A Portrait of the Philippines as a Young Nation

Every once in a while it is good to pause to try to pull together some of the varied thoughts dumped out day to day in these blogs. Rather pull chaos back into order, if you catch my drift. So let's do a little of that. If it seems deja vu, relax; it is not a mental disorder, at least, not yours. It is merely a review of what has been said before.

Maybe it is helpful to start with a long distance view and then drill down. And from our eye way up in the sky, we can see that the Philippines is a young nation. Younger than the United States. Younger than you might imagine, reflecting on 500 years of Spanish Catholic influence.

The Philippines is situated smack dab in the center of the crescent of Asia that runs from Indonesia in the southeast, westward to Malaysia, Viet Nam and neighbors, northward past China and on to the northeast where Korea and Japan complete the crescent.

No nation in the world is better situated to prosper in an integrating global world. It is at the point of parabolic focus of the most dynamic region on earth.

What is a nation? I contend that it has a time-of-birth date-stamp. A nation is the community that is formed when people reach an agreement about how to govern. Or when a few powerful people definitively impose their rule. The date stamp is whacked into history when that agreement is finalized or rule is declared.

The Philippines was established as a new nation in 1987. The agreement ended the Marcos nation. A new, democratically ordered nation was formed under President Cory Aquino who began her term on the wings of prayer and ended it wrestling mightily with the forces of favor and power.

These forces of favor and power in the Philippines, and the corruption they spawn, are like a smoldering fire in the tundra. Hard to stamp out. Burning underground. Smoke suffocating everything, including good works. Occasionally flaring up and burning bright. 

The Philippines is trying to reconstruct democratic values but old habits, old ways of conducting business, die hard.

Let's try to characterize the Philippines today. It is good to use the Edgar Lores method of enumerating ideas for ease of reference in the follow-up discussion. Call it a portrait by the numbers. Not artistic, perhaps. But maybe interesting to look at.

1. The reconstruction is the building of democratic institutions and values that allows the nation to progress from being a nation of and for the empowered - Marcos culminating the failed ideology of power - to a nation of and for the people. The public institutions have been rebuilt, perhaps of rough clapboard rather than polished mahogany, but the framework is nonetheless good. The values . . . not yet.

1. A deeply embedded dynastic, somewhat authoritarian, network of power and wealth still controls who runs things and it does not give up its grasp easily. Fortunately, these networks are under considerable pressure from a public with louder and more aggressive spokespeople demanding information and accountability. The internet is the medium of modernization. The Big Brother listening post is with the people, not the politicians.

2. Alas, the most important institutions of accountability, the police and the judiciary, are under the influence of the empowered. Justice has not yet reached the people.

3. The forces of the corrupt still today act as a brake on good governance. Given the intensity of opposition, President Aquino has done wonders to tip the playing field toward honest  governance.  It will take perhaps 20 more years of honorable leadership to put the people fully in charge.

4. A Freedom of Information (FOI) bill would be a huge step forward, sealing openness and honesty into the way government works. If the people are the "boss" of government, they need information. Lacking FOI, we know the favored and powerful, the corrupt of good will if not money, are still in charge.

2. The nation's educational system is both fundamentally amazing, yet failing on two counts.

1. It is amazing in that so many schools, so many teachers, and so many kids recognize how important education is. They are working broadly and steadily at building, teaching and studying to advance the knowledge and skills of young people, and to care for their nation's future.

2. One huge failure is the nation's inability to keep up with the flood of babies born of Catholic tradition. A poor nation is a poor nation. It can only build a poor network of schools. The solution, of course is threefold: (1) make the nation richer, (2) allocate education as a higher priority than other expense choices, and (3) slow the birth rate. You can do one of these three things and not realize much progress over the long term. You can do two and make some headway. You can do all three and build an excellent school system. It would help to apply the power of the internet to reduce the overwhelming burden of textbook purchases, school construction and need for teachers.

3. The second failure is the apparent inability of the Educational leadership to comprehend that memorizing information is not a kind of knowledge that goes very far. The Philippine school system teaches mandated obedience, and from that subservience. It does not teach the values that allow obedience to emerge VOLUNTARILY from a deep desire to compete for honest opportunity. If young people today develop ambition for self-improvement, it is in spite of the school system, not because of it. Democracy is a beautiful institution because it is a loud, open, ever-brainstorming collective of competitive problem-solvers. It assures both security and opportunity. It requires an educated citizenry to operate well, and when it operates well, it is an unmatched system for motivating its people with the promise of opportunity, growth and wealth.

3. Philippine culture is much like the educational system, both good and bad. It is tremendously rich. Unique. Precious. And it is dysfunctional.

1. The bonds of faith and family are profound in the Philippines. So is historical appreciation of the many separate islands and regions, and the native traditions, the land and sea-based traditions, the family traditions, which remain strong even today.

2. It is unfortunate that the nation's moral anchor, the Catholic Church, chooses to condemn knowledge-based progress, provoking a raw political clash, rather than relish the part it could play as the anchor to good values within a culture that is modern and working hard and earnestly to solve problems. Problems like education and poor homes on the mud banks and teen pregnancies and kids dining from trash piles. The prominant moral voice has become a counter-productive, complaining voice, not a voice ministering to the nation, helping it build.

3. Filipinos are passionate people, but the passions are used poorly to denigrate and attack and tear down rather than discover and seek knowledge and build. Minds are closed quickly and defended harshly. This is a 100 percent nation. You are either 100% MY way or you are 100% my enemy. 95% is not good enough. And "if you are the President of my nation, you must be 100% right, doing it my way, or I will attack you, not just your acts or decisions, but you, personally". It's hard to have a unity, a harmony of unique individuals, a nation, if everyone insists their way is the only way. 

4. President Aquino is vastly underappreciated, even by the yellow hordes who pushed him into office. Here is a man with the courage and strength of character - his father's determination and his mother's good will - to try to move a nation out of the darkness of cheating, poverty and poor behavior and into the light of modern, honest governance, productivity and wealth.

1. Every institution or group that finds its opportunities constrained becomes a critic. The corrupt, the Catholic Church, Arroyo and her backers, the smugglers, people who live by skimming from contracts, DENR officials, corrupt generals, a wayward Sultan's teammates, and any 100 percenter who finds one of his pet oxen gored. CHINA is not the main enemy. No, China is in second place to the critics with oxen gored by the President's initiatives; their divisive cries always suggest there is a better way but they usually point to none. There is no better way. Most of the critics are simply those who cannot get outside themselves to build a patriotic community called "nation".

2. But get past the acrimony and we can see that the deeds being done by the national government are no longer being lined up to benefit the empowered. They are being lined up to build a nation that serves its people. The accomplishments are in plain daylight but obscured by all the dirt thrown by the miserly and small of pride, the envious, the bitter, the biased and the intellectually bankrupt. Look at agencies like the central bank and Finance and BIR and Justice and DOT and Tourism and DILG.  And the Ombudsman. And Foreign Affairs. These agencies are working diligently to build a better Philippines. To put in roads to airports, to jail the cheaters, to collect much-needed revenue, to modernize airports, to get airplane servicing up to par to re-open European flights. To improve the nation's debt rating and attract more capital, to get peace and prosperity into Mindanao, to solve Mindanao's electricity problem. To better prepare for storms. The amount of good works going on is flat out awesome. High rises and casinos and a real middle class and more and more tourism jewels like Palawan emerging from the corrupt fits and starts that characterized pre-Aquino Philippines.

3. In this new nation that welcomes good governance, we see the people's voices being raised again and again, louder and more purposefully. It was the people's voice that got RH passed, that got a poorly structured Cybercrime Bill halted and into the Supreme Court, that got a wayward Chief Justice thrown from office, and that will determine what quality of character emerges in the 2013 elections. We see attorneys making a reputation by defending the people. We see congressmen like Sotto who betray the values that people admire driven into silence.

There is only one course for this young nation. It is toward honesty and good works. Toward decisions that benefit the people, not the empowered. Toward problem solving and wealth.

If we focus on the broader picture, rather than the many specific acts, we can see that the anti-corruption drive is not just the jailing of bad people. It is remaking a nation's character. It is laying the foundation for good works that can, over time, ease the nation's burdensome poverty. Attention to two other master initiatives would add to this foundation, building a framework of steel and assurance of greater prosperity and a healthy, long term future: (1) building Education to ease physical demands and teach problem-solving disciplines rather than discipline, and (2) building Justice to assure fair and firm enforcement of laws feeding a forthright, efficient, law-based judiciary. 

FOI is critically, critically important to seal the nation to candor and honesty. Information is the currency that replaces favor and power as the driver of deeds. Information assures that the doing of good deeds on behalf of the people becomes this nation's cherished work ethic.

"Well Done Mr. President"

By now I'm sure you've read about the Philippines rising in the corruption rankings provided by Transparency International. And perhaps you've read the anti-propaganda diminishing the importance of the ratings.

• "They are just perceptions, and they are wrong!"

• "105th is still corrupt!"

• "President Aquino is a braggart, claiming this as his achievement."

You know, I disagree with the anti crowd once again. Indeed, I can't disagree more.

The Transparency International ranking is just one more check in a lengthening checklist that PROVES that President Aquino has recast the hopes and promise of the Philippines. Tangibly.

From a string of presidential disappointments to a huge stride forward. From the dark confusion and mistrust of Mrs. Arroyo into the light of good deeds and promise of Mr. Aquino.

If the anti crowd cannot grasp that perception is real, is tangible, is meaningful, then it is best to write them off as lost, adrift in self deceit. You see, hope is also intangible. But so very important. Promise. Courage. Dignity. Compassion. Loyalty. Trust.

Intangible, but oh so very real. Powerful in the right circumstances.

President Aquino brought that power to the Presidency.

I chalk this up as one more metric that the anti crowd must whine and rationalize away to hold onto their dwindling credibility, founded on some strange, enduring distaste for the Philippines and Filipinos and anything POSITIVE about the country they may once have called home. 

The "yellow glow" that the antis detest is real. It is the bed of promise, the motivation, the passion upon which real work has been done. One man provided that foundation, the platform needed to get the Philippines headed in a new direction, the man the antis can't bear to give credit to, even when credit is due: President Noynoy Aquino. The man who brought fundamental goodness and earnest work to the Presidency of the Philippines, for ALL that it is worth.

Would Estrada have done this? JoeAm figures the odds would be about 5%.

Villar? 20%

Gordon? 40%

Why? Because the nation rose as one and said "we demand good government!" Those guys had certain strengths, but they did not have the real-deal GOODS. The rock solid intangible of belief and trust.

Only one candidate in 2009 could bring the hope and the promise and, yes, authoritarian power that would clear the path for stern acts like the jailing of the predecessor President and the eviction of a Supreme Court Justice who did not pass muster. I'm imagining Estrada and Villar would have pardoned Arroyo and left Corona in office. Gordon, who knows . . . such an illusive butterfly, floating on emotion . . .

Do  you think that authoritarian power, granted by the will and demands of the people, is "intangible"? Do you think ANYONE else could have brought to the top desk what President Aquino brought? The good of his mother and the grit of his father?

Who?

You know I may climb on the President for his various acts from time to time. I even used the "I" word in a headline once. But that is akin to how one feels about a baseball infielder making an error during a game. We boo in frustration, but still cheer for him and his team when they do well.

I cheer for President Aquino, and the Philippines. Truly, I do.

 Here's the Philippines under President Aquino:

• Economic  growth is strong. Everyone recognizes this from the international press to the debt rating agencies. 

• Tourism, service-center, gaming and real estate industries are flourishing.

• The stock market is roaring.

• The peso is strong. Too strong for my dollar denominated wallet.

• International standing is strong and respectably, and respectfully, firm. Ask China. They know what nation they can't roll.

• Investors are investing, in call centers, in public/private partnerships, in casinos, in hotels and tourism ventures.

• Infrastructure is being rebuilt after years of neglect and budget plunder. Roads and trains and schools and ports.

• Primary schools are going to the international standard of K to 12, a hard transition, but essential for Filipino scholars to gain the recognition they deserve overseas.

• Antiquated government paper processes are being automated and trimmed of red tape, the automation itself a form of check against corruption.

International standing is up markedly; not just on Transparency International's rankings, but S&P's and Moody's. ALL indicators are going in the same qualitative direction: UP. Only the antis and China and the Catholic Church and the incorrigibly corrupt are trying to drag the Philippines back into pits of darkness and dysfunction.

Strange partnership, eh? It warrants restatement for emphasis: Working against the moderization and betterment of the Philippines are:

• The antis
• China
• The Catholic Church
• The incorrigibly corrupt

Is President Aquino perfect?

Are you?

Is Philippine progress fragile?

Yes, yes it is. The manufacturing base is weak. The storms and disasters are real. Poverty is a huge burden. The pipelines for essentials - food and water and electricity and gasoline and health care - are barely able to keep up with demand. The nation seems always to be one step ahead of crushing need. Tuna are disappearing from the seas. Good farmland is being eroded. Congestion is bogging cities down in costly and dirty inefficiency. China is making threats daily, insulting and trying to intimidate the Philippines and Filipinos.

But here is what I hope will happen, with the idea that hope, combined with confidence and commitment, can become singularly important drivers of achievement:

• HR will get passed and there will be a tempered but profound trend in the poorer areas to limit family size. Education will do that. Word of mouth endorsement of smaller families will do that. Availability of birth control methods will do that. In 50 years, poverty will have moderated. It's a slow freight, getting money to the millions of poor.

• FOI will get passed, if not this year, then next. And with FOI will come additional incentives for government workers and agencies to focus forthrightly on the job to be done. On competency, not show. It will help seal good governance as a permanent quality. That's why the President will back it. His legacy is lost without it.

• The economy will continue to rip, with a growing middle class spending and educating the nation to new wealth.  Also from the middle class will rise pragmatic managers focused on productivity and achievement, not the self-service of corrupt ways.

• I'm inclined to wonder, what does China really provide that could not be built in the Philippines or bought elsewhere? Cheap plastic toys?  It is in China's interest not to stir up trouble with the Philippines. The Chinese have major investments here. Filipinos have little in China. Joint development of contested seas will be worked out. No guns will fire.

• Peace in Mindanao will be troublesome, but successful. The government is making the kinds of investments there that can turn bitterness to opportunity. Something the Philippines has never delivered to poor Muslim communities. It's important to understand that the cause of unrest in Mindanao is not religion, it is poverty.

Two huge, critical milestones will need to be passed to assure that the rise of the Philippines is permanently sealed into the nation's social infrastructure. They are:

• The FOI Bill, which opens government to inspection and puts the people in charge, a force for public good over private gain. 

• The 2016 election, which will either advance the Aquino legacy or turn away from it. I personally believe Mr. Binay would be a bad choice and Mr. Roxas or Mr. Abaya would be a good choice.

Although it bugs me when President Aquino brags about every accomplishment as if it were his personal mark rather than the natural flow of things, I must admit, every achievement, every increase in ranking and rating, is indeed built on the bed of promise he brought to the Philippines, and the fundamentally good work that his agencies have done. So . . .

"Congratulations, Mr. President, on that improved Transparency International ranking."

You did that. You can claim it.

We would not have that improvement without your principled leadership.

But enough of that glow for now.

How about turning your attention to that FOI Bill, eh?

To allow you to exit stage 2016 with a profound and everlasting legacy that seals "good governance" into the way Philippine agencies, courts and legislators do the people's work. Work that is visible to the people and their agents, the press. And their advocates, the attorneys. Work that is forthright and open. You know . . . earnest . . . and good . . . like those intangible leadership qualities you brought to the Presidency that today enable Filipinos to convert another intangible, their good heart, to progress.

Whine Not!

The real Philippines?

Be patient. Let me have my little tantrum, then we can try to put some sense to it at the end.

We westerners tend to see the Philippines as a really whiny place, a place where face is more important than truth, and posture more important than performance.

My positive attitude lasted one day. But its not my fault. Y'all drove me to it.

Ordinarily, I am castigated for my generalizations, for looking about and drawing conclusions from what I see and read without conducting surveys or interviewing experts or compiling data.

So I will just describe two happenings, anecdotal evidence if you will, draw my generalization, explain it a bit, and then let you tell me how it is wrong. They are at opposite ends of the social spectrum, one the palace, the other the rice fields. 

My contention is that the Philippine National Anthem should be changed to the Whine. The march you have now is too confident, too military, too patriotic, too upright for the real mood of the land. 

In the Palace

Here is the headline that ran in the Inquirer on November 12. I think it warrants a Pulitzer Prize for whine.

Obama skips Philippines–again

This piece by  Amando Doronila is so deep with weep that it goes into the pile of "Classic Whines". These tear-jerkers ran in rapid succession at the beginning of the article:

1. The itinerary excluded the Philippines, a longtime strategic security ally of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.

2. The exclusion ruffled sensitive nationalist feelings in Manila, as officials anxiously waited for signals from the second Obama administration on what is in store for the Philippines in the reordering of US foreign policy priorities following the election.

3. The question that immediately emerged was: Why Burma, Thailand and Cambodia? These countries in Southeast Asia are the least threatened by the aggressive pursuit by China 

4. Filipinos were quick to recall that during Obama’s first Southeast Asian tour early in his first term, his itinerary bypassed the Philippines.

5. As if to rub salt in the wound, White House officials revealed that Obama returned the calls of a long list of global leaders, including those of Israel and Egypt, who contacted him to congratulate him on his reelection.

6. The US president spoke to the leaders of Germany, France, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada, India, Turkey, Brazil, Colombia and Nato’s secretary general

7. Malacañang said it had not received calls from the Obama White House, but it emphasized that President Aquino did not call President Obama and instead sent a congratulatory message by mail through the Department of Foreign Affairs.

JoeAm's response to each point is as follows:

1. The trip is four days, including the ASEAN summit. The Philippines believes it is Number 1 in importance in Asia to a president who has just been re-elected, is facing a domestic economic cliff and simmering hot spots around the globe? Give me a break! No. Give Obama a break. Truly, I think Filipinos as a sub-species are grossly deficient in walking in another man's shoes and they have a sorely limited view of the world and other nation's interests, or U.S. engagements globally. "Me first!" is the Philippine global mantra.

2. It's the same president as before the election. WHAT reordering? Secretary Clinton has held Philippine hands, the U.S. has pivoted to Asia, the boats are right over there in Subic, and it seems like there is another training exercise every few months. What do you want, contested islands delivered to your doorstep by Unc Sam? Here's an idea, get your Philippine Senator Santiago to shut her yap about the VFA for a change. THAT would help the alliance get reordered in a positive way.

3. Are you stupid, or what? The countries are in close proximity, Burma has just broken the hold of years of tight-fisted thuggery in favor of openness, and Thailand is growing in economic power but has internal unrest. President Obama decided that these were reasonable places to visit, for American interests, for global democracy. THE PHILIPPINES does not determine American interests. Got it? President Obama is not all-consumed with Filipino issues. Maybe the PHILIPPINES should deal with them, eh? Good God, the Ego of this place. A two-year old's sense of center of the earth.

4. Well, maybe they should slow their recall and think about it. Like, grow up.

5. So the Philippines thinks it is more important in the alignment of U.S. global affairs than Israel, which has been in a tiff with Obama and is the hotspot of the globe re. Iran? And is more important than Egypt, which is the emerging center of Middle East democracy, or chaos, depending on which way it turns? Maybe the U.S. thinks the Philippines is DOING FINE, eh? Maybe they listen to the President's SONA. Maybe you could take it as a matter of PRIDE that you are being skipped because you are doing HUNKY DORY! You are the good friend, well off in terms of stability and direction, who does not need to be coddled. You are not pleased with that standing? You NEED something more?

6. So frickin' what?

7. Do you know how long it takes a President to call another head of state? Do you know how many security briefings and public appearances and cabinet meetings the President has on his agenda? Stop being like Arroyo, breathlessly chasing Obama around the world. Attend to your business.

I tell you, I am close to losing it.

Associative pride. Attaching one's self worth to another.

It signals insecurity with red flags blazing in the needy sinking sun.

An emotionally healthy person lets other people live their lives because others have their own rights and reasons. He, or she, takes care of that for which he, or she, is responsible. To expect validation from others is weak, weak, weak.

Like, man, stop the wallowing and pass an FOI Bill. Make YOUR nation great.

In the Provinces Where the Rice Grows

My wife and I built our home in a rural rice-growing area. We are not special people. Fairly ordinary, actually. Generally good hearted, good humored, fairly intelligent, quiet, respectful of our neighbors. Going about our business of building our home and raising our son.

But we have a huge flaw and it really upsets our neighbors.

We have money.

Now, I've never been rich before. But in the Philippines, I am rich. And my wife is married to rich.

When building our home, we paid the workers who reside in our community above market wages. My mistake: a flare of generosity and compassion for people who are poor. We were criticized by neighbors for wrecking pay scales and laughed at by the workers because they figured they "stuck it to us".

We donated the roofing material for our small church, about P12,000. We were criticized by two neighbors (one being the Captain's wife) for being foolish; we had shamed them because they cannot give that much. They tell their neighbors what foolish people we are. And the roofing guy tried to get us to buy 40% more material than was actually needed, as if I can't do the math on number of sheets of galvalum it takes to cover a given sized roof. He was going to rip off a piece of a donation, a gift. To  a Church!

The neighbors regularly ask us for money for this and that, generally small amounts, P1,000 to P3,000. They are generally asked as "loans".  Priority for giving money is: (1) you have worked for us or in some way helped us, so we can help you, (2) medical care gets high priority, and (3) kids get a high priority. We say "no" about half the time. When we say no, people are highly offended and tell their neighbors what mean people we are.

So we are wrong when we give our money away, and wrong when we don't. And our reputation in the community is trash. The stories and the backbiting are unending.

This works in a destructive cycle because we do less and less for the community every day. We have pretty much removed ourselves from it, actually. Our circle of friends has moved downtown to the parents and teachers at our son's private school. It is a different "class", one that welcomes us.

We sometimes think class structures are defined by the powerful, to suppress and use the powerless. But the masses also define the classes through their ignorance and special needs. Or neediness. When envy is the filter through which all facts are sifted, it makes for an unreal world that people take as real. And it pushes away those who could help.

It is a simple concept, no? To welcome those with the means to help. But the gap between enlightenment and the rice fields is HUGE. So don't expect Sotto to be tossed from office when he is up for election. It's not that easy to get wholesome ideas across to a population that is isolated by need from education and introspection.

In the Philippines, need turns on its head to become envy, and it drives good will into the ground.

And it does it with relentless whining, one neighbor to another.

Questions. And What I'm Thankful For

So do my two anecdotes ring true with you? Or am I missing something?

Do you see a similarity in attitude between the Palace and our neighbors?

Is whine a pronounced mood in the Philippines, a theme, a passion? What's in the middle, between the Palace and rice fields? Is it whine there, too?

If so, any idea how to break it? All I can figure is to keep writing here.

For sure I am thankful for the people who contribute to my blog site because I know there are Filipinos who are mentally healthy, mentally sharp, and who "get it". It keeps me sane against the backdrop of all the Sottos and Santiagos and jealous neighbors and whiney newspaper writers and, yes, a good but authoritarian President without a clear grasp of how liberty energizes.

The schools don't seem to be able to help much in developing psychological perspective and good health.

I rather suspect the core of good introspection and healthy thinking that is not based on emotional need is small. But it is growing. I want to believe that. The internet is the classroom, and we are both students and teachers in it.