Food fight in the National Village!
Search “BINI Filipino snacks” on any social media platform, and you will find tons of stuff. Everyone and their uncle talks about it. Even Pugad Baboy cartoonist Pol Medina has had the dog Polgas chime in on his behalf.
“From Pugadlawin to Pugad Baboy” is a chapter in a history book. Filipinos, even in 1986, not 1896, were way thinner than today. One just needs to check EDSA Uno photos.
The gist is that the girl group BINI are accused of “feeling KPop” for not liking all foods in a US video where they try Filipino food. Some even accuse them of betraying their mostly humble origins. I would get it if people attacked Cynthia Villar and Prime Water.
Easier to go for performative nationalism akin to how Martin Nievera was attacked for how he sang Lupang Hinirang at the Pacquiao Hatton match back in 2009, probably ancient history for MOST Filipinos but recent for a European with Pinoy background like me.
It seems to me now that time is cyclic in the Philippines as it allegedly was in the barangay culture of old. I won’t say anything about the food issue except: I have eaten balut 3 times and once I swallowed it in one gulp, iykyk. Joey Nguyen is right, though, that Filipinos make big things small and small things big. Does that mean balut and kwek-kwek? Hmm.
Relevant links follow for those interested.
https://youtu.be/bQDBvXHIO7k – the “controversial” video, 25+ minutes, trigger warning for the comment section
https://x.com/PolMedinaJr/status/1944263927107661895 – Polgas the dog chimes in on the talk of the town
https://x.com/TEAMBLOOMPH/status/1944298707693797829 – An attorney chimes in as well
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugad_Baboy – the true state of the Philippine nation
https://joeam.com/2020/09/09/the-national-village/ – my initial definition of what the National Village is, a bit “dated” and more on the political side which is also “comedic” – if it weren’t about such serious matters.
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/07/14/2457705/employable – Boo Chanco
Something really important:
+++quote starts here+++
Our K-12 educational system is being blamed by a senator for failing to make our young people employable after senior high school. Employability was K-12’s promise when it was adopted a decade ago.
Blaming K-12 for the failure is wrong. Blame the legislators and education experts for including so many useless subjects that take time away from the basic skills that must be learned to prepare our youth for real job markets.
PIDS studies say the SHS curriculum is “congested” and misaligned with what the labor market needs. DepEd itself agrees SHS needs more time for practical immersion.
The problem goes beyond SHS. Employers also complain about college graduates who do not have the skills necessary for their entry level jobs.
National tracer studies (SY?2017–2018 SHS grads) show 82.7 percent went on to higher education, while only 10.2 percent were employed straight after SHS. Among those employed, those who chose the technical vocational track had a slightly higher rate (9.7 percent) than those who chose the academic or college prep track (6.2 percent) in securing entry?level work.
The cultural bias against technical and vocational training is also quite strong.
Not the case in Germany with its dual system which bridges education and employment in a very direct, effective way. It produces job-ready graduates with both the theoretical knowledge and practical experience industries need.
The so-called dual tech system ensures businesses can deploy skilled labor immediately. Its success is due to strong industry alignment.
Apprentices split their time between vocational schools and on-the-job training at a company (usually three to four days work plus one to two days school per week). This gives them both strong theoretical foundations and workplace hands-on skills.
Training content and certifications are co-designed by employers, trade unions and the state. This ensures alignment with current technologies, including digital and AI trends.
Companies in the program can vet and train future employees, reducing hiring risks and recruitment costs. About 70 to 75 percent of apprentices stay on with their training company after graduation.
In our case, SHS and college graduates have dim job prospects due to this disconnect between the education system and labor market requirements.
Worst of all, our country’s three major education bodies –DepEd, CHED and TESDA – hardly coordinate their programs and with little coordination with industry.
The private sector has also complained about TESDA’s severe assessor shortage, which has created a backlog of students unable to receive certifications.
The Philippine Business for Education or PBEd has launched YouthWorks PH, a private sector approach to introduce work-based training, certification and industry alignment. The aim is to turn SHS into a springboard to employment by deepening employer network involvement.
The program offers technical training, soft skills development and paid apprenticeships.
Among 294 SHS grads who joined the program, 222 (76 percent) secured employment – mainly in construction, F&B services and food processing.
YouthWorks is partially funded by the USAID and has lost that funding, thanks to Trump.
But Ramon del Rosario, Jr. who heads PBEd told me he is confident the local private sector will step up and keep the program alive.
Another private sector initiative is Unilab Education (UniEd), the education arm of the Filipino drug company.
Over dinner with Jose Maria Ochave, president of UniEd, he explained to me their mission is to enable social mobility through quality education. It is their vision to ensure that graduates are not only equipped with academic knowledge but also possess the skills necessary to thrive in a rapidly evolving job market.
He explained the principles of Unilab Education – “First, we focus on employment. Graduates of our partner educational institutions should have relevant jobs and be able to pursue rewarding careers.
“Second, we partner instead of compete with existing universities, colleges and trade schools. Private higher educational institutions and trade schools need help from industry.”
In their most recent project, they partnered with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-based RAISE (Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education) to help educators, students and industry leaders understand the benefits and risks associated with the use of AI.
They have organized a series of seminars with partner colleges and universities where MIT professors explain how they can utilize AI efficiently and responsibly to teach better and learners learn faster.
A similar session was also held with officials of the Department of Education and campus directors of Philippine Science High School System as they explore the potential integration of responsible use of AI into their curriculum.
MIT’s RAISE Initiative is working to ensure that students across all disciplines – not just those in STEM – are prepared for an AI-driven future. The Day of AI, an MIT-developed curriculum, has already reached thousands of students globally, teaching them about AI applications, ethics and creative problem-solving.
Now, Ochave explains, the objective is to make AI education hands-on, practical and widely accessible. MIT aims to localize AI training for the Philippine context, ensuring that graduates are not only knowledgeable but also capable of applying AI in real-world scenarios.
Ochave’s approach addresses a most pressing concern these days: the impact of AI on employment.
There was a recent New York Times Op-Ed piece about a “white-collar blood bath,” a scenario in the near future in which many college-educated workers are replaced by artificial intelligence programs that do their jobs faster and better.
However, NYT quoted Jensen Huang, the chief executive of the computer chip maker Nvidia, saying that “you’re not going to lose your job to A.I., but you’re going to lose your job to someone who uses A.I.”
That’s also the point Ochave makes: the real challenge is preparing the workforce for new jobs that AI will create.
It will take time before our educational system can catch up to world standards. Hopefully with Sec. Sonny Angara working together and with PBEd and UniEd pitching in, our young people will be more job-ready soon.
OJT in the Philippines always seemed to me as free labor. I heard from a friend recently that her daughter was put into an OJT program for masonry. Their OJT task was to carry hollow blocks from one side of the building to the other, then carry the hollow blocks back to the original place. The hollow blocks are for a construction project that stalled. Now one would not expect a typical female student to enter into masonry or construction (though power to the women who do). What was the entire point of that OJT anyway? It seems there was no point at all, besides the eventual feel-good certificate of completion.
Well, suppose there is an unlimited availability of foreign development funds from USAID or others. Also suppose that the training programs are well constructed and well run. Many students graduate with valuable skills from hands-on learning. What jobs would those students then apply for? Others can rely on basic diskarte and a bit of confidence to get into BPO, with zero OJT. In the Philippines much discussion often revolves around how things should be done, then in the end the cart is placed before the horse in a complete backwards manner.
In countries with manufacturing-heavy economies, like the Germany example but also in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, students receive excellent and practical primary and secondary educations that prepare the student to either go into factory work but also allow for the student to go to college. The US and Canada primary and secondary education system was also set up this way before the early 1990s when focus shifted to tertiary education, which politicians are only starting to realize was a big mistake. The UK also made the same mistake, but even worse. The US does have high value-add with high-tier services industry, which for a while made up for less focus on the vocational sector.
Everything the Philippines needs to do has been done before, with plenty of examples and scenarios to choose from across dozens of countries.
It is ok not to like food, why do you have to change who you are once you become famous?
Online chatter unfortunately had caused unnecessary stress sometimes leading to suicide.
Sorry if I am singing an old tune, but being a broken record does not mean it is no longer important.
We are far from dream land, no such place, but life is what you make of it.
This isn’t about individuals surviving and thriving.
As Joey wrote and also MLQ3, Filipinos will probably not rise but not fall either.
So maybe it doesn’t matter if things just go in circles over there.
For a society to rise up, it requires empathy to be extended outside of one’s small circle to include other people in wider society that one may never meet or even know about. The members of a society then becomes a conceptualization, where one can acknowledge that if a person they will never meet will have a better life outcome, then one will also share in that better life outcome, thus making society better.
Filipinos (in general) often talk a lot about the importance of family, the love of Filipino culture, Filipino kindness, and all that. Yes, I have seen many times good expressions of the above, but often more than not, once a Filipino gets too comfortable with me the darkest parts come out rather quickly. Even kindness is often paired with an expectation of total obedience. I once confronted some local Filipino pastors who were handing out relief goods to desperately hungry squatters where the pastors demanded to “pray together” and register with that ministry first, “why not just give help where help is needed?” The reply: “God only helps the deserving.” Wow. And that wasn’t the only time I saw scenarios like that which lurk right below the cheerful surface that is so alluring to foreigners. Okay, this negative behavior happens more blatantly among DEs who I am around more, but it can be considered that DEs are just more raw and straightforward about something that also happens among ABCs.
Straight talk, realk talk, crooked talk, cheap talk, priceless talk.
If you do not say it, we won’t hear or read it and keep on guessing.
karG, you are right, life is what you make it and filipinos make most of what they have, regardless. we complain, we suffer, and being broken record, never ceased lamenting, never cease complaining until someone higher up listens. and someone did listen, and now the dead sabungeros are resurfacing, primewater is being called to account for being anything but water, and super gastadora sara duterte who can make 125millions dineros disappear in just 11 days has hit the wall and being impeached.
it is always good to complain if things are not going well and bring awareness to the problem at hand. that’s the 1st thing we learned, complain to bring awareness so something can be done. say something and say something again, much like broken record, until it hits target. who would have thought that the mighty and super rich atong ang has alleged unsound extracurricular activity. that kapolisan are summat involved as well as some senators. dice are falling.
and dont worry about singing the old tune, it is classic!
Nice, in mire ways than one.
Joey is probably right that Pinoy Pop a la KPop won’t really work unless the Philippines also creates true industry like Sokor did.
In a country where many are poor or afraid to slide back into poverty, those who rise via training a la KPop will get huge envy.
Sure, stars do funny stuff in Europe, but the reaction is usually more of a shrug from most.
I view the pinoy celeb basher phenomenon from a different view. Yes, some of bashing is due to envy (anti-fandoms aka hatedoms), but pinoy toxic fandoms seem to arise from the expectation of complete fan service almost to the point of not seeing a performer as a human being.
Over the years I’ve observed that the first thing a person usually does after going from very poor to simply “poor” is to hire others to do labor for them, e.g. labandera. Labor and human capital is valued cheaply there, and besides by having someone serve oneself, one can instantly feel “higher,” at least higher than that even more unfortunate soul who now washes one’s clothes.
A Filipino entertainer is expected to provide fan service. In a sense, the entertainer is the fan’s personal entertainer, a personal servant who must fulfill all demands just like the newly hired labandera, so of course fans become upset when the entertainer displays any personal agency or individual preference. By the entertainer being an independent person, the entertainer is no longer the fan’s possession doing and feeling what the fan expects.
There is a term in fandoms called “Mary Sue” or “Gary Stu,” which are idealized, inert, flawless, with exceptional ability, always should be admired by all (even non-fans), and is able to immediately validate the fan when in need. When Mary Sue or Gary Stu breaks the fantasy projected upon them, fandoms quickly become toxic.
Of course such toxic fandoms and hatedoms also exist in the West, centered around first K-dramas. There have been studies and anecdotal evidence that people who indulge solely on celebrity culture are not really the most intellectual types, and operate more on emotions.
The labandera analogy reminds me of how European nobility used to treat musicians, even the best like Mozart, like playthings.
The French upper class tried to show they were better, I guess, by celebrating their stars who rose from poverty like Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, or Yves Montand, even as they celebrated themselves vicariously as well.
But even an obituary of Frank Sinatra stated that he, among other things, made the Las Vegas crowd feel good about themselves.
A bit different I think. The patronage system that the Western European aristocrats inherited from the Romans and the Greeks who came before them was more of a system of prestige gathering. By becoming a patron, one demonstrated to one’s aristocratic peers that one is rich enough to be able to sponsor non-tangible value such as ideas or art, as opposed to tangible value such as property or stockpiles of agricultural product.
There was also a long history of ancient and Medieval artists who rose from humble beginnings after being recognized by a patron, e.g. Hesiod who was a peasant farmer, Archilochus who was a common soldier and mercenary, Chaucer the son of merchants, van Eyck who was a simple valet, Botticelli whose father was a tanner, and so on. So there was always a recognizance in Europe (and also East Asia) of the ability to rise to prominence from simple beginnings, though the upwards mobility of course would stop just short of the status of one’s patron of course. There were artists who jumped employers to different patrons of higher social standing in order to gain more prestige.
In the Philippines it seems quite harder for a Filipino to rise through the existing padrino system. There is more of a patron-servant relationship that feels like the servant will only ever be a servant, taking care of the undesirable tasks in a way similar to the Untouchables of India used to face. This might be a distinctly Austronesian cultural aspect over which the Spanish padrino system was applied superficially, as Castile and Aragon’s padrino system worked more like a frontier borderland version of the Roman system the Iberians inherited from the Latins. The only “bypass” seems to be in politics, which may partially explain why so many actors pursue politics as their ultimate status upgrade.
Our neighbors from North to south subsidized their industry by agriculture, ues we had a top noth agricultural school, top notch military shool, and universities.
What happenned, why we got stuck?
Corruption, also happens with our neighbors, we also sucked at corruption.
A mkixture of complacency, lack of resolve and what else we say about pinoys.
One particular flaw I often see is putting the load on one person or a small group. At worst, blaming that person/group for no miracles.
It happened to PNoy and Cory. Celebrate you on Sunday, crucify you on Friday.
Or worst, utilize your skill then destroy you like was done to Heneral Luna. Pero basta tropa nila maginhawa ayos lang di ba?
Demanding that VP Leni be there during every calamity but not caring if VP Sara is always abroad.
The double standard that squeezes and burns out the competent, honest and hardworking.
Meanwhile, those who are useless and dishonest are given a pass, tunay na tao naman kasi sila di ba?
In a culture where it’s normalized to gawk and post pictures of a murder or auto accident victim with netizens commenting their opinions that sometimes border on reveling, with no regard to the victim people probably would post the scene of the suicide.
After the 2024 Mindanao State University Mass bombing, I had multiple acquaintances forwarding me graphic pictures without asking me first. Some netizens commented something like “what a shame, that girl had big breasts.”
The recent “Lalay” incident had people revel more in the action and drama, elevating the crocodile into a symbol of pinoy “resilience” complete with generated memes, rather than give care to the mauled victim who nearly died. I did scold an acquaintance for participating in that.
Public spectacle and public commentary on spectacles like pillorying and executions have been a feature of human societies from the beginning until being outlawed after the Enlightenment in the West (around mid-1850s). It says something about the room for society to grow both intellectually and emotionally when such an emphasis is still placed on the spectacle, rather than the substance. Btw, what happened to BINI can be seen as a type of spectacle of public punishment.
2023 *
The responses to the bombing incident remind me of the infamous remarks of Duterte about the raped and killed Australian missionary.
Good I didn’t hear about Lalay, there are things from there I don’t want to know anymore.
I did get interested in the old execution sites of Munich during Duterte’s tokhang. Two hills. One for hanging one for beheading and the hanging hill was visible from town so people could see but high and far to avoid the smell.
The peasant rebels of 1705 were drawn and quartered in the central square as a warning. Same punishment that Braveheart got.
As for substance, a real discussion on the grosser foods like betamax and isaw would have been a moment for people to learn. There seems to be a reason why Thai street food is seen as attractive while Filipino street food isn’t. Is it somehow more “gentrified”?
The Lalay incident happened about a month ago, so it is relatively recent.
Amusingly I don’t think Betamax and isaw are that gross, though it’s not my preference. There’s helmet, adidas too. In Cebu, the famous street food is “tuslob buwa” (a gravy of sautéed pig’s brains boiling over a portable butane stove in a mini-kalaha, eaten as a dip with puso). Now I’ll even eat fried shipworm (tamasok), but I’ve only eaten tuslob buwa once not just because of the gross factor but the fact that animal brains can harbor diseases.
Not used to blood and intestines here in Europe, just like Pinoys find moldy European cheese gross, it is hidden here in some soups and especially sausages, well brains of animals remind me of BSE back in the days.
I may just be more “pinoy” than you Irineo! Haha.
Of course taste is subjective to each culture, and further subjective to each individual.
We just don’t know that much about the Philippines before Spanish records. I have read though that in Champa culture the citizens of the polity would shift their tastes and desires over to what the current rajah liked. In Japan everyone bows to each other like each person is a lord; the more powerful just bow a little more shallowly. Perhaps in the Philippines, every Filipino has become their own datu in their own way, if they can.
The German word Herr for Mister actually means lord, while Frau for Mrs or woman meant lady in the Middle Ages.
I find the way Filipinos use the words Sir and Ma’am for respect quite interesting. MLQ3 wrote that it was US Southerner influence.
Sir and ma’am are common honorifics in American English regardless of region, though the honorifics are sometimes associated with the American South whose White inhabitants during the Antebellum period were predominantly of Scottish or British origin. Sir comes from the French “monsieur” (“my lord”), while ma’am is a contraction of French “ma dame” (“my lady” / “my mistress”). Both arrived into Middle English by way of the Normans.
The original usage of sir and ma’am in American English was to formally address a person of superior social status, but by the American Revolutionary period the honorifics became used generally as a courtesy regardless of social position. Typically sir and ma’am are used in more formal situations or when there isn’t a personal familiar relationship between two people. In American English sir and ma’am doesn’t imply the superiority of one over the other, except for example in the context of military rank between soldiers/sailors/airmen or high public officials. Here even a public official like a mayor or governor will address his/her constituent as sir or ma’am.
I always thought it a bit odd and amusing that Filipinos use sir and ma’am almost like “Mr.”, “Mrs.”, or “Ms.” when that isn’t really grammatically correct. Americans would find let’s say an attorney being addressed as “Sir [given name], Esq.” to be rather pretentious. Most professionals here don’t flaunt their credentials, and titles are usually not used unless for example in a lawyer’s convention between lawyers or an academic convention between PhDs.
How often have Filipinos you know well called you Sir Joey?
It is often used in group chats say of former batch mates etc.
Gigi de Lana’s keyboarder is called Surjon, meaning Sir John.
Whether or not Filipinos I know well call me Sir depends on my existing relationship with them. Those who I consider to be friends and vice versa used first names or pet names, though usually with the honorific “Kuya” if I’m older than them. The kids usually call me “Tito Joey.”
For those who have a more formal relationship where they see me as their superior or senior, they may call me “Sir.”
It’s a bit odd feeling as in the US such honorifics are only used as a public courtesy or if one does not know the other that well. I got used to the little quirks in Filipino culture. When in Rome…
I too cringe and I am not a good Samaritan my self all the time. I once helped fall victims like my fellow jogger, walkers but other accident victims if I do not have a phone my self I will yell call an ambulance even if one of them called already.
No one is perfect of course, and the bystander effect definitely exists in other countries (including the US). Gawking is just not a thing here though, and gossiping about what was gawked is even less of a thing. A lot of good Samaritans in the US. We are taught that since childhood. Usually the few gawkers here in the US are more recent immigrants who have not yet assimilated into cultural norms of the place they are residing. More than likely multiple people would’ve already helped or called for help. The last time I called for emergency medical assistance, the EMTs arrived within minutes, which is typical.
Speaking of cultural norms, the biggest culprits of talking loudly on video call set to max volume speakerphone in public are, you guessed it, recent pinoy immigrants of lower economic class. Just had to deal with that at the store earlier today.
After watching the reaction video and reading some netizen comments, Shamrayev from Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull immediately came to mind. There is a scene where Shamrayev humorously misquotes “de gustibus non est disputandum” (“about tastes, it is not to be disputed”) with “de mortuis aut bene, aut nihil” (“of the dead, either speak good or say nothing”), resulting in the conflation “de gustibus aut bene, aut nihil” (“let nothing be said of taste but what is good”). In that scene, Shamrayev is basically saying his opinion matters more over anyone else’s. Shamrayev’s character is selfish, stubborn, insensitive to others (but expects *others* to be sensitive to *him*), and argumentative regardless of his actual knowledge on the subject. I do wonder now, was Shamrayev a pinoy at heart? Hehe.
From what we know about inventors and society movers of the past, most had a lot of leisure or idle time to think. One would then expect that in a country where idleness and speculation is a national pastime, the Philippines would’ve leapt into the world record books of inventions and scientific discoveries by now. But most of that idle time is time that could’ve been put towards useful work, studies, expansion of opportunity.
Sure, one can argue from a left view (which I am naturally sympathetic to) that the privileged who hold power purposely constrain opportunity in a rigged system — but then how would one explain millions of Filipinos who *wanted* the opportunity bad enough that they were willing to study hard with what educational resources they had to become nurses and engineers, and failing that, accept work as an OFW laborer overseas? The only solution is a government that entices those who don’t want to grab the opportunities afar with near opportunities. Manufacturing and getting past the modern version of the First Industrial Revolution is the only logical choice, and even when other countries had recently surpassed that step, it’s frustrating that Filipinos constantly want to reinvent the wheel.
A national focus on the insignificant things garners insignificant results. Why then does everyone act shocked at what is predictable?
Hehe, now even Dr. Xiao Chua has chimed in on the Great National Food Debate:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FziTWei1y/
I think that leaving each to his/her own preference is the right take. What’s wrong with allowing individuality that is harmless? Too many Filipinos expect conformity within their family, at school, at work, and in public life. Yet the strongest pushers of conformity want others to conform to *their* viewpoint 😉
Though I take issue with the Filipino food abroad not being as good as in the Philippines. This may be anathema, but the Filipino food in the states is absolutely better than in the Philippines because higher quality ingredients are accessible for a cheaper price. Even stuff like imported pinoy toyo and suka, being “export quality” is better than what’s normally available from what I’ve seen at the wet market or supermarket in the Philippines. What’s missing though is the nostalgic feel for many pinoys abroad of squatting at the side of the street, or sitting on one of those tiny plastic chairs, making kwento with the barkadahan while eating or drinking.
https://x.com/justinmaniluh/status/1944733489586373084
Another controversy in the National Village
https://x.com/rocker_fraggle/status/1944485501853188304
The Tantoco barely registered a blip here in Los Angeles aside from the usual short reports in the local news. It was clearly a case of accidental overdose, confirmed multiple times over by the coroners both public and private. The victim’s own family didn’t raise a fuss about it.
Similarly, the PNP procurement colonel who tragically died in the recent plane-helicopter collision over the Potomac River just happened to have a seat on that commercial flight. I saw a bunch of DDS conspiracy theories that Marcos Jr. or Liza Araneta ordered the downing of the plane, killing all other innocent passengers, just to somehow “silence” the PNP procurement colonel.
Aside from lower educational attainment and possible untreated mental illness, conspiracy theorists have a tendency towards paranoia, suspicion, distrust of authority (unless that authority happens to be on “their side”), focus on emotionality over evidence, a sense of loss of personal control over their lives and what happens around them because some secret cabal is manipulating events. It is said that every conspiracy theory starts with a grain of truth that becomes a belief system. People can be imprisoned or killed, but beliefs are hard to extinguish as long as a fragment of that belief still exists. Every time I talk to a DDS, even if otherwise they are completely friendly and even sweet to me, once the conspiratorial trigger is activated all rationality goes out the door just like what I observed in people who believe in MAGA and QAnon. Btw a lot of DDS also believe in QAnon and are antisemitic despite there being pretty much no Jewish people in the Philippines…
What Joey has called public execution of BINI reminds me in tone of what brought me to TSOH originally: the “public crucifixion” of PNoy after Mamasapano, the howls of fury were similar and for me shocking.
I now see that the baying mob there needs no excuses like “elitist” to go after people. They will even go after the nation’s own daughters.
It explains why I felt disgusted this weekend.
What Joey said about some comments on the 2023 bombing remiscent of Duterte’s talk added to my sense of disgust.
After a decade, I don’t feel like trying to help the Philippines that much anymore. See y’all around, though I will still be in discussions.
Be disgusted if you must but do not give up on PH.
I will avoid the online equivalents of isaw with tae and unfried betamax moving forward.
Perhaps the national development topic has been looked at over the years with incorrect assumptions. Small-p progressive Filipinos may have made two mistakes: 1.) Expecting radical elite-driven transformation that ends with the Philippines being more like a Western country they have built for themselves within their enclaves and 2.) Not identifying the other half impeding that transformation, which is that most of the 93% are “not ready” for a radical transformation.
Now I’m just one person, and a foreigner at that. Over the years my personal contribution to a country that is not mine nationally or ethnically has been helping those who I can reach out and touch if I have the bandwidth. To that end I’ve had many instances of feeling immense reward when someone I had helped was able to get ahead; more so if they are able to pay it forward by teaching the next person.
I had once read Dual State by the German political scientist Ernst Fraenkel, who described a situation where two states operate within the same country: a normative state and a prerogative state. The normative state operates upon set rules and laws, while the prerogative state exercises unlimited arbitrariness and heavy-handedness unchecked by legal guarantees. In my estimation the Philippines is actually two country in one. One country of highly developed enclaves for the 7% complete with access to good education, services provided by way of personal relationship to dispensers of government services, top notch health care, and so on. The other country of the 93% can sometimes be rough and tumble, chaotic, with many things lacking due to access, but I find this country immensely interesting with much promise. Both countries exist in symbiotic relationship towards the other, though there is a strong “wall” of osmotic pressure that prevents easy socio-economic movement between the two.
Well I’ve observed before that in most situations a subset of forward thinking elites act as guides of the masses. In the Roman Republic there were tribunes. In modern Western countries this role was fulfilled by the founding fathers of each country. This elite subset recognize that potential of human possibility exist in others outside of their class as well. But I tend to think they also recognized perhaps in a self-preserving way that giving up some of their own prerogatives by expanding the franchise, cultivating a more egalitarian society, and leaving open the possibility of socio-economic advancement are critical safety valves against the majority devolving into chaos. These are just rebranded as ideals. But what seems to be the most important factor is that those elite founding fathers believed in their own ideals, and actively worked to fulfill the ideals.
There is another concept called the J-curve theory of revolutions which postulates that revolutions are more likely to occur after a period of sustained improvement of the condition of the citizens followed by a sharp decline. The Third Republic, which still enjoyed large post-independence American investments could be a period of sustained improvement. For reasons that I continue to be perplexed hasn’t been studied more in the Philippines, the later Third Republic did not take advantage of the economic space allowed by American investments to create lasting domestic improvement. Perhaps the late Third Republic leaders thought that American investment would always continue. The sharp decline may have come with Marcos Sr.’s economic mismanagement of what investments were left, culminating in the EDSA revolution and the Marcos family’s exile. At every juncture that required heavy decisions made, Filipino leaders seemed to always make the worse choice, like expelling the USN in 1992 which further withdrew American investment and probably contributed greatly to the PRC being emboldened to take Mischief Reef in 1995. Good decisions have a domino effect of compounding reward, but the inverse is also true for bad decisions.
I consider the US to have become increasingly decadent after the end of the Cold War. Some may disagree with me on this, but I consider the Philippines to be even more decadent than the US. Decadence in its original philosophical and moral context means a state of moral decay and reveling in hedonism (or, in the modern time, materialism). We’re not talking about “decadent chocolate cakes” here. Think of the late Roman Empire with bread and circuses, spectacle of public executions, parading of prisoners, materialism, the masses emulating the excesses of the elites as to “feel” a part of that immoral experience. So here I’m attempting to illustrate some of the reasons why the masa are just not ready for the radical transformation. The masa are too underequipped and do not have any obvious (to them) avenues to mobility, with no one accessible there to teach them.
So what are some hopeful ways to approach this? If we want the culture of the majority to evolve, their living situation must improve first. The most obvious way to do this is by attracting as many factories to the Philippines as possible to provide jobs. I suspect the number of unemployed and idle Filipinos is much larger than official numbers. In squatter settlements and the province there are masses of idle young people everywhere, supported with allowances from relatives. Even if these young people wanted to work, there is no suitable work, or the requirements are too high/complicated. When more people have work, family incomes rise. Then with economic improvement we start having the Tocqueville Paradox, sometimes called the Paradox of Progress or the revolution of rising expectations. With more economic security, citizens start having something to protect — their newfound stability. With something to protect, citizens start to demand more accountability and tolerate bad behavior like graft or bribes less, after all misbehavior by leaders reduces the citizen’s stability. This is what happened at the end of the Gilded Age in the US, where seemingly unstoppable robber barons and their bought politicians were vanquished in less than a generation. Without excellent leaders now, the overall process will probably take into the next generation. Well, eventually the Philippines will get there.
Looking at the Munich blue collar crowd, their drinking might not be confined to weekends if they didn’t have their jobs, and for example being able to say I’m with BMW or with the paper Süddeutschland Zeitung gives status.
They could be more like Filipino DE otherwise.
Well when I was younger I would joke-not-joke that the only day I took a break from drinking was the Lord’s Day, which was true. By day I consulted, and by night I’d enjoy the night life a bit too much. More than not I’d have a chance of clothes in the car because we finished around 4-5AM, and needed to be in the office by 8AM. It depends on how personal enjoyment is balanced I suppose.
Too many problems in the Philippines has been caused not fully by the DEs, but by the inaction of the government. For example I have great sympathy for the poor, but I don’t agree with them squatting wherever they feel like. Some more enterprising squatters have built quite nice houses, but most are fine with half-fallen down houses built with salvaged materials while they spend all their money on bisyo or the rat race of gathering clout via materialism. If the government doesn’t provide solutions which promote order, no one should be surprised that chaos reigns.
Well, the less successful usually have less own structure in their lives, so a system that helps them find some structure is helpful.
I found out that I didn’t have enough own structure for freelancing all my life, though the structure learned there helped me work better.
So I guess an overall environment that provides and teaches structure is what elites can and must create to ensure success.
My youth and teenage years were spent during the height of trickle down economics. There is also an optimistic strain in the American psyche predating Ayn Rand of the self-made man whose success was the result of his own superhuman efforts. Frontier mentality is an example of an early form of this self-made ideal.
Now, not to disparage the hard work required to grow and maintain successful outcomes, but I’ve come to realize that the *opportunity* to have success has prerequisites of at least one element of supportive structure (family, community, faith, government, or some combination thereof), but the prerequisite that is probably the most important for great success is that of *luck.*
Aside from the Chinoy businessmen, I do wonder how many first gen Filipino businessmen became successful by the aforementioned building blocks, or if those businessmen simply had taken advantage of structural advantages (by dynastic connections) and the raw shameless pursuit of power accumulation. From the congressmen and senators who derive from these families, my guess is their route to “success” was the latter. Not a great reference for emulation by the Filipino people, when the example to be emulated cannot be attained by an ordinary person.
What’s perplexing is that the Philippines does have access to countless local and foreign educated people who can be a reference to be emulated. Too often I feel that those educated and successful (by any measure) Filipinos would rather plug into the system to gain advantage using their education or connections through various societies (like the societies present on Big 4 campuses). If a fraction of those non-dynasty people provided an example, the Philippines might be in a much better place.
@Joey
If there is one thing good about taking videos of dying or dead is that someone will alert their loved ones.
I suppose so. That’s how one ate friend from Mindanao found out that her former abuser who escaped to Manila died. He was crushed between two panel trucks on Maharlika highway. Regardless, the dead should retain whatever dignity they have left.
socos, scene of crime officers, always take pictures for evidence and fact finding. for civilians to take picture of the dead and dying may pose moral dilemma. they are supposed to help under the good samaritan act, but if they dont want to help, they should keep their distance, not block the way, and let those who can help come and give aid. but if civilians sell the pic of the dead and dying to any interested parties and make money out of it, that is something else. there are people who pay big buck for such pics. like pics of dead hazing victims of fraternities.
The gist is that the girl group BINI are accused of “feeling KPop” for not liking all foods in a US video where they try Filipino food.
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Good or bad, “Let’s give them something to talk about” topic is a good thing for this group. So keep on promoting Filipino artists Sir Ireneo .
I think that Filipino music can be part of a wider package of promoting the Philippines, for instance, tourism, food (even abroad, as in Jolibee needs just one push to topple KFC, but no we won’t sell isaw and betamax in the West, ube is already popular in the USA, other stuff like taho can be) and even movies though Filipino series still need improvement AND even as the Philippines is at the Frankfurt book fair Philippine literature is still way too insular. Let’s forget Korean style cultural promotion by the government though, Filipino politicians would mess that up awfully.
Yes, I agree, isaw and betamax are for local consumption only however these can be presented to adventurous foreign visitors as exotic food just like “papaitan”.
Actually, the Scots have Haggis, which is similar in concept, an innards soup. The Scots are not necessarily poor, but like Ilokanos don’t want anything to go to waste. I do like kilawen, but that is due to drinking with Ilokanos in my youth. Mexican ceviche is quite similar. Freshness is important with such stuff and that it has been cleaned well.
Often, innards or blood are in European sausages like English black pudding or German liver sausage, both poor man’s food.
https://x.com/ebbandflowph/status/1944928191078167014
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Thread: I’m more tired of the portrayal of balut and street food like isaw, betamax as something ‘shocking’ or ‘weird’ in media. I’m not a cultural worker or a food historian, but our street food is far richer than that.
If you read Doreen Fernandez’s Tikim, kasama sa classification niya ng street food yung homemade meals na binibenta sa labas ng bahay, kakanin, fresh fruits, peanuts, scramble, regional delicacies na binebenta sa mga sakayan ng bus, at ulam at snacks sa jollijeep.
The Philippines gets framed as this ‘exotic’ destination where the food looks like a challenge (I remember balut in Fear Factor) while other places/cuisines get to be framed as accessible or relatable. Desirable, even.
It reminds me of how Filipinos would be seen as savages by colonizers, when in fact we had a rich pre-colonial history, we were self-sufficient, and we had our own systems.
The Philippines is still portrayed with shallow or surface-level assumptions or knowledge in media outside of the Philippines and it’s not something limited to one video or even creator. We’re not just shorts or meme material, we’re a diverse archipelago with a lot to offer.
I just hope that more people will learn to appreciate the richness, the diversity of the Philippines. Listening to BINI inspired me to learn more about this gen of PPop and OPM, read more Fil lit, and learn things about my own history and culture.
I hope more Filipinos also realize that the Philippines reflects collective experiences, histories, dreams, actions. Hindi ito salamin ng iisang buhay or karanasan lamang. Let’s make room for each other’s experiences so we can appreciate the richness and diversity of our country.
P.S.: The book is Tikim by Doreen Fernandez (if you’re in the PH it is available in bookstores), the essay on street food can also be read online..
P.P.S.: If folks are curious to learn more, I recommend following folks like Felice Prudente Sta. Maria, Lokalpedia, Featr, Good Food Community, Rural Rising, to name a few. Maraming matutunan just about our food.
YUCK! Eeeeeeew, so kadiri to death!!!
Let’s make tusok-tusok the fishballs
Seriously, the video edits circulating on FB made it look like they were totally disgusted, but it was just 2x. Below would be the nicest parts. But most Filipinos don’t really take time to get their own impression like Joey did.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PPOPcommunity/s/3PDYNX3GjN
Being able to listen to the other person’s full thought before responding is a sign of respect and caring about what the other thinks, even if one may disagree with the contents. In corollary, one being able to disagree with tact over what amounts to b inconsequential topics allows the other to retain their dignity, and carries the expectation of reciprocation.
How many times have I attended a pinoy party and most of the attendees have an intense need to “voice out” their opinion before the speaker even finished speaking their full thought? This isn’t a problem only with DEs, happening regularly in “rich” Filipino parties also. Then there are a handful of attendees who are more quiet because they don’t want to get into a potential argument. Being able to engage in respectful discourse after listening to the other side’s full point is a sign of personal and emotional maturity, and in aggregate becomes a cultural maturity.
in our parties, merry makings and get togethers a substantial amount of alcohol is often consumed, and people do let loose or let their hair down, etc. sometimes accidental stabbings occur, othertimes, killings. it’s usually on the following day and after a good night sleep that people realized what they have done, and are remorseful. and among friends, there is always settlement out of court, and no record of conviction to mar reputations or stellar careers. nakikipagareglohan.
sometimes at christmas parties, bad blood and ill feelings come to the fore and there is trouble even among close knit families. nagkaalitan. for frontliners, the christmas period can be catastrophic time with lots of emergency calls coming.
In Ilonggo and Cebuano there is the nuanced word “maoy” that describes this behavior. I’ve understood maoy to roughly mean “crazed” or “insane.” I’m not sure what the Tagalog equivalent is of maoy; I think Tagalog simply borrows the term. There is an implied “let’s understand that person” who is feeling maoy.
Sometimes I think maoy can be deeply meaningful, such as when used to describe a despairing romance. More often than not, I’ve heard it used to describe men acting out while drunk, waving “sundang” around while shouting, or getting into arguments lubricated by alcohol. Joe once shared his neighbor threatening him with a gun, which may be an instance of maoy. Well the last time I attended a party where I was the target of maoy, I knocked the guy out on the head with a piece of kahoy, and that was that.
Google baliw, nasisiraan ng bait, sira-ulo,nawawala sa sarili…if the shoe fits
Yes, I know those terms, but none come close to capturing the meaning of “maoy.”
Speaking of baliw and buang, a long time ago I learned that people used terms differently depending on city folk or bukid dweller. My city friends would use baliw, buang, yawa casually, often in a joking way between close friends. I tried that buang in the bukid and the other person was super offended. There’s so much nuance in Filipino languages.
this is what chatgpy gave and it is far off
Ang salitang “maoy” sa Bisaya (Cebuano) ay karaniwang ginagamit upang ilarawan ang isang taong umiiyak o nag-e-emote (madalas dahil sa problema sa pag-ibig o kapag nakainom). Depende sa konteksto, ito ang mga posibleng salin sa Tagalog:1. Umiiyak – kung literal na umiiyak ang tao.Halimbawa: “Maoy siya kay gibuwagan.” → “Umiiyak siya dahil iniwan siya.”2. Nagdadalamhati / Malungkot / Emo – kung hindi literal na umiiyak pero halatang malungkot.Halimbawa: “Maoy kaayo siya karon.” → “Malungkot na malungkot siya ngayon.”3. Drama / Nagda-drama – kung nagpapakita ng matinding emosyon, minsan OA.Halimbawa: “Nag-maoy na pud siya.” → “Nagda-drama na naman siya.”4. Lasing na malungkot – kapag may kasamang pag-inom ng alak.Halimbawa: “Maoy kaayo siya pagkahubog.” → “Lasing siya at nag-e-emote.”Kung may partikular kang sentence o konteksto, mas makakatulong para mas eksaktong isalin.
Well emoting sadness (aka OA) while drinking can be a kind of maoy. But so can listening to sad songs on repeat because of a heartbreak. Maoy is often used for someone who is a belligerent drunk.
We’ll have to ask KB to explain more if she has time hehe
Visayan gives off a vibe very distinct from Tagalog, even if I barely know it. Well, even closely related languages like Spanish and Portuguese have very different sensibilities. Pero Atik Ra, for instance, is so different from Tagalog hugot songs as it has the Visayan humor in it, I think (video below):
The original Jacky Chang version of Pero Atik Ra is hauntingly sad, compared to the Morissette rendition which is a bit more lively. Well, both artists have origins in Cebu.
It’ll be very interesting if ever the field of Philippine ethnolinguistics, history, and other related studies matures one day where we have a more complete and unbiased view colored less by the habit of nationalism. I only studied linguistics formally, and did not practice professionally, but my sense is though Tagalog and Cebuano are both Central Philippine languages, Tagalog may have had a lot more Javanese and Bruneian influences than Visayan languages did.
Yes kb feel free to interject.
I have never been in a UP faculty meeting, but I have heard stories of altercations and know of feuds between some of the best minds. Not that this didn’t exist in US universities, allegedly and most notably between schools of thought at Harvard Anthropology Dept. – but it was a real deep rift in terms of principle and not a feud between egos like in Pilipinas.
Perhaps part of the arguments in Philippine university departments comes from both pridefulness and feeling too strongly about one’s own pet theories. The theories may not necessarily be grounded in fact or evidence. Arguments are probably worse when two competing schools of thought are both ungrounded.
When I was in debate club during my academic years, even though debates might be spirited, the goal of debating is to persuade the opponent over to one’s side with logic and supporting facts. Persuasion is used to build consensus. To a trained mind, inconsistencies in an argument are cracks from which the argument can be dismantled. I guess academics here have a bit more humility, or at least a sense of shame if their arguments do not hold water once the consensus builds against a theory.
https://www.facebook.com/share/19nL6wdECP/ about the most controversial POLITICAL topic at this time:
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My column today makes a distinction between aligning with the majority or minority to get dibs on important committees, and the day-to-day and long-term bloc alignments that will matter more in the long run, for senators in the new Congress.
Columnists
The Long View
Alone again?
By: Manuel L. Quezon III – @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:06 AM July 16, 2025
The memoirs of the French statesman Charles de Gaulle begin with a famous sentence: “I have always had a certain idea of France.” It might well be said that if and when the time comes to pen her memoirs, Sen. Risa Hontiveros might very well write, too, “I have always had a certain idea of the Philippines.” It is one that the public has come to recognize and respect, leading to her successful election and reelection after previously unsuccessful attempts.
That certain idea of the Philippines can be said to be the one enshrined by our Constitution’s framers, that slightly left-of-center, liberal, and democratic vision of a society committed to reform born of the anti-dictatorship movement. And, for a time, after being in clear eclipse, it seemed there was hope that Hontiveros’ one-woman opposition might become a three-person team with the election and thus expected return of Sen. Bam Aquino and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan to the Senate. They would form—and still are, as Aquino told the governor of Negros Occidental recently—the “independent bloc.”
But when noise started to be made that both Aquino and Pangilinan would join the majority committed to retaining the leadership of Sen. Francis Escudero in the chamber, some disappointed supporters started expressing the opinion that poor Risa would be alone again (technically, she formed half of a two-person minority with Koko Pimentel; but he didn’t fully rehabilitate himself until the very end of his term, during the impeachment trial opening round).
The price of admission to the majority is a vote for the winning candidate for the Senate presidency; the reward is having dibs on committee chairmanships. While every senator gets to be a committee chair, some committees are more powerful or simply more relevant than others. In the case of Aquino and Pangilinan, at stake would be the chairmanship of the committees on education and agriculture, respectively.
The latest reckoning puts the Escudero bloc at 15: Pia and Alan Peter Cayetano, JV Ejercito and Jinggoy Estrada, Mark and Camille Villar, Erwin and Raffy Tulfo, Joel Villanueva, Imee Marcos, Rodante Marcoleta, Pangilinan, Aquino, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Lito Lapid. For Vicente Sotto III: Ping Lacson, Loren Legarda, Juan Miguel Zubiri, and why not, Hontiveros.
Once the voting’s over, a Senate President, Senate President Pro Tempore, majority floor leader, minority leadership, and committee chairmanships have been determined—that’s it.
Senators will align (or not) on the basis of issues, though their affinities might generally align them, too. For example, there’s the seven-person Duterte bloc: Bong Go, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Robinhood Padilla, Marcoleta, Marcos, and Mark and Camille Villar—united in defense of the embattled Vice President. And there’s the five-strong so-called veterans bloc: Zubiri, Lacson, Legarda, Lapid, and Sotto.
I do believe Aquino was telling the truth when he said he and Pangilinan would indeed form an “independent bloc” with Risa. There is far more that binds them, than say, the ectoplasmic remainder of the majority (once you detach the other cohesive blocs), they may or may not decide to join. (Aquino was forthright when he said it depended on their delivering the committee chairmanships he and Pangilinan desire). What unites Escudero, the two Estradas, the two Cayetanos, Villanueva, and Gatchalian (though one charitably expects him to tend toward the independent bloc most of the time)? What would you even call this seven-person bloc? Perhaps, gentle reader, something unprintable.
But we know three things. The first is specific to Aquino and Pangilinan: while pink and yellow may be the colors of their core constituency, what got them elected was a wider sampling of society, which includes supporters of both sides of the former ruling coalition elected in 2022. Both senators understand this, which explains their focus on chairmanships to be able to deliver on their advocacies that cross factional lines. The second is that the Escudero ectoplasm and the Duterte bloc have a majority where it counts—and what counts is continuing the political viability of the Vice President. What the veterans bloc has is experience and competence, and it can find, from time to time, alignment with the independent bloc.
What is making most blocs nervous, of course, is the public—the national constituency that elected all of them in the first place. In which case, there’s also the saying that the Senate consists of 24 independent republics: the senators, each of whom has a national constituency.
https://www.facebook.com/share/16UV2PZCBJ/
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From Juan Luna Blog
The name Paolo “Paowee” Tantoco should have been left in the pages of society news, remembered simply as a Rustan’s heir and executive whose life ended too soon in a Los Angeles hotel room. The coroner’s findings were clear and final: an accidental death caused by cocaine overdose, worsened by a heart condition.
It was a personal tragedy, nothing more, nothing less — the kind that should have been mourned privately by family and friends.
But in the Philippines, where political narratives feed on grief and rumor, even the death of a retail executive can be turned into a circus.
The controversy took shape not because of what happened to Paolo, but because of who else was in Los Angeles at the time. The Manila International Film Festival, held from March 4 to 7, brought together a mix of government officials and celebrities. Among them was First Lady Liza Araneta‑Marcos, who, by virtue of her presence, became the convenient villain in a story spun by Duterte-aligned bloggers. She was never proven to have any personal connection to Tantoco beyond attending the same publicized event, yet whispers began circulating online, painting a picture of scandal and insinuation — the kind of cheap intrigue that thrives in echo chambers where truth matters less than the clickbait.
Here is where the narrative collapses under its own hypocrisy. The event was not a secret gathering in some dimly lit lounge; it was a high-profile festival attended by several officials, including Senators Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Jinggoy Estrada — both well-known figures with long-standing ties to the Duterte camp. So if being at the same venue is enough to cast suspicion, then why aren’t these two being dragged into the same mud?
Are the same DDS bloggers now suggesting that Chiz and Jinggoy are drug addicts too? Their selective outrage betrays the obvious: this isn’t about truth or justice; it’s about weaponizing gossip for political gain.
And what exactly is that political gain? Distraction.
The playbook is old, but it still works because people fall for it. Blow up a personal scandal, repeat it often enough, and the public loses sight of the issues that actually matter. This is not the first time we’ve seen this tactic. Leila de Lima was destroyed by it.
Remember how they labeled her a “drug lord,” circulated fake sex videos, and flooded the airwaves with every possible humiliation until she was jailed?
While the country obsessed over manufactured scandals, the real crimes — thousands of extrajudicial killings, the P6.4 billion shabu shipment linked to Polong Duterte, and the billions in Chinese loans that tied the country deeper into debt — slid quietly into the background.
The Paolo Tantoco story follows that same pattern. His death has no bearing on governance, no policy implications, no relevance to the lives of ordinary Filipinos. Yet here we are, forced to watch as the same propaganda machine diverts public attention away from the far graver issues unfolding before us.
Sara Duterte is facing impeachment, desperately hiring an army of expensive lawyers to keep herself from being unseated. China continues to defy the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling, harassing our fishermen in the West Philippine Sea, building more military installations in our waters while the government struggles to assert sovereignty. These are the issues that should dominate headlines, not the private misfortune of a man whose only “political crime” was being seen at an event also attended by the First Lady.
And so we ask: why now, why this? Because scandals like this are easy. They’re emotional. They require no critical thinking. They reduce politics to a telenovela where villains and heroes are decided not by evidence but by how loud the accusations are shouted.
Meanwhile, the real villains — the ones stealing from public coffers, surrendering our territorial waters, and silencing critics through intimidation — laugh quietly in the background. This is the same misdirection that kept the public blind during Duterte’s bloody drug war, the same smokescreen that drowned out the stories of murdered children, of fishermen robbed of their catch, of a nation sold piece by piece to China.
Paolo Tantoco deserves to rest in peace. His death should not be twisted into cheap political ammunition. The First Lady, like any other citizen, should be judged by facts, not innuendo. And we, the public, should stop falling for the same cheap tricks.
The stakes are too high to let ourselves be distracted by another manufactured scandal while corruption thrives and sovereignty continues to slip through our fingers.
off topic
Regarding why Pinoy food may have not taken off compared to Thai food, there may be some reasons that are not obvious to Filipinos.
1.) Presentation is very important to make food appealing. After all, the saying goes is we first eat with our eyes. A lot of Filipino food is cooked without much attention to eventual presentation. Filipino food tends to be very “brown” due to the lack of vegetables compared to other cultures. In the bukid where vegetables are more accessible people ate more greens there, but city food is severely lacking in color.
2.) Over seasoning overwhelms the palate. Too many Filipino dishes tend to be too salty, too sour, too sweet, too oily. In Mainland Southeast Asian cuisine the balance of the seasonings is quite important.
3.) Blandness of texture also affects appeal. Many Filipino foods are either fried, or cooked too soft. Adding varied elements of crunch, melt-in-mouth softness, richness, lightness, etc depending on a dish has a big effect on appeal.
If one looks at nearby and related cuisines like Indonesian and Malaysian food, those cuisines have figured out how to take the same original cooking methods and elevate the cuisine. There is no sense of blandness or unattractiveness of eye appeal in those cuisines. Yes, I understand that traditionally a lot of Filipino food is preserved in vinegar, salt, or sugar, but the cuisines of other cultures that became popular in the West were essentially royal cuisine or elevated versions of peasant cuisine. French haute cuisine had its origins in peasant petite cuisine for example.
Inside the Philippines, Ilokano cuisine with its emphasis on fresh vegetables, Ilonggo cuisine with its heavy Hokkien influence, and Kapampangan cuisine which is the queen of pinoy cuisine are standouts for me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/FilipinosAgainstChina/s/4yQUngLfuY
“Philippines as monkeys in Chinese political comic”
Important to emphasize that not all Chinese are “Chinese.” In China since the Qin, the first expansionist Han state, over 2,200 years ago there has always been a Han imperialist mindset. Every non-Han is considered a mindless barbarian, despite the Koreans and the Yue (including the Vietnamese) having organized states long before the Han did. Every Han neighbor knows this history, which informs a sense of wariness towards that imperialistic and larger neighbor. I guess Filipinos are only starting to wake up to this fact. Though I do worry Chinoys will be discriminated against once again.
I knew what this socmed OA reminded me of, it was the works of the late Tom Wolfe. I asked Google Gemini to write a short story about it in Tom Wolfe style and this came out:
×××××start of story×××××
The ether, that vast, shimmering expanse of the Internet, was alive. Not with the usual hum of celebrity gossip or political machinations, but with a new, incandescent fury, a digital firestorm sparked by… food. Specifically, the reactions of BINI, the P-Pop sensation, those perfectly coiffed, impossibly synchronized young women, to a simple YouTube video titled “People vs Food.”
Oh, the hubris! The sheer unmitigated gall!
It began, as all such cataclysms do, innocuously enough. A series of clips. A taste test. Filipino snacks. Innocent, right? A delightful cultural exchange, a charming display of youthful exuberance, perhaps a touch of endearing awkwardness. The girls, presented with everything from the shimmering orange spheres of kwek-kwek to the ominous, glistening black cubes of betamax (that’s congealed pork blood, for the uninitiated, a street food delicacy), offered their… opinions.
And it was those opinions, those unfiltered, unvarnished, visceral reactions, that sent the digital denizens of the Philippines into a paroxysm of righteous indignation.
The screens, from the glowing expanse of the corporate executive’s ultra-wide monitor in Bonifacio Global City to the cracked, thumb-smudged smartphone of the jeepney driver idling in traffic, blazed.
“Maarte!” screeched one keyboard warrior, their fingers flying across the virtual battlefield. “Pa-sosyal!” meaning, of course, “pretentious” or “acting rich.” The words, hurled like digital molotov cocktails, landed squarely on the impressionable, shimmering surface of BINI’s public image.
See, BINI, darling BINI, had committed the cardinal sin: they had not sufficiently reverenced the sacred cows of Filipino street food. When one of them recoiled, ever so slightly, from the earthy, almost-metallic tang of isaw (grilled chicken intestines), a collective gasp rippled through the online community. When another delicately, almost daintily, rejected the balut (that infamous, embryonic duck egg), the digital mob coalesced.
“They’ve forgotten their roots!” thundered a commentator on Facebook, their profile picture a grainy photo of a sunset over Mayon Volcano. “How can they represent the Filipino people if they cannot appreciate the very food of the masa?”
Ah, the masa! The teeming, sweating, vibrant masses! The very soul of the nation, whose culinary preferences, forged in the heat of street grills and the crucible of hungry bellies, were now, apparently, being disdained by these exquisitely polished pop princesses.
The argument swirled, a dizzying vortex of national pride, culinary authenticity, and the peculiar, almost manic, intensity of online tribalism. There were the staunch defenders, the “Blooms” (BINI’s loyal fanbase), who counter-attacked with furious declarations of the girls’ genuine connection to their heritage, their humble beginnings, their actual love for other Filipino dishes. “They’re just being honest!” cried one Bloom, a tiny anime avatar in their profile picture. “Would you rather they fake it?”
But honesty, it seemed, was a luxury not afforded to pop stars when the subject was the sacred, visceral bond between a Filipino and their adobo, their sinigang, their street food.
The narrative quickly shifted from mere taste preference to a referendum on Filipino-ness itself. The People vs Food video had inadvertently become People vs BINI, a cultural showdown played out in the frenetic, unforgiving arena of social media comments sections.
And through it all, the members of BINI, tucked away in their air-conditioned green rooms, perhaps nibbling on a perfectly innocent slice of mango, remained largely unaware of the hurricane their palates had unleashed. The storm, however, raged on, a testament to the strange, passionate, and utterly unpredictable currents that flow beneath the shimmering surface of modern Filipino society, where a rejected balut could, in the blink of an eye, become a national crisis.
Related note
https://globalnation.inquirer.net/287713/why-does-manila-struggle-to-sustain-a-lasting-hawker-culture
Tough issues, often created by the hawkers themselves who set up on public property. When the city reclaims it for its intended use, the city becomes the villain. The hawker wants to go where there are lots of people. The city needs to move those people faster.
Thanks Joe, it is indeed tough.