Two Decades On: Did Get Real Philippines Get It Right About Filipino Dysfunction?
By Karl Garcia
Originally inspired by GetRealPhilippines.com’s essay, first published on August 20, 2002.
In the early 2000s, Get Real Philippines (GRP) struck a nerve. At a time when political instability, corruption, and moral fatigue defined the national mood, GRP’s essays offered a bracing diagnosis: the Philippines was not merely suffering from bad leadership—it was crippled by deep-seated cultural and behavioral dysfunctions.
Their message was clear, even brutal. The site argued that the country’s problems were self-inflicted, born from “wrong values” such as utang na loob gone toxic, pakikisama over integrity, emotionalism over reason, and the chronic inability to plan and execute beyond short-term self-interest. GRP proposed what it called a “solutions framework”—a reformation not of government structures, but of the Filipino mindset itself.
More than twenty years later, it’s fair to ask: did GRP’s solution stand the test of time?
The Framework: A Cultural Revolution, Not a Political One
GRP’s thesis was radical for its time. Instead of focusing on the familiar reformist agenda—changing the Constitution, ousting corrupt officials, or reforming the bureaucracy—it called for a cultural overhaul. The argument was that no political system could thrive if the people operating it carried dysfunctional habits, beliefs, and blind loyalties.
In essence, GRP believed that the Philippines was not underdeveloped because it lacked democracy, but because it lacked discipline, civic consciousness, and long-term vision. The “solution,” then, was not another revolution or reform movement, but a psychological awakening—a collective reprogramming of how Filipinos thought, worked, and related to one another.
This framework was ambitious, even prophetic. It foresaw how structural reforms would fail without cultural ones—a warning that rings true today.
Twenty Years Later: The Same Old Malaise
Fast forward to 2025, and one cannot deny that much of GRP’s critique still resonates. Despite modern infrastructure, rising GDPs, and the promise of digital transformation, many of the same behavioral patterns persist:
- Politics remains personality-driven, not policy-based.
- Corruption still thrives on complicity and silence, enabled by cultural tolerance for “small sins.”
- Critical thinking remains weak; misinformation spreads easily, even faster in the age of social media.
- Dependency mentality endures—expecting salvation from leaders rather than empowerment from citizens.
- Short-term thinking dominates, from economic planning to daily decision-making.
In short, the external trappings of progress have evolved—but the internal operating system of the Filipino psyche remains largely unchanged.
Why the Framework Faltered
GRP’s framework was intellectually sound but sociologically incomplete. It diagnosed the disease accurately but prescribed a cure that required a moral revolution—something much harder to institutionalize. Culture, after all, doesn’t change through scolding or shame; it transforms through education, leadership by example, and systemic reinforcement.
The past two decades showed that cultural reformation needs both bottom-up and top-down change:
- Education reform that promotes critical thinking and civic virtue.
- Merit-based governance that rewards competence, not connections.
- Social institutions that make ethical behavior practical and rewarding.
In other words, culture changes when systems reward good behavior and penalize bad ones—something GRP’s framework acknowledged but never operationalized.
The Enduring Relevance of Self-Reflection
Yet, GRP’s greatest contribution wasn’t its prescriptions—it was its mirror. It forced Filipinos to confront uncomfortable truths about themselves and their society. Even in 2025, when digital discourse dominates and politics has become even more polarized, that mirror still matters.
The site’s boldness—its refusal to flatter or romanticize the Filipino identity—remains refreshing in a culture that often prizes optimism over honesty. It argued that national pride without national responsibility is empty, and that progress demands maturity, not mere nationalism.
Conclusion: From Diagnosis to Reinvention
So, did Get Real Philippines’ framework stand the test of time? Yes, as diagnosis; no, as cure.
Its core insight—that the Philippines’ greatest enemy lies within—has proven enduringly true. But without tangible, institutional ways to retrain behavior, the framework remained an intellectual provocation rather than a national movement.
Still, in an age of algorithmic echo chambers and populist nostalgia, GRP’s blunt message is worth revisiting: no system, leader, or constitution can save a people unwilling to reform themselves.
Perhaps that is the real challenge for the next generation—to finally turn self-awareness into self-correction, and to make the long-promised cultural reformation a living reality.
Cover photo from Get Real Post article “A brief history of Get Real Philippines“.
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The Society of Honor by Joe America 
No, and in the last several years they stopped being sensible.
The couple running the blog are now Australian citizens who now see the Philippines as though Mengele would look down at a test tube, given the later posts on their Twitter/X account which borderline despises Philippine Filipino identity/culture which they see as “degenerate” and “ignorant”, and is determined to wipe that out with an alien culture mimicking Singapore and its so-called “Asian Values” of helicopter parents, believing a cultural purge would solve all of our problems and make us prosperous.
Thanks for the update. Bennie is a horrible waste of intelligence. His wife is devoid of character as far as I can tell. Nasty when there is no truth to it.
The late Edgar Lores migrated to Australia even before the couple and he never looked down or mocked the Philippines. The couple seems “sincere” in their mocking which gives new meaning to devil’s advocating.
I have aussie friends and they dont look down on pinoys, but are happy that both our country, phil and australia, have signed visiting forces agreement in 2007, and to further boost security ties, both our countries will seal in 2026 a defense cooperation pact.
ahem, if philippines is indeed truly dysfunctional, what does that make australia!
we manage to keep china at bay, but in australia, china owns a very important slice of austalia, the port of darwin, a very bustling port that rake in bigger revenues and tariffs all going to china. because, apparently, some politicians in australia are quite short sighted! and leased the port of darwin to china for 99 years.
kaya, tingnan mo, china is muscling quite aggressively vs australia that china’s jet fighter even fired flares very close to australia’s surveillance air plane just off paracel island. so of course, australia sent note verbale to chinese embassy showing their displeasure. apparently again, the australia prime minister, anthony albanese, have spoken about the incident at the asean summit just recently.
and it has been said that the australian defense force is the most dangerous place for australian women to work, there is rampant sexual harassment and sexual assault among female recruits. australia have hard time attracting new recruits kaya it is now recruiting in papua new guinea. young papuan males under 25 years are encouraged to consider a career in adf, australian defense force. they’ll receive pay while in training and once they graduated, they’ll be offered australian citizenship.
Very astute as always.( had to.doublecheck if I used the right word)
I too have friends and a first degree cousin in Australia.
I happened to be acquainted with Ben he was called Dic by some office mates who were close to him, that is why I could not imagine he is the person behind BenignO.
At the risk of bring called out for hyping greatness by Joey
What you said about keeping China at bay is accurate , they were almost allowed by GMA to own land in the guise of agribusiness
a sleeper cell here and there but their degree of Australian generation is the worst in this part of the globe.
If Cambodia is not careful, they are next. Myanmar too.
Karl, “astute” is the right word, especially when talking to KSM. I will add this to “perpicacity”. 🙂
guys, I have to cross meself! ang lalim pala ng mga english ninyo. nakakainggit!
Huwag kang mabahala, KSM. Ikaw ang may katangian. Ume-epal lang naman ako. 🙂
parang GSM ako KB or K lang hehe.
Mag beer muna tayo. a-a-a-ah.
cheers, I got kabag if I drink beer, kaya suntory na lang ang sa akin.
One more TSOH former regular in Australia is Cha.
The problem with benign0’s assessment over 20 years ago and now, is that it comes from an elite mindset that blames those Filipinos with less agency rather than assign responsibility to those who have the power to more easily affect the malaise which he diagnosed. Not going to happen when those without agency amount to over 93% of the population, many who are barely surviving.
The central impediment has always been that the Philippines still retains a datu-follower type system with a very small elite and those who facilitate the system that props up the elites, while the rest are more or less serfs. No wonder that OFWs fit well in the Middle East, where oil sheiks surround themselves with a small elite while the rest of the population lives in poverty. Those Middle Eastern potentates also have built shiny modern cities that serve as their state’s face to the world, quite similar to the NCR.
Dark Ages Europe emerged into the Renaissance not because the peoples of each European country self-reformed their own bad habits and folk superstitions, but rather due to elites who opened up trade and classical knowledge to more non-elites. More importantly, those elites did not only open up knowledge, but actively taught and propagated that knowledge, becoming leaders in their day. Teaching institutions came into being in the form of the classical university. In the modern world where knowledge is freely available for he who wishes to learn, most people still require a teacher to well, teach them. After all, one cannot give a child a book on Calculus and expect the child to learn on his own.
For people to demand more, they need to be aware they can advocate more for themselves. One cannot advocate for themselves if they do not know how. One requires patient teachers and leaders to guide them until one becomes self-sufficient. My disagreement with benign0 and his followers since 20 years ago is that he seems to think that a modern thinking can be more or less beaten into the Filipino, which ironically exactly what Filipino elites have been doing to those under them since before the Spanish conquest, and has never worked.
I did write about how the Philippines is unable to use modern education properly to “widen horizons”, sinspite of having all the tools.
In fact a lot of Filipinos use it at most to learn skills for jobs that earn better money, and yes the GRP authors are among those who are skilled but actually not truly educated, dogmatic even. This time BTW I was able to prompt ChatGPT into making a great summary of what I wrote, see below.
Exactly the opposite of what GRP has been preaching for the longest time.
I will use the analogy of a human who comes across a hammer with no prior knowledge of how to use it. That human may quickly figure out that he can use the hammer to build a house more easily than building a bahay kubo using lashing bamboo poles to corner post logs using the traditional method, but builder probably wouldn’t be building a very well constructed house. In the absence of a tutor, trial and error may eventually lead to better technique the subsequent times. A teacher, let’s say a master builder, would speed up the process and save the inexperienced wasted time bumbling around. Nowadays master builders are a regimented field of study we call architecture. A Filipino who has access to knowledge might figure out the outlines of what to do with that knowledge to increase their outcomes, but it is not as efficient as being guided actively. To me that is the fundamental lacking in the Philippines, as there are not enough “teachers” to go around, or those who have built up skill through trial and error and have become “masters” tend to hoard their knowledge.
Irineo once shared a sesame street video of a short muppet with long arms and a tall muppet with short arms on how to “cooperate” on getting the trees.
Bayanihan is not over rated and in pinoy parlance gas gas.
Same with knowledge crowd sourcing can make or break you depending on what you are cooperating on.
This mentioning that 90 percent of the Filipino’s can’t because they are stifled is what GRP calls lack of resolve and pa victim.
Mostly I interact with that 93%+ socioeconomic group, almost to the point of exclusivity. Often their bad habits really annoyed me. Sometimes I need to take a breather from being annoyed. But I do recognize that while they are at fault for their own actions, there lies a greater fault in those who can but won’t help this socioeconomic group learn how to fish as the common proverb goes.
A lot of the Philippines economy since the Asian Financial Crisis has been floated upon either directly or indirectly by remittances and the BPO industry. Revenues from both drive consumption and thus the ability to build shiny cities of modern-ish infrastructure, at least in the concentrated population centers. But just like oil sheiks depend on their petroleum reserves to fuel their projects, I do wonder the calamity that awaits when BPO is replaced by AI chatbots coupled with some future global financial shock that dries up remittances. Well, maybe the Philippines would have the last laugh because unlike liquid gold, the gold of human labor can be replenished.
What I have noticed about a lot of the Filipino middle class is that they mostly have the attitude of employees and consumers. Hard to build industries with a mindset that does not understand the levelling up that all successful industries in rich countries went through, like the examples of the Japanese, Korean and now Vietnamese car industries. Ninotchka Rosca described the attitude of a lot of Filipinos as one of “instant gratification”.
Don’t know how true the story is that BPO outfits have issues finding enough Filipino managers, but the petulant attitude of a lot of middle-class Filipinos when they don’t get what they think they paid for shows they wouldn’t last long in management. Senyoritos who think they are modern consumers.
I still recall how people howled at PNoy because of traffic issues. Zero understanding of systemic issues that take time to solve. Same with those who wanted instant gratification with regards to drug-related crime which was nothing more than part of the ignored 93% in desperation. The not quite joke about those Filipinos who say if the car doesn’t work let’s leave it at the roadside and put a match to it. Instead of having the car fixed.
I guess that lack of managers should be updated I think that info was out dated.
This is still true to this day that when a nearshored branch closes like in Central America. PH absorbs this.
South Africa, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe can not cope up with clients requirements do they end up here.
Do not take my word for it verify.
Plus in US, trumps restoring promise would not work
Middle management are being layed off snd Amazon is the most recent example.
That is not a cause for joy on PH
If US can’t handle automation, how can we?
Chat GPT told me this regarding other locations for BPO:
as for Central American nearshoring moving, Chat GPT says this:
So the big picture is that of a mature BPO industry in the Philippines, and what you said about the being more managers now is similar to how there are more Filipino captains now at sea. Yo no soy marinero soy capitan as they sing in La Bamba.
So the Philippines is not doing that badly, for instance Joey has also mentioned the many VAs (virtual assistants) working on gigs now.
Still, little industrial policy is happening, for instance Atty Leni’s idea of Blue Industries in 2022 was reduced by political trolls to her having allegedly said Filipino seamen were stupid, which isn’t true, she only wanted to raise the training standard with the goal of a Philippine merchant marine.
I already posted an analysis by Chat GPT – of course that is to be taken with a grain of salt, like a better search engine – of how India and Romania actively created software industries as opposed to the Philippines.
When the King of Filipino R&B Jay-R asked Senator Risa recently about whether the Philippines could build its music industry like Sokor did, she mentioned the Creative Industries Act, that one was passed in 2022 but only this month did Marcos Jr. actually start measures, let’s see where they go.
In the world we are in, always try to move up the food chain, and once one is Simba the Lion nothing will be eating you up.
Thanks Irineo, I will work on this. I will write on the underutilised blue and green economy.
My next article is about blaming it all on neoliberalism
I like you to reiterate what you said be
fore with a twist as you always do.
Here is the Ted Talk style script of my Blue Green Economy Nexus
.🎙️ TED Talk ScriptTitle: From Blue to Green Prosperity: The Philippines’ Voyage Toward a Sustainable Maritime Future—[Opening Visual: Waves gently crashing, a ship on the horizon.]Speaker:The sea… has always defined us.The Philippines — more than 7,600 islands — a nation literally shaped by the ocean.And yet, for decades, the sea has been treated as a boundary… when in truth, it is our bridge to the future.Today, we are charting a bold new course — through the Integrated Philippine Maritime Strategy, or IPMS 2025–2035+.It’s more than a policy.It’s a promise.A promise to make the Philippines a secure, innovative, and sustainable maritime nation — built on both the Blue Economy and the Green Economy.—[Slide: “The Blue–Green Nexus” – Waves meeting a forest.]The Blue Economy is where we grow — fisheries, shipping, marine biotechnology, coastal tourism — using ocean resources wisely.The Green Economy is how we grow — regenerating, not depleting; innovating, not polluting.Together, they form a powerful idea:Prosperity without sacrificing the sea.Because the Blue Economy sustains us.The Green Economy sustains our future.—[Slide: “Anchored on National Plans” – logos of NEDA, MARINA, DOTr, DENR.]This strategy doesn’t stand alone.It aligns with the Philippine Development Plan, the National Security Policy, the Green Economy Transition Plan, and the modernization programs of our agriculture and fisheries sectors.It’s a whole-of-nation approach — uniting the dots across governance, industry, and environment.Under MARINA’s leadership, we bring together partners from DTI, DOTr, DA, DENR, DOE, DOST, the Coast Guard, the Navy, and local communities — each one steering a part of this great voyage.As one of our maritime officers said:> “From fragmented mandates to coordinated action — the sea becomes our shared responsibility.”—[Slide: “Roadmap to 2035” – three phases.]Our journey unfolds in three phases:1️⃣ Foundation (2025–2027): Building institutions and aligning policies.2️⃣ Transformation (2028–2032): Modernizing ports, shipyards, and logistics.3️⃣ Leadership (2033–2035+): Making the Philippines a regional leader in ocean governance and regenerative growth.Picture this by 2035:Half of our domestic fleet modernized.30% of our marine areas protected.The maritime industry contributing 7% to national GDP.And imagine green ports, smart shipyards, blue carbon projects, and circular fisheries — all powered by Filipino innovation.—[Slide: “Security Through Sustainability” – a Coast Guard ship beside coral reefs.]We often think of maritime security as warships and patrols.But true security begins with sustainability.Because every illegal fishing act weakens our economy.Every oil spill undermines our sovereignty.Every coral destroyed is a line erased from our national map.That’s why Security Through Sustainability is the new paradigm — protecting our natural capital as part of our national defense.—[Slide: “From Archipelago to Maritime Nation” – Philippine flag over ocean horizon.]If we stay this course, the Philippines will no longer be just a collection of islands.We will be a maritime nation of consequence —a leader in green shipping, ocean governance, and blue prosperity.Because economic progress and ecological balance are not opposing tides —they are currents that must move together.The sea has always been our story.Now, it can be our future.Let’s sail —from blue to green prosperity.—[Closing visual: A map of the Philippines transforming into waves and green forests.]—
Interesting review, thanks. The Philippines has earned the right to say “We’re good at this!”
Clearly the BPO industry has been great in aggregate for the Philippines economy and leveling up Filipinos who manage to take their independent lessons from their experiences there.
However, the “big names” associated with the BPO industry like Alorica, Concentrix, Qualfon, Teleperformance, Cognizant are owned by American, American, Mexican, French, Indian companies in that order. The actual BPO providers are no-name operations that partner with these foreign BPO companies, and the local operation often doesn’t have staying power. Some local BPO providers are fly-by-night, introducing a game of whack-a-hole to weed out unqualified, unprofessional and incompetent agents.
I also think the “neutral English” and “English proficiency” touted by the Philippines government and business community is exaggerated, especially nowadays. Most Americans for example are quite forgiving of non-American dialects and accents as Americans are exposed to recent immigrants to older immigrants that retain a hint of an accent. I’d say even as early as a decade ago most Filipino BPO agents were able to mask their accents so well that most Americans would just assume they were long-time American residents or naturalized citizens. Nowadays the accent can be quite heavy, the English proficiency has suffered, incorrect grammar is used, and bad behavior that is acceptable to the Philippines leaks out into the agent’s work when dealing with the client’s customers. Well, being familiar with the Philippines I’m more forgiving of heavy accents and entertain agents with my Philippines knowledge, and I know how to guide the conversation to accomplish solving my problem. Most Americans who value excellent customer service do not appreciate that nor have as much patience as I.
Same major reason (aside from ridiculously high “first world” prices and bad infrastructure) that holds back Philippines tourism. Subpar or bad service, rigidity to following scripts like a robot with little ability to craft alternative solutions (a lot of BPO tools are now coded to CONSTRAIN the agent’s ability to go off script as agents started abusing tools), and more. I can’t speak for Europeans, but many Americans and Canadians who have an interest in visiting the Philippines have heard from Fil-Am/Fil-Canadian acquaintances that the Philippines is an “English speaking nation.” But go outside of shopping centers and hardly anyone knows how to speak English. Not surprising when the PSA metric of “literacy” in any language had been relaxed to the point where literacy means literally the ability to read, write, speak one word in that language.
Well I don’t think it’s a necessarily bad thing that a middle class is primarily interested in being an employee or consumer; most American or European middle class also are similar. What is bad though IMO is there has long been little innovation within the lower and middle classes to create new businesses and organizations beyond the immediate local level.
In the US most new businesses are created by immigrants or those formerly of the lower socioeconomic classes, which then employ middle class people. A large number of Fortune 500 companies have immigrant CEOs and C-suites. Immigrants bring new ideas and typically have a stronger work ethic as they started with literally nothing, all the while also integrating what is already done well in their adopted country.
So the problem it seems to me is that there is not enough “new blood” bringing “new ideas” into the Philippines ecosystem. I don’t think a country necessarily needs to open up immigration, but there has to be a way to open up better practices. The much vaunted Japanese innovations like Just In Time, Kaizen and Total Quality Management have a root in the Japanese concept of Horenso (Hokuku or reporting, Renraku or informing, and Sodan or consultation), but these were also heavily influenced by traditional American business decision making that made the US so successful as a manufacturing powerhouse in the past. The South Koreans adopted both the Japanese methods as well as American methods. Upcoming Vietnamese companies are heavily influenced by returning Vietnamese diaspora who brought American methods and act as a go-between with international partners. As someone who worked in the Japanese and South Korean corporations for a long time, I have observed that no analogue really exists in the Philippines.
That’s an interesting point. It makes me wonder as to the goals at time of departure. For Filipinos, it is to find a better life elsewhere because the Philippines cannot pay them what they are worth. For those from other countries, the goal is to pad their careers and bank accounts to return. It’s like the people at Get Real Post, they scorn their homeland, they don’t care to build it or return there. CV has a similar attitude.
While I think it is the collective responsibility of those who migrated and “made it” to help their former homeland become better, I don’t think it is any individual’s personal responsibility. What strikes strange to me, however, is how very few Filipinos who left are willing to come back to help build. In other countries I’ve traveled to, there were always returnees I met who were making their immediate community better, usually by providing jobs. Filipino returnees typically slide back into the existing system, but when equipped with their “upgraded” knowledge learned abroad, at best often use it to enjoy the benefits of being a big man in the system and at worse actively propagate the system they so disliked to the point of leaving in the past. CV’s comment about returnees living in luxury communities like Ayala Alabang as being somehow humble middle class retirees is an example of this mentality.
We have talked about this and I mentioned returning Iraqis and nothing good happened and you answered in what I coul not recall mabe you said something to the effect of apples and oranges
Here’s my old comment:
Yes, that all fits.
Many thanks @Joey
Perhaps bayanihan still exists, but I have only seen it a handful of times and I have traveled the Philippines quite a bit. Certainly I have never seen the literal bayanihan of moving a bahay kubo, nor have I heard about it.
More often, I saw the spirit, or rather a tangled web of people in the community preying upon those who they thought they can take advantage of, where one can be the one who takes advantage one day and be the victim the next, then repeat. Why raise chickens when one can simply steal the neighbor’s chicken? Why find proper work when a 40 year old can hingi from her relatives, and even be shameless enough to hingi from her senior citizen mother’s meager Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens (SPISC) which is literally just 1,000 a month the mother needs for her medicines. Why make an effort to build a better future for one’s children when they will just grow like a grass? I know these are hard realities that most Filipinos who are not in that situation likely have not seen even if it might be happening in the nearby informal settlement, but often when there is an awareness some may think it’s not a big problem. But it is a big problem when probably a majority of the population lives like this.
Something happened during the late Third Republic, and I do not know enough historical detail to put my finger on what it was. But I am quite familiar with the Cultural Revolution in the People’s Republic of China or similar analogues in the autocratic world like the Khmer Rouge purge or Stalin’s Great Purge. Somewhere along the line, knowledge was lost along with a sense of moral character. The PRC may be a rich country now due to acceding to the WTO, but much of the PRC operations upon a system of modernized warlordism where the municipal authority reports up the chain to the next higher warlord, and so on going up to the PRC’s leader. Also not something “nice” to talk about I suppose, but I do wonder how a country can move forward if her people cannot come to grips with the past mistakes. Not doing so tends to increase chances of repeating mistakes when lessons are not learned.
Sonny who grew up in the Third Republic and left for the USA in 1968, towards its end, described the reasons for its decline to me as issues with postwar rebuilding, the Hukbahalap rebellion and settling of old scores between political families. I had been persistent in asking him why, and thanked him after he made that comment here for showing the skeletons in the closet. He told me the next generations have more skeletons in closets.
But if I look at how Sonny mentioned still playing at the rotonda that was once the EDSA-Aurora Boulevard crossing in his childhood, I think of that crossing now with the underpass, the MRT and LRT lines meeting in the sky and footbridges connecting them and Farmer’s garden, plus the numerous bus terminals.
One might have to look at the dynamics of land and migration within and without the country to see what happened to the Third Republic.
For sure there was a continuation of the 19th century, where there was the triple dynamic of landgrabbing and peasants become landless either going bandit, going to Manila or to places where there were new opportunities like Bikol during the abaca boom.
The dynamic of the Third Republic was the Huk rebellion and political warlordism in the countryside, educated people going to Manila where it was more civilized, while one measure to defuse the Huk rebellion was to offer land in Mindanao to former rebels. There also were the many who went to Manila but didn’t make it, causing crime issues that made people opt for the quick fix of Marcos Sr. who for instance put drunk tambays in cages on trucks, selda ng lasing.
The dynamics continued when the middle class started leaving for the USA from 1965 onwards, around 2 million left in 20 years, a huge blood loss in a population that was just 40 million back then. Then you had working class migration or work abroad for instance to Saudi from 1975 onwards, the year POEA was founded.
That the fabric of society tore due to such stresses, basically every man for himself, isn’t surprising and there was little recovery post-1986.
In fact the dynamic of migration of those with college degrees just shifted from the USA to places like Canada and Australia after the former tightened entry, while the number of OFWs increased from the 1990s onwards. The middle class as the core of civic society was gutted, while the working class had a lot of young people growing up with their grandparents. Add Internet and social media from the turn of the century onwards and we get to today’s issues.
Whether a Filipino migrant is college educated or selling their labor, both instances are a net negative for the Philippines. At least the Philippines has not become like Venezuela, where I had an opportunity to visit before Chávez became president in 2002, after which the country devolved into desperation as the educated and the determined left. Comparatively the Philippines has long been relatively stable(-ish), though quite poor for over 90% of the population. I have long believed that unless the Philippines figures out a way to retain Filipinos who might want to migrate, the Philippines will perpetually be stuck as the smartest, strongest, and most determined of each new generation will figure out a way to leave while the rest thrust out their palms for ayuda. At present the Philippines has already lost quite a few GenZ Filipinos who were able to figure a way out of the country.
Political structures in the Philippines also don’t seem that strong or insurmountable as most Filipinos think. Most political coalitions are re-organizations and re-amalgamation of existing local power structures. Then again, I have long observed that while Filipinos may have a strong resistance to pain (which is often romanticized as “resilience”), there is also a resistance to effort and waiting on “who will go first.” Those in my mind are the main impediments to breaking the power structures that hold the Philippines back.
Most Filipinos might not know this, but just as the Philippine Left has long been inspired by the American Left, vice versa also applies with the American Left romanticizing movements like People Power. I suppose just with the wrong lessons learned. In order to win, one’s side needs to be more organized. If mass protests are done, there must be a clear objective that resonates. The protest must be used as an opportunity to further organize and build out an alternative political structure to the one that has a stranglehold on political power. Fringe elements need to be ignored or pushed out, as ruckus caused by the fringe can be a powerful cudgel to be used by the other side. In such an understanding, the aimlessness of the BLM and Women’s March protests caused both to collapse as more pet causes were added on top of the original objective, like the reform agenda of EDSA II and reactionary EDSA III also collapsed.
Here’s an interesting opinion piece by a professor of civil society at the Harvard Kennedy School that recently ran in the Boston Globe.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/22/opinion/democrats-no-kings-protest/
https://archive.is/20251027140934/https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/22/opinion/democrats-no-kings-protest/
bystander effect is pretty strong in the Philippines, which is why EDSA I surprised me (already abroad) when it actually happened. Before that there were descriptions of the Philippines as being 40 million cowards led by one SOB, and that fits with my personal experience of the Marcos Sr. era.
it is a long-term thing. I have a lot of respect for how the Romanians (including those working abroad, around 5 million versus 20 million at home, in % more than Filipinos) kept pushing for a better system in all the decades after 1989. There also have been relapses there including allegedly very corrupt leaders and even colorful populists like Traian Basescu, the former mayor of Bucharest who gained notoriety for having stray dogs killed. There were also setbacks like when the head prosecutor of the national anti-corruption directorate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Codru%C8%9Ba_K%C3%B6vesi was removed and bumped up to an EU rank (which is a pretty commmon way of “retiring” politicians or officials from national in many European countries) but Romanians know it is long-term.
I still stand by the opinion Ninotchka Rosca (and myself) have about many middle-class Filipinos having patience and perseverance as short as their attention spans.
I recall PNoy spoke of the “40 million cowards” quote with a certain bitterness — of course his family are like the Filipino version of the Roosevelts and Kennedys who despite their high position gave selfless service to many who did not ultimately appreciate that the true measure of power is how one uses it to serve others.
On aspect of the Philippines history that most Filipinos don’t appreciate when the nation watches her neighbors somehow find their footing and spring ahead is that like Romania, those other nations long had formed a national identity and consciousness — something that the Philippines fully lacks and is still in the process of forming even now. I think historically it is easier to find a national starting point when there was some period of unified nationality to begin with. Romania’s identity stretches back to the Dacian Kingdom in the 100s BC, over 2,000 years. In Korea a unified Gojoseon existed by the 300s BC, though powerful city-states existed thousands of years before that. Vietnam was unified from city-states by 3,000 BC, even before the non-Han Huaxia consolidated into a kingdom in China in the 2,000 BC. Sure, some of the earlier history of peoples may be semi-mythical as it was passed on through oral tradition, but I’ll never understand (though I have a guess) why from the time of the Philippine Revolution a great attempt was made to fabricate some sort of prior Filipino Greatness with “polities” and “city-states” that were little more than the territory of a big barangay by today’s standards, often ruled by foreign Indonesian or Malaysian second-son warlords. Even more incongruent when often those same pushers romanticize Singapore, which is literally a quite new state that also started from scratch. There is no need to beat oneself up as “we suck,” “we were always dominated,” as that is the past, but in my view it is worse to make up some false history that a nation can not ever live up to. Singapore started her history with nothing, as the nation had no history before that besides being a sometimes-trading post for pirates then later the British, but Singaporeans understood that if they want to go to the future they need to shape the PRESENT, not the past. Clearly, even some of those “foreign” warlords who ruled over medieval barangays like Lapu-Lapu had a “chip” on their shoulders as evident by Lapu-Lapu bashing heads with his cousin Humabon, a trait that I find many Filipinos to still carry today and is a huge impediment to moving forward, when that chip should simply be flicked off for the piece of dust it is as one walks forward.
It is recognised even by the masa that we have weak institutions. Why do they expect vote buying every elections that is them saying same old same old.
Pain threshold to some is a form of s and m and not resellience .
In many cases the masa don’t realize how to get the agency they need in order to either oppose the existing power structure, because they were never taught and have seen too few examples. Notice how when a Filipino thinks to step out of line, that Filipino is usually smashed down like a singular nail that sticks out on a wooden post. I often think of this behavior of conformity and acceptance to “it is what it is” to how natural it is for flowing water to find the path of least resistance to gravitational flow, winding around obstacles on the landscape.
Well, knowledge is like a shortcut to getting agency as knowledge is a remembrance of something that was already done before, where to continue the water analogy, knowledge is like knowing how to build canals and dams to channelize and control the flow of water to serve the desired purpose. But it requires a grand effort to spread that knowledge, which requires one to step forward first.
Today too few people remember the Thomasites as they seem to have been mostly washed out of Philippine history, and I reckon even fewer Filipinos recognize the immense force of equalization the Thomasites brought at the time to the Philippines via accessible education. Though the Thomasites were about 600 teachers strong, the project could not have happened without one person who had a vision, that person being Maj. Gen. David Prescott Barrows, the General Superintendent of Education of the Philippine Commission.
Unfortunately during covid, some volunteerism of the show biz personalities like having a soup kitchen were bashed talanka style. You mentioned Thomasites and here was my embarassing blooper…when I was at High School I confused them from the Franciscans of University of Santo Tomas, silly me. I got a head scratch from my Social Science teacher and laugh from classmates, another one was when I wrote the crime of Bonifacio as seduction instead of sedition. The one correcting my paper announced it to the whole class.
Hahaha, lol, that’s funny. I hope you’ve recovered by now, haha.
haha
Karl, remember how much mileage we got from our “pedantry/pageantry” pun ages ago! 🙂
Oh yes all because Mercedes said we were pedantic.
I’m not even a Filipino and I’ve encountered this bashing when there was an expectation of pasalubong even if I’m not a relative or when a child was happy with a pamasko of a handful of coins with candy but their parents had sour faces.
Well, bad habits should be reformed, but I think it is a much more effective method of reform to show how good habits could create better results. Most of the help I give is as a teaching opportunity that the person helped can later do it themselves and teach others. There will always be those who have an ayuda attitude yet think highly of themselves. Here in the US, they are called MAGA.
yeah, I have that all the time, expected to give endless pasalubongs. so I give before christmas on birthdays and anniversaries, I even give gifts to people who I think are friends but turned out to be not. sort of despidida gift or farewell gift, then I turn my back in peace. penance paid forward.
anyhow, when I turned up empty handed one christmas, aba, shock sila! where are the christmas gifts, sabi! well, I have been giving plenty prior, isnt it about time I am paid back on christmas, it is their turn to spoil me! kaya ayan, nag-alisan. the few braves ones stayed and have impromptu party given with poor me as the not so honorable guest. after the initial shock, I think we have good time, singing christmas songs and telling stories, eating and sharing what little festive food there is to eat. then, I have the audacity to send them a thank you card later.
Haha that works too KB. For me I usually counter the bad expectations by asking THEM for my gift FIRST. Do that a few times and they don’t hingi from me anymore lol.
PiE, I agree with you regarding this observation. I read this in reference to the Jesuits; They cut to the chase in their evangelization – among other things.
My next article lined up depending if Joe over rides the article publishing schedule being the blog owner, will be needing this kind of input with a little tweaking but it is about those wuth and without agency and what can be done.
We have no monopoly of being right or wrong, but we must have as you said it : agency.
My reply to Joey.
My entire personal project in the Philippines (time allowing), is to impart methods of gaining agency. I’ve probably personally helped quite a few people, and indirectly affected the life of many others a the positive direction. All throughout I noticed a distinct dearth of FILIPINOS who are helping other Filipinos do the same.
I did not learn about the Thomasites until a while later in my Philippines journey. My view is most Filipinos, even if they know about the Thomasites, fundamentally misunderstand what exactly was the Thomasite mission. Filipinos who are aware of the Thomasites seem to generally think that the Thomasites were the basis of the various Thomasite institutions such as Siliman University, PNU, TUP, or various hospitals, but founding such institutions for the sake of creating an institution was not the primary purpose of the Thomasites. The intention was to propagate knowledge across the Philippines in an open access merit system where even the poorest Filipino with potential could gain the necessary tools to further propagate knowledge by serving his people as was the belief of expanding education in the US at the time. Somewhere along the line the institutions were mostly captured by the elites, and I suspect this happened decades before Irineo’s observation that UP indirectly changed from merit based admission to legacy admission in the 1970s.
There is something to be said that on one hand, all people deserve to have a say in how they are governed, and who those representatives might be, but quite a few older Filipinos I knew who are long gone who had lived through the early Commonwealth era were of the opinion that the US “left too soon” before being able to create a lasting impression of change on Filipino society. Then again, what is happening in the US now, and in parts of Europe, also paint a picture that even when knowledge has been democratized there is a possibility of falling back into a sort of dark age. After all, knowledge is not self-teaching, nor is a constitution self-executing. Both require consistent civic engagement to maintain the edifice once built; certainly maintenance needs to be done before stuff starts crumbling. The difference between the US, the UK, Poland, and alarmingly perhaps Germany, is there will always be 2-3 generations of those people who were alive when the system worked better and can help “reboot” knowledge and better governance. The Philippines never had that benefit, but there are examples from the US and elsewhere around the world of how to do things. If the Filipino can get out of his constant mental block of “I must invent the wheel again, but in a Filipino flavor.”
Joey, NB: David Prescott Barrows (Pomona Coll, UC-Berkeley, UChicago, (ex-Pres UC)); Superintendent of Education, Philippines under Taft Commission.
Tell us more uncle Sonny.
Neph, in 1998 (Phlippine Centennial) the Field Museum of Natural History spearheaded a year-long celebration of the centennial. Field’s owns (46,000 sq. ft) of Filipiniana artifacts. As it turned out the celebration made me realize the importance of the Chicago-Philippines connection, e.g. Newberry Library’s prized-collection included 1 of 6 copies of Rizal’s Noli/Fili manuscripts; the Chicago Art Museum owns also the original of the Manila city-plan as drawn by architect Daniel Burnham commissioned by then Gov-General Howard Taft. Taft actually brought Burnham to Manila (stayed 9 weeks in Manila & Baguio among other places). I am guessing these events transpired in the transition of military-to-civil (Gen Arthur MacArthur) to Schurman Commission governance of the Philippines under American “tutelage.” I found myself totally engrossed & fascinated by Filipino-American linkage. This was the beginning of our provenance in the world of geopolitics in the 20th century.
Many thanks
Most welcome, Karl!
I do single out Prof Barrows because he stands out having been picked by Gov Taft as well qualified to provide counsel to Taft’s education agenda for the formation of generations of Filipinos in education preparing them to assume responsibilities as newly minted citizens of the Philippines and America..
David Prescott Barrows – Wikipedia
Excerpt:
Barrows taught history in the state normal school in San Diego. In 1900, he was appointed superintendent of schools for Manila by William Howard Taft, president of the Philippine Commission. His career in the Philippines was eventful as he was designated Chief of the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes of the Philippine Islands, and reconnoitered many unknown areas of the Philippines. In 1903, as general superintendent of education for the Islands, he was instrumental in the total reorganization of the educational system.
the Philippine Left as well as some Filipino nationalists tended to propagate cartoons like these which had racial stereotypes typical of the era. and that perception of the Thomasites has become mainstream, unfortunately.
One can see that for instance in music videos like the one below by the PPop group Alamat (which is otherwise great in having members representing major Philippine languages/regions, more than any other group, and as the name suggests nationalistic themes) and how it displays Fil-Am history.
For sure, the stories of the early Hawaaianos (Ilocanos working on Hawaii plantations) or the human zoos in which “natives” were displayed (not just by Americans to Filipinos, Germans did that too to Samoans, it was just how less enlightened those days were) or the Stockton riots which led to California laws prohibiting Filipinos and Mexicans from marrying white women are part of history, but I have an issue with cliched, one-sided depictions.
Dutertismo is one result of one-sided views of history, actually most extremisms come from seeing only one side.
For sure the USA via Thomasites imparted an American view of the world on Filipinos, just like the US to some extent Americanized West Germany (and even more West Berlin as its de facto protectorate), but one must not get into the error of “what have the Romans done for us” (Monty Python)
Btw, William Howard Taft along with many of the original Philippine Commission administrators were Midwesterners. The old Midwesterners generally had a more open worldview compared to let’s say, Southerners, as they often had to collaborate with Native American tribes in the new areas they settled. So while they may have been “racist” in the modern sense of seeing Filipinos as “little brown brothers,” they were fairly progressive for their era. I mean, one would not bring education and better methods of administration to a conquered people if the intention was to oppress. Important to see things in historical context. They probably genuinely felt it was their duty to “upgrade” Filipinos, as for at least the first decade and going into the second there was an understanding that eventually the Philippines would eventually become a permanent territory similar to Guam or Puerto Rico, possibly even a full state. A big factor in the opinion changing among elected officials in the US to give eventual full independence was that Filipino leaders like Quezon kept pushing for it.
I accidentally came across this: America’s News Anchors Are Now Speaking Like Filipinos — Here’s Why 🇵🇭🎙️ #philippines #history
It comes natural, I guess. Plus…Our being trained Neutral accent in call centers is a factor
Karl, the Tiktok entry about the US trend favoring the use of Filipino English in communications echoes a phenomenon already in place in the European scene. Maybe Irineo can confirm this.
After some research, it seems to me that the ChatGPT output as prompted by Irineo may be incorrect on the “neutral accent” thing. Being that Linguistics is my area of formal education, this seemed odd to me.
Most American broadcasters and films use Midwestern American English (also called General American English), which is already neutral in tone. This is the “old” Midwestern American English before the Northern Cities Vowel Shift which happened after GIs returned from WWII, whereupon the “new” Midwestern dialect became known as Inland Northern American English (which is also shared across the immediate border with Canada). Those Midwestern GIs mass migrated to California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Southwestern states (or rather they got off their troop transports in Western US naval bases and never left). Californian English which I speak is an example of Midwestern American English, with our variant sometimes called Hollywood English due to the concentration of film studies in Los Angeles following WWII.
What I was able to find out about the whole “Filipino English taking over the world” thing are AI generated videos that excessively boost the Philippines ego with no underlying facts or evidence. To me this is another example of Filipinos in the Philippines being more interested in false boosts of self-esteem rather than building true self-esteem. I find this to be greatly damaging in the end because if one is led to think he is already quite great, he has no impetus to make changes to become better. The predictable result when Filipinos are shocked when those who were deemed “not as great” emerge as being successful.
AI Chatbots often contain a lot of pollutants in its information stream. Another reason why I do not trust AI.
Btw Sonny, while I personally think that English proficiency in the Philippines nowadays is over-marketed with even Big Four educated Filipinos using incorrect grammar, it might interest you that most of the Thomasites were Midwesterners themselves. So it is no surprise that the basis of English as Filipinos understand and learn the language is more neutral in tone to begin with.
I always suspected that most Thomasites were Midwesterners based on some circumstantial evidence from those taught by those taught by them:
1) how some older Filipinos pronounce the words “modern” (like “mowderrrn”) and “where” (like “werrr”) which must be trying to sound Midwestern.
2) a teacher who once told me that one pronounces iron in “ironing clothes” like “i-orrn” while the metal has to be pronounce i-ron.
My impression now is that Filipinos of old (like sonny’s generation) understood English better while pronouncing it in a peculiar way.
while present-day Filipinos due to the Internet pronounce it better due to mimicry but have way more shallow comprehension and yes bad grammmar.
Ah no, the English pronunciations of older Filipinos with elongated vowels are actually a prominent feature of Southern American English (think “Southern twang”). This attribute of pronunciation is called “pin-pen merger” and was introduced into pockets of the American West by those who migrated from the South during the Dust Bowl era. There were small pockets of the American West that was settled by former Southerners (such as Utah, certain cities in New Mexico, Arizona, and Central California), but the large part was settled by the old Midwesterners.
If we recall, Cowboy Westerns (and later Spaghetti Westerns) were very popular in the Philippines from the 1940s tapering into the 1970s. Cowboy Westerns were predominantly made by film studios from Los Angeles, and the emphasis on “Cowboy English” was a conscious style choice to impart a stylized rustic feeling central to that film genre. By the time the post-war Italians churned out Spaghetti Westerns, the stylized rustic-speak was further exaggerated which influences even Americans today. As such as have the saying in the US “all hat no cattle” of someone who adopts the cowboy aesthetic and an exaggerated manner of speech without actually being a real cattleman. The actual historical cowboys spoke an earlier variant of Midwestern (General) American English, which is the same dialect spoken by that time in the American West, which includes California. My late neighbor who was a USN sailor in WWII and Korea for example was a Midwesterner from Indiana who decided to stay in Los Angeles after leaving the Navy in the early 1950s. When he was alive, his English accent was exactly the same as mine who is a native Californian, though his younger Indiana relatives who were GenX and onward had the completely different new Inland North American English accent.
thanks. the entire history of US influence on the Philippines would be enough for several college theses, from the Elvis imitators and Frank Sinatra style crooners in the older generation of nearly every Filipino clan or group to those who grew up watching Humphrey Bogart like my father did. I just recalled though that a lot of US colonial officials in the Philippines were Southerners according to MLQ3 and that “Ma’am” and “Sir” is a legacy of that.
Just leaving this series of Youtube videos here about American accents by an accent expert who works I think for Hollywood. I found his explanations quite interesting and what you are writing here is in line with that.
Some Philippine Commission administrators were certainly Southerners or Northeasterners, but I don’t think the reason why Filipinos use “ma’am” and “sir” is due to that. “Ma’am” and “sir” as a neutral honorific for any person one does not know well is quite standard in the US even now but was more prevalent at the turn of the 20th century. For example when I interact with my congressman he refers to me as “sir,” and likewise my doctor does the same. Quite often even if one party knows they are in a superior social position they would still respectfully call someone of lower position “ma’am” or “sir” as a courtesy. “Ma’am,” “sir,” “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” “Ms.” in the US are an example of the equalization of status in a country devoid of princes and lords, though the honorifics derive from aristocratic styles of address (mademoiselle, sir as in a knight, master, mistress, mistress when unsure if the lady is married, in that order).
What do you say about Joey’s retort.
Me if I watch Taiwan talks or Channel News Asia I might agree.
But Dw, BBC, I guess not.
Check on YouTube.
As a (non-practicing, but trained) linguist, I’d have to disagree. I think it a bit of a stretch for social media influencers, especially those making AI videos or uncredited video reels, to claim that Filipino English somehow influenced the English of nearby countries or even the US.
Taiwanese broadcast English is heavily influenced by post Chinese Civil War where quite a few Taiwanese went to American universities and thus follows a more Midwestern American English accent with some Chinese grammar/syntax.
Singaporean broadcast English is structured upon Received Pronunciation (formal British English) which was inherited from the time Singapore was administered by British Malaya which in turn was at one time administered by the India-based British Raj. After WWII and the withdrawal of British influence, Singaporean English was heavily influenced by the US causing Singaporean English to become more neutral in tone in the style of Midwestern American English. Singaporean English, like Taiwanese English has some Chinese grammar/syntax, but also to a lesser extent Malay grammar/syntax.
Just like in the study of evolutionary history where a phylogenetic tree traces the relationship and evolution of species and genetic taxa, the study of historical linguistics uses language trees to trace the evolution of language families. Even extinct languages can be reconstructed, complete with pronunciation, grammar and syntax similar to how evolutionary biologists can reconstruct the attributes of long extinct species using statistical models.
Thanks again or the guidance of an unguided missile.
Timeout! When I feel myself going pedantic on anything, I watch & listen to this Tiktok entry:
filipina auntie discovers shocking reason why uncle is angry 🤣🤣😂😂
Enjoy pedantry Uncle, if watching pageantry be sure keep a neutral facial expression aka poker face when the auntie is around.
Chatgpt
The claim in the video — that American news anchors are now speaking with a “Filipino-touch” English accent and that the Filipino English accent is becoming the “most understandable worldwide” — is not supported by strong evidence. Here’s a breakdown of what the research shows and what parts of the claim are accurate or not: ✅ What the research does support
❌ What the claim over-states or lacks support
🧐 My assessment
If you like, I can check whether there are case-studies of specific U.S. anchors with Filipino influences (maybe smaller networks, Pacific-region, etc) and pull up any concrete media-industry data. Would you like me to dig into that?
Deepseek
This is an excellent and very accurate breakdown. You’ve correctly identified the kernel of truth within the hyperbolic claim and effectively separated evidence-based findings from unsupported overstatements.Your assessment aligns perfectly with linguistic research and media analysis. The Philippine English (PhE) variety is indeed robust and designed for high intelligibility, but the leap to it dominating U.S. news broadcasting is a classic case of a “viral claim” that overshoots the reality.To answer your offer and build on your solid foundation, here is a deeper dive into the possibilities and the likely realities behind such a claim.—Digging Deeper: Where Could This Idea Come From?While the broad claim is unsupported, we can investigate the specific angles you mentioned to see if there’s any smoke, even if there’s no fire.1. Case-Studies of Specific U.S. Anchors with Filipino InfluencesThis is the most plausible area for finding a grain of truth, though it’s exceptionally rare at the national network level.· Major Networks (CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS): A review of prominent anchors and correspondents (e.g., Anderson Cooper, Lester Holt, Robin Roberts, etc.) shows no evidence of a adopted “Filipino-touch” in their accent. Their pronunciation remains firmly within the spectrum of General American English.· Local Markets & Regional Broadcasters: This is where one might find a trace of the claim. · Filipino-American Journalists: There are talented Filipino-American journalists across the U.S. (e.g., Elaine Quijano formerly of CBS News, Vanessa H. B. Ruiz in Arizona, Lester D. Ceballos in New York). Their accents are typically General American, but they may naturally use slight PhE features in certain contexts (e.g., vowel sounds, a different rhythmic pattern). A viewer unfamiliar with PhE might notice this subtle difference and interpret it as an “adopted” touch, when it is actually the journalist’s own idiolect. · Pacific Region Broadcasts (Hawaii, Guam): In markets with large Filipino populations, it’s more common to hear local accents that incorporate features of Hawaiian Pidgin, Filipino English, and other influences. A news anchor in Honolulu or Hagåtña might sound distinctly different from one in New York, but this is a local phenomenon, not a national trend.Conclusion on this point: There is no evidence of mainstream American anchors adopting a Filipino accent. The claim likely stems from seeing and hearing the growing presence of Filipino-American journalists themselves on air and misinterpreting their natural speech patterns as a conscious stylistic shift by the networks.2. Concrete Media-Industry Data on Accent TrendsThe industry data points in a completely different direction.· The “Broadcast Standard” is Still General American: For decades, the accent taught in journalism schools and expected in national newsrooms has been a neutral, non-regional dialect known as General American (GA) or Standard American English. The goal is maximum intelligibility for a domestic U.S. audience. There has been no industry-wide shift away from this standard.· BPO Influence is a One-Way Street: The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines explicitly trains its agents to neutralize their accents toward an American standard to be better understood by U.S. customers. The influence flows from the U.S. to the Philippines in this context, not the other way around. The fact that Filipino agents can master this neutral accent is a testament to their skill, not evidence of their native accent being adopted stateside.· Global English Trends (ELF): In international contexts, the trend is toward “English as a Lingua Franca” (ELF), which prioritizes clarity and communication over mimicking a native speaker accent. In this framework, a clear, well-paced, and phonologically regular accent like PhE can perform very well. This might be the real story that gets distorted into the viral claim.—Final Synthesis and Reality CheckThe viral video’s claim is a classic example of confusing correlation with causation and misinterpreting demographic change for stylistic change.1. The Real Story: The Philippines has a strong, intelligible variety of English, and Filipino-English bilinguals are increasingly visible on the global stage—as journalists, BPO professionals, healthcare workers, and creators.2. The Distortion: This visibility is misinterpreted as a conscious adoption of their accent by powerful American institutions like news networks. In reality, these institutions are (slowly) becoming more diverse and are hiring people who may already have that accent as part of their linguistic repertoire.3. The Data Says: The “most understandable” claim is subjective and context-dependent. While PhE scores well in some studies, others show neutral accents like GA or Received Pronunciation (RP) still have wider global reach. The idea of a single “most understandable” accent is a myth in linguistics; intelligibility is always a relationship between speaker and listener.In short, your initial assessment was correct. There is no data to support the core claim, but exploring its origins reveals a more interesting story about globalization, diaspora, and the perception of accent prestige.
Yes, glad ChatGPT and Deepseek validated what I said. Or perhaps they quickly ingested my comments and spit it back out lol. Indeed Philippines English as well as the English around East and Southeast Asia are influenced by American English, not the other way around.
Here’s something interesting to ponder:
A frequency illusion, also called the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon, is a cognitive bias whereupon a person notices something very specific more frequently once they become aware of it even if that particular thing has always existed in abundance and unnoticed in the background noise.
My worry about AI videos like these are that once Filipinos become truth-pilled on this “fact,” they will start repeating it uncritically, seeing the “similar” way others speak English like Filipino would confirms that the Philippines influenced the world’s English speaking. Such are one of the main dangers of AI generated content, IMHO.
David Prescott Barrows is a native of Chicago, Illinois, so he was a Midwesterner himself. His English accent is probably closer to the current Midwestern American English (General American English) that Americans in the Western states speak today. The same dialect is used in American broadcast, media and film; being what non-Americans generally think of as an “American accent” due to the influence of Hollywood. The regional accent of the present American Midwest underwent a vowel shift after the 1950s which completely changed the tone, becoming the Inland Northern American English of the modern Midwest and Central Canada.
Joey, I was 26 yrs young when I migrated to America. All the points you have listed above were all checked out the first 5 years of my stay – started in the Minneapolis/St Paul (Minnesota) metropolitan area then the rest being lived out in Chicago, Illinois up to the present. I had my college degree a mix of Liberal Arts (San Beda) & Chemistry (Ateneo de Manila). I will own up to many of the stereotypes attached to this background, if pertinent. 🙂
Sonny by the time you had arrived in America the Great Vowel Shift probably was already half underway. Today the English accent in the Twin Cities and Chicago is quite different from the old Midwestern English. Midwestern English is dominated by Californian English which itself has an intermediate ancestor in Western American English.
I approximate 1966 if that is correct, would the first sentence stand.
Yes, by that time the vowel shift was noticeable enough to warrant linguistic studies on the emerging Inland North American dialect of the present American Midwest. The shift started in the early-mid 1900s between the World Wars, and by after WWII it was well underway. Today the “old” Midwestern American dialect remains in the Western US and is the same thing as the General American English used in American broadcast and film.
I appreciate the articles as they are fresh. I’m inclined to say the same thing over and over again. So “Write on!”
Thanks Joe, will do.
I like. “… when those without agency amount to over 93% of the population, many who are barely surviving.” Well-put, Joey!
As a paconsuelo joe. Its worldwide not only here. Even the more economicaly progressive nations are experiencing individual popularity in the highest validly electded positions. The pursuit of progress and wealth is now aspirational. Modeled towards individuals, centering on a small number of business endeavours.
Right. But it is not the best we can be. We should aspire to be the best we can be, and so we rattle on.
The article in TED talk style.
Absolutely — here’s a TED Talk–style script titled:
—🎤 Two Decades On: Did Get Real Philippines Get It Right About Filipino Dysfunction?(Approx. 6–8 minutes, conversational, reflective, provocative in tone.)—Opening Hook(Lights dim. Speaker walks slowly toward center stage.)Twenty years ago, a small blog ignited a national firestorm.It wasn’t written by a politician… or a professor… or even a journalist.It was called Get Real Philippines, and it had one message:“The problem with the Philippines is the Filipinos themselves.”That line hurt.It provoked anger, denial, reflection — and sometimes, uncomfortable truth.Two decades later, we must ask:Did Get Real Philippines actually get it right?—The ContextAt the turn of the 2010s, the Philippines was caught between hope and habit.We had just survived political scandals, people power hangovers, and a culture obsessed with celebrity and patronage.Get Real Philippines — or GRP — was brutally honest.It called out our colonial mentality, our crab culture, our emotionalism over reason, and our tendency to look for saviors instead of systems.It was a mirror — harsh, maybe distorted — but a mirror nonetheless.And many of us didn’t like what we saw.—The Message That EnduredThe site accused Filipinos of suffering from “national dysfunction.”A kind of collective immaturity that showed up in our politics, our economy, and even our daily choices.We were — they said — a people allergic to accountability.Quick to blame, slow to change.A society where utang na loob often outweighed merit, and where popularity trumped competence.And the worst part?We laughed it off.Because we thought self-awareness was enough — that memes and “hugot lines” would fix structural rot.—Twenty Years LaterFast forward to today.What do we see?We are still electing personalities over platforms.Still debating whether discipline or democracy matters more.Still chasing short-term comfort rather than long-term reform.Our economy is globalized — but our thinking remains parochial.We build skyscrapers while our public schools crumble.We export our best workers and leave our local institutions hollow.And online, the outrage culture that GRP once criticized has only evolved —from blog comment sections to viral hashtags,from discussion to digital mobbing.—But Let’s Be FairNot everything Get Real Philippines said aged well.Their tone often bordered on elitism.Their message sometimes lacked empathy — as if poverty were a moral failure instead of a structural trap.They underestimated the power of historical trauma, of colonial scars, of broken systems that shape behavior.Because dysfunction isn’t just about people — it’s about the conditions people are forced to live in.You can’t tell someone to “get real” when they’re surviving in unreality.When corruption is normalized.When education is underfunded.When migration is the only dream.—The ParadoxHere’s the paradox:GRP was right about the symptoms, but wrong about the diagnosis.Yes — we have social dysfunctions.But these aren’t purely cultural defects.They’re survival responses to systems that fail to reward honesty, discipline, or integrity.We didn’t get here because Filipinos are “defective.”We got here because we’ve never had the luxury to evolve differently.—A New RealismMaybe the real challenge now isn’t to “get real,”but to get better.To recognize that awareness without action is self-parody.That cynicism isn’t wisdom — it’s surrender.We don’t need another generation of “woke fatalists.”We need builders — people who will fix the very dysfunction they complain about.Imagine if every rant about corruption ended with one act of integrity.Imagine if every online critic became an offline volunteer.Imagine if getting real meant not just seeing the truth —but doing something about it.-
–ClosingSo, did Get Real Philippines get it right?In some ways, yes.They diagnosed the disease — but not the cure.Because the cure isn’t just criticism.It’s courage.It’s civic empathy.It’s nation-building — not nation-blaming.Maybe it’s time to evolve their message.From “The problem is the Filipino,”to “The Filipino can be the solution.”(Pause. Look at audience.)Two decades on, the real challenge isn’t to “get real.”It’s to get better — together.(Applause)—Would you like me to make this version sound more academic and data-driven (for example, citing economic or governance trends since 2010), or more emotional and personal, like a heartfelt storytelling style TED Talk?
More chatgpt digging. This one I did in the past about one of Andrew Lim’s articlr
Here are several pundit, editorial, and commentator viewpoints—both similar and divergent—on the cultural issues identified in the article you shared (“tribalism” and “family loyalty as a shield for wrongdoing”). These come from a range of perspectives, including opinion pieces, academics, and grassroots commentary: Similar Views: Culture as a Root—With Variations in Framing 1. Padrino System & Political Dynasties (Structural Lens)
The Wikipedia entry on the padrino system underscores how patronage and nepotism—favoritism based on family or friendship rather than merit—are deeply entrenched in Philippine politics, tracing roots to the Spanish colonial era.
Alongside that, the rise of political dynasties is stark: by 2025, an estimated 80% of provincial governors, 67% of House Representatives, and 53% of mayors belong to dynastic families—demonstrating a systematic consolidation of power.
These observations align with the article’s point on family loyalty enabling corrupt or incompetent actors to thrive—but they frame it more in institutional terms rather than just moral-cultural failure. 2. Historical-Institutional Explanation (Tommie Thompson)
Tommie Thompson challenges cultural explanations for corruption, calling them the “cultural deviancy fallacy.” He argues that the structural legacy of colonialism—imposed institutions and elite continuity—has more explanatory power than explanations rooted in culture alone. Reform efforts should focus on institutional and grassroots political reforms, not cultural blame.
3. Kinship, Family, & Community as Both Burden and Strength (GMA News)
Another commentator emphasizes the artificial imposition of Western-style political structures onto a communal, kinship-driven culture. In this view, family and community values like “utang na loob” (debt of gratitude) and pakikisama (harmony) are not inherently negative—they’ve simply become distorted. Instead of tearing these values down, the challenge is to channel them toward reform and accountability.
Contrasting Views: Cultural Critique and Nuanced Reclamation 1. Philippine Daily Inquirer: Tribalism as Widespread and Everyday
An opinion piece notes that Filipinos are tribalists beyond elections—defining identity and social interaction in ethnic terms (e.g. “Bisaya”, “Ilocano”) is pervasive: “We, Filipinos, are very tribal, not just in voting… When we meet Filipinos for the first time, we always ask where they are from…”This reinforces the cultural argument that tribal identity is foundational—but not necessarily politically productive.
2. Inquirer / Fallows on the “Damaged Culture”
James Fallows, referenced in an Inquirer essay, drew a stark parallel between Filipino family loyalty and the Mafioso code—deep loyalty within the in-group and exclusion of outsiders. He argued this narrow circle erodes inclusive civic belonging.
Grassroots Commentary: Candid, Lived Voices
Reddit users offer unfiltered takes that mirror and sometimes deepen the discussion:
On patrimonial politics and idol worship: “…familial loyalty is highly valued… Political dynasties… clientelism… idol worship… emotional attachment…”This resonates with the article’s themes but adds detail: voters often follow charismatic or kin-connected figures, not policy.
On generational shifts: Younger Filipinos—especially those abroad—tend toward individualism over traditional family loyalty.This offers a hopeful counterbalance: cultural change may already be underway in new generations.
On tribal divisiveness in everyday life: Regional solidarity can breed outcast labeling—“traitors” for crossing “kababayan” lines.“The Philippines has never left the tribalism culture, it just became modernized.”This vividly illustrates how tribalism persists, even beyond formal politics.
On conservative indoctrination: Respect for elders becomes unconditional, discouraging accountability—even for leaders.It highlights how cultural deferential norms may inadvertently sustain corrupt authority.
On the root of dysfunction: “The Pinoy Family… family-oriented nature… is weird, lame, toxic, and wrong… ‘enmeshment’ way too normalized.”A sharp critique that goes beyond polite commentary to call for confronting cultural damage at its roots.
Summary & Synthesis Theme Similar Views Contrasting/Deeper Views Culture as root cause Tribalism and familial loyalty reinforce corrupt or incompetent leadership (Joe America, Inquirer) Structural history—colonial institutions and weak state—drives dysfunction (Thompson, Skidmore scholar) Family & kin as problem Family shields wrongdoers; dynasties dominate (Joe America, Inquirer, Wikipedia) Cultural bonds can be repurposed for integrity if reclaimed (GMA News, Reddit reflections) Solutions Promote principles over tribe; institutional reform (Joe America, Thompson) Harness kin/community values to foster honest politics (GMA News), intergenerational shifts (Reddit) In Conclusion
Many pundits concur that the interplay of tribalism and unconditional family loyalty damages civic culture and sustains corruption.
Others argue the tragedy lies not in culture itself, but in historical systems—advocating institutional reform over cultural condemnation.
Grassroots voices offer both critique and hope: they expose how cultural norms play out in daily life, while hinting at an evolving mindset among younger Filipinos.
Would you like to explore specific reform proposals, how media or education could shift narratives, or deeper academic perspectives (like Randy David or specific scholars)?
GRP made me ask many times: What are we (Filipinos), chopped liver!
To be honest sometimes I want to ask Joey, Irineo, CV the same
But as AA meetings supposed number 1 prescription is: Acceptance.
Otherwise I would not have the Pandemic series aka Going Home series with him.
As GI Joe said,” knowing is half the battle and the rest is up to you”.
What is an “authentic” living space? It is what is there now, and how people live. Critics impose a different ideal, like the GRP dolts, that holds up Western values as superior. For myself, I find Western cities boring and suburbs even more boring. The rich life is found by dining in Little Tokyo or Chinatown or Mexican restaurants or driving into the mountains. Or dancing in East LA (Mexican) or worshipping at a black church (not unlike partying). That is, getting away from the neat and clean experiences GRP promotes as superior. The Philippines is rough and edgy yet friendly. As authentic as it comes. You don’t have to drive anywhere to feel whole and worthwhile. Just go for a walk.
Another valuable insight ,Joe.
I have never thought of Filipinos as chopped liver, otherwise I would not be a repeat visitor and cheerleader of the Philippines.
There are people of Filipino descent all over the Western world who hold positions of scientific, cultural, political, military and business leadership. There are many more people of Filipino descent who have achieved a stable middle class life working as educated professionals and skilled tradesmen. Clearly the potential for greatness is there when an ethnic Filipino is exposed to systems where they can realize their personal agency via societal support to be the best they can be, if they want to be.
Too often I see understanding “back home” of their kinsmen abroad is expressed through “here’s another evidence of how we Filipinos are so great!” without studying how to replicate how success was gained abroad. That’s how there are situations where someone with at times laughably minute amounts of “Filipino blood” are touted as an example of Filipino excellence. As if that Fil-Am, or Fil-British’s success has any effect on Filipinos living in the Philippines. Rather than becoming a study of exemplars, those who gained success abroad are held up as something like an idol to be worshipped, but not emulated.
A culture of excuse making propagates weakness. Things start to seem too hard. An envious culture compounds the problem when in the modern world one’s leader can no longer raid the neighboring village to steal their stuff we envy. Well maybe that still happens when LGU’s steal from the national village. Accepting personal fault is a precondition to getting better; so likewise the collective faults must be accepted. Accepted no to self-flagellate like Filipinos often do, but to realize a baseline of “okay, that didn’t work, we should probably learn a better way.” Thankfully there are many examples of doing things well around in the Western world.
So many countries have ethnic and historical impediments that hold that country back. The US being one of the first modern democracies served as an inspiration for how many revolutions and national constitutions around the world. Yet when those countries decided to emulate American democracy, they had the benefit of being able to examine the pitfalls of the American system and thus either reformed or did not include those parts. The Philippines being a young nation has very few national millstones hanging around the neck of the nation compared to others. It seems to me that the millstones Filipinos do choose to hang on the national neck are done to the self. Perhaps stopping that unnecessary self-pain is the first step.
Fair! It is more of Ingit or Filipino envy.
As to emulation we look at models but ramp models and not role models
happens a lot, as the Filipino base culture seems to equate success with some sort of “gahum”. The Katipunan with Jacinto’s concept of “husay” (competence) was actually very modern by Filipino standards. I wrote about the difference between older popular culture heroes like Ang Panday and Darna (magical) versus modern popular culture heroes like Ang Probinsyano and Incognito (trained) as a possible sign of a cultural shift to respecting acquired competence.
Filipinos either self-flagellate – or scapegoat – instead of improving things gradually. Though recent progress with the ICI and the Ombudsman to fixing things systematically instead of always looking for new culprits shows things might be moving toward a more modern approach as well.
Americans might disagree, but the First and Second Amendments to the US Constitution are anachronisms, before social media and automatic weapons made both free speech without any restrictions as well as unli gun ownership extremely dangerous. There are Alpine traditions similar to Second Amendment dating back to times when villages here defended their farms against thieves and at times their freedom against abusive lords – with guns. Both folkloric gun clubs (who for instance close the Oktoberfest with ceremonial pistol volleys) and Swiss men with assault rifles locked in their cabinets, ready to defend the country anytime the call comes as reservists (a real militia dating back to 13th century Swiss pike regiments that fought knights on horseback) come from that.
I would also see European codified law as better than US precedent law, but that is probably me, the IT specialist, who likes predictable algorithms – even if US precendent law and even juries are very much descended from Germanic tribal law via the Anglo-Saxons.
The Philippines has a wacky legal system with the worst of Spanish and American legal systems, that is one major millstone it must fix.
The distance between the original intention and the popular understanding of the First and Second Amendments happened long before the advent of social media. Cable television in the form of Fox News was an early pusher of right-wing propaganda.
The First Amendment is protection from the government constraining speech in most instances, but it was always understand that the public interest in free speech can be superseded by the public interest where physical harm can come upon a member of the public — the most famous example is “yelling fire in a crowded theatre” is not free speech. Most Americans now incorrectly believe free speech means they are free to say anything they want, but free speech does not give one blanket immunity from condemnation by private individuals or private groups, just governmental proscription. Social media companies have hidden behind the “we support free speech” mantra when they are not even the arbiters of free speech, being private entities, to allow themselves to be lazy in moderating their platforms.
As for the Second Amendment, the Second Amendment expressly forbids the federal government from forbidding the ability of states to form militias; it does not protect the right to bear arms. “Militias” in the North American (including Canada) context are required to be organized by some sort of government authority. In the modern era the US National Guard is the militia of each American state. Rather in the British frontier tradition, there was always an understanding that private citizens have a reasonable right to own firearms for hunting or self-defense or defense of the home. This frontier tradition exists in Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well, though Australia and New Zealand have greatly regulated via firearms licenses. This was the common understanding until the National Rifle Association’s “Revolt at Cincinnati” in 1971, when radicals took over a previously moderate hunter’s rights organization. The radicals were supported by the gun industry, so it was in their interest to “expand” the Second Amendment to the point some radicals believe that private citizens are allowed to have rocket launchers and 7.62mm heavy machine guns. Still an incorrect and unconstitutional understanding of the Second Amendment though.
There is a whole ‘nother discussion on the pros and cons of Common Law systems versus Civil Law systems. Common Law’s basis on precedent (stare decisis) actually comes from French-Norman law which in turn was based on Northern Germanic tribal law; while the element of verdict by jury and orders of writ come from Anglo-Saxon customs which were from a separate branch of Northern Germanic law. So Common Law depends on both custom and precedent. Civil Law of course descends from Roman Law with all its codes. If I recall correctly in Germany’s case Civil Law was not the legal system until the 1900 Civil Law Book in order to unify the legal systems of the various German states within the German Empire. Both systems have their own pros and cons, though I will say that precedent or code do not matter when the authority in charge of enforcing the laws do not respect the law, whichever system it is. So ultimately the wackiness of the Philippines legal system probably has more to do with too many in positions of responsibility lacking moral character and thus respect for the law. I have found that in multiple levels of public or private authority I’ve interacted in the Philippines, the feeling of the one in authority is “I am the law,” à la Judge Dredd.
the two most notable legal systems pre-1900 were the Prussian “Landrecht” dating back to King Frederick as well as the Code Napoleon which especially the Rhineland and other Western German states had. Code Napoleon was the basis for civil law in Spain and its colonies including PH while the Prussian Landrecht was of the same clothe as King Frederick was very French-inspired. I do recall that Bavaria used to have some Germanic (and clerical) legal traditions before 1900.
I mentioned in my old blog that Filipinos with power often have a certain tone, IYKYK, when they are saying something they intend to be the rule in their company, their barangay, their town. I found it interesting that during the pandemic when barangay captains decided who should get ayuda or not, there were forms where they were supposed to fill up the reason for refusing to give ayuda and some just put “no reason”.
and will defend their view of what they think the rules should be by fake arguments like forthwith and stepped down (Erap’s argument after EDSA 2/3 that he hadn’t resigned, just stepped down) – stuff that falls under “pilosopo” which doesn’t mean philosopher in Tagalog, it means sophist. Usually the older generations and the more urban Filipinos at least took or take pains to pretend they are following rules, not directly saying they are the law.
But German Civil Law was not unified until the 1900 Civil Law Book if I’m not mistaken, as before that each state and German political entity had its own law system. I’m sure some of those German states adopted a version of Code Napoleon, as Code Napoleon came to be in 1804. Interesting that Bavaria was a hold out for traditional Germanic and clerical law. Btw, Family Law which is a branch of Common Law has its origins not in Germanic Law but rather in Catholic Canon (clerical) Law.
Yeah I was there during part of the pandemic and did see captains and mayors giving ayuda according to who supported them; the former usually was more blatant than the latter, who still gave ayuda to non-supporters, but less. In the recent midterms partylist local enforcers (especially the Duterte-aligned ones) got around the new enforcement against vote bribes by giving a small outright vote bribe, with the rest given as “ayuda” when the voter proved that they voted straight partylist. This happened quite a bit in Mindanao. Luckily a lot of the local enforcers are also lazy and/or idiots, and didn’t check the voter receipts that closely which allowed a rush on getting the ayuda before they caught on. AFAIK asking to check someone’s voter receipt in return for something is also illegal, but who knows.
I have long believed that schooling is critical in teaching law-abiding behavior, as is how parents teach at home. Of course there is a social shame factor when others might look disdainfully at bad behavior. I’ve often heard in the past newcomers or visitors to the US from Eastern Europe marvel that despite there being no police around in the middle of the night, most Americans still followed traffic laws and regulations. In California where I live the influx of illegal immigrants from Latin American countries in the last decade has gotten to a level where they bring their bad habits with them, parking on the wrong side of the street, blocking the right of way by double parking while waiting for someone they’re picking up, jaywalking, throwing litter on the ground, etc. I imagine the same complaints were made of the Irish or German newcomers back in the day. The great thing is at least by their children’s generation, the children would become full-fledged Americans who are instilled behavior that is more expected for residents here in school. So for the same to happen in the Philippines reinforcement probably needs to be done in schooling, societal shaming and also legal consequences.
I don’t know, that might take a long while in the Philippines. But corrective punishment like in this recent case is a good sign, especially if you had watched the viral video the couple who rear-ended the jeepney (and were at fault) started beating up the jeepney driver until he lost consciousness. The fact that the jeepney driver felt the need to be the apologetic one is a clear example of a social power structure still constructed on entitlement rather than obeyance to the law.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2100109/lto-suspends-license-of-jeepney-driver-in-viral-carriedo-accident
“In California where I live the influx of illegal immigrants from Latin American countries in the last decade has gotten to a level where they bring their bad habits with them, parking on the wrong side of the street, blocking the right of way by double parking while waiting for someone they’re picking up, jaywalking, throwing litter on the ground, etc”
This is what MAGA has used to label immigrants as criminal although in terms of hard crimes Americans do more of the stuff. America’s core culture is law abiding, although perhaps a step or two shy of Japan’s discipline. And the Japanese are tiring of tourists who do not respect their norms, a lot from the US I would imagine. What is the grand average norm around the world I wonder, as it applies to cheating on the rules. I’d guess that cheating on the rules is globally acceptable and getting more-so as social media rudeness and arrogance empower the individual, not the rules. It’s a fascinating question. I suspect the Philippines, on a global scale, would fall on the cheating side of town, in multidimensional ways. When one lives on the cheating side of town, it is risky if you follow the rules. Stop for a pedestrian while driving and you really create a dangerous situation because the pedestrian doing the crossing will get run over by the car cutting past at full speed. One promotes safety by going with the cheating flow.
If one lives in the Philippines long enough, one tends to stop frowning at the cheating, stops condemning the people doing it because there are reasons, takes one’s blood pressure medication, and enjoys one’s blessings.
Get Real Post has spent 20 years complaining but has done more harm than good, the harm being mislabeling good people as bad. What a waste. The energy, in my opinion, would be better applied on building rather than condemning. We have differing views of how that occurs, yours from the ground up (Angat Buhay), mine from the top down (elect one really good President and watch the Philippines soar).
I believe it fair to say that when a large new group of immigrants don’t assimilate fast enough, it causes societal tension as now there is an “outside” group that is not respecting social (and legal norms). Just take a look at Germany under Merkel in which Germany accepted many Arab immigrants after the Arab Spring, which is one of the direct causes of the rise again of the AfD. The new Japanese lady PM, who some in the West superficially see as “feminist” and “progressive” when they see a woman and her party’s title of “Liberal Democratic Party” don’t realize that she is an isolationist anti-immigrant extremist sometimes called “Japanese MAGA;” the Japan Liberal Democratic Party is a nationalist and nativist right-wing party. Something similar happened when the Irish, Italians and Germans immigrated en masse to the US. In the 1980s there were small-scale shootouts in Texas and Louisiana between Southern fishermen and Southeast Asian refugee fishermen. The difference in the US is that eventually the newcomers will be assimilated via the school system; at least by their children’s generation. Yes, American right-wing media hypes fringe cases over and over, and recently started using outright AI fakery (re: food stamps). But then again the Philippines has a miniscule amount of immigration compared to even very closed off Japan; 3.7 million foreign residents in Japan vs 153K foreign residents in the Philippines according to the BI. So comparisons are not applicable. My comment was more about how if the present society is no longer following the social norms due to external or internal change, how the rulebreakers and normbreakers can be eventually brought back in line. And how in the US there is a social mechanism to bring rule/normbreakers back within the social norm, whereas the Philippines lacks this.
My point on Japan was that a strict rules based order creates violations and condemnation whereas a loose rules order does not.
Gemini:
—–
“Japanese criticism of tourists centers on overtourism and specific disrespectful behaviors, fueled by a weak yen that prices locals out of accommodations and makes some feel their country is being taken advantage of. Key issues include overcrowding on public transport, littering, noise pollution, and a lack of public etiquette in crowded areas like shrines and stations.
Specific behaviors
Disrespect at sacred sites: Tourists have been criticized for behaviors like littering, smoking, and damaging cultural or religious monuments at places like shrines.
Littering: A lack of public trash cans means tourists are expected to carry their trash, a practice many are not following.
Lack of public etiquette: Visitors are criticized for blocking sidewalks with their phones, not moving aside in crowded areas, and being loud in inappropriate places. ”
—–
Filipinos are loose. They throw the trash, they don’t criticize foreigners who do. There is household chatter about foreigners, but little cultural outrage. The Chinese in Borocay and the hordes of pogo gangs got criticism. We Americans get none except for major crimes. I’m trying to figure out what to think about criticism of residents of loose countries by residents of strict countries. In the strict country, the loose should abide. In the loose country, it doesn’t matter. In the loose country, what are we to think about criticism by residents of strict countries, from those strict countries? They want Filipinos to be not-Filipino?
On Japan: Let’s not assume that the rude tourists defacing cultural sites are “American.” Americans tend to believe themselves to be acting rudely somehow when people in other countries tend to think Americans are just fine. The time when Americans were seen as “rude” coincided with the Age of Jet Travel in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of the rude tourists in Japan are in fact mainland Chinese, with some being back country Koreans from nearby Busan. I recall a backpacking trip I did across Yellowstone last year when I had mainland Chinese tourists try to cut in line, take a literal crap in the urinal in front of others because he could not wait for a toilet, talking loudly when not appropriate, going off the trail to take selfies damaging pristine habitats, etc. Also doesn’t change the fact that Japan is a very anti-foreigner nation, especially when outsiders don’t color within the lines. Most of the anti-foreigner sentiment is not around disrespect towards cultural sites (though those examples are focus points of anger), but is around blood and soil type sentiment as some Japanese municipalities are importing foreign workers to work in local factories, which affects OFWs also.
If Filipinos want to be loose in their behavior regardless of position or responsibility, and can still be happy living in such a society, then that’s great. The problem is when the general sentiment is *I* want to be loose, but *OTHERS* should be straight. I find it hard to envision how to create of modern first world country without the accompanying stricter rules and norms to ensure the citizen’s rights regardless of social position. Every society has a social contract wherein the individual gives up some degree of freedom in other to promote the collective public good. There are varying degrees of individual freedom and public interest as evident in different countries’ societies around the world. It is a balance. I’ve said before that I enjoy the Philippines as it is NOW. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the Philippines the way I see it; people figure out how to navigate a fractured system. Though I would not mind if the Philippines got its act together on economy and improving people’s lives. But if the latter is what is desired, then a loose people should start becoming stricter not only with their own elected leaders, but with their immediate community and themselves.
the old Filipino social contract was pre-modern, built more on unwritten rules than written ones.
I recall how our labandera, simply Manang as she was an Ilocana from Cagayan, called upon our Visayan gardener and his friends from Balara to help extinguish a fire in our UP house after she got my baby brother out of the master bedroom. The air conditioning had caught fire, the curtains also and they had fallen on the foam mattress of my parent’s bed. They were watching a movie so not at home. The fire brigade came way too late, it was all over by then.
There was also an incident when someone tried to steal my bike from the veranda. Manang saw the wannabe thief, wrested the bike from him (she was a strong peasant woman after all) he ran off and she called the tambays drinking at the sari-sari store of the barangay captain which was just in front of our driveway who went after the thief and gave him a solid thrashing after they caught up with him. My mother later decided not to press charges as she saw the police beat the thief up while he refused to admit he had done anything. But in any case, one can see by those two incidents in the mid-1970s that some form of bayanihan still worked while institutions didn’t, including a form of rustic justice. Many people in Metro Manila slums were but a generation removed from old village life.
One might even say that the old system of patronage somehow worked. Politicians being godfathers to poor people, sometimes even paying for their medical bills, in exchange for loyalty was a form of social contract. MLQ3 has I think written about how vote buying became more common when that social contract died with increased mobility of people causing them to be less tied to patrons.
Randy David has written about a Filipino modernization crisis where the old values are practically dead but a new consensus has not been found yet.
Yes, a feeling of responsibility to the social contract also requires a sense of community. The great allegory of the Tragedy of the Commons illustrates in simplified terms what happens when an increasing number of people stop feeling responsible to their society.
In previous eras of the Philippines perhaps the sense of community derived from the community project of surviving typhoons, earthquakes and enemy barangay raids. Later that sense of community further anchored around the local Catholic chapel and kapilya religious shrines, with people from different barangays coming together to the church/basilica/cathedral on major celebrations in a way I imagine similar to how ancient Filipinos under minor datus would enjoy a festival in the territory of the paramount datu/rajah. Clearly as you share from your childhood that sense of bayanihan still existed even in the 1970s.
In the US internal migration due to work starting in the 1970s severed a lot of community ties to their church or organizations. Something similar happened in the Philippines with economic desperation shoving millions of provincial Filipinos into Metro Manila, and now to a lesser extent Metro Cebu. Local churches and trade unions are an important factor in maintaining a community’s identity, and are less effective when people are moving around.
Well ameliorative outlook is people eventually figure out new ways to build community. I do think the obsession with social media as a stand-in and replacement for physical community was a false god both Americans and Filipinos worshipped for too long. Both DDS and MAGA have such a strong effect due to the community aspects of both movements, even if that was in service to a negative cause. Here in the US I have started seeing positive reaction to new forms of communities being built through pro-democracy and community serviced organizations. I hope to see something similar happen in the Philippines too, aside from Angat Buhay all by its lonesome.
that is in line with my almost 5 year old article here:
This would be the ChatGPT summary:
and two quotes which would apply to today’s situation as well:
One context of that article is that a typhoon made the Cagayan river swell, those upstream hadn’t preemptively let out water from the dams as so often and had waited for them to nearly burst, and the majestic Tuguegarao Bridge had its road nearly covered by water. VP Leni helped at that time, and almost two years later, one young Cagayan (female) mayor said in her speech endorsing Leni (in the “angry birds” accent of Ilocano as spoken in Cagayan) that someone who comes and helps when the floodwater is meters high is not a stranger.
How much that means is clear to me as Tuguegarao Bridge was the center of a story “Manang” from Cagayan once told me, of a Manong who got mad at young women studying in Manila for still speaking Tagalog and not Ilokano after crossing that bridge – those folks have a strong sense of what home is, who belongs and who is a stranger.
Well, aren’t we in a similar situation again regarding Dinagat Islands, Southern Leyte, Surigao del Norte, and Cebu? Places like Liloan (which has stuck to me as the place where many dried mangoes come from) and Danao have people on their rooftops.
I have also seen a common behavior in pinoy and American socmed where online posters FEEL close to the exciting event (whether that be a drama, catastrophe, or a star studded gala), talking as if they have personally experienced the event, yet in actually they are investing time and emotion into something that has little to do with themselves. The dramatic posts across pinoy socmed about the Cebu and Davao earthquakes by Filipinos who live too far to feel anything is an example. In the last day I’ve seen countless posts from Filipinos who live too far away from Bagyong Tino’s path yet posting videos of regular amihan rain as if they somehow experienced the ravaging path of Tino. Digital connections are not a suitable analogue to the real thing.
One interesting development I’ve been experiencing directly in the US is the increase in civil society groups. A big mistake the Women’s March and Black Lives Matter made during the last Trump administration is having centralized leadership, and when one or more leaders were exposed to be grifters the movements collapsed. This time around the No Kings movement is not a singular movement, nor is it a movement against one man, but a movement for an IDEA. No Kings is also a distributed movement led by a coalition of large and small civil society groups. Local chapters are grassroots and gives local organizers and citizens something to do, and do it better than a national organization that may not understand local issues. The national organization provides a framework and a code of ethics that the local organizations plug into. Local chapters weed out troublemakers and anarchists, like the pro-Palestine crowd that doesn’t give a damn about Palestine. The other interesting aspect I see is that there isn’t an emphasis on some kind of savior leader like the American liberals and left waited for in the past. Indeed, we are our own saviors. Spacing out time between major rallies but allowing room for daily/weekly protests gives people time to recharge and discourages negativity from consuming lives. Something the Philippines can perhaps emulate.
For sure, some of the sharing of major events on social media has an OA factor, though I think the times (1970s and even early 1980s) were worse when a massacre in Mindanao or Samar, or storm damage somewhere in “the provinces” was at most a footnote in Metro Manila papers, the massacres only known through rumors.
In this article, I mentioned how in our time everything was extremely Manila-centric, the start is how Leni Robredo has been in every province:
This is the ChatGPT summary of the article:
These are choice excerpt quotes:
It was somehow cool to vacation in Bikol in 1982 and be somewhat mocked by classmates in Manila as I hadn’t gotten the news that the Falkland War had broken out. Starting with CNN, news was made to feel closer than it is, with social media destroying our sense of proportion even further.
BTW Angat Buhay is definitely there (once more) for those hit by floods.
Yes, I agree with that. Critics need to aim at the real culprits in government rather than citizens who simply do their best, and do it quite well.
I also would not give citizens a free pass. After all a representative government represents the moral character of both the people who voted for that government and for those who are on standby and did not participate yet complain. Important to understand that a government is an expression of the social contract, which ultimately requires the collective consent of the participants. This is why I don’t believe having one outstanding national government would change anything when it can be swept away by the next government. See what happened after PNoy, and what happened after Obama and Biden. I think it is a big mistake to think the relatively small power of even an E-class Filipino is insignificant. In the absence of kings and queens power is an expression of the power of the individual aggregated into greater collective power. As true power flows up not down from the people, to have lasting change people need to become more organized at those lower levels first. And to have organization there need to be more local leaders in both local government and local civil society.
The E-class is the heart and muscle of the people, the government the brains. Both are powerful. I would love to see the heart and muscle figure out how to get the brain to function better. It would be easier and faster if the brain would get off the porn and into science.
and I think bottom-up and top-down need to be aligned. Actually Ro-Ro (Roxas-Robredo) in 2016 had ideas in that direction. The top-down approach BTW worked pretty well under Quezon (most probably also because his being close to the USA but also able to bargain with them gave him an aura of power) and Magsaysay (his folksy style did help and also clear US backing) but under PNoy it failed as there was not enough of what is called “buy-in” in management terminology.
the old social consensus, shaky as it was, that probably existed in the Third Republic no longer existed by the present-day Fifth Republic. GRP has only harped at the symptoms but has done little to look at the root causes, much less find ways to build a better Philippines moving forward.
True, both are important.
Chopped liver maybe too harsh, but replace it with any form.
But I agree if you imply that too compensate Filipinos overcompensate by hyping greatness.
But still it is the eye of the beholder,
Most things are indeed in the eye of the beholder, though I reckon the pattern of overhyping greatness then being utterly shocked when the slow and steady neighbors once mocked pull ahead eventually will get old. Coming from poverty myself (in my generation), I have found that helplessness often comes from the feeling of powerlessness when one immediately aims too high and inevitably fails. Slow and steady, building on minor accomplishments works, and it eventually coalesces into a great aggregated set of accomplishments.
I suspect the Filipino idea of greatness is too linked to “gahum” (and other magical concepts in Philippine languages) to appreciate hard work that leads to it. One can see how “Filipino pride” clout-chased on the victories of the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Leah Salonga, Carlos Yulo, Alex Eala or Hidilyn Diaz but (except for parts of the modern middle class I guess that work out and all that) barely appreciated the years of hard work behind being first.
The very common idea that one should not be associated with any group or person that are unlucky (some parents teach their children that) is also related. Mistakes revealed are I guess seen as unlucky and not as part of growth, but most probably as lack of “gahum”. Thus the abundance of posers who act superior in politics and the lack of respect for slow, steady and humble hard workers like PNoy and Mar Roxas.
While I think that gahum has positive and admirable aspects as well, it does seem to be seen more of an exercise of pure prowess and power. The thing about this understanding of gahum as something innate is that it predisposes that some innately have gahum and some do not. In other words gahum is often understood to be predetermined, which I find as silly as the theological concept of predestination; both require no personal effort or sacrifice.
Another thing I’ve observed is when one DOES work hard to improve, if they are not favored somehow they would get snide comments like they succeeded due to chamba/tsamba, or pure luck.
Top many functional illiterates, almost 25 percent of the population.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/11/01/2484069/functional-illiterate-pinoys-reach-248-million
In fairness skne of them have witty answered when seeing a microphone. But hhst is different I know.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BPOinPH/comments/1o1ls79/name_and_shame_bpo/ this is related to what Joey wrote about BPOs. An American is asking to name and shame the BPOs in Cebu that forced people to work after the earthquake so he can avoid hiring them.
OK, some of the commenters didn’t read the entire text of the posting and answered which BPO subcontractors are abusive and why. Just a cursory comment read jibes with what Joey wrote.
I agree with some comments about the management problem and not the company. But if you change all the managers and symptoms persists? I might give a GRPesque answer.
in case of sakuna, bpos should have at lest a skeleton staff to manage phone calls and queries. the earthquake was in cebu, other part of philippines did not have earthquake and people there would expect their calls to be answered. if bpos have international clients, it is all the more reason to keep phone lines open and connected.
skeleton staff is supposed to be voluntary only and pay is double the rate. nobody is forced to work, only those that volunteer coz maybe they are from other localities not affected by earthquake, or they can work from home answering phone calls and queries. it is bad manners and not good business practice to leave customers in limbo, their calls not answered. kahit AI lang naman, all calls should be answered promptly like in emergency calls.
Yes and the skeleton staff can’t complain if they accepted the task.
if staff can work from home, maybe they can work in evac centers too. they are provided either battery operated company phones, ipad, laptops, etc. for quality purposes, calls will be recorded and monitored later by supervisors when those gadgets are returned.
As always being able to speak a language is not the same as being able to comprehend context. That would require comprehension skills rather than emotive skills.
If one searches this recent story on FB, one may find hundreds of Philippines-based reply guys/gals and downvotes on each US media post who feel compelled to interject their own impassioned defense of the alleged child rapist because he is a Filipino(-American) without knowing a lick of information about the case. Information that is quite graphic as shared by the local police investigation and court documents; both easily be found with a simple search.
https://www.wmar2news.com/news/region/baltimore-county/former-sheppard-pratt-nurse-charged-for-allegedly-raping-underage-patient
OT: https://www.facebook.com/sircamp/posts/pfbid0UpFnRbaoyeXtGAFLPxPq4C4vxce6ft8tn6FKHoCbeKDteFTewbng158Q8kbw1gjdl
I really think avancenya only returned the favor, no courtesy given to the family regarding the biopic na hindi naman pala tunay na biopic, kaya avancenya also did not give courtesy to the filmmakers at nagwala, and I say the filmmakers earned it. e, kahit extra lang naman, walang isang kadugo in quezon was in the movie, so in a way avancenya was right, the filmmakers went for maximum profit and may have used AI instead.
anger would have been averted have the filmmakers made prior declarations that any mistakes, misconceptions, or misrepresentations in quezon the movie, they would take responsibility. and not be too defensive on their stance by saying, they have done research kuno and consulted four books. what books? comic books? better to mention the titles of the books so interested parties can check them out. but then again, filmmakers would probly have to tell or ask permission of the authors of those books for the privilege. I am starting to think the filmmakers are averse to asking permissions and would rather be pirates! also, filmmakers said they spoke to people who knew quezon, dead people? those who knew quezon are all dead now. these days, what people knew about quezon is via anecdotal history repeated over time, some copied and pasted.
the further you go back in history, the harder it gets to find out what “really” happened.
For Magellan’s fatal visit to Mactan, what remains are the chronicles of the Italian Pigafetta.
Direk Lav Diaz completely reinterpreted the story of Magellan but no family will protest anymore.
Pigafetta wrote that the Cebuanos said “Kastila” when Magellan made them burn their idols.
Some historians think they actually said “Pastilan” but there are no videos of that, of course.
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As for St. Emmeram, the bishop allegedly killed and chopped into pieces by a Bavarian prince in the Dark Ages, it is worse.
The records don’t show when it exactly happened and are mostly from around half a century later, who to believe there?
It was the Dark Ages and the list of bishops and rulers from that era is incomplete so we will never really know.
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I won’t be able to watch the Quezon movie that easily from here in Germany so expect my personal review maybe in some years.
ahem, what is quintessential about quezon the man is that he was said to be poly-amorous!
if you happen to see the quezon the movie, try to spot the AI enhanced setting.
Maybe not off topic
https://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2025/11/03/2484428/love-it-or-hate-it-quezon-isnt-film-you-can-easily-ignore
I have seen quite a number of historical films based on true story. if filmmakers said the historical film or biopic is based on true story, they can cut corners or improvised as they see fit, so long as it is based on true story.
Yes,
Cinematic license and literary license.
Maybe our apoproach to GRP is huwag silang dibdibin, pasok sa isang tega labas aa isa, pagtapos uminom pag di na kaya mg sikmura ilabas mo sa ” Comfort” room di pwedeng Rest Room wala naman kama dun.
very true, grp is to be taken with a grain of salt.
Yes not too much to cause BP to spike.
This fits here.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2134130/lopez-flags-lrt-baclaran-station-for-dirty-neglected-facilities