On my comfy half-hour train ride going home from work, I sat amused while observing a steady line of tweets and Facebook updates streaming down my mobile phone — the poignant helpless anguished cries coming from poor souls lost in the wilderness Manila’s steaming traffic jungle. And here I was just 15 minutes ago fuming over my usual train arriving two minutes late at the platform in my station. Indeed, ain’t life here in Sydney tough? But that’s the great thing about social media. It keeps me constantly reminded of Phil Collins’s iconic words:
Think twice. It’s just another day for you and me in Paradise.
So what’s a guy like me living in Paradise to do other than write, yet again, about Manila’s traffic — this time from a safe and comfy distance applying the sort of outsider’s perspective that my compatriot tropical islanders so neck-deep in these sorts of (to me) distant “issues” consistently fail to take when regarding these things.
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The thing with Australia is its people make making things work look so easy. Traffic flows because the system of traffic signalling and signage, roads and lanes layout design, laws, rules and ordinances, and the pipeline of newly-minted vehicle operators joining the community of road users here is well-regulated.
Note how I emphasized community in the last sentence above. Motorists after all constitute a community of road users. In a community that works, the members that constitute it interact with one another in a mutually-respectful manner that results in an emergent harmony over the bigger picture. For traffic to flow smoothly on a large scale — benefitting the bigger society rather than a small elite minority of enclave dwellers, the motoring community and its support system (land transport planners, legislators, city executives, and law enforcers) need to behave like a community on a large scale. Metro Manila’s infernal traffic woes are, contrary to popular belief, not the root cause of its overall hellish state. It is but a symptom of a consistent failure whose perpetual festering contributes to the relentless growth of its underlying rot.
Filipinos are allergic to obvious solutions.
In the Philippines, behaving like a community is, quite simply, too hard. Filipinos would rather build walls around enclaves built on arbitrarily-located tracts of land all over the city through which alternate traffic routes could’ve been built. We would rather toss, dump and/or flush down our household solid wastes into the city’s many once-beautiful esteros. The Pacquiao Nation would rather pander to the cultural symbolism of their Kings of the Road — the rust buckets that make up our mass transit “system” of jeepneys, tricycles, and kuligligs — rather than entertain the harder but obvious solution of simply tossing all of those contraptions into the junkyard and conscripting their operators into the Army to fight the Chinese. We tolerate public utility buses loading and unloading indiscriminately in the middle of the road — an obvious problem that begs an obvious solution that strangely swamps the intellectual faculties of the country’s foremost “thought leaders”. In short, there is no “Philippines” in the real sense of the notion — only a bunch of arachnids clambering upon one another for a piece of the proverbial bayabas.
So now the rains pour and the floods roll in. Suddenly everyone is “shocked” by how everything goes to hell — as if conveniently forgetting that, rain or shine, Manila traffic is always bad. Because it is so bad and been so bad for so long under normal circumstances we use this otherwise unacceptable but routine normalcy as a baseline for complaining about the relatively worse circumstances abnormally heavy rains bring about. The only solution evident in the horizon in light of these attitudes is the hope that the flooding and 4-hour traffic jams these cause will someday be regarded as the new normal that will serve as the baseline for when new “acts of god” turn the new 4-hour traffic jams into the newly-shocking 6-8 hour Jakarta-style gridlocks of Manila’s future.
You see a similar pattern across Philippine society — how current problems become normal life-as-usual baselines on top of which new problems fester. Bad traffic becomes a baseline for complaining about worse traffic. Stopgap employment overseas becomes a baseline engine of the economy on top of which we pine for more foreign money to fund our nation’s unsustainable growth in basic needs. Poor and corrupt law enforcement becomes the baseline upon which arming private security forces becomes the normal safety insurance for the average businessman. Idiotic politicians become a normal abomination to behold upon which ill-thought-out initiatives to go shopping for System-of-Government 2.0 are hatched.
When people start to see staying at the office until 11pm so that their trip home can be made in one hour as a brilliant “solution” to the traffic mess, it is a sign that underneath the silly smiles being flashed by the thousands of dime-a-dozen Sarah Geronimo clones on Philippine television, is a sad nation bankrupt of any real tangible hope. When living in hellish conditions becomes “normal” and people who point out the hellish nature of said conditions are regarded as the devil by a people who consistently fail to see the devil in their own ways, it becomes difficult to find substance in any slogan that extol the virtues of “hope” and “pride” in the Philippines.
Indeed, in the Philippines substance is a dirty word. That is because an inability of Filipinos to follow simple rules and uphold the most basic principles is at the core of their chronic inability to progress…
Filipinos in general are incapable of any form of discipline because they focus more on form rather than substance. In short, they want to stand out. They lack the discipline to engage in discussions in a civilized way and lack the discipline to not turn a public forum into a circus. This is why issues do not get resolved. This is a consistent observation — from every Senate inquiry being broadcast to the Filipino public down to the most benign discussions in the blogosphere, Filipinos love honking their horns.
Worse, Filipinos in general feel a strong sense of entitlement to relax or “chill-out” even when there is still so much to do to move the country forward. Instead of discussing solutions seriously and in detail during their spare time, Filipinos would rather spend it fooling around — never mind that societies from great nations like China, Japan and South Korea have historically shown that being more serious and devoting more of their time to solving problems yields better results in the long term.
From the top guys and gals sitting behind desks at the Presidential office down to the tricycle driver down the road, everyone just wants to have “fun” in the Philippines first before tackling the problems of the land in a more serious manner. You can be forgiven for thinking that one hit wonder Wang Chung probably wrote the song “Everybody have fun tonight” for Filipinos. It can absolutely boggle the mind to wonder why Filipinos cannot limit switching to party mode when they are at an actual party.
As discussed in my previous article, Filipinos are proud of being a happy-go-lucky society and make it a point to show the rest of the world that they are coping with smiling faces despite the dire circumstances they face. This mentality shows that Filipinos are satisfied with mediocrity and find striving for excellence too daunting. A few remaining Filipinos who want to engage in a more serious discussions are even labeled “kill-joy” or “librarians.” Aside from their penchant for bullying when others don’t engage in “pakikisama,” Filipinos indeed, have a tendency to discriminate against more sober ways of tackling solutions.
Shocked and angered by Manila’s traffic? Well, Filipinos made the bed they sleep on. That, after all, is what “independence” is really all about.
[Photos coutesy Boylit De Guzman and Jerry Ocampo.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Based on Noynoy Aquino logic that traffic is an indicator of a healthy economy. Does that mean the economy is even healthier on nights like last night?
The Philippines is SOOO prosperous the hot money is fleeing the stock market.
until DumDum’s recent tirade in the comments section of one of your posts, I did not realize that you are living in Sydney, playing armchair quarterback. I guess I have not read enough of your posts to be aware of your situation. One would think that the way you bitch and moan that you were here in the Philippines trying to make changes. However, you have exiled yourself to the comfort of Australia to complain about your homeland and belittle those that cannot or will not leave the country.
What you seem to not realize is that having a largely ineffective government is a blessing in disguise. As long as the politicos are busy skimming pesos to fatten their wallets, they are not overly intrusive into every facet of the lives of the citizenry, spying on them, and abusing their power as in my home country, The United States. Look at the upside. Ignore the government. Just do your thing and enjoy your freedom you have unlike in truly oppresive countries.
Yes, the Philippines is chaotic, corrupt, and very much like the wild west. People like myself that consider themselves patriots in their own country come here because it truly is more fun in the Philippines. Sure there are problems, but anywhere you live there are negatives.
If you want to make a positive impact in your homeland, stop talking and start doing. Thinking that change is going to come from the top and trickle down to all classes of Filipinos is a pipe dream. People need real solutions to their problems, not hyperbole. People need real liveliehood programs like urban gardening, sustainable living, and other grass roots approaches to improve thrir lot in life.
Now that is getting real.
(1) “anywhere you live there are negatives”
(2) “stop talking and start doing”
(3) “belittle those that cannot or will not leave the country”
What can I say but all three phrases spoken like a true lozer (does the “z” in the last word make my words a bit less anglo for you?)
You of course fail to realise that the Philippines is the appalling outcome of many ACTIONS underpinned by very little world-class thinking. So, if you haven’t noticed yet, the very EXISTENCE of a country like Philippines is the ANSWER staring you at the face to your call to “stop talking and start doing”.
And, yeah, I do agree that “anywhere you live there are negatives” — something I pointed out when I wrote in the above article that the trains being delayed two minutes every now and then can be a bit infuriating here. Tough luck on us wretched Sydney folks, I guess.
Finally, there really isn’t any need for folk like moi to “belittle those that cannot or will not leave the country”. They’re pretty good at doing that on their own. No help needed from armchair consultants like myself. 😀
Just because one is not in the Philippines doesn’t mean they don’t know anything about what happens here. OFWs know what is happening here. They do.
Wanna start doing? Start by changing yourself. Be a person who abides by rule of law, who stops gossiping, who doesn’t drink liquor and get drunk at the wrong time, who stops latching on Pinoy Pride, who doesn’t bully others, etc. Be the example you want to see in others. That’s the BEST ANYONE CAN DO.
“Circle the wagons boys, we are under attack!”
FYI Chinof: I am jot a drunkard, a gossip, or even Pinoy. I don’t have time for that silliness. I am busy busting my ass to provide for 4 children and a working student who is doing her best to prove to us that she is worth the infestment. She is not related to the family in any way, but we treat as though she is our child.
In addition to working 70 hours a week, I am also the family taxi driver. I do indulge in visiting websites to improve my skills and also try to keep up on current events here and abroad.
I particularly enjoy reading GRF. I find it imformative as there are revelations the Yellow Media is ignoring or burying. What I find distressing is the elitist attitude of people not brave enough to post under their true identities. It lacks credibility to me.
@Chris: So then to relieve yourself of your “distress” over this “elitist attitude” you see here and on account of the lack of credibility you see in our writing, you always have the option of NOT READING any the stuff in this site and even not visiting the site altogether.
If you CHOOSE to stay, my advise to you is simple: Take what is presented and comment on what is tabled in this forum. Anything that is beyond what is presented, beyond what you see, and beyond what people here are willing to make public is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. So eradicate from your psyche that typically-Pinoy trait of trying to make intriga beyond what is readily-evident and FOCUS on what is self-evident dude.
@Chris
Oh my…don’t be so melodramatic! What’s so distressing about reading an article from someone who uses an alternick?!? A lot of famous people used different names too when they wrote a book.
Why don’t you focus on what’s being said instead of the messenger?
My advice, “Start by changing yourself” is intended for everyone out there. You might want to share it with friends and family.
Nice dogpile boys. Why noy just say “Join the choir or shut the fuck up!?
That is what you would like, right?
As benign0 stated, your target audience probably does not even read. Withvthat in mind, everthing you write in this blog is futile. You might as well join the party and sit around drinking Tanduay. You might get about the same amount accomplished.
Dumdum is a piece of work, but at least he puts his real name out there. If you believe in what you write, why not elect someone to put their name and face out there, go on youtube, run for office a la The Pirate Party, why not even start a Philippine chapter of the Pirate Party. In Europe, they are making inroads into the establishment.
@Chris
What is with you and your obsession with people’s names? You seem to have this inability to focus on the message. Are you even using your real name?
Who are you to dictate on what people should or shouldn’t do? Why don’t you go on YouTube yourself? What if the writers don’t want to enter politics? Is that really a problem for you? The country’s problems will not be solved by GRP writers entering politics.
Why are you so consumed by what they are doing? It’s a free world and since you are so into your “freedom”, stop telling people what to do and let them do their thing without judging them.
Have you ever even been to the Philippines? To Manila?? You should feel privileged to live in the United States. The government would not even give aid to the farmers during a drought and, instead, opened fire on them. 3 murdered, 200 injured. You talk of spying and being intrusive in the U.S. However, there are laws in place that protect such a thing. As you’ve said, the Philippines is more of the “wild west.”
We’re both American, but ignorance like yours makes me shudder about the people I live with.
I guess I hit a nerve! What you fail to realize is that the only thing the separates The Philippines and other “Developing Countries” and “First World Countries” is one week’s pay. If the dollar crashes, Filipinos will be in a lot better shape than Americans. If the Euro tanks, Europeans will be in a bad spot. Tho societies you worship will be in a shambles as soon as the gas stations go dry, fhe ATMs run out of money, and the grocery stores close.
One thing you cannot deny is that Filipinos are survivors and have the ability to overcome or at least weather adversity. If and when the shit hits the fan, you will see the strength and resolve of your countrymen.
So I am a loser for pointing out that you are really not part of the solution, but just stirring the pot from Australia, hiding behind a screen name using your thesaurus to craft your words so that you seem to be uber-intellectual?
Get Real BenignO!
How big a loser you are depends on how valid your claim is to the imagined throne you sit on where you presume to be the judge of who is or who isn’t “part of the solution”. The trouble with some people here is that they only have one or a narrow domain of a notion of what constitutes contributing to the national “cause”.
Again in the above comment you exhibit yet another so-typically Pinoy trait. You speak of being “uber-intellectual” (whatever that means) as if being so is a bad thing. I do recall someone who wrote about this particular aspect of Da Pinoy Condition — how Pinoys seem to put a stigma on people who like to intellectualise problems…
And, yeah, but of course, “Filipinos are survivors and have the ability to overcome or at least weather adversity”. I’ll help you out a bit here and lend you a single word to describe this verbal diarrhea you dished out there: resilience — another one of those imagined virtues Pinoy triumphalists like to pin on Pinoys’ Collezione shirts next to that embroidered image of the Philippine islands. You may want to check out our extensive portfolio of insight on this imagined Pinoy trait right here. Indeed, this is one trait Pinoys share with that other evolutionary triumph of survival: cockroaches…
Read it and weep, dude. That is what getting real is all about. 😀
Heck, Euro and America seem to be sinking, but remember, the Philippines has always been in a worse state than them. Look at unemployment and poverty figures. And just the character of people you see around you here in Metro Manila. “Horrendous” is an understatement.
The west is sinking and the people that are living off of the government teat are in for a rude awakening. Asia is the bright spot. Hopfully the Philippines behefits from that trend and there is some wisdom used if opportunities arise. It is doubtful since the dyhasties will pickpocket anyohe bringing money in.
Things on the national level are not going to change any time soon. You cannot depend on your government to do the right thing here or anywhere else. Low information voters who fall for the same tricks every election are going to continue along that path. This leads to the ineffectual government that does nothing.
DOST is a great source of livliehood traing, but the way they dispense the information is flawed. Instead of forming cooperatives and hosting seminars, they need to go house to house with their ideas looking for people that would appreciate their expertise and actually use it.
Capitalism is alive and well in the Philippines. From fruit vendors to taxi fetchers, it is encouraging to see the entrepranural spirit here. As much as it pisses me off to pay a guy to grab my motorcycle by the mirrors and spin it around on a flimsy kickstand, I would rather pay them than put pesos in an empty hand of a beggar that is able bodied but lazy.
@Chris
You’re the one who needs to get real! It’s more fun for you in the Philippines because your dollar goes a long way and you have servants you can pay peanuts.
There is no equal opportunity in the Philippines and you don’t realize that because you are not in touch with the common folks.
Dude, I am about as real as it gets. So you think I am a rich foreigner living the high life because it is sooooo cheap here?
Where should I begin?
Electricity in the Philippines is the second most expensive in the world next to Japan
Gasoline is twice the price here as it is in the US. Good thing we do not own a gas guzzling car. I put 200 pesos a week in the tank of my motorcycle.
Milk for the kids is 3 times the cost here as it is in the US. MY kids drink 12 liters a week between them.
Food in general is more expensive here. 180 pesos for a kilo of Bell peppers? That is insane. I can buy ground beef in the US for 120php a kilo, which is half of what it costs here.
Doctors stick it to me. Every minor illness is a reason to admit. My youngest son had a UTI that kept coming back. The solution (after 2 costly hospitalizations) was circumcision for the ridiculous price of 31,000php because they needed a surgeon and anesthesia, and an operating room. why couldn’t our pediatrician just do it? because she wants to spread the wealth among her fellow professionals.
I pay my help twice the going rate in the area, they eat with the family and eat what the family eats, unlike their diet if they worked for a Filipino doctor we know. She makes 5 times what I make and her helpers live in a nipa hut and don’t even get to eat leftovers from the family. They get bulad, ginnimoes, sardines, and corned beef with NFA to round out their meals.
Our working student came to us as a helper. Upon finding out she only finished 1st year of high school due to her family wanting her to be their helper, we offered her the opportunity to go to school. We put her in school and hired another helper to replace her. All we expect from her is that she concentrates on school. She worked for us two months, but due to K12, she has 5 years to go. If she excels in high school, we will put her through college.
We rent because we cannot afford to buy a piece of land here. The lot that our modest house we pay 15k a month for is priced at 3000php per meter. There is some land here priced at 90,000php a meter. I can buy land in the US for $750 an acre, that is 30,000php for 2000 meters.. the price of the land that our CR occupies here.
We could live cheaper in the states, especially because I own a house free and clear plus 50 acres of land. We have all of the modern conveniences like washer and dryer, dishwasher etc that would do the work of helpers for us.
So why would we choose to live in the Philippines? FREEDOM. Freedom from having our children indoctrinated in US schools. Freedom from oppression from overzealous government agencies. Freedom to have our children go to school where they pray every day and learn about God. Freedom from whackjobs bringing guns to school and killing kids. Freedom from home invasions, gang violence, and other random violence.
We teach our kids about compassion for the poor and disabled and not to judge others because their skin is darker (Unlike the average Filipino who treats someone with dark skin like a slave). We teach our kids that everyone is equal, whether they are a teacher, a trike driver, or a “Watch your Bike Bro” that always uses the mirrors as a handle to spin my motorcycle around on it’s flimsy kickstand. Our kids know how to wash their own clothes and pick up after themselves. We spend time with our kids, we take them to school, we wash them, teach them unlike the rich Tsinoy familes we know of.
I am nothing like you want me to be. I am in touch, I am real.
@Chris
You make it sound like there is no such thing as gangs, home invasion, gun culture and violence in the Philippines. You just proved that you are not in touch with reality. Furthermore, you make it sound like the Philippines is a truly secular country. Hello?!? Do you want to know why the country is overpopulated and why Filipinos think Cory Aquino is a saint? It’s because of religion and how it consumes the average Filipino.
You have the freedom not to expose your children to religion anywhere you are. I don’t think religion in US public schools is shove down people’s throats. As far as I know they already removed prayers from US schools. What the heck are you talking about?
You made your choices and it seems your choice is to stick with mediocrity no matter what. You are probably a nobody in the US who found a submissive wife in the Philippines. That is all.
You have no problem highlighting what is wrong with the west but you have a problem with the writers here who highlight what is wrong with the Philippines. What a hypocrite.
@Chris: Being “free”, in the Philippines? Well, maybe that is from your perspective. America, in the eyes of the law though perhaps not always in its true spirit, treat Green Card holders almost on an equal footing with their natural-born citizens. You get a double-whammy in the Philippines. Natural-born Filipinos are 3rd-class citizens in their own country. Foreign-born residents get 4th-class treatment. When you get yourself naturalised, then you make 3rd-class.
And as to what you try to teach your kids while living in Da Pinas…
…good luck with that. Filipinos are among the most racist folk on the planet. Skin whitening products sell like hotcakes in these islands and, as you will easily note on Pinoy TV, just about every red-blooded Pinoy female wants to look like alabaster-skinned and Chinese-looking Sarah Geronimo.
You really think those values will stick in a country whose people grew up looking down upon plumbers and street sweepers on account of their upbringing? Guess again. There is no pride in labour in the Philippines. Only the ominipresent eyes of people who routinely crack jokes about ethnicity and physical appearance with flat banality and to whom people’s worth are judged on the basis of how fair their skin is. Behold the REAL Philippines.
As you have pointed out elsewhere, Filipinos are not a race, but a nationality and racism is rampant here. Being raised by “Certified Crackers”, I believe that racism begins and ends in the home.
We have a blended family. Our oldest is 100% Filipino by my wife’s first marriage and characteristically dark. The three younger ones are light skinned. Not white, but more “Disney” tan (Think Aladdin and other cartoons of late that present a homogenized skin color).
The oldest was a victim of racism from the two children we used to live next door to. I am sure they learned it from their pasty white mother. It was an opportunity for us to explain why those children were wrong to our younger children. We look at these episodes, that surely will crop up over and over again to be teachable moments for our children. I am pretty confident that our children, if they love their own brother, will not make color an issue. At least I hope.
In order to raise children to a higher standard, we have to consciously raise our standards for ourselves.
@Chris, that’s nice that you apply such standards within your own home. Don’t expect however that those standards are shared in most other Filipino homes and on public spaces WHERE IT MATTERS the most.
The pathological need to be fair skinned and associated with fair skinned people is profoundly ingrained in Filipinos. It will take GENERATIONS to eradicate that mentality. You may as well use your skin colour to your advantage rather than pretend (or delude yourself and others) that that trait does not matter in Pinoy society.
And if you are looking for universal mutual respect that is blind to skin colour and social class, da Pinas is the last place where you will find all that. Those values can barely even be regarded as a national aspiration at least.
It is evident in the way the average Pinoy conducts herself – the way they drive, the way they dispose of their waste, the way they jump queues, the way they focus on irrelevant intrigue, etc. Respect is a word often bandied but rarely practiced in da Pinas.
Note how most of what you say in your comment above is CULTURAL in nature rather than political. You inadvertently hit the nail right on the head and intuitively understand now what you’ve always likely understood about what GRP is all about. The key to REAL change is locked deep in the cultural fabric of the Philippines and, as such, political “solutions” will ALWAYS be of very limited effect on this deeply-damaged society.
Hello, I’ve been a fan of this blog for quite some time.
I’ve been involved with a few projects to help improve our country from skills development and job creation (I was focused on local self sustainability and development of local industries and was not the biggest fan in making OFWs as they can break families).
In retrospect, i have had several meetings with many well intentioned filipinos who have complained about the many ills of this country, from infrastructure to politics to the class system etc… they have complained with such a passion that it led me to think and ask them, “how bad do you want to improve our country?”. I was thinking if they were really genuinely fed up I would think some kind of critical mass would have happened by now…
But nope, jumping on some of their ideas, I supported them and only to find out when it came time to deliver, to make their ideas concrete through action, these trumpeters disappeared.
Did they really want genuine change or do Filipinos just like complaining?
This article just made me revisit this question to direct at one of my favorite blogs, coz right now, your revelation as someone complaining from the outside from the comfort of a more organized society, complaining with such a passion I might add, I was wondering…
how bad do you want the Philippines to improve?
Or do you (and this blog) just like complaining about these issues, and just like most Filipinos and leave it at that?
A sincere question, and I would like to know your thoughts on this.
@Red, first of all there is complaining and there is structured complaining. I know people who complain a lot but are unable to put coherence in their complaints and turn them into actionable points. At GRP, this is what we aspire to do — put structure into issues that are pretty much already widely known but hardly understood. The conceptual gap between being unstructured and structured in one’s complaining spells the difference between the audience merely knowning and truly understanding what one is complaing about.
As to how “bad” we want the Philippines to improve, well, you can see that badness in the passion that is quite evident in our writing. So, that answers your question, I believe. Does writing about it then doing what some people perceive to be “nothing” necessarily make GRP a non-contributor to progress? I don’t think so. As I said earlier, ultimately it is thinking and the ideas that are an outcome of that thinking that lends quality to action.
In the hands of someone who does not think, for example, a hammer can be pretty destructive. So the last thing we want to see is some hammering action coming from said hypothetical person. Think of GRP as the entity that provides the carpentry skills to that hypothetical non-thinking person. We may ultimately not do the actual hammering, but what we provide is important nonetheless so we have a better chance of seeing said person build a nice wooden chair and not end up stuck with a pile of busted wood.
Then again, who really knows what the writers in this blog do during their personal time. For all you know some of us GRP writers spend time in our basements inventing a longer-lasting lightbulb. We don’t know that because we try not to think about one another’s personal circumstances and, instead, focus on understanding ONLY what is made available for public consumption.
Hope this clarifies a few things for you. 🙂
Cool, thanks for the reply.
I agree with you that there needs to be thinking first before some action as to avoid the indistinguishable pile of wood that you mentioned (I LOL’d), being a reader of this blog for many years and just seeing it full of structured complaints, I can only wonder, hey you guys have good ideas, now I wonder if these were actually implemented… or at least baby steps have been taken already.
or maybe they were? maybe there are people or even some GRP contributors actually doing something beyond writing, not to say that writing is not enough, but honestly, it shouldn’t stop there.
These words would be more effective and inspiring and more convincing when put into action especially by those saying it, right?
Now this is becoming more of a suggestion, maybe it would help to add a few links to actual projects being implemented that act on the issues, especially those done by GRP contributors (since they are done by the writers themselves they would be the best people to write about those projects).
Yes words can inspire people to do things, but seeing these words being applied in the real world will add a whole new level of inspiration I think.
Red,
You mentioned your involvement in skills development and promoting local development. And you would like to take the ideas articulated in GRP posts further; that you would like to see them “being applied in the real world.”
Let me pose a couple of questions — What is your criteria for a project/idea to be considered worthwhile? What measures do you suggest we use to evaluate whether the endeavor is successful?
@Red
Why don’t you put the words into action yourself?
You expect too much from other people. Do it yourself and stop telling people to do things.
Johnny Saint,
Yes, the articles in GRP offer possible solutions in making a better country, and I read and get inspiration from them from time to time and has led me to formulate several proposals that me and my colleagues think could help better our country.
I will not judge other people’s ideas as being worthwhile or not, but I can say is that we all have our talents and I believe we do what we can within our capabilities to at least make some kind of change at least within our circles. One can only hope this ripples through the rest of the community.
Let’s say for example, our dependence on outsourcing. With outsourcing you are dependent on the demands from the outside, while in the short term it is getting us jobs, in the long run, I was strongly suggesting to my higher ups that we need to look at self sustainability projects, wherein industries and jobs are created within the country. if we can give our own countrymen jobs, then we can slowly achieve some kind of independence.
Another would be our reliance on OFWs. SHort term thinking again, but unfortunately it is frighteningly now the backbone of the K12 program. OFWs make good money, but like in a GRP article before that, the rest of the family (and the country) just wait for their remitances and tend to just slack off back here. Again, if we had enough jobs that paid well (from our own industries), our Filipino brothers and sisters do not need to leave their loved ones for work, and families don’t need to be broken, at least in that way.
The ideas I have proposed are exploratory. I cannot guarantee success and I have been honest to my superiors about that. But I believe that the goals we want to achieve have enough merit that we should at least try.
Pnoy and his ilk did not think so, and our division was dissolved. But we know that we don’t need to go through the government to help the country. There are other ways, even other governments, just to help us get the ball rolling.
Dude,
Yes I actually am. And the articles in GRP have provided great inspiration for ideas in coming up with programs that can at least attempt to solve some of our problems.
I think we can all agree our country has a lot of fixing up to do, and I see there is a lot of anger, frustration here, that energy can be channeled to something productive. Yes we are in quite a mess, and because of this, we must expect to do a lot, if we sincerely want a better country.
I am not telling people to do things, I am just sharing my thoughts and experiences and maybe those can influence others to do the same.
There are good ideas here, but i think each of us has the capability to make these ideas “get real” too. It’s just a matter of “how bad do you want our country to improve?”
You said: ” As I said earlier, ultimately it is thinking and the ideas that are an outcome of that thinking that lends quality to action.”
I agree, since I am a firm believer of that proverbial “lit lightbulb,” and I think that is self-explainatory to most of us.
Changing a government and public perception takes drastic action immensely. I would say it takes a cultural revolution, but criticizing our bads are one little giant step towards changing.
Let me just add, most Filipinos are afraid to speak up and I think I know why.
I love this article, it helps the blind see what is terribly wrong with us. You are doing something good exposing the politicians and its citizens. cirticizing is part of the solution.
I was first attracted to this blog because of the differing viewpoint from what you refer to as the Yellow Media. I was hoping there was more constructive dialogue on these pages with solutions, not just criticisms. While the concept of using plastic to make diesel fuel is exciting, it is prohibitively expensive for the average person. On the other hand, the project to reuse water bottles as light refracting prisms to provide free light in homes really addresses the basic needs of the poor in this country but is not mentioned anywhere.
A section that proposes real, feasible solutions and promotes livliehood, environmentalism, and boots on the ground activism would be nice. Myself, I am interested in alternative construction and aquaculture. When I tell people about earthbag construction, the shake their head, when I show them a youtube video showing how it is done, they begin to understand. Soon, I will start a project people can touch and feel. I hope to inspire others.
Maybe you can take it under consideration that there is a need to identify problems, but you also need to promote real solutions.
Pardon me, but you are referring to Illac Diaz’s “Liter of Light?” I’m sorry, but I tend to lump him in with the “good looking do-gooder” crowd that is popular because of hype and non-Filipino, mestizo appearance. Not because the solutions they propose are workable self-sustaining ones. The criticism I’ve always had with the water bottle solution still remains — what happens when the rainy season kicks in? At best the water bottles will provide some light for maybe half the year. And the plastic to diesel solution was never intended to become a strictly backyard operation. The best way to take advantage of this technology was to have a business or community recycling facility implement it. As a business model, however, this type of project will never generate high revenue. Recycling will always cost more in terms of inputs.
unfortunately, that is the showman that I am referring to. As much as he likes to pretend that he is the originator, The idea was developed at MIT and is also being used in other parts of the world. It is not clear what part he took in the development, which is one of the reasons I did not mention his name. the other reason is because another project of his was abandoned in Negros Occidental after he cut some corners and made a critical error.
That said, while not perfect the idea has merit. It is useful for a portion of the year and could offset the cost of electricity when it does work. Any savings is a savings.
That was just one example that comes to mind.
@Chris, GRP originally started out as a commentary on the Philippines’ cultural issues and as such our Solution Framework focuses mainly on approaches that addresses issues of that nature.
The definition of the problem frames the development of the solutions. That does not mean we are excluding other practical solutions. I merely point out the background of this community to help you understand what shapes the debate here.
That said, there is nothing stopping anyone here from introducing all sorts of ideas as long as they can articulate them well and are open and mature enough to subject them to critical evaluation. If the ideas are strong, sound, and compelling enough, they could even inspire the writers here to develop them further in subsequent articles they write.
Your passion is evident by the effort you put into your articles. Taking on a subject such as traffic and using it to beat the same old drum takes work. Perhaps it is a way for you to use the traffic situation to illustrate your point to those that have not been able to understand your position to date.
Obviously you are preaching to the choir here and it feels good to have your theories validated by others that share your feelings.
You can argue the valid point that if you just change the perception of one person and something positive cones of it then you have affected change.
Real change is something that can be measured. Can you measure the changes that have come about as a result of GRP? Can you illustrate an example where these writings have produced something tangible on a national, regional, local or even in a purok level?
How can a group of like minded people who are passionate to make a positive change that can be measured and duplicated? There is only one way and that is boots on the ground activism. Grab your hammers (after being properly trained), your shovels, some seeds, and plant a community garden someplace. Then keep going back to help keep it on track. While you are spending time with people winning their hearts and minds, take that opportunity to discuss your theories with them. Take a page from the playbook of missionaries and apply it to your greater cause.
The people that need to ge enlightened do not read this blog as it takes more than 30 seconds to read an article and there are not enough pictures to entertain them.
Well, there is only so much one can do, so what little we do (or what little people perceive we do), we do our best to do really well. The people who “need to be enlightened” I think not only do not read this blog, they do not read at all, full stop. So we are left with “the choir”. But let’s not underestimate the variety of the views held by said “choir”. It would be an insult on them to assume that they agree with every opinion or assertion made by GRP writers. What makes said “choir” great is their ability to form independent views and articulate really well why they subscribe to said views. So there’s really no need to beat ourselves up about failing to reach people who we consider to be not part of this “choir”. And even if we do, there is a saying: One can lead a horse to water, but one cannot make it drink.
Benign0, haven’t you realized that this notorious traffic problem is caused by the system of Imperial Manila? A paradigm shift away from an Imperial Manila will solve this problem and allow other regions (not just Cebu and Davao) to grow as well. This will also ease the government’s job in enforcing the law and cleaning up the mess since once the paradigm shift happens and the people of Manila think that there are opportunities all around the country, they will leave the capital as soon as possible and therefore the first clause of this sentence happens.
Indeed. Check out our portfolio of insight on the really compelling proposal to break the Philippines into little pieces Yugoslavia-style for its own good here. Happy reading!
@Jazer
Haha! Nabuko ka na. You just copied and pasted Orion Dumdum’s comment. Someone pasted it here also. Nautusan ka lang at sumunod ka naman. That’s more proof that your movement is just a cult. Orion is the cult leader.
Can you actually use your own words in explaining what your leader meant? Mga promdi kayo. Para lang mga maid. Utusan lang ni Orion.
Orion Pérez D. Someone please go in there and ask Malign0 the question, point blank: “Benign0: haven’t you realized that the traffic problem is not a result of not following rules, but is the result of the Philippines’ centralized-around-Metro-Manila system? Don’t you think a shift in paradigm that would cause the Philippines to get decentralized so that regions get empowered to develop themselves economically instead of everything just being all about Metro Manila would actually help to solve the problem?”
Do paraphrase it… But MANY OF YOU ought to go into the comments’ section and call Benign0 on his blatant refusal to acknowledge that there is an obvious need for “Regional-based Decentralization”, so that the Philippines ceases to be overly Manila-centric.
I am just amazed at how BLIND this guy is.
4 hours ago · Edited · Like · 4
Lol! Four “Likes” on their “leader’s” call to action yet no trace of any of these minions here. Loser mentality.
Unfortunately, Orion’s minions couldn’t even “paraphrase” it…hahaha!!
Buking na naman si Orion na gusto lang mang-gulo dito sa comment section. Bakit hinde sya magpunta dito? He just wants to make it look like there are more people complaining about GRP. Style bulok si Orion. Hanggang ngayon he’s still using other people to fight for his cause.
Magisip kayo mga utusan! Inuuto lang kayo ni Orion.
I did paraphrase it.
@Jazer
Bingo! You really have no shame in admitting you are just Orion’s minion. Loser!
Haha, nagpapalusot pa ang tuta!
There’s no idiot like a useful idiot, like you. Your wee internet king must be proud of you. How would we know you’re not doing the old “palusot” routine?
The fact remains that you guys appear to be mere yesmen. You had a choice to not look stupid by at least paraphrasing well.
Dyan talaga magaling mga Pinoy — maging otosan… 😀
My action was voluntary and not shoved down my throat. You fell for that paraphrasing and you exaggerated federalism as secession.
Note too how Orion likes issuing attack orders. Some sort of Napoleonic Complex at work there. 😀
Like I said before, they’re not that different from the malacanang trolls that used to attack this site. Just as dumb & stubborn like their beloved “leader”.
Hello, I’ve been lurking here for a long time, reading around the articles here and the comments area. This thing here has aroused my interest (negatively though), since I was planning to join Correct, but I somehow held back due to being busy in real life.
After reading this, and stumbling upon a defamatory blog seemingly made by members of the said movement (that was posted in another article’s comment section), I’m glad I didn’t join them. My opinion of them has taken a nose-dive, to put it mildly. I never thought they’d be this low.
Orion Dumdum is cut off from real life.
Great! The traffic problem in the Philippines is nothing new. Coming up with solutions would be noteworthy rather that just whine. Typical Filipino writer, all complaints without any viable solutions.
Get Real!
Typical Pinoy who expects the solutions to be handed to him/her on a silver platter. Why don’t you try first this thing called “thinking for yourself”, long considered moronic by Pinoy standards?
With each administration at the Palace, the traffic gets worse (although with the current occupant the situation becomes worsens exponentially). Each new MMDA Chairman enters the office and 1) cancels any and all projects under the previous chairman (whether said projects were successful or not) and 2) tries to reinvent the wheel by coming up with some new idiotic scheme which defies all logic and common sense. Filipinos wonder why us “foreigners” become so aggravated at the traffic situation here saying we should just “be patient”, “shut up” and/or “go home”. The reason this tragic comedy enrages us (and I don’t understand why Filipinos are not even more enraged) is because the solutions are so freakin’ simple! Hell! All you have to do is look overseas at working models that WORK and have worked for over 50 years! But that’s logical thinking, a thought process which Filipinos in government and within the general population seem to be incapable of.
Too much traffic on surface roads? Hmmm… Logic says build elevated roadways (in California these are known as FREEWAYS). These are NOT to be confused with “Flyovers”. The construction of four elevated highway systems (heading north, south east and west with the axis of all meeting in location in the central metro) would drastically reduce surface traffic, reduce travel time and so on. There are too many buses on EDSA and they take up 2 to 3 lanes of traffic at every bus stop. Logic says reduce the amount of buses and enforce traffic laws. I could go on and on but LOGIC eludes Filipinos (in the Philippines) and worse, using or adopting procedures used by other countries is totally out of the question because, as we all know, the only good ideas are Filipino ideas! So, the traffic (and everything else) gets worse and Filipinos can’t understand why “foreigners” and right-minded Filipinos at GRP view this place a shit-hole! … Side note; I bet this post will receive at least 5 replies of “go home if you don’t like it”. LOL
@Jetlag807: That is why I remain merely bemused at best by people who criticise GRP for focusing “too much” on problems and not on “solutions”. The solutions are inherent in the problem statements that are articulated in a structured manner in our articles and, as you demonstrated above, solutions flow naturally from the ensuing discussions in the comment threads within said articles.
Indeed, this graphic is almost as old as GRP itself and illustrates the very point I make:
It does not take a rocket scientist to come up with solutions to the problems of Da Pinas. That now-famous photo I included in the article above shows just how moronic and easily solvable the problems are. It just takes a people willing to help themselves to do it.
This is the most frustrating thing, the fact that the solution is too friggin simple. It’s always the problem of ‘politikos appealing to the masses’ that prevents these solutions to be implemented.
Orion Pérez D. Nice thread you started, Anton — you are totally right… A lot of people use those CLICHE reasons over and over again and they all miss the fact that they didn’t go deep enough to get to the real root of those problems.
In fact, while I agree that Education is a key solution, A LOT OF PEOPLE forget that Education has costs since Education IS AN INVESTMENT. And since there are such costs, the question is WHERE ARE THOSE RESOURCES coming from to pay for those costs of education?
That’s the missing ingredient that so many people miss out on.
Heck, even “Malign0’s” entire “We need to change the culture first” approach misses the point that changing the culture by itself often requires EDUCATION and a lot of effort that will entail a lot of costs. Again, where will we get the necessary resources to pay for those costs?
What Malign0 and his crew (Mrs Lukaret, Broke Kano Kritz, Pulpol the Troll Farol, and the Damulamunin — “Damulag na Palamunin”) clearly do not get is that you can’t change culture by writing articles that tell people that they need to change their culture. We can only change culture by CHANGING THE SYSTEM that shapes our behavior as a people, and extended over time, our changed behavioral patterns will become embedded to become a new CULTURE.
Those GaRaPals clearly DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING about:
1) How Culture is Formed
2) Behavioral Modification
3) How Culture can be changed through system change
Why? Because they don’t study history! They DO NOT READ about the history of so many different societies in the world.
They do not realize, for instance, that prior to getting Sinicized, the Japanese were relatively primitive and it was simply their exposure to Chinese Culture that made them decide to emulate the Chinese by setting up systems that caused their people to start acting more like the Chinese and thus they got Sinicized long long ago.
Later on, after Commodore Matthew Perry came to Japan and forced certain terms on them, they decided they needed to become WESTERNIZED in order to become at least as strong as the West in order to resist conquest.
And how did they Westernize? They set up SYSTEMS that gave incentives to people to emulate the West and created disincentives to people who wanted to stick to many of the old ways.
That in itself was a SYSTEM CHANGE that forced the Japanese of the Meiji Restoration to become more Westernized.
* * *
But of course, Malign0, Broke Kano, Lukarilda (Lukaret na — oh never mind), Pulpol Farol, etc don’t know any of this.
Puro lang sila bitching and whining.
Worse, they’re actively out to avoid agreeing with anything that MAKES SENSE if it sounds like “something that Orion would say.”
Look at that recent article Malign0 wrote about the TRAFFIC. The idiot ACTIVELY SKIRTED AROUND the issue of the Philippines’ overcentralization around Imperial Manila which is clearly one of the main results of the Philippine Constitution which prescribes a centralized-unitary system.
He wants to pretend that it’s all about “following the rules” or “being polite.” REALLY?!? Malign0… Don’t you see that EVEN IF DRIVERS IN MANILA WERE COURTEOUS AND FOLLOWED THE RULES, the problem is simply that there are just too many vehicles in Metro Manila resulting from the fact that there are just TOO MANY PEOPLE in Metro Manila, resulting from the fact that so many people from all over the Philippines are flocking to Imperial Manila because whatever economic opportunities that do exist happen to be in Imperial Manila???
Haay naku.
Now… To the “WAYNE CHETOCO” who thinks he’s a SPY here on this group and posted some of my stuff here over at the Get Real Philippines Community (which was an FB group THAT I PERSONALLY CREATED, by the way, so Malign0 has no freakin’ business “owning” that group ‘coz it is MINE), first off, this is a relatively OPEN GROUP.
So if you see me saying stuff about Malign0 and Lukarilda or Broke Kano (yeah, the idiot who is dirt poor because alimony payments impoverished him so he fled to Imus to escape that) or Pulpol Farol the evil AC/DC Troll ON THIS GROUP, it’s because I want them to HEAR JUST HOW IDIOTIC THEY ARE by avoiding any possible agreement with ideas that happened to be espoused by myself and by the CoRRECT Movement.
See, those people are so intent on staying away from agreeing with me that they will desperately lay the blame on other things outside of the stuff that I say, EVEN IF the stuff that I say often turns out to be the most obvious reason for why our country is fouled up.
The massive traffic jam in the Philippines? That’s ultimately traceable to the problem of the Constitution being so Manila-centric because of our UNITARY-CENTRALIZED SYSTEM of territorial administration.
Sometimes, “WAYNE”, the obvious answer is an answer that I – Orion – would have also said.
There’s nothing wrong if Maligno, Lukarilda, Broke Kano, or Pulpol Farol decided to just agree with me that the 1987 Constitution has CLEARLY MADE THINGS HARDER FOR FILIPINOS and that obviously , the 1987 Constitution needs to be CoRRECTed.
Haay. Ewan ko ba. The test of their ability to be objective is if they can AGREE WITH MY IDEAS even if they are envious and hateful towards me. I get it, they don’t like me. But what makes them so freakin’ly idiotic is that they would actively seek to avoid acknowledging that certain obvious SOLUTIONS are necessary to adopt in order to make things better, just because I happen to be pushing for those solutions.
“Wayne Chetoco” — the “spy” (kuno)….
It’s like me saying that “3+4=7” and now Malign0, Broke Kano, Lukarilda, and Pulpol Farol the Troll are trying their best to avoid saying YES to “3+4=7” simply because I said it.
For them to be objective, it shouldn’t matter whether I said something, what they should care about is whether what I said is true. And if it is true, they shouldn’t mind AGREEING WITH IT. I didn’t make it true. Right?
Anyway, thanks for RELAYING THE MESSAGE OVER TO THE GaRaPals, “Wayne Chetoco.”
You actually stressed them out.
Lol! Looks like Orion is now relying on his hollow-headed minions to bring his message across here. And he is still butthurt enough to continue fixating on certain people and calling them schoolyard names. Thus above BEHOLD the true CHARACTER of the leader of certain reform “movements”.
Classy. 😀
Soon people will come here not only for the articles, but also to marvel at a certain reform movement of fearsome internet warriors who crap up comments sections and set up blackmailing blogs against people.
Stressed? I beg to differ.I think that there’s nothing more hilarious than seeing a wannabe Prime Minister and his uto-uto henchmen (I hope he’s reading this) fail at being taken seriously.
Go back to your internet treehouse and plan more internet raidz, eh, CorrWRECK?
Its really pitiful to see that orion has resorted to dispatching out his “flying monkeys” only for them to be shot down by the peeps at GRP.
I actually warned him before that if he continues to badmouth other people, he’s the one who’s going to look bad. Unfortunately, he didn’t listen. What’s worse is that he blames other people for the negative publicity his movement is getting because of his appalling behaviour.
Frankly, I am more annoyed now at CoRRECT members who tolerate Orion’s bullying tactics than Orion himself. As the saying goes, all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Ilda,
Like I said earlier, orion and his goons are no different from those wacky naz-I mean malacanang trolls that used to attack this site(with very little success).
It’s really sad how orion has resorted to using thug like tactics to attack GRP.
Sigh…how sad that Orion has turned out to be a bitter man.
Of course a lof of our ideas would mirror Orion’s ideas. He was once a part of GRP after all. We’ve always said that we are not against his three point agenda. He’s the one insisting that we are and he’s managed to convince his followers to attack GRP too.
The only reason he got kicked out of GRP is because of his appalling behaviour as exhibited in his comment above. He was trying to boss us around – trying to dictate what the core writers could and could not write. He didn’t want any article he perceived to be critical of his three point agenda published. Most of the time any criticism he claims that is supposedly directed at his CoRRECT movement is simply all in his head. He calls them “parinigs”. Sad but true. That’s why none of his followers could provide proof that GRP was attacking him.
Seems comments can only go 4 deep in a thread:
@benigno – I know that once my kids leave the house that they will see the culture as it is. We have a very traditional household. The dinner table is where we talk about the day’s events and the kids are responsive. We do not own a television. We do have three computers due to the nature of our work and for the kids to do homework on. The computers are all out in the living room. We are aware of what is going on. We pre-screen what the kids watch on youtube and other mediums. We are involved parents.
When I first came here, I noticed that The Philippines was a lot like it was when I was a kid growing up. We stayed out until the streetlights came on, actually played outside with our friends, and family life was more traditional.
I remember sitting on a beach on Siquijor about 4pm when school was letting out. Kids came down the beach, laughing and playing. They came upon a coconut tree and a big kid went up and retrieved a young coconut and brought it down to share with the others. That sealed the deal. I wanted my kids to grow up like that. Obviously, our life is not like that. Our kids ride home from school on tricycles because we are about 4km from the sea.
One day, unless I work hard to provide them with a business to take over, my children will probably want to leave the Philippines. I have to prepare them to live in a country where people are a bit more civil to each other.
@dude
I read your comment, but you seemed to have deleted it after the fact while I was asleep. I guess that you realized that you misunderstood my comment regarding prayer in schools and how I am all for it. Maybe someone messaged you regarding your TOTALLY missing the point and you deleted your comment to save face.
Read my comments regarding religion in the schools again. It seems that you did not read the comment, you just started replying and calling me a hypocrite. I WANT my children to go to schools that are faith based and they do. I did not like the west, so I left. I do not try to change the USA from here. Some people like having a government to take care of their every need and that is okay, they can have it if they want. I do not. I prefer the Wild West, which is why I am here.
Study what it means to be a libertarian – You may find that we have more in common than you think.
@Chris
What are you talking about? My comment was not deleted. It’s still there. And if you still can’t find it, I’ll paste it again. I have to admit that I got that bit about you not wanting your kids to pray at school wrong. My bad. But the rest of the stuff you keep blabbing about is YOUR LIFESTYLE CHOICE. You even brag about sponsoring someone by paying for her studies. Big deal. Lots of people do that not just you. I do that too but I don’t make a big deal out of it.
So, care to respond to rest of my comments? Here they are again with a few additions:
You make it sound like there is no such thing as gangs, home invasion, gun culture and violence in the Philippines. You just proved that you are not in touch with reality. It’s as if the Philippines is paradise compared to the US. Again, that’s just your opinion based on your lifestyle choice. You have to admit that your dollar goes a long, long way in the Philippines, which makes your stay there peachy. The stuff you can afford to buy is already a luxury to a lot of Filipinos.
You made your choices and it seems your choice is to stick with mediocrity no matter what. Not everyone shares your views and you just can’t force it on others. You are probably a nobody in the US who found a submissive wife in the Philippines. That is all.
You have no problem highlighting what is wrong with the West but you have a problem with the writers here who highlight what is wrong with the Philippines. What a hypocrite.
And this was my other comment:
What is with you and your obsession with people’s names? You seem to have this inability to focus on the message. Are you even using your real name? Of course not.
Who are you to dictate on what people should or shouldn’t do? Why don’t you go on YouTube yourself? What if the writers don’t want to enter politics? Is that really a problem for you? The country’s problems will not be solved by GRP writers entering politics.
Why are you so consumed by what they are doing? It’s a free world and since you are so into your “freedom”, stop telling people what to do and let them do their thing without judging them.
The comments here either
1. deleted by the admin if it fails to meet the TOS.
2. Takes much time (I think five mins) to show. It appears to be a technical issue.
More likely scenario 2 occur. I’ve noticed the delay in my and other recent comments.
may i request that a correction to a photo attribution.
the photo of the buses blocking edsa was taken and posted by me. not by top gear philippines.
thank you.
Done. Thanks for the clarification. Original source on the Top Gear FB page, does indicate your name.
First off I would like to say terrific blog! I had a
quick question in which I’d like to ask if you
do not mind. I was interested to know how you center yourself and clear your thoughts
before writing. I have had trouble clearing my thoughts in getting my thoughts out.
I truly do take pleasure in writing however it just seems like
the first 10 to 15 minutes are wasted just trying to figure out how to begin.
Any suggestions or hints? Thank you!
Chris, why can’t you admit it. The Philippines is nothing but a dysfunctional rag tag country. Your the one that need to stop that BS Filipino melodramatic behaviour. You must be watching you many tal
Enovelas. Benigno is just ttying to point out the shortcomings ofPinoys. There is nothing wrong accepting a constructive criticism. You might learn a thing or two but looks like your part of the majority. Pinoys who still carry the Peter Pan Syndrome. Grow up and stop playing this childish games. MAN UP AND DO YOUR PART!!!!