P4,000 to P6,000 a month. Board and lodging can cost anywhere from P5,000 to P10.000 a month, depending on the quality and comfort preferred. There are attendant expenses such as clothes, make-up (for women), etc. You add all expenses up and, unless you’re still living with your parents or were provided a condo, a car plus an allowance, it makes for a pretty frugal existence. “Gimik” will have to be few and far between. Savings is definitely out of the question.”

    P15,000 to P20,000 is low? panglimang taon ko nang nagtatrabaho, at nasa P20,000 level pa lang ako (net). and i am living just fine. ang sikreto nga siguro, sabi ni Gary Granada, ay mamuhay nang sapat.

  47. cvj on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 1:42 am 

    Vic, on Canada being more liberal, i remember a graphic that i saw in the Web after the shock of W’s reelection in 2004. It showed the ‘Blue States’ of the USA joining up with the rest of Canada to form the ‘United States of Canada’ with the remainder of the USA being renamed into ‘Jesusland’. I think that Canada, with its universal health care and social assistance is an example of a successful welfare state. Another example of the good that can come out of a welfare state is in Finland, the home of Linux, which has powered much of the Open Source movement. Linus Torvalds credited Finland’s socialized University System for giving him the opportunity to develop the Linux Operating System. In an interview, he said:

    “I think the main thing is that education is essentially free in Finland. You have almost free education up to university level. It may not be MIT, but it certainly is a hell of a lot better than the average just about everywhere else. And health care is free. It’s fairly socialized there — by American standards that’s a bad thing! But if you come from that kind of culture, it’s not a big deal when you’ve created a program to just make it available to others, because as a student you don’t have to worry. You pay $60 a year for tuition. I think that’s important — the kind of freedom that gives you.”

    This provides a counterpoint to Antonio’s valid observation above on the detrimental effects of the welfare state to the work ethic of the youth.

    Too bad we cannot replicate the welfare system over here as people cannot, as yet, trust the government with their taxes. That’s why the push over here is to make government (and politics) ‘irrelevant’ which in turn means that, as a society, we’re not really firing on all cylinders.

  48. antonio walanglaban on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 1:56 am 

    not only that we cannot trust the government with our taxes, cvj, but also because we have shown ourselves not able to handle the concept of welfare pretty well yet. as a people – again with due acknowledgement of exceptions – we still have a mendicant mentality that loves the dole out. We often mistake the ‘hand-up’ – assistance – for a hand-out – charity – and end up worse than we started.

    Reading the subtext of Torvalds’ words (as quoted by you), one gets the sense of a person eager to use the advantages available in a welfare state in a way that will make him better than he is. In my experience however, there are far more people here who quickly develop a level of complacency corresponding to the charity they receive – no drive to achieve more, i mean. When we fix that, when we can make people see that welfare should not be seen as livelihood or a career, then maybe we will start getting somewhere.

  49. Paenggoy on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 2:44 am 

    To Vic, I always thought that Japan was our biggest trading partner, although I read recently that China has now taken over that role. Also, I’m not sure what our attitude is concerning multiculturalism, but we appear to be open to almost any culture.

    To Justice League, I suppose the problem isn’t the type of government but who will run it. If it’s the same people, then the change will not help.

    To Paeng, you should probably find out what “mamuhay nang sapat” means. For example, what happens if you become seriously ill or figure in an accident or become a victim of theft (and these can easily take place in a city like Manila, which has one of the highest crime rates, population density, and pollution levels worldwide, not to mention problems with utilities, police, etc.)? Will your salary be enough to pay for hospital bills, lawyer’s fees, and so on? What if a relative becomes sick and you need to support him or borrow money? Will a bank extend credit given that salary, or will you look for a loan shark or rely on friends and relatives to donate or lend money? Would you settle for public hospitals and public schools? If not, you will have to cough up some more cash, especially in an Asian country which likely has some of the highest rates for petrol, electricity, and medicine.

  50. vic on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 2:49 am 

    Cjv and antonio you’re both right on the effect of blanket ‘welfare’ to the work ethics of the youth and to some segments of society who are not accustom to working and just rely on dole outs. It create a “ ghetto” mentality to some group and it seems to perpetuate the culture among them. It also encourage some of our young women to stay unmarried and make avail of single mother allowances to avoid joining the work force. And able-bodied working poor to quit their low paying or part-time irregular job for a regular ‘welfare check’.

    But there are also positive sides to these negatives. Encourages the Govt. To initiate programs of developing skill and training for those on social assistance. Increase remuneration to discourage job quitters to rely on welfare. Re-training program for those under unemployment benefits to facilitate their return to work force in other fields. And available low interest students’ loans for all college students for their education needs for our already heavily subsidized colleges and universities. I don’t know, but we feel we really get more back from our government what we pay in taxes.

  51. vic on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 3:08 am 

    Paenggoy,
    The latest statistic of our trade with the U.S. that I can find is 2003 and our exports was 245 billion and imports of l95 billion with a surplus of 50 billlions. that is huge. we are importing more goods from china but not yet as close as our trade with our neighbor. yes you our right, china is our next biggest trading partner now, but we can not export our oil because we our committed to our agreement with the U.S. that we can not even reduce our export to the south unless we reduce the same percentage for ourselves. But we just resolved our soft wood lumber dispute with them. As I said we can always resolve our neigborly disagreements.

  52. cvj on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 3:20 am 

    Antonio, i take your point that the mendicant mentality is there, and i think it’s more a reflection of our paternalistic culture and the extreme inequality that both feeds and is fed by it. Given the right mix of incentives, assistance and opportunities, i believe it is human nature to want to become a productive member of society, rather than remain a deadbeat. That’s where Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian Revolution comes in. Maybe the next government can learn from its policies in allowing the poor themselves to take charge of their destiny.

  53. antonio walanglaban on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 4:54 am 

    You pointed out, cvj, that the mendicant mentality springs in part from a paternalistic culture and extreme economic inequality. These are long term conditions – ancient in this country before I was even born. How can Chavez’s populism pry us out from under the crushing weight of paternalism and economic inequality (altho I think inequity maybe the more precise term)? And even assuming that Chavez is a good model , what are the chances of our politicians ever approximating that ideal?

  54. cvj on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 5:47 am 

    From what i read, Venezuela’s policies include: funneling government revenues into social programs and public education (including adult education), free medical clinics (assisted by Cuban doctors), encouraging agricultural cooperatives supported by low-interest government loans, and subsidizing food purchases. I’m not too familiar with the details as i still have to buy the DVD which Manolo recommended a few posts back, but what they are doing over there is certainly worth a look. Erap was the prototype of a Chavez-style President, although more in terms of PR than the real thing. If we manage to keep the Presidential system, the poor will eventually manage to elect the genuine article which will restore hope along with the people’s involvement that comes with it. That’s what the traditional politicians and their elitist supporters are afraid of which accounts for the haste in changing the Constitution to parliamentary.

  55. Carl on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 8:15 am 

    Paeng, P15,000 a month is very low compared to what can be had elsewhere. Especially considering what it now costs to send someone to one of the elite universities (barring UP, which is subsidized, but is actually now just as burgis as the exclusive universities). And, unless you own your own house or live with your parents, it can be a tight fit. But thanks for confirming that what be considered good pay here ranges from P15,000 to P20,000 a month.

  56. Paeng on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 10:24 am 

    Actually, Carl, kaya ganun lang ang suweldo ko ay dahil sa pinili kong magturo at mag-NGO imbes na corporate. :)

    heniweyz, there are a lot of good but inexpensive universities out there. nadadala lang talaga ng Big 3 ng mga private schools (Ateneo, DLSU, UST) yung illusion na they are way better than the other universities. which is simply not true. ang problema lang yung mga employers, naniniwala rin na yung mga galing lang sa “elite” universities na ito ang magagaling. i’ve spent four years teaching, and i have seen so many bright students outside these schools.

    i guess it’s just a matter of finding alternatives for your spending needs. kahit na P20,000 na yung suweldo ko, sa karinderya pa rin ako kumakain, hindi dahil sa mas mura kundi dahil sa totoo lang, mas masarap siya kaysa sa mga nasa fastfood. sa damit, there are good but inexpensive local brands, at minemaintain ko na two week’s worth of clothes lang ang meron ako. no coffee shops for me, unless work-related. kung magkakape ako, sa Dunkin Donuts na lang.

    i guess it’s my constant conversations with the taxi drivers which opened my eyes to the reality that we really don’t need to spend much to live an enjoyable life.

  57. mlq3 on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 12:12 pm 

    antonio, et al., there is the big problem not only of unemployment, but underemployment. how many ofw families have we met or obswerved, where one frustration is, many otherwise able-bodies members of the family just stay home, because the remittances are regularly received?

    which indicates one failure of the state the private sector’s having difficulty compensating for. my mother was telling me the red cross was trying to pilot a program where volunteers act as liasons between ofw’s and their families: the volunteers would help make sure, for example, the kids of ofw’s went to school, that their ofw parents were kept up to date on the grades and problems of the kids; that the families at home were given advice on how best to spend the remittances (every single family in a neighborhood buying a tricylce can’t be the best way)… but the task was so huge, it hasn’t really taken off…

    i know some ofw’s have rebelled against their perception that their families don’t do their share. in some cases, the rebellion is not against the immediate family, but the extended one. for example, some real estate people tell me that there are ofw’s who will never, ever, build a home where they came from, but somewhere else, far away, usually in the metro manila area, so that when they return they can avoid their relatives.

    now are these things good, or bad?

  58. cvj on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 1:16 pm 

    Manolo, Antonio, taking in what both of you have said on the welfare state, mendicancy and dead-beat relatives, it dawns on me that the Philippines may already be a welfare state of sorts via OFW’s remittances, with both its good and ill effects. Breaking away from the extended family seems to be a good thing in the sense that it avoids the evils of a culture made up of extended families and leaves the deadbeat members with no choice but to fend for themselves. More importantly, it favors the growth of cities with its impersonal relationships which is mostly good from the standpoint of economic development.

  59. Amadeo on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 1:41 pm 

    “i don’t think it will be the ones from america, but maybe i’m being biased (along the lines antonio walanglaban described above). the old middle class that goes to america does not come back, or if they do, their children don’t. again, it’s just my hunch, but a filipino middle class person who does well in america comes home to join the upper class at home, or begins to behave like the old upper class among filipinos in america.” (MLQ3rd)

    Thanks for couching your statements in like manner, because I want to add some facts that I believe may impact considerably on how social and economic structures are being redrawn in the old homeland.

    As I myself reported earlier nearly 4M Filipinos are in the USA, almost half of them in California. But more significantly for 2006, this group accounted for 56% of OFW inward remittances to the old homeland. The entire European continent accounted for 15%. In earlier years, this US percentage had been higher, as much as 2/3rds as reported. And we have to remember that what is reported is estimated to be only 75% of actual remittances, since 25% do not go through the legal financial system.

    Here’s a country by country breakdown from our own BSP. (http://www.bsp.gov.ph/statistics/keystat/ofw.htm)

    Some questions to ask then are:
    What social and/or political impact, aside from the obvious economic, do these contributions exert locally?

    Is it logical to surmise that the US-based stakeholders do exert some effective controls on how these funds are to be disbursed?

    Do these contributions come unattached or unencumbered, or do they reflect on the future plans of those building up their stakeholdings in the country? That is, the Filipinos or FilAms who are in the US.

    I could point to my own experiences as answers to the questions above, though I would rather not.

    Re conservatism of FilAms, in the last presidential elections the total of Asians voted 50-50 here in California. And as I recall, it was reported in some PI papers immediately prior to the last US presidential elections that when Filipinos in the old homeland were polled a majority of 54% favored the Harvard/Yale MBA graduate George W. Bush over Yale/Boston College Law graduate John Kerry. Some may want to verify this. Still, conservatism should also be as much a part of the landscape in the old homeland, as the good ol’ USA.

  60. Carl on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 4:55 pm 

    You have made a choice of lifestyle, Paeng. I respect that. I surmise it didn’t come about naturally, since it developed from talking to taxi drivers, among others. Not everyone has the opportunity to have their eyes opened and, perhaps, not everyone would be willing to adapt in the same way while they still have other choices.

    Incidentally, hvrds said:

    “The ADB came out with report recently that the country will not be able to solve its unemployment problems by depending on call centers and inflows from foreign workers. The report stated that we have to go through the evolutionary process of agricultural and thence industrial development.”

    We call ourselves an agricultural country but that is a misnomer. We always had the soils, the resources and the technology to be a top agricultural producer. But we never had the will or the inclination. Today, our principal agricultural crops are rice, corn, coconuts and sugar cane. The same key crops over a hundred years ago. Yes, feudalism extends even to our archaic agricultural structure.

    Greed and political expediency caused us to exploit agriculture (and consequently, the rural sector). Half-hearted and short-sighted policies from an indifferent and distant government have only contributed to the drift in agriculture. Instead of nurturing agriculture so it would bloom and create prosperity and well-being in the countryside, government stifled it with onerous levies and politically self-serving price controls.

    Our Asian neighbors, such as Malaysia and Thailand, encouraged and developed agriculture. Instead of exploiting and taxing the farmers, they subsidized, developed infrastructures and extended credit to the countryside. These policies bore fruit when incomes improved in the rural areas and the farmers, besides being food producers, became consumers of all types of goods. This gave impetus to industrial production and, consequently, created more jobs and more wealth. Today, while agriculture remains vital to these economies, it has assumed a small percentage of the total.

    As emilie points out above:

    “The size of any market in this country is very very low compared to our neighbors.”

    We have to uplift our rural areas in order to increase consumption and, consequently, the size of the market. This will spur more industries and services and, ultimately, create more jobs.

    It is a fact that we are among the lowest per capita consumers of most products, save for softdrinks, where we are said to be among top. Maybe that is why John Gokongwei said that, as far as he can remember, the only thriving industries we created are Coca-Cola and real estate. Well, Gokongwei may have forgotten about San Miguel. But, then, what does it say on that beer bottle? Since 1890? That was more than a hundred years ago, so it probably doesn’t count. Gokongwei may have a point, after all.

  61. antonio walanglaban on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 6:01 pm 

    Manolo, the blame shouldn’t all be heaped on the government. OFW families must accept some of the responsibility as well, I think. I find it difficult to conceive of anything the state can do to prevent the parasitism of relatives. Except maybe, if the government could provide more jobs – either directly or indirectle – outside of metro manila, then maybe there would be less opportunity for parasitism, but, I can’t accept that a hundred percent either. I still think the solution lies in the individual deciding that he’s had enough.

    Speaking of underemployment, this is one matter where my criticism of government is unreserved: call-centers. I mean, what the heck? Call centers are seductive because they offer high salaries relative to the difficulty level of the work, and it puts money in the pocket of the starbucks generation. But at the same time, call center jobs are so comfortable that they become very difficult to leave. What happens when the economic needs of these young graduates expand as they start building their own families? What sort of advancement does a call-center offer? From phone jockey to trainer to consultant making 20k per one-shot consultancy? Please.

    call centers are oubliettes of underemployment that should not be promoted as aggresively as the government is doing.

    Call-centers are not what I consider first-tier employment opportunities: they are good for a quick buck, but they cannot possibly bring economic prosperity to our youth, much less to our country.

  62. mlq3 on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 6:39 pm 

    antonio, re: call centers. a couple of things do bear looking into. the first, is the burn-out rate among call center employees. second, is what happens after they spend a few years in the call center business -not everyone can be a manager, so what’s next for them? third is, the call centers attract the college graduates that should otherwise be entering the corporate world -and business owners seem to be increasingly worried that the talent pool is drying up (because no way, with the current economy, can they pay as well as the call centers for harder work).

  63. cvj on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 9:21 pm 

    Regarding call centers, let’s count our blessings. While they do not answer all our problems, would we rather that they not be here to provide employment? As per standard economics, what these call center employees earn is injected back into the economy generating a multiplier effect. Just like our neighbors, we have to take full advantage of the benefits of globalization. The Corporate and Business owners cannot espouse the virtues of the free market system only to complain when faced with its realities. There are more than enough graduates coming out of the school system every year. What the employers need to do is work with the schools to ensure that what is being taught matches those required by real-world jobs.

    As for agricultural development, Solita Monsod has an interesting column in the Inquirer on the ‘NPA-landlords alliance’ which is holding back development in the rural areas.

  64. antonio walanglaban on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 10:37 pm 

    these three things you mention, manolo, are what have me concerned (well, not so much the first one since I have heard many call-center employees throw that word around as if they truly understood the difference burnout and mere ennui). And what I want these young graduates to consider is that hardwork is good. It is precisely because call centers offer such a soft spot from which to earn money that I call them seductive oubliettes. You want to enter them, only to realize that your options for getting out are so few.

    and cvj, imho, call-centers are not blessings. they are cream-puffs: nice, fat,and shiny on the outside; nothing but air inside. they are palliatives that may well turn out to be deadlier than the disease. These call-centers lure us into a sense that we are doing well economically, distracting our government from the hard work of providing more sustainable – even if less lucrative – income sources. While I know some who have used call-centers as stepping stones to greater things, they are few and far between.

    Multiplier? perhaps in the short-term. Just like OFW remittances are a boost to the economy. But long-term? No way. I’m not saying that call centers should disappear. As you say, they provide jobs. But the youth should not be seduced into entering them either, by aggresive government promotion. Instead, let call-centers be the kind of make-work enterprise that provides employment for those who are not qualified for anything other than answering telephones. Otherwise, we will be just be conditioning an entire generation into an acceptance of their own criminal underachievement.

  65. cvj on Sun, 3rd Sep 2006 11:26 pm 

    Antonio, the government is constrained with realities and has to follow the money. It happens that today, the world needs more call center agents, super maids and nurses. We have to be responsive to labor demand wherever it comes from.

    I appreciate the need to prepare for the future, but predicting what lines of business will be sustainable tomorrow is easier said than done. Even the most forward looking governments like Japan and Singapore are unable to consistently predict what business to go into next. The most prudent course of action for our government on a limited budget would be to implement policies that encourage business activity in general (e.g. trade liberalization, improving education, infrastructure etc.) and performing a watchdog role (e.g. ensuring a level playing field, consumer protection etc). Let market competition determine who wins and loses. Ultimately, it is market forces that decide what work is necessary or not.

    As for ‘criminal underachievement’, that is just in the eye of the beholder. Personally, i think there is dignity in whatever form of work whether its answering telephones, cleaning toilet bowls or managing a business. It’s more important for people to decide what do during their leisure time, e.g. to watch reality TV or read a good book.

  66. antonio walanglaban on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 12:13 am 

    please do not get me wrong, cvj. i am not implying that call-center work is demeaning. underachievement means performing well below what you are capable of. There may be dignity in answering phones all night long, but isn’t an economics graduate (for example) capable of so much more?

    I don’t disagree with you that we need to respond to the demand for labor. But we must also exert effort towards rationalizing our response – as a nation – to these demands. I think it is irrational for our government to go pedal-to-the-metal telling graduates that working at a call center is all-good. Let’s match the work to the skill, is what I say. And government hasn’t been very good at generating employment opportunities that match the skill levels of most of our graduates, hence the diaspora.

    and anyway responding to the demand for labor shouldn’t be principal occupation of government. it isn’t even government’s job to predict what businesses will be good in the future, cvj. we shouldn’t have to just respond to the demands of changing industries. it is government’s job to chart a course that will prepare its workforce to take full economic advantage of whatever opportunities the future may hold, and to mitigate the effects of whatever economic disasters may befalll us. That’s a difficult thing, I know, but difficult is irrelevant. It must be done. That is the kind of leadership role the government should be taking, instead of indulging in opportunistic knee-jerk programs (like supermaids) that simply ‘follow the money.’ Private businesses can be opportunistic like that. Government should not.

    As for “The most prudent course of action for our government on a limited budget would be to implement policies that encourage business activity in general (e.g. trade liberalization …),” what gives, cvj? Isn’t trade liberalization, one of the main things populists like Chavez oppose?

  67. Amadeo on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 12:33 am 

    I would say that the general outlook expressed on call center jobs appears rather short-sighted and constrictive, disregarding the fact that global economies are in constant flux prodded and hastened by advances in emerging technologies.

    Did we ever think of out-sourced call center jobs a several years back? I doubt it, but the present realities now accept them as an integral and viable process in doing business, created essentially by the newly-minted needs of business.

    Thus, who is to say what and how this fledging industry would develop into even in the near term? As we speak, the original concept of a call center providing essentially tech support has already morphed into several areas such as support on credit/credit card matters. And what about the area of medical transcription, which requires unique skills acquired both academically and from experience?

    Also, typically we do not delve on other seemingly “dead-end” economic pursuits. Such as maybe public utilities drivers? Carpenters? Maybe, even bank tellers? We all know they contribute a vital service to the overall economy. And if we can grant that holders of such “dead-end” positions also have as much chances of moving up in the economic ladder in other positions/industries relying on those experiences, why shouldn’t the same be granted to call center jobholders?

    If I may be bold to suggest, it is probably because of our too intense preoccupation on the foreign exchange aspects of the call center industry.

    Now, underemployment is one area that should be focused on, and I don’t necessarily refer to the call center industry.

    Though I can’t find very reliable hard facts on the issue, I am inclined to think that the too prevalent use of contract workers account for its high percentage. Self-employed workers with no or very meager benefits, and subsisting on wages insufficient to support their own or their families.

    To highlight, in the case of our own Northern Mindanao economic mainstay, Philippine Packing Corporation (Del Monte, which I believe is still controlled and operated by the Lorenzos), I am told by a former employee that at present the company cultivates twice the hectarage compared to when the Americans operated the place. But surprisingly, the company employee rolls have been significantly reduced. They have been replaced by contract workers.

  68. antonio walanglaban on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 12:45 am 

    Amadeo, regardless of my views on call centers, my main gripe is that government is relentlessly promoting it as a top-flight employment opportunity. It is not. It’s a good enough job, but it simply is not the best possible option for our youth especially.

    and about contract workers, you are absolutely right. Just the other day, I met a young girl of 23 – a business management graduate – who works 14 hour days manning a small fruit-shake stall. And she’s just contractual. How’s that for underemployment? Like I said, government is not doing enough. Not even close.

  69. antonio walanglaban on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 12:48 am 

    btw, can someone tell me what the image in this blog’s header is all about? Is that a picture of an actual statue? that sort of thing. I’ve been curious for the longest time. Thanks.

  70. tbl on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 1:18 am 

    per cvj…

    “What I find amusing is that many of these Filipino-American conservatives would look down on those who voted for Erap or FPJ only to end up voting for George W. Bush themselves.”

    My impression is that most Fil-Ams don’t look down on those Pinoy voters, they know better than that, they have more something in their coconuts. They don’t do those kind of things.

    As for those who voted for Bush, you can’t blame them when someone says…I VOTED FOR IT BEFORE I VOTED AGAINST IT.

    when all they do is block the tort reform, support the infamous proposal of socialized medicine which is more or less a monstrous HMO, when they do the reverse descrimination such as equal opportunity which unfortunately work against most asians like Pinoys ( it is actually a promotion against your own personal merits and true qualifications, I think).

  71. cvj on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 1:19 am 

    Amadeo, i agree with your treatment of call-center and other ‘dead-end’ jobs. The ‘constant flux’ is something we have to live with. Even for industry insiders, it’s hard to predict were the business will go and how these jobs will evolve. Even in India, they say that they excel in Information Technology and beauty contests because these are the areas where their government is not involved. All government can do is to have its ears close to the ground and help the country grab as much of the low hanging fruit opportunities in whatever area is ‘hot’ while it can. Vision exercises in the area of industrial policy or ICT policy are hit and miss affairs so we cannot count on these to deliver.

    As for contract work, i think it’s one of the solutions to underemployment, not its symptom. Businesses have to be flexible to survive. What distinguishes the USA which has 5% unemployment from Europe which has double or triple that rate is the ability to easily hire and fire people. If we have labor laws that make it difficult to let go of people or force businesses to make workers permanent, then they would be more hesitant to hire. Along with outsourcing, contract work is the trend and people would just have to accept this reality.

  72. cvj on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 1:23 am 

    tbl, maybe your right, it’s just my bias showing.

  73. Carl on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 8:13 am 

    Amadeo said: “To highlight, in the case of our own Northern Mindanao economic mainstay, Philippine Packing Corporation (Del Monte, which I believe is still controlled and operated by the Lorenzos), I am told by a former employee that at present the company cultivates twice the hectarage compared to when the Americans operated the place. But surprisingly, the company employee rolls have been significantly reduced. They have been replaced by contract workers.”

    The case of Del Monte Corp. is one of the few cases wherein land reform succeeded. And this is in no way due to government. Land reform was successful with Del Monte because the company itself provided the infrastructure, the planting material, the know-how, the inputs, etc. So, instead of the company running everything (it still supervises, to make sure everything is done correctly), it has made the farmer-beneficiaries (who are mostly former Del Monte employees) into contract growers. It is a win-win situation, as the beneficiaries can maximize production and profit from it. The company, on the other hand, is not saddled with so many fixed costs and labor demands.

    Right now, only the processing plants are company-owned. But the new owners, the Yao Campos family of UFC ketchup and San Miguel Corp. (this should answer the question of whether the Lorenzo family still owned the company), are inclined to spin that off to the employees, too. That way, Del Monte will only pay a tolling fee to process their products. Basically, it will transform the company into a marketing company banking on a heavyweight brand. It’s quite an innovation here in the Philippines, where our concept of wealth relates to the amount of property and assets a person or an entity holds. There is wealth in a brand and the ability to market it.

    At the same time, this allows the company to focus primarily on its core activity, which is marketing and not be sidetracked by the production aspect and its attendant day-to-day problems. It also allows the company to be much more flexible. In other words, if the farmer-producers are not efficient, the company can buy from other places, such as Davao and Gen. Santos. Or even go to Thailand or Indonesia. Fortunately, things seem to be working out very well and hectarage has increased tremendously, with independent growers coming in. So far, it has been very beneficial to the economy in Mindanao.

  74. cvj on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 9:52 am 

    Antonio, i’m sorry i did not see your response (@12:13am). On underachievement,i take your point. Unfortunately, while the economics graduate may be capable of much more, he has to adjust to the available jobs. The work that the developed countries usually farm out overseas are those that are labor intensive, but routine (e.g. call center work, transcription, software coding and testing). Being ‘opportunistic’ is precisely what we want the government to be in terms of finding jobs for our people. Conversely, it also needs to address local labor shortages (e.g. of doctors & nurses) by liberalizing the importation of labor. It’s the only institution that has the capability of being a placement office of last resort – both directions. Government can facilitate charting the course for the future, but this is more the expertise of business-education sector partnerships.

    On trade liberalization, it’s a good idea whether on not Chavez agrees with it.

  75. Amadeo on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 10:51 am 

    Cvj:

    We may have to differentiate between contract work being done by skilled/technical people over those done by unskilled or entry-level workers. Contract work in more developed countries can be very lucrative and rewarding. I know because I tried it once between jobs. Unfortunately, typical in the Philippine context is the contractual worker, say, in malls that only have tenure good for six months, fired and rehired as a perpetual temporary employee, sans permanent tenure and benefits.

    Thus, we have the supposedly contractual king in Philippine business, for example, prosperous enough to be counted among Forbes’ list of billionaires in dollars, but maintaining a cadre of contractual employees subsisting on threadbare wages. Shades of Wal-Mart, maybe? Yes, but Wal-Mart employees have permanent employment and invested with various fringe benefits.

    When I had an extended visit to the old homeland last year, I informally interviewed some of the employees of the newly-opened grandiose mall in our city in Northern Mindanao. Typically, a sales worker in one of the food outlets owned and managed by the mall owner was getting a daily wage of 115 pesos gross. Imagine how meager the daily take home pay would be, deducting travel and grooming expenses. One particular employee had to deduct 20 pesos travel expenses daily.

    Re unemployment figures, the US now shows under 5% unemployment (as low as 4.7%). But not being addressed are two factors necessarily impacting on this rate, the 10 million or so illegals who work under the shadows of the underground economy and secondly, what could be considered the country’s full employment level as enunciated by Keynes. Economists in the past point to 5.2+% as full employment level for the US, taking into account the country’s specific dynamics and accounting for that part of the labor force that will purposely or because of personal circumstances avoid getting into the workforce.

    Carl:

    Thanks for the revealing inputs on the current operations of PhilPack, especially the part about contract growing which is quite popular in at least one other industry in the area, poultry and egg production. But are the Lorenzo brothers still in management?

  76. cvj on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 11:25 am 

    Amadeo, you bring up a very important distinction which i missed out. (In IT, i’m used to seeing contractuals earning more than the regular employees like me.) For the contractual workers in the Philippines, i think they are ‘hired’ and ‘fired’ regularly as a way of getting around labor law which should probably be revised to acknowledge business realities.

    I remember sometime in the late 80’s, Citibank had this big strike with its janitors and other admin staff who were hired directly on long-term contract basis. If i’m not mistaken, Citibank lost. After that, businesses started sourcing clerical, janitorial and other staff services from contracting agencies. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the model, but income disparities could be addressed by increasing the minimum wage. Also, in the retail area, letting in WalMart (if they care to) looks like a step up for the Philippines, despite its reputation as an employer in the US.

  77. antonio walanglaban on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 1:19 pm 

    i disagree, cvj. Opportunistim is a sterile solution. Strategic is how government should be. If you demand otherwise, you are asking for too little from our leaders.

  78. Carl on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 2:26 pm 

    Amadeo said: “Thanks for the revealing inputs on the current operations of PhilPack, especially the part about contract growing which is quite popular in at least one other industry in the area, poultry and egg production. But are the Lorenzo brothers still in management? ”

    From what my suppliers and associates in Cagayan de Oro tell me, yes the Lorenzo brothers have been retained. It could be part of the deal when they sold out to San Miguel Corp. and the UFC group, at least until the new management familiarizes itself. I doubt very much whether it is a long-term arrangement. Sooner or later, Danding Cojuangco (or his alter ego, Ramon Ang) will want to run things his way. Butch Campos will probably also have his own ideas. Most likely, under the new ownership, which is primarily Chinese, management will take on a more pragmatic, no-frills approach. The plan to shift to toll processing seems to come from the new owners.

  79. cvj on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 2:44 pm 

    Antonio, whether it’s in government or the corporate sector, i don’t place that much faith in ’strategic planning’. It has proven to be an ineffective tool. I can understand the need when it comes to infrastructure (e.g. roads, bridges, public housing, mass transit, power) to plan years in advance because these activities take time to implement, but beyond that, any ’strategy’ in the area of business and labor opportunities would be too speculative to be useful. If government invests resources in these activities, chances of payoff are slim. They are better off focusing on what is real now and organize for agility. It’s better to leave strategy and vision to entrepreneurs who have the aptitude and stomach for it.

  80. vic on Mon, 4th Sep 2006 2:46 pm 

    Walmart, the Home Depot and lots of retail Businesses are some of the Biggest employers now both side of the borders. Due to stiff competition from Chinese cheaper produced goods, businesses here, both in the U.S. and in Canada have to CUT cost in order to compete. That’s the reality. That’s where the Govt. And business leaders on both sides have to develop some kind of strategies that the reduced and lower pays and salaries should not affect much the standard of living of its citizen by outsourcing and taking advantage the availability of such talents abroad without the hassle of bringing the bodies in. Walmart, Macdonald, pays just slightly above the minimum, maybe $8-10/hr, but as a part time second job and a secure pension plan, free health care, free secondary education, subsidized university, what you take home is yours and yours alone to spend. Now if you happen to be a nurse or a doctor or a dentist, forget being a businessman, its up and down, you’re home free.

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