Organizing to win in 2028
Analysis and Opinion
By Joe America
The decent candidates took a bath during last two Philippine elections. By decent, I mean honest, intelligent, patriotic, competent, and compassionate. Yellows and pinks and lefties.
There are four huge barriers to success for decent people.
- They are weak at fund-raising, mistakenly thinking that being good is good enough.
- Voters sell their votes but good people by definition can’t buy them.
- Dynasties are in cahoots, strong at the local level, and favor the corrupt.
- Good people must be perfect or they are bad while bad people are good because everyone knows they are bad.
- Good candidates campaign hard but not smart.
I’ll address 5 in this article and deal with the others separately.
Rody “EJK” Duterte ran a brilliant campaign in 2016. He ran as your swashbuckling drunk uncle Roberto, got lavish advertising funding (from China?), hired Nic Gabunada to roll out a broad internet campaign of influencers and groups, using canned arguments (Aquino = Yolanda), and promised (loyal) LGUs generous money from which they could earn commissions. There might have been funds for vote buying. I wouldn’t know.
Well, he’s an autocrat so he could just command and do. His opponents, most notably Mar Rojas, had to work through layers of disaffected people who had other political loyalties or didn’t like his style (yellow, wife, gaffes, Yolanda, whatever). He worked tirelessly swimming up river as Gabunada threw turds into the water.
Without belaboring things, one can follow Duterte’s “brilliance” and put together a campaign the opposition can use to win in 2028. Duterte built the road map.
- Establish a small executive committee to cut through the vines, weeds, and snakes to make decisions decisively. Three to five decisive people. Do it now.
- Hire a lawyer to establish the legal structure and handle legal matters. Not a political party. In the US it would be a “Political Action Committee”. Within 60 days.
- Name the initiative. Possibly something to do with “hope” or voters taking care of themselves better. “Stand Up Filipino!” Within 90 days.
- Hire a fund raising pro. Within 120 days.
- Hire a social media director who will hire paid lieutenants, organize social media influencers. Start building group pyramids, troll pyramids, and positive and negative messaging. This year.
- Hire an events coordinator, local rallies and big venue entertainers. This year.
- Hire a media affairs director to get prime time and front page space. This year.
- Hire a technology pro for membership mechanics (e-mails and text messaging), small denomination fund raising, surveys, meeting technologies, and record keeping. This year.
This is basically a corporate structure with an Executive Committee driving the campaign through a first tier of hired pros. I suspect the structure would be a non-profit “Defense of the Constitution” effort and funding would come from businesses and overseas. The effort would powerfully endorse and promote selected candidates but would not provide direct campaign funds.
If it were put together quickly, this effort would be able to influence 2025 legislative election outcomes. But it mainly aims at the 2028 presidential election.
Doable?
I hope so.
____________________
Cover photograph is from ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights in the article “Philippine elections should shine a spotlight on ASEAN’s fragile relationship with democracy, parliamentarians warn”.
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[…] Form or subordinate themselves to a greater organization than their party, which is just a tribe with a colorful flag. Read “Organizing to win in 2028” […]
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[…] I’d also say that, if there were an umbrella organization that could overlay political parties with principles, goals, and money, Sonny Trillanes would win easily with their backing. This is what I laid out in the article “Organizing to win in 2028“. […]
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[…] To develop unity among Pinks, Left, Yellows, and independents by establishing a peoples’ super-party that will break the dynasties (see Organizing to win in 2028). […]
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[…] The solution is to establish a national initiative that is stronger than the parochial interests that today drive parties. Those opposed to dynastic rule can do this by forming a unified political umbrella organization that acts like a huge, influential, over-the-top political party. Read: “Organizing to win in 2028“ […]
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[…] If it is Barry, he needs to meet with Leila de Lima of the yellows, Joy Belmonte of Quezon City, Risa Hontiveros of the Left, Nancy Binay of Makati, Vico Sotto III of Pasig City, and a few other important souls to piece together a new political power structure in the Philippines. I don’t know where Tulfo fits, frankly. (Refer to “Organizing to win in 2028“.) […]
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[…] Establishing the goal: ORGANIZING TO WIN IN 2028 […]
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
No nonsense joe.
Anytime you can turn a problem to a people problem. You have started solving it.
Especially for something like the presidency where you lead through your people having a good process of vetting hiring and firing is key.
Yes, indeed. Character counts. So does organization because most Filipinos have no way to read character right.
The organization is one thing that you described perfectly. The narrative will be up to the opposition to define. I found VP Leni’s narrative of better lives for all, Angat Buhay Lahat, good but not disseminated on time and coherently.
By contrast, the narrative of Tulfo is basically justice for every Filipino – his way. It is a step ahead of the Duterte narrative, but most Filipinos get it and rejected Chel Diokno, who also was about justice for all. How to reach most Filipinos?
I’m currently working on that in the context of the aberration that good people have to be perfect but it’s fine that bad people are bad because we know they are bad. The example slogan in the article, “Stand up, Filipino” gets close, as Tulfo understands. Get them to put themselves into the equation. Stop presenting policies at them. Present promises though, if they can relate to them (food prices).
Wasn’t there a “Tindig” (Stand Up) civil society group during the last election cycle? Could it be revived early to garner a wider following before 2028?
As money is always an issue, how about drumming up widespread volunteerism ala ex-VP Leni’s campaign? She told people that she does not have the money to campaign and impromptu assistance (not only money but in kind products/services and volunteers) from the grassroots materialized. I honestly think that if the efforts to get her elected started early she could have had a better chance of getting to Malacanang. Please secure candidates’ commitments to running early. I agree with your sense of urgency as procrastinators rarely win.
PH has a surplus of unemployed and underemployed professionals as well as a large number of retirees who are steeped with knowledge, wisdom and experience in fields needed to ramp up a successful 2028 campaign. Why not harness these resources? Money is important to build something but the most important factor is quality manpower.
I read that the Maharlika Wealth Fund (MWF) implementation hit an impasse because the manager alone will cost PHP2.5M in annual salary and the provenance of the funds to get it started are being questioned. A robbing Peter to pay Paul scenario. This seems to be a recurring problem with a lot of PH development building endeavors. My opinion about MWF: It’s too big, too fast and too ambitious. A country has to rack up surpluses/discretionary income to be able play in the investment market. PNoy had a trillion pesos surplus, Du30 had the money to invest but chose to spend it and left BBM with a deficit…
I also respectfully summon Andrew Lim, the campaign slogan and jingle master in TSH of yore, to assist us whenever it is convenient.
I don’t recall who the people behind Tindig were, so we must be careful.
A slogan that calls to action sounds good, though. I believe that a new civic group must include the now numerous “new middle class.”
These are formerly masa people who made money abroad or in BPOs. They did in large numbers support Duterte, but many might be disappointed by him.
The old middle class from which most of us come from often has migrated. If “WE” don’t want to become permanent exiles like the Iranian old middle class since the Ayatollahs, “we” have to find ways to win back people whose parents and grandparents were maids, drivers etc.
Not that I have any answers, but these people usually don’t care about our old narratives. Their world was one of struggle, drug addicts in their families due to families torn apart, or drug addicts endangering their lives and property as they aren’t behind walled subdivisions.
Those back home are better able to figure out how to reach them, but must want to do it.
https://www.facebook.com/TindigPilipinas
Read the February 22, 2024 post about EDSA commemoration. It has Leah Navarro, Jaime Fabregas, Nica del Rosario, Bayang Barrios and other performers who I remember from ex-VP Leni’s campaign. I think this this is the civil society group that Kuya Will and the guy from APO Hiking Society is a part of? I might be wrong.
It looks like the group is still intact since last post is just a few hours ago and is about the SONA.
The DDS and MAGA version of that mindset is that errors of good people prove that there are no good people and that bad people are the most honest while the good are just hypocrites.
There are no perfectly good people, of course. Which is why the good should not try to be too pure as that doesn’t work on the street.
Ah my, the twistings of logic for self justification. My my.
https://wp.me/p4Hw-E as Teodoro Locsin once wrote:
“..cynicism is only fear—fear of knowing what one is. To debase the good is to rise in self-estimation. If all men are vile, then you are not worse than you might think you are. You just know the human score. To face and recognize goodness is to sit in judgment on oneself. Avoid it..”
Hmmm, that’s one way to look at it. I view it as a tool to keep going when others won’t, or to accept truths that others can’t.
I have nothing against Chel Diokno but I suspect that even he does not know how to get justice for a substantial number of people. The citizen justice of Tulfo seems to work and is very visual. Going through the motions of the court system means something almost as clear cut as the the Korean killed within Crame takes nearly a decade and still not finished as it has not reached the Supreme Court yet.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1962791/ca-finds-dumlao-guilty-of-koreans-slay-at-crame
And it start with dissecting the problems and then proposing solutions to it.
This is from one of the voter education websites https://votepilipinas.com/candidate/diokno-chel.html#:~:text=He%20is%20campaigning%20primarily%20on,green%E2%80%9D%20or%20more%20sustainable%20model.:
Related Policy Proposal:
These are actually good proposals. but how does answer the very real disfunction within our legal system? The disfunction pervades or actually underpins a lot of the disfunction in government.
A German guide to doing business with Filipinos in the 80s or 90s actually said that Filipinos often mistake holding a meeting for actually solving a problem.
In that context, skepticism about a Lupon (council) is not surprising really.
And of course, the dysfunctional justice system made people find tokhang interesting in the first place, one could say Tulfo is an evolution to a more systematic and rational justice but not something too complex and dysfunctional for the average Filipino to understand.
pbbm was in germany recently (less than 2mos ago) and invited the germans to come and invest in the philippines, build their factories here where labor is cheap and the cost of living is highly affordable.
In that, his policies are not very different from those of PNoy.
The one who didn’t like Europeans and Americans, even Koreans, but Chinese and for some reason also Japanese is no longer in power.
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/900188/marcos-in-berlin-for-working-visit-boost-philippines-germany-ties/story/
if pbbm’s policies are not very different from ex pres Noy’s, it could well be that they are related, not be blood but by marriage. liza marcos is auntie to kris aquino’s boys.
I think they are related by normalcy. They do what they do because it makes sense, and on the fringes there are favors done, which, I think, is why Aquino did not clean up Customs, and threw Mamasapano to Purisima. Most agencies are headed by experienced people because, how else do you get anything done?
Giancarlo,
More than nine (9) years ago, we had a Ray James (just like we now have a Joey Chua) …
Also, Edgar Lores, et al were still with us then.
Please try this:
https://joeam.com/2015/04/05/rising-from-victimhood/#comment-116989
btw, in it, there is a short cut:
ja-rj1
ja = joe america, rj = ray james
my first post was 2015. It was a good year full of promise: Google Trends and the Last Minute Voter | The Society of Honor by Joe America
Excellent, using the Duterte playbook or roadmap as template but tweeking it for the better. Better stop overs, better routes, better destinations paved with good intentions. that does not lead to perdition.
Since the Pinoys want to visualize this, to the young, if you are watching Pamilya Sagrado telseserye, learn from this because because it sets a picture of our presidential elections, though not everything is applicable in real life, it’s approach is still different from the recent shows involving Presidential candidates which was a romantic comedy.
Yes, exactly. A combination of organization around a message that people connect with. The worst idea is to promise honesty and good policies. Voters have to come to that understanding themselves.
Followed my gut instinct about Duterte. Something about him not be liked. Turned out to be true.
Definitely true.
I know you don’t listen to Bill O’reilly, Joe. but time stamp 17:01 in this video. he describes how the Fed gov’t is basically like a corporation but instead of profits its about expanding power. so I guess just focus on expanding power, or power projection. fuck character, just project power then when in office keep expanding said power. i like this blog, cuts thru the point. also factor in China money. money buys power.
That’s a clear statement of how it works. I don’t view videos as I’ve said here already.
Though we talked about the futility of policy promises. Here are the exceptions.
The SONA clincher was BAN ALL Pogos.
the next candidate must assure no repetition.
I also like what he said about WPS
Nothing about jetsksi but way better.
that was good, pbbm’s 3rd sona delivered in english. the late ex president Noy was the only president that delivered his in wikang pilipino and still they burned his effigy and hold rallies after rallies and heckled him more!
as regards the latest pbbm’s sona, according to edcel lagman, it was flighty. banning pogo is one thing, implementation is another, though it makes us feel good just listening about it. how is pbbm supposed to address the disconnection? there is consensus pbbm rarely walks the talk. change takes time, it was said, and it takes even more time when all he allegedly does is sugar coat.
I like the show of fashion though, the work of filipino designers on show. we are one of the best dressed people in asia!
not to be outdone, even poor people dressed to their nines on special occassions like birthdays, anniversaries, wedding, graduations, etc.
I called my self cynical optimist earlier because I also like to be proven wrong.
I am still hoping this drumbeat or marching orders will not just be bang pfft or ningas cogon. Before entering the forest you must be fully equipped other than your fight or flight survival instincts. But being fully equipped can also be harmful to the environment like all that accumulated garbage and corpses n Mt Everest through centuries of exploration
About being dressed to the nines, you can add fiestas like Sagalas and Beauty pageants.
I love sagalas and beauty pageants and fiestas too. I once won a dance contest in our province and my prize was a sack of rice! I didnt really need the rice so I gave it to the 1st person that congratulated me. got my dance dress from ukay ukay store and was surprised it was able to withstand the rigorous jive. the lipstick was from a cheap shop, so red it looked like dante’s inferno. somehow, the cheap dress and cheap lipstick turned out to be lucky!
keeping my fingers crossed, pbbm’s sona will come to fruition.
Well, some who know how to sing and dance find a way out of relative poverty, for instance, a young lady from Tagbilaran who, like many Visayans, probably got a guitar before she could walk (joke only) and is interviewed here.
Now, seriously, why have I harped so much on the Filipino music industry as a possible first focus? It is because it is something Filipinos already do well and can level up to earning a lot of $$$ that benefit the economy instead of just being individual entertainers working on ships.
There are subtitles on the first video in English and Tagalog, on the second one as well. KB, please tell me if how Visayan mothers are portrayed in the second one is correct. 😃
we filipinos sing when we are happy, sad and lonely. we sing to de-stress and if that makes money, well and good. I used to busk at street corners with a harmonica until my rowdy schoolmates joined me and polis told us to move!
a village brought me up and I have an imaginary mother so different from my own birth mother. I’m not really the one to talk about mothers for I would be so biased and would want a mother to be utterly utterly fair and not concentrate all her love and devotion on the better looking offspring in the hope of that offspring marrying well and that would be the end of their problems.
Joe, these are all great points.
Nothing is more important than to build a national political infrastructure. In the absence of infrastructure, there is a greater risk of outside monied interests to provide the funding, thus having undue influence. That infrastructure needs to be funded and be at work all the time, not just during election years.
The Philippines is unique in the fact that everything is localized due to not having major national industries or manufacturing. In other countries that have such industries, the workers’ unions provide a constant baseline of support. As such, a successful opposition coalition needs to be creative and create new alliances, local offices. Show that the coalition is willing to help the people despite not being in election year. Incumbent politicians certainly do that, plastering and engraving their names on everything, even borderline illegally on services or items funded by the taxpayer.
Yes, agree with all of that. The foreign funding is rather a sense of desperation on my part, as I have little confidence in rich Filipinos investing in a modern and honest approach, but maybe Bill Gates will, or someone. My approach requires sizable money for the first tier of hired pros.
A major worry about Filipino expat money is that there’s a big chance that may just support existing dynasties. After all a sizable number of expats supported Duterte, and then BBM.
An inherent problem is the lack of a national vision. A new vision of possibilities. Most seem resigned to not being able to change the system so they might as well work within it. There is a belief, of having a leader with superpowers to fix every problem with a snap of a finger.
Where are all the men and women cut from the same cloth as PNoy? Perhaps they do exist, but don’t want to get their hands dirty in politics.
@ Joey
“An inherent problem is the lack of a national vision. A new vision of possibilities.”
Hi, Joey.
Perhaps the Philippines needs no less than a “sea change”?
If so, what do YOU think would effect such thing?
Can you name (perhaps, at least three things) that come to your mind?
Salamat po.
Hi i7sharp,
The biggest problems I see facing the Philippines are political dynasties, the business dynasties that prop up political dynasties, and the cycle of corruption where everyone expects to have a piece of the pie. When those who hold power act solely in their own self interest, they don’t have the interest of the nation, much less the interest of the people.
Each Filipino of voting age has one vote, because after all, the Philippines is still a democracy that runs legitimate elections. Dynastic politicians and their monied backers take advantage of people’s desperate situations and feelings of hopelessness by making promises that are never fulfilled even partially, then “helping” by buying votes. 500 pesos per head, a half sack rice, distributing relief goods. Local party leaders have even tried to bribe me as well, since I didn’t obviously look “American” to them, hah!
So yes, there needs to be a sea change in the mindset of the people.
The recent talk about cha-cha can also be seen as a reflection of the feeling of hopelessness. Yes the 1987 Constitution may not be perfect, but there’s plenty good about it as long as it is applied evenly and broadly.
If I were to be involved in Filipino national politics, this is what I would do:
The goals I would work towards would be:
Re political dynasties and constitutions, the start of the preamble of the 1899 Constitution, yes Aguinaldo’s Republic, is revealing: “We, The Representatives of the Filipino people”.
The first elections held under US rule still gave suffrage only to those with enough money or land or those who had held positions back in 1895, the first real election in the Philippines where Aguinaldo moved up from cabeza de barangay to mayor.
At least the 1935 Constitution just required literacy in either Spanish or English, though originally it was men only but very quickly the first Filipina feminists achieved suffrage. BTW even divorce was allowed then but abolished in 1950 by both NP and LP. MLQ3 wrote this memorable description of his Grandfather’s Commonwealth as modern, with a nod to tradition, the Marcos Sr. era as traditional with a nod to modernity, and 2016 as the periphery taking over. Basically the Philippines never truly embraced a modern mindset and even has spit it out now.
Irineo, I must say that it’s always a pleasure when you share historical anecdotes. Most appropriate considering your father’s works, many of which I’ve read in a machine translated form. My own father is a retired soldier and engineer, and certainly he feels some disappointment I didn’t follow his path hah…
I’ve always thought that MLQ had a good idea of the trajectory that nation could take, but the conservative and reactionary forces constantly want to take the nation backwards, while radicals want to create chaos to force a new “revolution.”
On the topic of constitutions and rights, just as in the US, suffrage was also initially restricted to landowning men, as the prevailing fear of the US Founding Fathers was that the uneducated masses and women prone to “hysteria” would make bad choices. As we like to say in the States, we have never lived up to the true values of the US Constitution, but we are marching ever forward to a more perfect Union by expanding rights to honor the spirit of the US Constitution.
As such, some of the most important factors that supported the expansion of rights and suffrage in the US was: reliable transportation infrastructure to enable communication across the states, the right to publicly funded primary then later secondary education, the development of civic and workers unions. It’s no wonder then that here in the US, the reactionary forces are trying their best to undermine all three important aspects of preserving democracy. Could it be that many of the problems the Philippines faces is because none of these three legs holding up democracy and rights were developed strongly?
i7sharp, I had typed in a fairly long reply to your question, but it seems to be stuck in moderation.
As one of the editors, I checked the spam folders and found your comment.
Apparently you send it twice, I think that triggered Akismet
It’s hard to understand why exactly. It could be because i7sharp is on the spam hitlist, probably because of repetitive odd links, or the length of Joey’s post with a lot of bullet points, which fits the profile of a lot of spam messages.
Thanks Joe for that.
BTW Joe, I found two comments of pablonasid in the spam folder and approved them.
Could it also be that I posted replies in rapid succession? I’ve been writing the replies in Notepad so I can organize my thoughts and reflect on the final post before submitting. Due to this I had posted multiple replies with fairly little lag time between them.
Ah, could be that.
Thank you Karl! I figured out that by omitting the “Hi i7sharp,” the reply went through.
The biggest problems I see facing the Philippines are political dynasties, the business dynasties that prop up political dynasties, and the cycle of corruption where everyone expects to have a piece of the pie. When those who hold power act solely in their own self interest, they don’t have the interest of the nation, much less the interest of the people.
Each Filipino of voting age has one vote, because after all, the Philippines is still a democracy that runs legitimate elections. Dynastic politicians and their monied backers take advantage of people’s desperate situations and feelings of hopelessness by making promises that are never fulfilled even partially, then “helping” by buying votes. 500 pesos per head, a half sack rice, distributing relief goods. Local party leaders have even tried to bribe me as well, since I didn’t obviously look “American” to them, hah!
So yes, there needs to be a sea change in the mindset of the people.
The recent talk about cha-cha can also be seen as a reflection of the feeling of hopelessness. Yes the 1987 Constitution may not be perfect, but there’s plenty good about it as long as it is applied evenly and broadly.
If I were to be involved in Filipino national politics, this is what I would do:
The goals I would work towards would be:
the psyche of poor filipinos is glaringly open though many failed to see it. their need is dire and they appreciate what little money they could get now please, not tomorrow, not next year and not after election. now please, they need to eat now and cover their sheer nakedness and near homelessness. there is nothing compared to a growling stomach and near nakedness and homelessness. but of course those that have not experience this sort of want wont appreciate what that all meant. so their need is swept away and taken for granted, and they are fed ideologies and sometimes ridiculed even. the poor dont forget who came to their aid in time of greatest need, regardless. a friend in need is a friend indeed. never mind if that friend is a fiend! such loyalty.
My first visit over 25 years ago, aged 14, I stayed in my friend’s family compound in Batangas, with the family directly ordering me not to associate with people outside. I’ll never forget the first time I left the confines of the gated subdivision with armed guards posted outside. In wealthier subdivisions, it’s like a walled city with all necessary clinics, shops, stores inside the gate. Most of my subsequent visits to the Philippines includes some time dedicated to Catholic charity.
After all my experiences, I still feel that the desperate poor would still rather feel the pride and personal dignity of being able to earn their own sweldo. No decent father would want his family to suffer. No decent mother would want children to be malnourished. The problem is the desperate poor are reduced to handouts and begging from their families and their leaders. When people are so poor they are easily influenced by fantastical promises by leaders and self-appointed pastors, because they have nothing left to lose.
“Teach him how to fish”
The 12th century philosopher Maimonides said:
Or, to put it in more modern terms, the 19th century English proverb simplifies it to:
Yes, some poor folk will take advantage of what little help is given because they are lazy, but I still think many are just looking for a little guidance. I remember a farmer I met in Isabela, who planted his monggo and kamoteng kahoy the exact same way his father, grandfather, and previous ancestors planted it. Luckily during our trip we had a few members who had studied agriculture courses in American colleges, so we helped to instruct some better methods of managing the crops. On a later visit, I still remember the farmer’s eyes being changed to eyes of pride since while he still planted and harvested manually, he was able to increase his crop and properly send his children to school.
I like it (not!) when the poor are called lazy, it’s a coping skill though, a way of protecting the self much like playing dead. so many doors have closed and despondency has set in. in the fog of depression, many turn to god and religion, as seen in the proliferation of quasi religious organisations among others the kingdom of jesus christ founded by the son of god, namely pastor quiboloy now besieged. others still, join communism and became the bane of society, and the scourge of politicians. some become guns for hire, and still others more, sold their kidneys and join neighborhood gangs.
know what’s weird? we’ve heard of fishing told quite a number of times and each time, tried not to roll our eyes out of respect, but. and still we humor them. coz we honor our ahem, elders and our ancestors and those right above us albeit superficially. and surprisingly, some of us turned out good.
and thanks for helping by the way, help is always appreciated and never turned down. hope your time spent was as memorable and fruitful to you as it was for others.
I hear you. Here in the States we are facing the same rage and disaffection from a sizeable minority of Americans. Interestingly, everything those Americans are raging against, they’re guilty of themselves, such as the fact that they are the largest number of government welfare recipients. But to them, they “deserve” it because they belong to the “right” class in their own eyes. A population that is ripe to be taken advantage of by corrupt and bad-intentioned politicians and preachers.
On the fishing quote, just to clarify, I meant that the government and community should serve the people by enabling the people to help themselves through job opportunities and showing that the taxpayer’s money is going to good use. Too often, the problem with Filipino politics is that many Filipino politicians existed to self-aggrandize, serving only themselves and the backers standing behind them holding the money.
No thanks needed for helping! I’ve been all around the world with Catholic charities and humanitarian NGOs. Those who can afford to give their time should exist to serve others who needed help.
oh, we have long been fishing our own way, sometimes by the book, other times certainly not by the book. thanks just the same.
When I was doing some work in Malaysia I had this experience. We were trying to implement some schemes to motivate and retain factory workers. Instead of weekly pay, the scheme will see them getting about 10-20% more in monthly pay at certain achievable production levels. The workers were not interested. Educated management team cannot understand why. All these very poor folks want immediate cash over more cash at a later date. Their motivation is immediate liquidity because their needs are at the bottom rung of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs triangle.
It is the same problem with Philippines.
In economic terms, the problem is about inability to make sacrifice of immediate gratification. At the individual level, this mindset manifests in denial of education for the kids and inability to save, thus they remain entrapped at the poverty level. At national level, economic growth is stifled.
In 2022, the global average national savings rate is 25%. Philippines’ was 10%, under half of world average. High savings rate countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Singapore had rates between 34% to 46%.
Is it a case of poor tied to low savings rate and grow rich then increase savings rate? It’s common sense that one needs to save up for something, and as wealth grows, one can save better. The barometer for a country’s economic well being is it’s propensity for denial of immediate gratification.
it’s hard to save when inflation is high and the prices of commodities necessitates the poor to sell their offspring!
kaming mga pulubi are so very tired of being judged, postulated upon, and compared to wealthier others that we go on living our own merry ways.
they dont walk on our own callused bare feet! nor carry our burdens. their decibels maybe getting louder and louder but we are not the ones getting laryngitis!
The point I was trying to make is China and Singapore walked out of their callused bare feet.
Doable? Possibly. Will it succeed? I doubt it.
Do you want to go toe-to-toe with the incumbent and hope to win with a promise of a better life for the Filipinos? That’s been said and done and you can see the result.
Who do you think the voters will remember in the polls, the candidate who made all the watershed promises or the candidate who gave him 1,500 / vote that he can use to buy food or medicine or pay his electric bills?
I could almost hear the question: What’s In It For Me?
Good luck!
pray for miracle! they sometimes happen, few and far between. humans may not live on bread alone, but they need replenishment now and then. pray that their good sense out weights the bad, and that charity gets to them on time.
apparently god is bipartisan, lol! the bad knows how to pray too, and who knows! god may have answered their prayers just so the bad knows the futility of what they asked, the enormity of problems they have to solve, the humongous divide, the chasm and that power is absolutely – not absolute. that tomorrow may not be theirs.
Nice post. Key passage pasted below:
Japan was able to do it in 15 years.
With the help of the world China was able to do it in less or same time depends on how you count.
We have to find the leaders like this.
The Filipino school system Quezon started go build that was completed by around the 1950s did manage to move literacy up from a mere 20% or so in the early 1930s to over half the postwar population – I don’t have the exact figures.
The first generations of UP graduates that studied abroad brought an immense amount of knowledge into the country that hadn’t been there before.
The question is what went wrong with the good foundation. There was a time when the Philippines was further than most of ASEAN. Though maybe a certain smugness and complacency contributed to the later fall.
I recall a Filipino diplomat in the 1990s mocking the Vietnamese for using bikes, and someone telling me, wait until the Philippines is receiving aid from Vietnam in decades.
The mayabang mindset, all this striving to sit pretty, is a bane of the Filipino mindset. It laughs at Mar Roxas being hands-on during Yolanda and falling from a bike and admires Presidents who fly over storm sites in a helicopter. Gusto ng Pilipino ang makaupo sa trono, not seeing that mastery is constant work, and those who get too comfortable eventually lag behind. Only few have the mindset of karate blackbelters (for example) who strive to move up the Dan ranks even if refining already existing mastery means loving the plateau. Pacquiao slacking after becoming champion is an example. Getting better and better is nearly seen as mayabang..
what if we are so unfortunate and cannot find those leaders? shouldnt we make do with what we already have? and kick them and beat them like we panel beat cars, until the kinks are gone. the leaders transformed and reformed, just what society ordered.
this is leader in the general term. RSA and the Gokongweis could be those leaders and all of the industrialist that produce and not just rent seek.
https://mb.com.ph/2024/3/30/tatak-pinoy-what-it-is-and-what-it-s-not
after brainstorming, I got this link above. the new law signed by pbbm. industrialisation of our country is well within his sight! pbbm he has opened the gauntlet anew, hope this wont be anything like duterte’s onerous invite of foreign nationals and foreign investors and in his haste to kick start our economy, gotten pogos instead, unregulated, unchecked and profligate. I dont really know what profligate means but I was brainstorming.
The economic success of China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore has one commonality. They practiced statism.
Statism is where a government pursues state-driven industrialisation by centralised economic policies. The government plans everything in a free market environment. The government helps out in funding, brokering trade opportunities with other countries, and easing various blockages to facilitate identified industries. Thus the growth of the Chaebols in South Korea, the Kiretsus in Japan, state-owned corporations in China and Singapore.
In Japan, the government directed industrial policy, fostering key industries like automobiles and electronics through subsidies, import restrictions, and export incentives. Of course Japan had a good start due to US trade preference benefits under the war reconstruction assistance programme.
In South Korea the government influenced industrialization by identifying strategic industries (e.g., steel, shipbuilding, electronics) and supporting them through loans, tax incentives, and subsidies. The chaebols were pivotal in this strategy.
In Singapore, the government prioritized strategic planning, driving industrial policy using state-run enterprises where local business community had no expertise nor the capital. FDI was a crucial element and government agencies scoured the world to attract them to the island. The government also took advantage of a vast housing need and turned that into a huge construction industry.
In China, reforms restructured the economy into a free market with significant state control, and state-run enterprises in strategic sectors like finance, telecommunications, and infrastructure.
Government intervention and state participation in the growth of identified strategic sectors were pivotal in the early success of these 4 countries. Statism has its downsides, but it is very effective in the growth phase of a country.
our country is not exactly an island. we have long interacted with singapore where the marcoses were once rumored to have invested a sizable hunk of their ill gotten wealth, gladly and mightily accepted by righteous singapore with nary a word of – I dont know! the term escaped me.
south korea and japan have long been our allies and partners in anything worth mentioning! for years we have sister cities pact and there have been exchanges of scholars, and a number of trade agreements and treaties signed and agreed. there have been constant flow of our people toing and froing from all these places and bringing home with them ideas some too lofty to be real. and sometimes, we turned our noses at them, coz they fall short of being culturally feasible. to entertain them, we would have to be re-invent ourselves and trade our christian values.
Marcoses have no wealth invested in Singapore. Their wealth is primarily in US, the reason for PBBM’s pivot back to US. Marcoses wealth is managed by their Trust Fund domiciled in Singapore.
I liked this Joe. Finally, something from the progressives that focuses on how to win , instead of being the most correct or pure or righteous and then hoping the public will give the votes for them.
Thank you Andrew. I’m now noodling on that age old problem that the good have to be perfect while the bad are okay because we know they are bad. That will be out in a week or so. One of the recommendations will be to do negative campaigning that reveals the bad for who they are. So, yes. Roll up the sleeves and slug it out.
I’m so up for it! and I’ll take extra dose of painkillers in case I got battered black and blue. hike up my skirt and bring out the bike shorts, tough boots with chunky heels as well instead of high heels. I’ll have the knuckle busters too, shin pads and all. ah, the helmet, must not forget the helmet.
en garde!
🤣😂🤣🏆🏆🏆
Welcome back to TSH!
I glad that you are here.
You’re right about human nature and its propensity to look down at good people as boring and dull. Personality politics is rampant even in what can be considered first world countries. US at the moment is at the epicenter of a dire political crisis. A crisis that could result in it going from flawed democracy to an isolationist and authoritarian state.
“I hate to be a kicker, I always long for peace, But the wheel that squeaks the loudest, Is the one that gets the grease.“
Democracy is not for the timid. And if THEY are taking something I cherish away, they can try taking it from a kicking and screaming banshee.
*I am glad
You were right there on ground zero so you must have seen a lot of the DOs and DON’Ts. Please tell us about all your lessons learned. I mostly duke it out with the DDS and Loyalist online. I can tell you that they fight dirty and are resistant to civil conversation. The game of whack-a-troll was psychologically and mentally exhausting. I bet those on the frontlines have gone through a lot more.
JP, I’ve granted you editorial rights. You can now edit your comments. I think you have to sign onto Word Press to do that. Karl would know.
Thank you, Joe. I’ll do that. I need it. LOL.
You can also use Word Press to compose and schedule articles for publication (hint hint). It takes some time to understand their “block editor”, but it becomes easier as you use it.
When the Democrats/Biden fumbled, it brought back the nightmares of the Kakampink campaign where the focus was on being ideologically the purest. Those are two distinct, separate battles – fighting to win, and fighting to be the most correct. In today’s era of social media, fake news etc, the latter way of fighting will always lose.
dang! money matters a lot too. leni’s supporters went campaigning house to house only to be routed. apparently. lgus have been secretly paid and thugs hired for the occasion. and they set the dogs on those going house to house for leni, they were not welcomed in the neighborhood, and thugs chased away.
I walk around a lot and use public transport a lot. The tricycle drivers and jeepney drivers were mostly for BBM and Sara.
They were proud and they were probably not paid. I encountered pink like pride in that I’ve seen multiple cases of own printed posters of stickers supporting BBM and Sara. While I was having a report ring binded nakasabay ko ay isang tricycle driver na nagpapagawa din ng sarili niyang poster.
Have to face reality first before trying to change it. The win was only surprising because we have our own networks. The one with the bigger network won.
Absolutely right on the money. Nic Gabunada was recruiting social media influencers far before the election. He contacted me and wanted to meet. I declined. He built an empire. I don’t know how Duterte got to transportation drivers ahead of the Left. Awesome roll out.
I’m in a ranting mode today, ha ha ha during the Kakampink campaign, when it surfaced that BBM’s sons hardly spoke Tagalog, and his wife said those haughty comments, I asked the Kakampink comms team why nobody’s picking up on these and weaponizing it- to create separation from Leni, who is truly a probinsiyana and relied on merit.
Well, the comms team looked at me as if I was advocating genocide. So what happened is BBM got painted as more emphatetic for the poor majority despite his family’s record. See how this insistence on doing the right thing backfires?
I am not going back to the Kakampink campaign, but I will vote for some individuals there. They simply dont know how to fight, like Biden’s Democrats.
There is a similarity, isn’t there, between Pinks and Dems. Can’t see the forest for the trees, and expect there to be a clean path through the jungle. No, you have to hack through vines bugs and snakes.
ahem, how are they supposed to wield a machete to hack through the forest when they grew up much loved and pampered and sheltered and everything is done for them.
such very steep learning curve. but it can be learned, and it can be excelled. the once pampered can be astute politician, honed by experiences and toughened by life in and outside their immediate circle. and all because they decided to wield that machete. and look menacing and talk convincingly for the part.
Haha, and another one of my recommendations will be that the “good” must rant and be real people.
sometimes, I think, good people must be real enough to get down to the level of bad people and fight dirty maybe volley for volley. it may be tedious and time consuming but. many good people probly thought they are not meant to fight in the arena of gladiatorial combat and retreat before the game starts and lose big time. and to think they have all the faculties god has given them and yet cannot make use of them quick enough to defuse a calamity and forestall a disaster and turn both to their advantage. I bet the cosmetics and the clamor made them flee heartstoppingly, deserted by their presence of mind, their courage took a tumble.
but once they are committed, there’s no turning back! and they shall be supported. the enemies may look ready to shred them apart, but it’s just a set up, a scenario. so puff up that flagging courage, sharpen them wits and most of all ready the tongue lashing and the verbal stoush for they may be sorely needed to win the day!
Yes, totally agree. Get real, get angry.
Had you told one of the admins of Angat Buhay Europe FB group (me) I would have feasted on that. We weren’t directly connected with Angat Buhay BTW just
..supporting. But I also experienced for instance some sosyal or pasosyal Kakampinks not wanting to fully accept former DDS into the fold.
Virtue signaling also has something of not getting oneself dirty with the street.
dds dont have to be accepted to the fold, they dont need invitation either, for they can just slot right in! no one is stopping them. or they can prove by deeds their deed is true.
How many allies did US progressives cancel all because of a missed pronoun, a sexist remark or some inconsequential deed? At a time when you need all hands on deck, when your enemy is Trump who is so skilled at imagery, all that has come to haunt them. Where are the Cuomo brothers, Al Franken, Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, etc.
See how this quest for ideological purity has brought them down?
Former US President Obama said it so well in 2019: “This idea of purity, and you’re never compromised, and you’re always politically woke, and all that stuff, you should get over that quickly,” Obama said. “The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws.”
“Like, if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb … then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself. Because man, you see how woke I was,” Obama said. “You know, that’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change.”
We were all Pnoy supporters here so this should be safe to say here: he was flawed and he didn’t strive to be perfect. (SAF44? Military adventurism. Corona? that was personal, not a valid cause) But he was good on the important stuff. And he knew how to fight.
Kakampinks dont, Democrats dont. All they know is to how to be the most correct.
One name among the Democrats who knows how to fight, not in the Ocasio Cortez way which turns off even more: John Fetterman. Locally, Bing Guanzon. You can’t win with phlegmatics.
Totally agree with woke politics and punditry. like Anthony Weiner should be long gone yet he still makes appearances and Jeff Toobin wanking off on live tv two peas in pod, many more like ’em too. cut those guys off already. Dems need to distance themselves from all this woke stuff. virtue signalling and crap. recently Elon Musk cut himself off completely from California. i thought this was an election stunt but I guess one of his sons transitioned to being a girl and he felt he wasn’t completely read up on these puberty blockers and how that affects decision making etc. saying trickery. now the law which he made into reason for leaving california was more about informing parents when kids change “pronouns” at school. which at first glance are not connected but actually its about separating parents from kids. I’ve not Googled anything yet on Elon Musks son, maybe he was gay all along and maybe Musk never spent quality time with him, i dunno. and maybe Elon Musk is just blaming others and not himself. maybe the fault is his. but there is a weird phenomena wherein transexuals thats biological men dressing up as women go to schools and libraries. i don’t get that. Why? and Hollywood families promoting this, like Ben Afflecks kids with Jennifer Gardner. am a fan of Dave Chapelle, andrew, and his attack on the trans movement is spot on, just cuz White dudes identify as White women they get priority all of a sudden. I gotta feeling they’re gonna tap a white gay man for Harris’ running mate precisely cuz of this. when they should be tapping Sen. Mark Kelly of AZ. if you’re not read up on what Elon Musk is talking about here’s Chris Beck talking about the process, its a trip to say the lease:
here’s the most concise form of this argument:
Spam. Not original content. This is a discussion blog.
Kindly stop posting You Tube videos as content. Your remarks can stand well on their own. The videos are spam, flooding the blog as if it were instagram.
Joe, here’s the content of the two youtube videos, those two on twitter are arguing about Elon Musk and his son now daughter. the two youtube videos are of Chris Beck who was Navy SEAL. he transitioned awhile back to female and was the belle of the ball for all the woke liberal peeps. then i guess he found god or something, got married and de-transitioned. thats not the part thats relevant to Elon Musk or to what andrew is talking about cutting people off because of not being woke enough. what is relevant i think to what andrew is saying (and also what you’re saying re China money, and what i’m sayng re power and money) is that theres this push to normalize said behaviour then it turns out there s this bigger emerging industry that s potentially more lucrative than plastic surgery which is gender surgery. now tattooing is already popularized in the Philippines before like in the 90s only prostitutes and criminals got them, then there was a boom and now everyone has ’em. well plastic surgery s more recent but you can see it in the many Filipinos now sporting nose bridges, etc. is expanding similar to tattoo industry in that its about aesthetics. well gender surgeries is this very emerging industry that Chris Beck having gone thru this whole ordeal frontwards and backwards is saying they are pushing kids, like cigarette companies and vaping target kids, pushing gender politics into kids in elementary schools to promote this new gender surgery industry. so his point is to follow the money, in your blog you’re talking about influencers and messagings. if its over here already, then in time it’ll be there. these surgeries cost around a couple of 100s of thousands depending what you’re getting. Chris Beck is saying university hospitals are pushing these the most. i guess cuz tied into ideologies. so in time in the Philippines you’ll have advertisings to kids to have puberty blockers so when you do the gender surgery you’d have looked like the gender you’ve preferred instead of like Caitlin Jenner. so they’re pushing aesthetics, eg. if you don’t wanna look like a female dude get puberty blockers, but also pushing it as some answer to happiness, which a lot of people always fall for. only difference i guess is Caitlin Jenner is using this attention for politics whilst Chris Beck is using his to say keep an eye on the kids cuz that’s who their targetting. and that connects to andrew’s cancel culture. the videos are so much easier to post though Joe but i guess getting into the meat of what s in the videos is also cathartic. TL;DR I agree with Elon Musk and Chris Beck here. why push puberty blockers to kids in elementary? and who benefits? then why politicize it? profit.
You need to re-read the comment guidelines, now posted as a tab above, and try to grasp what I am editorially doing with the blog, and figure out if you can help or not, and, if not, excuse yourself. We are not twitter or instagram. Top Philippine leaders have no time for that. We are a sincere, intelligent, discussion blog about the Philippines. The one place where intelligent people can still go to get ideas. I want the place to be unmoderated, but if regular contributors can’t get on board with it, I’ll direct them to the exit ramp.
I learned just now of
“Honda Stories”
https://global.honda/en/stories/138-2407-HondaJet-HACI-column.html?from=top_stories_area
Will the HondaJet be built in the Philippines someday?
Who knows.
But, perhaps, later I can tell a story.
btw, on September 21, 2014 at 8:09 am
I mentioned of the aircraft, of barangays, etc. … in the same posting.
The link is off topic. The President of the Philippines is not helped by this comment. Please put the concepts in your own words so we know what you are proposing without following links around like we are dogs on a leash.
Sounds like good ideas, but the caveat as Nietsche saw it:
“He who fights with monsters might take care less he thereby becomes a monster.”
Monsters here are metaphors. It’s Nietsche grappling with the psychological and moral dangers of confronting evil and power corruptors or engaging in intense struggles.
Yes, I suppose that is a risk. I sometimes think AFP would run the nation better than the Dynasty lords. But I think the risk is minimal. What I’m essentially arguing for is two political parties that are committed to principles, one for local power and a small federal government, and one for a stronger centralized set of social programs. Very common. Today it is a hodgepodge of weak parties that swap people depending on who is in favor at the time, and the Left is a nothingburger.
Joe, i dunno if this is gonna be considered spam but Nietzche was talking about women in that quote. i guess he thought women were monsters, i dunno. more like how ancient seafarers feared mermaids i guess. this is a favorite quote amongst police and military. and I’m telling them this is more an incel slogan than anything really. but then again Nietzsche also said this:
I’d rather you type what he said, in a single quote, rather than post pages from a book. I appreciate the context on the matter.