We beg to differ.
For a speech that lasted nearly an hour and was so heavily-laden with facts and figures, the much-anticipated second State of the Nation Address by President Noynoy Aquino has seemed to have left much of the country scratching their heads. Two days have passed since the SONA, and public interest has scarcely waned; that should…
I echo my initial thoughts on the second State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by Philippine President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III before joint sessions of Congress today, the 25th July 2011: The speech seems thick in narrative, thin on conceptual substance, and lacking in vision. This verdict I make on the basis of the…
Politicians are quick to grandstand about their achievements and their “contributions” to the development of our wretched land, the Philippines. Whenever statistics about the economy or survey results describing public sentiment is released, politicians will go on a media blitz to ensure that an association between these and themselves are implanted in the vacuous minds…
Read More “Facts and figures: President Noynoy Aquino’s promises by the numbers” »
My dear countrymen, members of Congress, honourable House Speaker, Senate President, and Chief Justice, ladies and gentlemen of the diplomatic corps: Today I stand before you, this 25th day of July 2011 to do three things: (1) report on what we had achieved in the last twelve months, (2) give you a summary of the…
Filipinos do not know what they want. In 1986, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos took to the streets to rally against the late strongman, former President Ferdinand Marcos. The three-day protest eventually led to the ousting of the so-called “dictator” and alleged human rights violator. Twenty five years later, Filipinos from the Mindanao region of…
What exactly needs to be “clarified” between the governments of Saudi Arabia and the Philippines in the aftermath of a shutdown on any further granting of work permits to Filipino domestic workers? The announcement was reportedly made after a failure “to agree on hiring conditions imposed” by the Philippines. The stakes, as far as Filipinos…
Read More “Saudi Arabia shuts its doors to Filipino domestics” »
So we want more foreign investment, do we? Stop to think. How much of it have we already received? Look around and take stock of what exactly it is about “the Philippines” that is of any consequence to anyone that is indigenous in origin. Indeed, the Philippines is one big foreign investment. Much if not…
Read More “The Philippines is one big SQUANDERED foreign investment” »
The grand-daddy of our culture-as-root-cause thesis, the late great Teddy Benigno, in his classic 2002 Star article Why investors avoid us: The trust factor highlighted what, at the time, was a very conservative forecast regarding China’s fortunes made in a Nomura Research Institute (NRI) study that foresaw a China that could “burgeon into the world’s…
Read More “Without operational excellence, capital is squandered” »