Category: Development

Loser mentality: Filipinos’ lazy development strategy of attracting foreign investment

May 28, 2013May 28, 2013 benign0 33 Comments

The title of today’s Inquirer.net editorial Excess money says it all. There is enough money swirling around in the domestic economy to fund significant capital expansion. Big Philippine banks manage a big chunk of these funds. Trouble is, as the Inquirer editor observes, “banks choose to park these funds at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas…

Development, Economy, Lifestyle

Why Dan Brown and his description of Manila in ‘Inferno’ is relevant to Filipinos

May 24, 2013October 18, 2018 benign0 126 Comments

Since the conclusion of this year’s Fiesta Election, a palpable void has been left. What now? What is the Next Big Issue to pump our fists in the air for? One realises in hindsight how little substance there was in much of the noise and colour that erupted during the campaign leading up to the…

Culture, Development, Environment, Lifestyle, Society

Parliament and the Philippines: A match made in hell?

May 23, 2013 benign0 9 Comments

[The following is a copy of an article written by the late great culture-is-culprit champion Teddy Benigno originally published on the excellent Philippine Broadsheet The Philippine Star on the 9th May 2003.] * * * Parliamentary system not for Philippines: The wherefores by Teodoro C. Benigno Philippine Star 09 May 2003 The raging debate in…

Culture, Development

President Noynoy Aquino may have a good reason for giving a no-go to charter change!

May 22, 2013 benign0 45 Comments

In a pre-emptive strike on the whole discussion around ‘charter change’ that is likely to come up after the opening of the 16th Congress in July, President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III issued his two cents on the matter of foreign ownership of land in the Philippines. â€œI donâ€™t think they are necessary detriment to…

Charter Change, Development, Economy

Pinoy Pride Is Never There Where It Really Counts Elections 2013

May 22, 2013May 15, 2018 Gogs 8 Comments

May 13 2013. I want you all to forever remember that date whenever you get the temptation to beat your chest like King Kong over whatever superficiality captures your nationalistic imagination until the end of time. One reason why 2013 may be an improvement over 2012 is a year ago the nation was “captivated ”…

Culture, Development, Government, Politics

Dear Philippines: Hope is not a strategy

May 21, 2013May 30, 2013 benign0 5 Comments

Hope springs eternal indeed as that other cliché goes. But then, we might ask: Hope in what exactly? Now that the Philippine Fiesta Elections of 2013 have come and gone, the hard questions must be asked, the vacuous campaign rhetoric ditched, and the motherhood statements junked. Perhaps the usual halfwits will continue to squabble and…

Development, Politics

The Quest Endures…

May 20, 2013 P. Farol 18 Comments

“Here we are again Kate… Ups and Downs.” — Dick Gordon, May 20, 2010 Days after garnering 500,000 votes in the 2010 Presidential Elections I cringe at the thought that after the second automated national and local elections to be held in the Philippines, aÂ sizableÂ portion of the country’s electorate is back to square one. For…

The Apeco Mess

May 14, 2013 BenK No Comments

If outgoing Rep. Edgardo â€œSonnyâ€ Angara Jr. of Aurora wins the election to the Senate seat of his father, as he is widely expected to do, it seems he will be starting his tenure in the upper house of the Philippine legislature under an extraordinary cloud of controversy. Last week, in a statement whose timing…