News is getting around that contrary to what doomsayers in the Philippine Opposition (led by their obsolete thought leaders in the Liberal Party, a.k.a. the Yellowtards) are saying, investors remain bullish about the Philippines. Indeed, a recent report published by Business Insider ranked the Philippines Number One in a list of “the best countries to invest in now”. One begins to wonder: Are the Opposition really misreading how well the Philippines is doing? Or are they just painting the Philippines under a bad light just to make the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte look bad?
The Business Insider report flies in the face of attempts by the Opposition to conscript Western media to the task of smearing the Philippine government. Over the last year-and-a-half of Duterte’s term thus far, a campaign to make the Philippines look like a failed state before the global community formed a key pillar of the Philippine Opposition’s strategy. The thinking there, presumably, is that attracting foreign pressure and, more importantly, foreign sanctions, would create an environment of discontent in the Philippines that would make it ripe for an Opposition political coup to return to power. That coup, may come in the form of that all-too-familiar “people power revolution” (a euphemism for good old fashioned coup d’état) or an impeachment bid both aimed at a premature change in government. It could also come in the form of a re-taking of seats in the legislature by people “friendly” to the opposition agenda and, in the process, make Congress more collectively hostile to Malacanang. In all these cases, popular support is required. Bizarrely, the Opposition seem to think slandering the Philippines on the world stage will gain them that support.
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In short, the Opposition aims to destabilise the Philippines just to further their political agenda. Rather than serve Filipinos by attracting investment, the Philippine Opposition aims to chase it away. It is quite remarkable then that the Business Insider report delivers counterintuitive insight to a society inundated with messages of doom produced by its own mass media industry. The Philippines is, indeed, a magnet for foreign investment nowadays considering that it is foreigners who see potential in it that seems to escape its locals.
Therein lies the call to action to all Filipinos to see the appalling nature of the thought leadership that imprison’s the Opposition today. Rather than encourage Filipinos to invest in themselves and their country, they, instead, continue a sad Filipino tradition of looking to anything and everything foreign for validation and salvation. This is not surprising when one considers that the Opposition (specifically the Yellowtards that lead them) have always preached beholdenness to heroes as the path to progress. In reality, succeeding in today’s world requires quite the opposite: relying on one’s self.
Self-reliance and an ability to chart one’s own path and develop original ideas is what underpins success in today’s world. Rather than wean Filipinos off reliance on the ideas of old colonial masters, the Opposition remain adamant in sustaining the debilitating colonial mentality that had long been a cornerstone of Philippine society’s edifice of dysfunction. The preference of the Opposition for the retrospective to the point of addiction to the obsolete can be seen in the way it continues to use the “Martial Law Years” of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos as its narrative’s key bogeyman and the 1986 EDSA “people power revolution” as the be-all-end-climax of its idiotic mythology. Overlaid upon this narrative is the triumph of Western liberalism — the antithesis, we are told, of the evil authoritarian demons that, Opposition “thought leaders” imagine, continue to haunt Philippine politics.
It is under this light that the abject failure of the Opposition to offer a viable and compelling alternative to the powerful and popular vision of the Duterte government can be best appreciated. The Opposition had one job: to formulate an alternative constructive path. In that sense, it is not Duterte who is “failing” Philippine democracy as the Opposition “thought leaders” assert. It is the Opposition who are failing democracy — because they continue to fail to do their job. Duterte has, as far as can be observed, consistently encouraged Filipinos to invest in their country. The Opposition, rather than contribute to that goal albeit via an alternative option to the Duterte way have, instead, encouraged Filipinos to remain a mendicant society. They do that because it serves their agenda and not that of the Filipino people.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
The YellowTards or the Aquino Cojuangco political axis, are still nostalgic, when the U.S. in the form of U.S. Dept. of State and U.S. /C.I.A. , came to their rescue, and removed the late Pres. Marcos Sr., from power by a coup d’ etat, which they call it euphemistically: “People Power”.
They still has “hangover” of the so called success in 1986 EDSA, which they were handed power on a “silver platter” by the U.S. During that time, there were no social media, tweets and internet. People had to rely on the TV Networks, like ABS-CBN TV Network, YellowTard newspapers, for opinions and news. Instead, people got , FAKE NEWS. Now , it is fake History.
We , Filipinos must rely on ourselves. No one else will come to help us. We are addicted to foreign aids. So, like a shabu drug addict, we clamor for more foreign aids. Filipinos must develop , a sense of self worth; the “can do attitude”. We are no longer a colony of a foreign power, so we must not look at them, to put us in power, or to revitalize our economy.
Foreign investments in our country crate jobs; but is not the be all , end all in the economy. We need house cleaning. There is so much corruption and graft that drains the National Treasury. Too much political division and political obstructionism, that waste our time in nation building. They must put into garbage the 1986 Aquino constitution. It is tailored for the Aquino family and the Feudal Oligarchs. Change also the system of government. It is not working for us all.
About investment, I was thinking that the law related to mandatory Filipino ownership is supposed to be there to support Filipino investment. Hopefully some local entrepreneur with a decent capital can start his business.
Unfortunately, that same law is being abused by our big “Filipino” corporations to monopolize their respective industries and prevent any legitimate competition from entering. Most glaring example would be our internet service providers.
@ramdom citizen What yoire talking about is the 60/40 ownership as mandated on our current constitution, and that shoud be eliminated or revised it so that there’ll be no oligarch economy but rather a FREE MARKET economy for both foreign & local investors just like what it done to some of our Asian neighbors like Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, China, etc. And no wonder why many Filipinos are working on abroad because of that 60/40 ownership thing. Instead of our people will go abroad for their work, those foreign investos should go here instead & let the Filipinos should work in here without leaving it out from our country. If that’s the case then the Balikbayan box will become extint, no more OFWs will be abused or raped or been killed by their Arab bosses, no more “blood money” that wlil be paid by our government to the Arab authorities, etc., etc. Which it was done by the pre-Duterte administration before.
Investing money is the process of committing resources in a strategic way to accomplish a specific objective.