We beg to differ.
Squatting does indeed pay in the Philippines. The most recent pandering to this vote-rich sector of Philippine society is an 18,000-peso “rental subsidy” to be provided by the Philippine government to each squatter family relocated to other settlement sites. This follows a reported announcement from Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson that “there is…
To understand the fundamental flaw in the idea of the Philippines’ relying on a strategy of counting on “foreign investment” to rescue its people from their own self-created wretchedness, it is important to understand the equally fundamental definition of poverty. Quite simply: Poverty is a habitual entering into commitments one is inherently unable to honour….
Read More “Loser mentality: Filipinos’ 500-year dependence on foreign investment” »
Reports of economic growth in the Philippines as measured by its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reaching an annualised 7.8 percent in the first quarter of the year is sending waves of optimism rippling across Philippine society. One of the centrepieces of the newly-booming economy put up by recent reports on this economic phenomenon such as…
Read More “First Quarter 7.8% annual growth in Ph economy: The Bottom Line” »
This article is substantially based on an article I originally wrote in November, 2010 entitled “Applying the Right Fix: Charter Change and the Philippine Condition.” While the essential points made in the original article are still valid today, the Philippines is not exactly the same country it was two-and-a-half years ago, for better or worse;…
Read More “The Impractical Elitism of an Incorrect Perspective on Reform” »
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…
Read More “Why Dan Brown and his description of Manila in ‘Inferno’ is relevant to Filipinos” »
[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…
Read More “Parliament and the Philippines: A match made in hell?” »
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…
Is it just me, or a growing number of Filipino citizens are becoming more dissatisfied with president Benigno Simeon Aquino III’s (BS Aquino) performance as time passes by? Those who are dissatisfied claim that nothing much has changed. BS Aquino apparently still hasn’t managed to reduce poverty despite his “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap“ guiding…
Read More “A reminder to Filipinos – the cardinal rules of the House of Aquino” »