Once again, the Philippines finds itself unprepared in the midst of supply chain shocks rippling from the war waged against Iran by the United States and Israel. A foolish dependence on imported fuel and the remittances from workers in the Middle East, as well as spiralling foreign exchange rates now work in confluence to put a squeeze on Filipinos’ financial security.
Meanwhile, “thought leaders” of the major political camps quibble over a who’s who on the what’s what of accountability over the latest “crisis” hitting the country on account of these external events. The Marcostards, Dutertards, and the woke Yellowtard-Communist Axis drawing from the traditional wisdom they apply to their tired rhetoric all assert that the other fucked it all up and that their respective camps would have, of course, done it all right. Amidst the din of this vacuous chatter, all gloss over the fact that the Philippines’ fragile economy — with its thin capital base and weak value proposition to global markets — was decades in the making spanning multiple presidencies and dynastic eras.
With no firm capitalised landing, the Philippine economy has long been at risk of catastrophic collapse. A key example is public transport in its major metropolises. A dependence on private enterprise (jeepneys, tricycles, and privately held bus lines) as pillar of public mobility, the Philippine government has limited ability to keep commerical activity humming in times like these. With upward pressure on fuel prices comes degraded private services and labour unrest. Those world renowned “jeepney strikes” sparked by communist-infested labour “unions” are surely just around the corner.
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And that’s just one example. Even more fundamental flaws are at the heart of the Philippines’ weakness. Most of these are to do with what makes its economy tick (or, rather, rattle along).
Overall, the Philippines is a big Ponzi scheme with people’s fortunes propped up by money flowing in from raw material and labour exports and, within the Philippines’ consumption-driven economy, money sloshing around from one oligarch’s bank account to another. What exactly does the Philippines produce? Not much beyond warm bodies, shrill ballads, cringy movies, and big air-conditioned “public” spaces. To be fair, the last one is probably the only “product” not under threat from artificial intelligence. Then again, if AI replaces call centre and business process outsourcing bodies, there wouldn’t be much people sloshing money around those either.
The fact is, the world is changing from the uber-connected “markets” US-sponsored globalisation promised to one characterised by a fragmented order where every country and economic bloc will need to hold its own not just to survive but to compete and thrive. To do that, economies need to source sustainably (and less at a cost of risky dependence) and, more importantly, produce.
Is the Philippines up to that challenge to compete in an uncertain world? That remains to be seen. For now there is little promise seeing that Filipinos’ foremost “thought leaders” cannot think further ahead than the next election and are so deficited of imagination to identify a set of good leadership candidates in a nation of 120 million.
The call center market will absolutely be dead within the next 5 years. If I call and get a filipino/a call center I immediately insist on a US rep. The reason being is I know they can not be reasoned with and merely follow the playlist and they are typically of a very low educational and conversational level. I find the Call center men 10X worse than the women.
The reliance on the OFW body economy is a joke and completely sustainable. I have said since I moved there in 2012 that the Philippines is absolutely doomed and I am right.
and you moved here…?
when the entire world turns to dust, who will be crapping their pants ?
lose your job,lose your house, all out of petrol, no wifi, no food to eat. to americans, thats an absolute disaster, the end of the whole damn world.
to the poor filipinos, who have next to nothing to begin with, thats just a bad tuesday.
who is more doomed then ?
“For now there is little promise seeing that Filipinos’ foremost “thought leaders” cannot think further ahead than the next election and are so deficited of imagination to identify a set of good leadership candidates in a nation of 120 million.”
Indeed, Mr. benign0 …
Sara Duterte who once declared herself as the “designated survivor” back in 2024, now, offers herself ahead of others for the still-two-years-to-go 2028 presidential elections. “I offer my life, my strength, and my future”.
Ms. Duterte can’t wait.
This whole thing is not working, and you know it in your bones. Quit reiterating what’s clearly proving itself unsustainable.
the filipino way is scraping by on the least amount of effort and resources, no surplus or stockpile – only subsistence.
scrambling like cockoaches, with the self awareness of seafaring gupsies, toothless smiles amid the squalor and garbage and human rot.
in a doomsday scenario where everything is dust and money is as worthless as a pile of rocks on wallstreet, who do you think will be out and about drinking rum and gin above the dust and rubble of human civilization, beneath a sun that no longer butns like day?
Who the hell is prepared for a crisis when any effort or attempt at independence is shot down.
How’s being American puppets going? Maybe if you chose a more independent track you wouldn’t beg Washington to buy oil from Russia, you would just buy it on your own accord. Maybe you should reconsider being cannon food for USA against China and sign a comprehensive trade and security pact w China and become rich for once
Filipinos’ tingala mentality. It is WORLD renowned.
“Tingala sa langit”
“Tingala sa gobyerno”
“Tingala sa Amerika”
Learned helplessness and fatalism are the two biggest poisons that keep this country sick. Them alongside the beggar mentality and romanticization of misery and oppression.
The Philippines is like a man standing on a railway track, with a train speeding right towards him. He has the perfect choice to jump off the track, but he has convinced himself that he’s stuck to the track and keeps praying for Jesus to come down from heaven and save him. That sort of man isn’t deserving of respect.
It’s funny how those without contribution run their mouths, seek attention, without any imaginative alternative proposal while those who try to do something or anything, in this case, the government, in pursuit to protect collective Philippine interest actually produces result.
In contrast to the statement, “After 45 days, we will have a ‘flow of oil'”, Ngak-Ngak attitude delivers nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WK9wAkJ15EY