We beg to differ.
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…
The Philippine economy will collapse without the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Remittances from the OFWs contributed significantly to the 7.3% growth in the economy in 2010. The spending fuelled by the billions of dollars they send back home is a factor that is likely helping the country avoid a Greece-like economic failure. Even without drastic…
Read More “Are OFWs’ right to travel being violated by the Philippine Government?” »
Exit permits for OFWs? You gotta be kidding. That plus anecdotal evidence of all sorts of red tape before one can depart for a job overseas? An outrage! It sounds like something reminiscent of the Cold War when East German citizens would risk life and limb to make a dash across the border for a…
Read More “OFW ‘exit permits’ make sense – because taxpayers’ funds are at stake” »
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” »