Oh my, it’s incredible: The senators who betrayed Leila De Lima and enabled Duterte EJKs
Analysis and Opinion
By Joe America
It’s incredible. The Philippines is stuck in poverty and corruption because patronage, not principle, rules the land. You can’t change by staying the same. You can’t change by letting prominent people escape accountability for their bad decisions and crimes.
In September 2016, then Senator Leila de Lima was doing her job, hot on the trail of Duterte directed murders under the “War on Drugs”. She had just revealed a major witness forthcoming when Senator Pacquiao moved that she be removed as Chairman of the Justice and Human Rights Committee. Fifteen other senators agreed. Sixteen senators for patronage, not law, not compassion.
De Lima was subsequently charged by Duterte’s SOJ Aguirre on phony un-bailable drug charges and sent to jail for seven years as the courts also bowed to Duterte and refused to act. Patronage courts. Not justice courts.
Look at where those sixteen senators are today. None to my knowledge has publicly or privately apologized to De Lima. None has admitted their role in enabling the murders.
- Aquilino Pimentel III. Senatorial term ended June 2025.
- Vicente Sotto III. Sitting senator, now Senate President.
- Alan Peter Cayetano. Sitting senator.
- Juan Miguel Zubiri. Sitting senator.
- Panfilo Lacson. Sitting senator.
- Cynthia Villar. Senatorial term ended June 2025. Her son and daughter are now sitting senators.
- Sherwin Gatchalian. Sitting senator.
- Gregorio Honasan II. Senatorial term ended in 2019.
- Juan Edgardo Angara. Senatorial term ended June 2025. He is now Secretary of Education.
- Joel Villanueva. Sitting senator.
- Richard Gordon Senatorial term ended in 2022. He remains chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross.
- Nancy Binay. Senatorial term ended June 2025.
- Joseph Victor Ejercito. Sitting senator.
- Manny Pacquiao. Senatorial term ended in 2022.
- Loren Legarda. Sitting senator.
- Grace Poe. Senatorial term ended in 2025.
Here are the senators who voted no.
- Franklin Drilon. Senatorial term ended in 2022.
- Francis Pangilinan (Kiko Pangilinan). Sitting senator.
- Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV. Sitting senator.
- Risa Hontiveros. Sitting senator.
Here are the senators who abstained.
- Ralph Recto: Served as a Senator until 2022. He was appointed as the Secretary of the Department of Finance (DOF) in January 2024.
- Antonio Trillanes IV: His Senate term ended in 2019. He remains active in politics and is stridently anti-Duterte.
De Lima was elected to the House of Representatives in June 2025. Nine years later. She is an active driver of legislation, doing her job again.
Nine years later.
I’m angry, myself. Justice has not been completed until those scoundrels admit accountability for having betrayed justice, De Lima, Filipinos, the thousands of dead, and the thousands and thousands of fatherless kids. Justice will not exist until they are punished here on earth or after their slow guilty walk to visit with St. Peter.
The sooner patronage is dumped for principle and progress in the Philippines, the sooner corruption will end, poverty will end, and we will stop rewarding cowardly decisions.
_________________________
Cover photo from ABS-CBN article “De Lima wants independent body, not House, to probe flood-control projects to avoid ‘conflict of interest’“.
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Fast forward to today
Senate President pronouncing that Bato can hide in the Senate and Ribin Padilla said he is willing to join Bato in the Hague
Oh my.
The non senators who did apologize.
As of November 2025, no Philippine Senator who was directly responsible for or actively involved in the filing of charges or presentation of evidence that led to Leila de Lima’s jailing has publicly and directly apologized to her. However, some individuals who played a role in the events leading to her imprisonment have apologized:Sandra Cam: A former a a whistleblower and former friend of de Lima, Sandra Cam, publicly apologized in January 2023. She admitted she “was used as a tool” for de Lima’s imprisonment, specifically during the House and Senate inquiries in 2016, and expressed regret over her mistakes.Geraldine Roman: A current member of the House of Representatives (not a senator), Roman apologized to de Lima in December 2024 for her silence during the Duterte administration’s persecution of the senator. She explained that many women in Congress felt they had to stay quiet to protect their districts due to the climate of fear and the message that dissenting voices were not allowed.Kerwin Espinosa: The self-confessed drug lord who was a key witness against de Lima, recanted his testimony in 2023, admitting it was a lie and that he had been pressured by then-PNP chief (and later senator) Bato Dela Rosa to implicate her. He apologized tearfully to de Lima for his false statements.
Thanks for the update, Karl.
My pleasure.
bato de la rosa has been naughty not nice and as such, his christmas gift may well be in a form of arrest. he is apparently wanted at ICC at the hague for his role in ejks, and may have to spend yuletide at senate to avoid arrest. else he may well be bundled and trussed like a christmas turkey off to see justice at the hague.
old man duterte is keeping mum at the hauge, may media blackout yata, and not saying anything anymore. kasi anything he says can be taken as indication or evidence of his mental state. keeping silent and not giving comments so as not to incriminate himself further is not a sign of madness, but action of a sane man protecting himself from himself. had he been mad or insane, he would not have been able to observe and follow command, rules, and regulations, unaware of his surroundings, and would likely blab loudly and incessantly. he would have been uninhibited too, may even smear feces on himself, and on the wall of his cell. his reality is altered and his five senses are so out of order that very bad smell wont bother him at all.
but if he is a good actor and will act or pretend to be insane, he can of course! but a normal person cannot keep up the facades for longer period of time, like a week. it is exhausting! and cracks will show.
at the moment, he is still allegedly waiting mental check and for mental health experts to review him.
Bato must be packing his essentials and survival package in case he does not get the first class accomodations in the senate.
I like the hannibal lecteresque part of the comments. reminds me also of Edward Norton..what charcter did Edward Norton played were he was criminally insane? Never mind there were many.
as for old man duterte, he has yet to discard or shed off his clothes and walk around naked. kasi the first thing yata that those mentally ill lose is inhibition. and when they lose inhibition, the 1st thing they discard is their clothes and will no longer cover their nakedness.
And Bato must not forget his Santa suit and bag of goodies for his disguise in case he wants to get out of senate undetected.
god forbids! he may even wear a burka and be demurely escorted out of the senate by robin padilla. senate sgt at arms would never sita anybody wearing a burka much less bato. only cctv camera will be silently watching them leave the way nadia montenegro, robin padilla’s staff, was watched leaving the cr when she smoked weeds.
Wife nuber X of Robin wearing a burka? Hahahaha
Snort! LOL
When I first read that in the news, I thought Nardine Pla-Assistio was a Robin Padilla consultant.
she was staff, earning 100K a month! like a top grade public servant.
More on this.
https://verafiles.org/articles/ouster-by-16-senators-as-justice-committee-chair-hurt-de-lima-2
Paraphrasing De Lima – I have no basis to say that we are already ok.
Her latest initiative (today) is to investigate China’s dredging in Luzon. I suspect this is the corrupt betrayal of the Philippines by LGU heads to allow dredging of sand for China’s island building.
I still couldn’t imagine that the hill top removal ir a former Governor in Zambales called a whole mountain disappearing was not enough for petitioners be granted a writ of kalikasan saying there was not enough evidence or probable cause.
DENR, dept of environment and natural resources, has much to answer. it may have also looked the other way when luxury terrace housing was built near the river bank in cebu that apparently caused much misery during typhoon tino, the riverbank burst and riverside properties got inundated and destroyed and resulted with lost of lives. senator bam aquino said greed and corruption kill.
lgus are sure to be happier these days, they got a christmas gift: their govt tenure is to be extended from 3yrs to 4yrs.
I mentioned that terrace like development in one of my past comments somewhere, thanks for bringing it up here.
ahem, the terrace housing in cebu got 1st class view of the river, feng shui said houses that face a body of running water with a mountain behind them are lucky. I think, lumagpas yata ang good luck, and dumped bad luck right at the doorsteps of the terrace houses!
With the hope of Congress person De Lima’s team is reading. For what it is worth, I hope they can follow through with this chat gpt research.
Here is the next-level integrated, concise, and coherent version of the entire evolving discussion — streamlined, clarified, and structured so that all threads connect logically and without repetition.—✅ Integrated & Clean Thread (Round 2)
I. Manila Bay Reclamation — Historical Context
1. Longstanding practiceManila Bay reclamation began decades before Estrada.Major early works: Cultural Center complex and Bay City areas initiated in the 1970s.Subsequent expansions occurred under various administrations.
2. Estrada’s role (2013–2019 as Manila Mayor)Estrada approved several new reclamation proposals but did not originate Manila Bay reclamation nor Chinese participation in it.His period represents a revival in city-level approvals, not the beginning.
3. Recent surge (2015–2022)A wave of private-led, LGU–developer joint ventures escalated during the Aquino and Duterte administrations, aligning with the business trend of:mixed-use waterfront projectsexpansion of Entertainment Cityport and logistics developments—
II. Chinese Participation — When It Actually Became Prominent
1. Not during Estrada’s early political career Chinese involvement in Manila Bay reclamation does not trace back to Erap. It becomes prominent only recently.
2. Timeline of visible involvement2018–2019 onwards: Joint ventures with Chinese firms appear in public records.
Example: China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) linked to Pasay Harbor City.2021–2023: Heightened scrutiny due to:environmental concernsgeopolitical sensitivitiesUS Embassy statements (2023)3. Regulatory moment2023 suspension of 22 reclamation projects by DENR for environmental compliance review.Chinese-linked firms were among those scrutinized.—
III. Zambales Hill-Flattening and Illegal Quarrying — What’s Documented
1. Confirmed on the groundMultiple DENR actions and local inspections validate that in Zambales (Candelaria, Sta. Cruz, Botolan):Hilltops and slopes were clearedHeavy equipment moved inRoads and work pads were constructedQuarrying occurred beyond approved limitsDENR issued suspension / stop ordersThis is concrete, verifiable evidence.
2. High-confidence caseYinglong Steel Corporation allegations and DENR intervention provide the clearest documented example.3. Environmental impacts observederosiondeforestationsediment runoffcommunity complaintsLGU resolutions—
IV. Alleged Link to WPS / Artificial-Island Sediment SupplyWhat is known:The Philippines has hotspots of illegal black-sand mining (Zambales, Ilocos, Cagayan).China has an enormous appetite for fill material for:artificial islandsmegacitiesindustrial zonesport expansionsWhat is alleged:Certain Philippine-sourced materials may have been diverted or exported to supply Chinese reclamation or WPS island-building.What is missing:hard chain-of-custody proof connecting:quarry → truck → port → vessel → destinationThe gap is in:port logsAIS vessel trackingcustoms export recordsshipping manifestsloading documentsThere is technical plausibility, but no complete publicly verified documentation yet.—V. Why China’s Own Hill-Flattening History MattersChina’s engineering history provides context, not proof.
1. Documented Chinese “mountain-moving” operations show:capability to flatten hills on massive scaleeconomic motivations for large volumes of fill materialwillingness to undertake large, risky earth-moving projectssophisticated coordination of excavators, trucks, and dredgers
2. Environmental lessonsChinese cases demonstrate:increased floodinglandslide riskhydrological disruptionsoil instabilitydust storms and air pollutionThese consequences align with patterns seen in poorly regulated quarrying in the Philippines
.3. RelevanceChina’s precedent:supports risk analysisstrengthens policy argumentscontextualizes technical feasibilityjustifies heightened vigilanceBut again, it does not equal direct proof of Philippine material being used in WPS reclamation.—
VI. Where All Threads Converge
1. Manila Bay reclamation— Long historical trajectory— Chinese participation is recent, not rooted in Estrada-era decisions
2. Zambales quarrying— Verified environmental disruption— Legally documented through DENR interventions— Clear evidence of hill flattening and irregular extraction
3. WPS sediment link— Alleged— Plausible— Not yet verified through documented supply-chain evidence
4. China’s own hill-flattening— Shows capacity, technical similarity, and precedent— Provides conceptual basis for understanding risks and motives— Helps explain why monitoring is essential
5. Next steps must focus on evidence-building— satellite change detection— port and customs records— AIS vessel logs— FOI requests— cross-agency coordination—
✅ Final Clean Conclusion
There are three separate but intersecting issues
1. Reclamation in Manila Bay is decades old; Estrada did not initiate it.
2. Chinese firm participation is a recent development, emerging strongly only from 2018 onward.
3. Zambales hill-flattening is documented and real; environmental violations have occurred.
4. The alleged link between Zambales extraction and WPS reclamation remains unproven publicly.
5. China’s own history of massive earth-moving provides context and comparative insight, but not direct evidence.The integrated understanding supports deeper investigation but remains careful not to leap beyond what evidence confirms.–
Excellent review. I hope Rep. De Lima broadens her view to include, not just dredging, but the entirety of China/Filipino collaborations.
I hope so as well.
de lima has to be careful not to step on gilbert teodoro’s toes. gibo is particularly partial regarding china and filipino collabs.
Please clarify, Gibo has been consistent in questioning the chinese creeping incursions as far as I can tell. I might have mis read your comment.
you have not misread me comment. de lima has her own mandate, gibo his. their loyalty first and foremost belong to philippines, not buts. both their mandates must not intersect but go parallel.
it is very difficult to collab with china coz china has this mantra that it is the center of the biosphere and totally owns it! and have right of way, all the time, every time.
though it was brave of president marcos to gatecrashed president xi’s bubble at the asean meet and extend a hand for a handshake. surprisingly, xi did not turn his back but accepted the handshake.
I think they are probably on the same page, actually. Pro-Philippines, and intelligent enough to work it out. Congress has oversight of everything, so Rep. De Lima is correct to go where information leads her. Teodoro is a big boy and can handle it, I think.
It’s an open secret over there that there’s a lot of money involved, besides the local politicians were also businessmen with extensive holdings to begin with.
Yes, it seems only the tip of the iceberg has been seen. Will it fizzle out or get serious? I’m not betting either way.
we need incorruptible audit team, though coa, commission on audit, one of its commissioners has a wife who works for a firm currently involved in the flood scam.
as well, comelec is trying to make politicians honest, is gunning for politicians who have accepted millions of donated money to be used for election campaign, win or lose, politicians are mandated to declare donations after election.
some of those that give bigger donations are business people who think of their donation as investment and expected good returns. and true enough, many were awarded expensive govt projects worth billions with no accountability attached. it is alleged politicians received millions in kickbacks and like their benefactors, accountability is not in their forte.
I tell you, corruption is the biggest economic sector of the economy. Bigger than malls even. It is awesome to behold.
more terrifying than awesome! I hope the kuraps really get their comeuppance and paid the price. not just losing their freedom, but loss of their ill gotten wealth, return to the nation, to the people, and infras, the funds were firstly intended.
Yes, that would be proper accountability.
If not awesome then it is awe most, jk it is awful.
The Philippines was built on patronage. It is ingrained in the politics and in daily lives. Once in a while someone comes along to buck the trend. And I am sure that there are a lot of Filipinos who try to go against the tide. But patronage and corruption is a tsunami that devours everything in its path
We are rated GP or General Patronage.
often, uncontrollable greed caused their undoing. many of these gen patronages are now leaving the country despite immig look out. even bonoan ex dpwh chief is overseas as well as zaldy co et al.
The problem is that the patronage system is inherently Filipino to begin with. Most Filipinos incorrectly blame the patronage system on the Spanish, but the way the patronage system works is more like the relationship between datus and followers which pre-dated the Spanish. A similar ruler-subject system existed previously in all Austronesian societies that I’m aware of whether that be Indonesia, Malaysia, or Champa. In fact, the three major Taiwanese aboriginal tribes had such a system until relatively recently (after the retreat of the ROC to Taiwan) when they adopted some Han practices. It’s not a surprise then that in many non-urban places of the Philippines the mayor or governor descended from the former datus.
But examples around the immediate region can provide clues on how a people can modernize and adopt new ideas while honoring the past. Often the way to honor the past is to express it through culture, inter-family hierarchical respect systems, while broadening and democratizing forms of respect previously reserved to the top in society. For example, in the Anglosphere everyone is defaulted to being referred to as Mr./Mrs./Ms., formerly honorifics for nobility. In Japan, appended honorifics like -san, -senpai, -sensei are former samurai (lower nobility) honorifics while high nobility honorifics like -dono and -ue are seldomly used anymore. In Vietnam various formerly lower nobility honorifics are used depending on age and gender, but all roughly translate to Mr./Mrs./Ms. in English. Filipinos already commonly use Sir, Ma’am, po to address others. They just need to mean it as an equalizing force, deferential if need be depending on the level of respect, but no longer subservient.
well, the datus who went for the deal with Felipe II of Spain in the 1590s that allowed them to stay in power in exchange for having to levy tribute from their people became the principalia, with cabezas de barangay in one place electing a gobernadorcillo among themselves, and choosing new cabezas in case on family died out. A system that wasn’t fully hereditary before became hereditary by subordination to Spanish feudalism, that was the major change.
By the 19th century, the principalia called themselves Dons but were still considered “Indio” in Spanish documents. I have seen evidence as well that members of the Bikolano principalia were still called datus until the late 18th century, but I would have to verify once I have more time again.
First local elections in 1895 only allowed people with money or property to vote or be voted, thus perpetuating the old principalia. Philippine Assembly elections in 1907 under the USA explicitly referred to the requirements of 1895 plus having held office already in 1895, so similar conditions. “Fire sale” of monastic lands to Filipinos in the early 20th century of course favored those already with money, aka local elites and the 19th century business elites.
So by the time the 1935 elections were open to all men who could read or write, things were cemented and besides who could read or write by then?
There was a thin professional class of people in business and government that had grown from the late 19th century and even more in the 20th century due to US-founded institutions like Philippine Normal College, UP and PMA. The rest were still mostly tied to the land.
And often those in the remote parts of the Philippines knew only their turf, their regional language for quite a while, meaning until around the early 1970s when nearly everyone had at least a battery-operated transistor radio. Mass rural electrification started only in the late 1960s due to USAID. So of course people still were stuck to their old habits of relying on the patron, as they had huge leverage in terms of money, power and knowledge acquired over centuries.
some more unsorted stuff on patronage politics:
1) MLQ3 once wrote how UP Student Council elections in the 1930s meant inviting a lot of students to picnics
2) I recall a convo on Twitter of someone telling me one needs 2 million pesos to run for barangay captain
by contrast, one can already run for local council positions in Germany with the equivalent of that – though what makes a difference here is party backing.
The amount of money needed could be a parameter to tweak, the French for instance limit campaign expenses from what I have read.
3) the huge differences in income in the Philippines make vote-buying more feasible than in more developed countries
Of course few would sell their votes in richer countries and the penalties for even trying are stiff + enforcement works.
There are of course variants on patronage even in developed countries but usually (allegedly) more on “horse-trading”.
I’ve always been fascinated in the evolution of datus/rajahs into principalia, cabezas de barangay, gobernadorcillos, to the modern day where outside of cities many barangay captains, mayors, and governors descended from these families. Certainly the Spanish system stopping the mechanisms by which chieftains could be replaced introduced more complications into what evolved into who holds Philippine economic and political power.
However I do wonder if the problem with choosing leaders goes back even before the Spanish. The Spanish were demonized as foreigners who conquered the Philippines (as Americans were also demonized later by some), but I think it’s also correct to say that most of the major pre-Spanish polities were ruled by conquering foreigners as well. For the Visayans they were ruled by most recently Bruneian minor princes. Maynila was ruled by Bruneian minor princes as well. So how much say did native Filipinos have anyway over their leaders even back then? Perhaps there can be an argument that pre-Spanish Filipinos had more ability to “vote with their feet” and join a neighboring barangay with a better leader, but previous mobility seems more of a function of having less permanence on the land they lived compared to now when even squatters have stuff they don’t want to move.
As for the first elections under the late Spanish colonial era and the first elections under the American administration only allowing men with land then men who were literate to vote, that seems more of model of the time period. Under the American administration however there was an attempt to bring education and literacy to a broader group of Filipinos, which is in line with the expansion of tools of agency, then later bringing more people into the political process. By the standards of the period the American implementation was rather progressive.
So where did things go wrong that caused Filipinos to effectively become subservient again to leaders, rather than following the path of increased agency as initiated by the American period? From examples in the US Southern states where there was a big economic and political agency regression after the Reconstruction then again after the Civil Rights Movement, I believe it is a lack of education issue. Without education people lean on superstition, tradition, and the powers-that-be that they know, even if the effects are bad since they don’t know any better. Ending the spoils system (British-style patronage system in the US) coincided with efforts to expand universal education immediately after the Civil War. This enabled the rise of the professional bureaucracy which though it has its deficiencies is much better than political and economic patrons putting incompetent people into positions of responsibility. As with most things, examples are abound for Filipinos to adopt and adapt. There is no need for Filipinos to slavishly copy everything, which is also another mistake the Philippines often makes. Filipinos can choose to modify base ideas to suit the Filipino, much like many popular foods in Filipino cuisine originate elsewhere and with seasonings adjusted to the Filipino taste.
I kind of see two major things that MIGHT have lead to that, I wonder if there are studies that test these conjectures:
1) around two million Filipinos, of course mostly from the middle class formed during the Cómmonwealth and Third Republic (sonny and CV are examples) migrated to the USA from 1965-1985. With just 40 million Filipinos more or less in those times, that was a major bloodletting of those raised on civics.
2) those NOT raised on civics became more aware of the Philippines as a whole when battery-operated transistor radios became more common in the 1960s and even ubiquituous, nearly 100% (one could say the first window of the old inhabitants of barangays to the wider archipelago, longer before cellphones) by around 1970.
3) the literacy requirement for voting fell by the 1973 Constitution, I vividly recall how the illiterate were “helped” in voting and “signed” with a thumbprint back in the 1970s. That most were considered literate by around the 1990s didn’t mean they had the comprehension of those of the 3rd Republic.
MLQ3 has his personal theory about the new middle class created by OFW and BPO money, but his idea that they didn’t have the same formative institutions they went to like the old middle class that formed in Magsaysay’s time might fall short. Maybe how they grew up, what family influences they had also count. Because a lot of the civic rituals and institutions of the Philippines of before were already secretly mocked by many even during my youth in the 1980s.
I also suspect that a lot of the (often UP-based) thinking that the Third Republic was “postcolonial” yaddah yaddah while glorifying modern datus like Erap backfired on intellectuals who wondered that they were also lumped with “elitists” by the time of Duterte or during the difficult 2022 Robredo campaign. Certain peeves that especially UP folks had against Ateneans and La Sallistas (even just the latter’s profs earning 2x as much) might have contributed to all that.
One common sentiment that Filipino-Americans who grew up under the Commonwealth and Third Republic had shared with me was that while they believed the Philippines should be independent, the US being forced (in their thinking) to leave “so soon before the people were ready” was a major mistake made by Filpino leaders of that time. I had never heard the opposite argument from this older generation though I guess that’s why they migrated to the US, a country they felt more aligned with their values, than to stay as the Third Republic started its decline. Some were able to restart their previous professions, but more often than not they accepted lower positions in society (a doctor accepting becoming a nurse, a small businessman accepting becoming a taxi driver, and so on) because they recognized that America held opportunity.
I had queried them back then when more of their generation were alive if what they felt was “lost” by the late Third Republic was in fact just the greater mass of the people who were invisible for a while in the modern cities and provincial centers the US helped build during the Commonwealth and the early Third Republic were just coming back into focus in the picture? While the exact situation differs in exactness it seems to me that as it happened then, the educated, the middle class, the businessmen and the elite focused more on building the Pearl of the Orient for a small slice of society while neglecting the rest. Imagine my shock when I first visited the Philippines, wandered outside of the upper-middle class subdivisions and realized that everything I had been told about the Philippines was not quite true. Even my grandfather the diplomat and my father the soldier whose official responsibility took them to the Philippines back in the day did not see beyond the “Pearl of the Orient” during their time there. Add in the Maoist thought from the Cold War that still have strains floating around, and it seems everyone has their own hazy view of what the Philippines really is, when reality is just there beyond development gates and paved roads.
A lot of the mirage of thinking is rooted in superstition and feelings of inadequacy from my observations. Superstition of course being a belief is resistant to telling someone “you’re wrong.” There is a relatively new neologism, “hyperstition,” that originally came from 1990s anarcho-cyberpunk that supposes that superstition can become reality by being believed by enough people; in essence a self-fulfilling prophecy that began as a not-so-quite-truth or even an outright falsehood. I occasionally tell Cebuano associates that Lapu-Lapu was essentially a nobody that accidentally killed Magellan during a “maoy” to prove his manliness to one-up his cousin and lord, which received angry responses. A lot of popular Filipino thought and beliefs are not even based on reality, like the Code of Kalantiaw that was debunked by William Henry Scott, or the Tasaday Hoax debunked by your father, yet are still repeated by Filipinos now, some of the repeaters are even DepEd teachers assigning the falsehood as part of their lesson plan.
So somewhere along the way Filipinos who (rightfully, and deservedly) want to feel “great” somehow started making stuff up about themselves to explain the unexplainable things that are outside of their control, like which politician is in power, which businessman controls the malls and shops, a sense of helplessness in the face of the PRC encroachment, and so on. Obviously other countries have national myths as well, but the difference is that those national myths are semi-true and usually pertain to moral lessons. Such thinking often leads to bad outcomes, or at least suboptimal outcomes, but ultimately it is a coping mechanism of people who have not discovered agency. The only solution has been done and tried many times before with success, and that solution is education. As with many things about the Philippines, I haven’t been able to find any concrete books or studies on why the Third Republic did not whole heartedly continue the American program of expanding education, given my previous comment that apparently the post-war Philippines actually got more money per capita in aid than West Germany got. The US trained and sent out scores of teachers to educate Filipinos in an organized fashion. Once again the laissez-faire mentality of doing things in the Philippines is one of the greatest inhibitors.
Joey,
I did it again, I fed Chatgpt your comment. here is the output.
You’ve laid out a very sharp and nuanced historical arc. Let me tighten and structure the analysis so we can trace the evolution of leadership, agency, and why Filipinos repeatedly return to subservient, patron-dependent political cultures despite periodic openings toward greater civic agency.1. Pre-Spanish leadership: mobility yes, but real agency limited
You’re correct that the romantic image of egalitarian barangays with wise datus chosen by consensus is misleading. Several clarifications help:A. Leadership was hereditary, not elective
B. “Voting with the feet” existed, but mostly for free commoners
Yes, timawa or freemen could migrate. But:
Mobility was more a product of fluid settlement patterns and population density—not political freedom in a modern sense.C. Many ruling families were themselves foreign or semi-foreign
You are correct again—pre-Hispanic polities were not “purely local” in political lineage:
Leadership legitimacy came from:
Almost none of these were democratic inputs.
Thus, pre-Hispanic Filipinos had some agency but not political agency in a modern electoral sense.2. Spanish period: elites frozen in place
Your insight is crucial: Spain institutionalized hereditary elites by:
Key consequence: elite continuity without elite competition.
The Spanish froze the hierarchy rather than dismantling or democratizing it.3. American period: literacy + bureaucracy = real expansion of agency
Correct again. For its own geopolitical reasons, the US tried to create:
Compared to other colonies:
By 1935:
You are right: this was progressive by the standards of the time.4. So where did things go wrong?A. Structural conditions persisted
Even with literacy and elections:
Education empowers, but structural inequality kept political agency narrow.B. Rapid population growth outpaced educational gains
By the mid-20th century:
C. US-designed democracy relied on local elites
Here lies the paradox:
To maintain stability and governability, the US relied on existing native elites (the political dynasts):
This produced elite capture of democratic institutions.D. Electoral democracy without economic democracy
Voting was introduced without:
Thus:
Democracy became a transaction, not a path to empowerment.E. Education expanded, but political culture did not modernize
You’re absolutely right that education correlates with political agency. But:
The system never reached the “tipping point” where most citizens:
5. Post-war Philippines: regression into patronage
Key turning points:A. WWII wiped out the emerging middle class
Bombings destroyed:
Many previous gains in literacy and stability had to be rebuilt from scratch.B. Marcos’ authoritarianism centralized patronage
After 20 years, post-1986 democracy inherited a broken, patronage-ridden state apparatus.C. Local governments became fiefdoms
Decentralization in 1991 (LGC) had good intentions but enabled:
Where citizens are poor and uneducated, patronage is rational behavior.6. The return to subservience: why?
A few fundamental problems:1. Education quantity improved; quality declined
Even if Filipinos appear educated (high enrollment), functional literacy remains low.
People can:
2. Poverty makes patronage rational
If one election gift or one sack of rice fills a real need:
3. Cultural patterns of authority persist
Because of centuries of living under hierarchical structures:
This is not “racial” or “innate”—it is historical habit.4. Lack of institutional redesign
The Philippines democratized but did not:
Thus, we modernized the ballots but not the political system behind them.7. So what is the root of the weakness?
Your thesis is correct:
Education + civic literacy = political agency.
When those decline, people revert to:
This is not unique to the Philippines:
When broad-based education declines, democracy declines.8. Bringing it together
Pre-Spanish era:
Limited agency, hereditary leadership, mobility but not democratic choice.
Spanish era:
Elite continuity hardened; limited upward mobility.
American era:
Education and bureaucracy widened agency, but without dismantling elite structures.
Post-war and Marcos era:
War devastation + authoritarianism weakened democratic culture.
Post-1986: Political surface democratized but political culture remained hierarchical and economical structures remained unequal.
Now: Economic insecurity + poor education → return to patronage and subservience.9. What can be changed? (actionable insights)
10. Final reflection
The Filipino problem is not that Filipinos are naturally subservient.
Rather:
Filipinos never had strong institutional channels to express political agency in the first place.
When education or economic stability decline, people fall back on the oldest political technology humanity knows:
trusting the patron who feeds you, protects you, and punishes your enemies.
Until institutions and education empower people not to need patrons, democracy will remain fragile.
Modern version of extreme conditions: economic failure, calamities
example of first: Marcos Sr. had the economy tanking from 1982 onwards. Of course Ninoy became a symbol in 1983, but one reason the middle class was restive was because the debt-fueled consumeristic party they had in the 1970s was over.
Another example is the fall of Suharto (Indonesia’s “supreme datu”) due to the Asian Financial crisis, with Habibie taking on an FVR-like role as reformer.
Example of second: a lot of anger directed against GMA after Ondoy, against PNoy after Yolanda. What is scary now is that there are (some!) Cebuanos blaming the present typhoon and flood damage on Marcos Jr. and saying they will all the more vote for Inday Sara in 2028. That is of course magical thinking to the max.
Institutions in the Philippines are both weak and often unfriendly, almost hostile to citizens. Sometimes I get the feeling that the institution-building of the American period was for nothing, with people reverting back to old habits of Spanish-era institutions. Those that treated people as subjects.
Math subject sometimes. The EJK had many subtraction. Addition and multiplication if they sire many.
BTW Irineo
Have you read RJ Heydarian’s take on Quezon?
https://opinion.inquirer.net/187371/quezon-heneral-luna-and-the-middle-class
The Heydarian article is very related to the political agency topic being discussed.It tackled that Quezon and Luna role in the development or lack thereof of the Middle class, it touched on bobotante and how people think that the bobotante are just the illiterate masa, but overlooking the fact that the functionally literate too are political illiterate.I think Heydarian’s analysis on the bobotante missed the fact that if you are talking to trolls you are vulnerable to be called bobotante.
We are outraged by the wrong reasons, many outrageous stuff we just let pass. The only constant is change they say and they say learn from history or you are doomed to repeat it. We keep on repeating
we go by precedents much like law. and if we keep on repeating history, maybe because it is precedent or the only option we have. we may repeat history, like we keep on electing humbugs, but the result may not always be the same. coz we can kick out humbugs and shamed them till they piss the hell off.
Allow me to place this here, I was supposed to synthesize my GRP article and Heydarian’s article, this is also about misplaced and inconsistent outrage.
The Filipino Middle Class, Political Literacy, and the GRP Debate — 20 Years On
Two parallel conversations define the modern critique of Philippine society:
(1) Richard Heydarian’s 2025 warning that the “functionally literate Filipino middle class is not politically literate,” and
(2) the earlier 2000s critique popularized by Get Real Philippines (GRP), which asserted that national dysfunction stems from deep-seated cultural patterns.
When read together, these two lenses tell a larger, integrated story about the Philippines’ stalled political maturation — and the unrealized potential of its educated population.
I. The Paradox of Filipino Literacy and Political Agency
Despite high functional literacy rates, the Filipino middle class remains politically passive. Heydarian’s insight extends what GRP hinted at decades earlier:
Filipinos know how to read, write, and work — but often lack the civic competencies required for democratic accountability.
This gap is rooted not in individual failure but structural formation. The middle class that emerged under American colonial rule was shaped by policies favoring bureaucratic upward mobility, not political empowerment. It prized caution, stability, and deference — attitudes that persist today.
II. Cultural Mirrors: From GRP’s Cynicism to the Bayaniverse’s Archetypes
GRP framed dysfunction as cultural: emotionalism, lack of critical thinking, and tolerance for mediocrity.
Meanwhile, the Bayaniverse films (Luna, Goyo, Quezon) illustrate historical archetypes that shaped this psychology:
• Luna = radical reformist energy cut down before institutionalizing change
• Goyo = emotional loyalty replacing strategic citizenship
• Quezon = pragmatic elite-led gradualism rewarded over collective activism
Both GRP and Heydarian highlight how Filipinos admire heroism but practice caution; celebrate idealism but reproduce patronage; crave reform but fear disruption.
III. Today’s Reality: The Demand-Side Governance Gap
The combined critiques converge on a simple truth:
The problem is not only weak institutions — it is weak citizen demand for strong institutions.
Features of this demand-side gap include:
• Political disengagement among professionals
• Cynicism disguised as intelligence
• Tolerance for dynasties and corruption
• Emotionalism dominating discourse
• An online culture of outrage without action
Filipinos are self-aware (a point GRP never reached), but self-awareness has not led to self-correction.
IV. Where GRP Was Right — and Where It Was Wrong
GRP successfully diagnosed symptoms that remain visible today:
tribalism, anti-intellectualism, emotional politics, and cyclical mediocrity.
But it misdiagnosed the cause.
What GRP called “cultural defects” are largely:
• outcomes of structural inequality,
• consequences of underfunded education,
• effects of elite capture,
• and responses to historical trauma and survival-based decision-making.
Where GRP shamed, Heydarian contextualized.
Where GRP blamed the citizenry, governance scholars blame institutions that produce certain kinds of citizens.
V. Moving Forward: From Critique to Reform
The synthesis of both perspectives suggests a path forward:
1. Build Political Literacy
Through curriculum reform, civic education, and public reasoning.
2. Shift from Cynicism to Agency
Awareness is not enough; it must translate into collective action, advocacy, and accountability.
3. Leverage the Middle Class
Professionals — engineers, teachers, nurses, lawyers — must evolve from private achievers to public actors.
4. Institutionalize Participation
Use SDG 16, local participatory budgeting, digital transparency tools, and issue-based coalitions.
5. Reframe the Narrative
The Filipino is not inherently dysfunctional; the Filipino is underserved, under-equipped, and under-engaged — but full of potential.
VI. Core Insight of the Combined Critique
The greatest threat to Philippine democracy is not ignorance — but disengagement.
The country does not suffer from a lack of educated people; it suffers from a lack of politically active, institution-building citizens.
Fixing this requires not cultural shaming, but civic empowerment.
VII. The Synthesis in One Line
GRP diagnosed the sickness. Heydarian explained its roots.
This generation must deliver the cure.
Guys
Is it ok to have another GRP themed article lined up? It will not be do soon because I gave others lined up before it and Joe and can insert his article or other contributor’s article anytime.
And of course other editors can insert their articles as well.
It’s quite okay.
“The greatest threat to Philippine democracy is not ignorance — but disengagement. The country does not suffer from a lack of educated people; it suffers from a lack of politically active, institution-building citizens.”
Terrific insight.
Thanks, Joe.
another enemy of democracy is de-stab-ilisers, they stabbed democracy from within. with mon tulfo presenting list of stabbers to the president only for the president’s staff to say the list is gossip!
and kiks the barge is kicking his own barge in asking for the province of cebu to secede from the philippines. ayan, inapakan tuloy ang gobernador ng cebu. pam baricuatro was asking for prompt send off of flood and storm aids and relief goods to reach cebu soonest, not secession of cebu just when cebu is dealt a bitterest blow and reeling from it.
seems to me, kiks the barge has a very faulty rudder!
I have also seen Cebuano-language socmed stoking rage about Bagyong Tino and Bagyong Uwan as a political attack.
Well, DDS is much like MAGA where the movement has pseudo-religious elements. Conviction is based on pure belief despite available contravening evidence. Of course, we also know that despite the Philippines being a majority Christian nation, most Filipinos are “culturally Christian” and not actually practicing church goers. Religious institutions are one of the positive ways to provide people with a sense of community; the absence of community doesn’t cause most people to reject community, but to seek out community in other forms. DDS is one of those forms of community, which is one of its greatest strengths.
Not really sure what to say about that aside from these problems are all related directly or indirectly to lack of education, and lack of education closes off opportunity. The only way to combat that in the near term is to let true believers have a “crisis of faith,” in this case caused by personal pain so they will wake up because despite belief their personal needs are not met. The long term is to fix education. The problem then is when someone truly believes, his tolerance for pain is much higher than a non-believer.
One can debate whether the US should’ve convinced the leaders of the Commonwealth that it was in the Philippines’ best interest for the US to still run things for a while longer, or at least be close partners to an independent Philippines, so that reforms were entrenched at least 2-3 generations, The leaders of that time insisted on a “government run like hell by Filipinos,” being quite overconfident after only learning new ways for a single generation. So I guess they got the Philippines they wanted. But Filipinos of today can want something DIFFERENT, then fight for it.
Interesting read, thank’s Karl.
You are most welcome!
Thanks Karl
My pleasure!
Thanks for the insights. It would help to revitalize what it means to be Filipino, and a recognition that corruption is not a rightful part of acceptable Filipino character. Or any kind of cheating.
Corruption in the Philippines is a modern expression of traditional Filipino power structures, further perverted perhaps by entrenchment of that power among a few. That’s something that will always be there and can’t be erased. However humans have the ability if they want to emphasize the better parts of traditional culture and reinterpret the parts that are no longer working out as currently expressed. But that’s up to a people to make those changes and requires leadership to show the way.
For example, the traditional leader-follower relationship can be reinterpreted into cultural terms of a father who supports his family with protective qualities, guidance to those who depend on him, and being a mirror that provides a good example. The negative aspects of elevating and coddling Filipino boys which turns into entitled Filipino men leaders can be de-emphasized. The role of women that was always important in pre-Spanish society could be highlighted, as the babaylan were always co-equals to the datu, rather than subordinate. That would give more confidence and an example to Filipino girls to also become leaders.
There are many examples of how society and culture evolve to adapt to new circumstances while honoring the past. The US is going through one of those periods of re-imagining right now of there have been many before, to view the events in the US in a more positive and optimistic light. Neighboring countries to the Philippines have also re-imagined themselves while honoring their past. Filipinos need to find the confidence to realize that if others can do something, with a bit of work Filipinos can do it too.
Makes good sense to me.
https://x.com/IanIslander3/status/1987877621733167549 Mayor Leni Robredo of Naga and her hands-on ways are the exact opposite of for instance Mayor Isko Moreno of Manila who seems to just go for photo-ops , as evidenced by his white and clean sneakers inspite of dirty floodwaters.
I mean Mayor Leni is 60 years old just like me, and one can see she hasn’t slept a lot, but that is far more respectable to me than one man now in The Hague who flew above storms to inspect them from the top like some sort of demigod.
Of course there are Filipinos who idolize porma while mocking even hardworking MEN who for instance fall from motorbikes while doing so..
..the cultural conditioning to expect Ang Panday (or in the 19th century Bernardo Carpio) like figures is still deep, though that can change even if it is Filipinos in the Philippines who will have to figure out how to modernize their thinking while keeping their culture.
Porma versus competence is a nuanced situation. On one hand, the professional bureaucracy requires competence in order to support the objectives of the government. On the other hand, politics has always been a practice of performance, even theatrics, as to get supporters (and in the modern democracy, to get elected) the politician needs to at least be likeable by would-be supporters. Perhaps we have been in this era of neoliberal economics influencing our Western governments for so long that we have come to expect politicians to be milquetoast and in the background shifting beads on an abacus. This works as long as the material needs of the citizen isn’t under pressure, but it doesn’t work so much when the pressure is increased. German bureaucratically minded parties have managed to stave off the performative far-right, at least for now. France continues to hold the theatrical far-right there, by a thread. The UK failed and they got Brexit and the constant tumult. Obviously the US failed as well, for a second time, yet I have more confidence Americans will get their house in order before the British do. By the way, “low-information voters” whether that information deficiency is due to the strain of neoliberal policies unintentionally keeping people at the edge with overwork or because of lack of education, they all gravitate towards pulls on emotion which performance fulfills.
So what should be done? The answer seems to be that while the bureaucratic apparatus that supports the state must be competent, for our side to win our politicians need to be both competent AND a bit performative. I recall FDR who won so much (4 terms) that his enemies pushed for an amendment to the US Constitution dedicated just to him (22nd Amendment). FDR was able to offer competent moral leadership necessary for a period of crisis but at the same time be quite good the theatrical aspects of politics even though he was limited to a wheelchair for most of his adult life.
I think the Philippines, USA and Europe are very different in all that. Certainly Europeans (who have less of a libertarian bent than Americans) will understand that institutions are needed for a modern state, some MAGA might dream of being “AR15 cowboys”, while many DDS might think a nation can be run like a barangay.
There is also a performative aspect to Mayor Leni cleaning up the streets WITH the people, in line with her bayanihan approach to governance. Mayor Isko telling people to clean up is more like the gobernadorcillos of the 19th century, who had to kick the forced laborers of those days who were understandably of very low motivation into working, though I do suspect a lot of Philippine government employees still have similar attitudes.
Quezon BTW was also performative and thus more appealing than the too genteel Paterno, while matching more extreme Filipino nationalists in his “appeal”. I think that his plan for a ten-year schedule to independence was sound, far sounder than what some others wanted, the war just wrecked that. I have also read that he managed to deal with the DDS-like Ricartistas of the 1910s quite effectively, a group that was loud, and lividly anti-Western.
“Small-l” libertarianism and “small-l” liberalism is the norm in the US across most Americans. The “Big-L” US Libertarian Party are not really libertarians though. Rather, the US Libertarian Party are mostly anarcho-capitalists; they simply use the name “libertarian” mostly as a branding exercise, like most political parties do.
MAGA is quite like DDS and vice versa. There is also a strong sentiment in MAGA that the government should be reduced down to the county-level with the elected “constitutional sheriff” being the highest executive, judge, law enforcement authority, etc. in their totally incorrect interpretation of the US Constitution (aka the so-called “Sovereign Citizens”). Of course, unless they want federal tax subsidies from elsewhere to fund their political projects due to their failures in generating local tax revenue, in which case they believe themselves entirely entitled to “their money.” Now doesn’t that sound similar to the goals of DDS? DDS wants local autonomy, except when they want their “owed” money from Metro Manila and Calabarzon, the two regions that subsidize most of the other LGUs.
Personally I think the DDS movement is much more dangerous due to sheer mass compared to Ramos’ Ganap Party, Kalibapi/Makapili, Sakdals or Ricarte’s collaborationist actions. DDS seems to me to be much larger than those old organizations ever were.
The anger stoked by DDS does originate from somewhere though, as negative sentiment just doesn’t materialize out of thin air. I saw Heydarian’s new take about the B’s and upper-C’s (roughly the middle class and the aspirant risers) being the Duterte clan’s main support. While many BC’s do support the Dutertes, I think Heydarian’s analysis again starts with a decent premise then proceeds to miss the mark once again. There is no way any national politician can win even if they capture all the ABC votes, as ABC combined are only 7%-ish of the population. It seems there is still a huge blind spot in analyzing Philippine politics about which segment of society puts politicians in power. While Leni did get a lot of E’s, the E vote was split on Leni, and Marcos Jr. got most of the D vote just like Duterte did before. So figuring out how to persuade the DE’s is key from my perspective. The best way to persuade is to find ways to make their lives better.
Right you are.
I asked chatgpt about the evolution of our patronage systems.
Below is a clear, structured, and historically grounded overview of how the Philippine patronage system evolved from pre-Spanish times to the present, showing continuities, adaptations, and shifts in political, economic, and social patterns.—
Evolution of the Philippine Patronage System
1. Pre-Spanish Era: Barangay and Personal Allegiance
Foundation: The roots of patronage predate colonial rule.
Political units were small: barangays led by a datu, rajah, or lakan.Leadership was based on personal allegiance, kinship ties, and reciprocity. Society was stratified into maginoo/timarau (elite), maharlika/timawa (free), and alipin/uripon (dependents) .
Patrons (datus) provided:
Defense Conflict mediation
Access to trade networks
Protection and social status
Clients provided:Labor or military service
Crop shares
Loyalty
Important Continuity: Power rested on personal ties, not institutions. Collective identity was kin-group–based, not national.—
2. Spanish Colonial Period (1565–1898): Centralized Power, Local Intermediaries
Spain transformed but did not erase local patterns. It formalized patronage through bureaucratic and religious administration.
2.1. Encomienda & Principalia
Encomenderos and later gobernadorcillos controlled local resources and labor.
Spain used local elites (principalia) as intermediaries, granting:
Exemptions from tribute
Spanish-style prestige titles
Access to land and political office
Patronage shifted from kin-based to institutionalized through the colonial state, yet still hinged on personal connections.
2.2. Friars as Power Brokers
Friars became crucial patrons:Controlled land (haciendas)Managed education and record-keepingInfluenced appointments and disputes
The patron-client system deepened because friars mediated between the masses and colonial authorities.
2.3. Haciendas and Cacique PoliticsLarge estates created:Tenant dependency
Economic patronage based on land accessPower concentrated among cacique families (proto-political dynasties)
Continuity: Political loyalty secured access to land and credit.—
3. American Colonial Period (1898–1946): Democratization Without Social Transformation
The Americans introduced:
Electoral system
Public education
Civil service rules
Local autonomy
But they did not dismantle the hacienda system.
3.1. Elite Capture of Democratic InstitutionsLanded families became congressmen, governors, senators.Elections institutionalized competition among elites rather than empowerment of the masses.Patronage became electoralized.
3.2. Bureaucracy as Source of PatronagePositions in schools, public works, health centers became political rewards.
3.3. Rise of National Political FamiliesProminent families grew through:US-supported political alliancesControl of local vote blocsAccess to economic rentsExamples: Osmeña, Quezon, Roxas, Lopezes.Patronage scale expanded from local to national networks.—
4. Post-Independence (1946–1972): Clientelism and Machine PoliticsAfter independence, the patronage system deepened.
4.1. Two-party System (Liberal vs. Nacionalista)Parties lacked ideology.Functioned mainly as vehicles for patronage distribution.“Balimbing” (party-switching) became common.
4.2. Pork Barrel PoliticsLegislators gained resources they could direct to:RoadsBridgesSchoolhousesScholarshipsThis reinforced dependence of voters on politicians for basic services.
4.3. Local BossismLocal warlords consolidated power, especially in Mindanao:Private armiesVote-buyingViolence and intimidationContinuity: Patronage remained person-based, not program-based.—
5. Martial Law (1972–1986): Authoritarian Patronage and Crony CapitalismMarcos centralized patronage to the executive office.
5.1. Centralized Rent DistributionLicensesLogging concessionsSugar and coconut monopoliesInfrastructure contractsAll tied to loyalty to the regime.
5.2. Crony CapitalismClose allies like Cojuangco, Romualdez, Disini became conglomerate owners through state-sponsored monopolies.
5.3. Dismantling Independent InstitutionsElections controlledCongress abolishedJudiciary constrainedPatronage became state-sponsored and vertically integrated.—
6. Post-EDSA Era (1986–Present): Democratic Restoration, Patronage PersistenceDespite democratic reforms, patronage politics persists because of structural and socio-economic realities.
6.1. Political Dynasties Entrenched70–80% of Congress controlled by dynastiesLocal government units dominated by family alliancesRapid growth of “brand politics” (e.g., Duterte, Marcos, Aquino)
6.2. Poverty and Patron DependenceBasic needs still mediated through local officials:PhilHealth accessCash assistance (DSWD)ScholarshipsRelief goodsLivelihood grantsVote-brokering remains strong.
6.3. Social Media PatronageNew form of patronage:Influencer networksContent creators funded by political machineryDigital loyalty armiesMemetic warfarePatron-client logic now includes information ecosystems.
6.4. Decentralization (1991 Local Government Code)LGUs gained:Control over local revenuesDiscretion in spendingMore political leverageWhile intended to empower, it amplified local patronage pockets.—
7. Present-Day Features of Philippine Patronage SystemToday’s patronage system is a hybrid, reflecting layers of historical evolution.
7.1. Personalism Over InstitutionsPeople trust:Mayors, barangay captainsGovernorsSenators with famous surnamesRather than:PartiesPlatformsState agencies
7.2. Survival-Based PoliticsGiven widespread poverty, people seek:Assistance (ayuda)Medical billsFuneralsSchool suppliesEmergency employmentVoters expect politicians to act as providers, not policymakers.
7.3. Electoral Patronage and Social SpendingWelfare allocations often become tools for visibility:TUPAD4Ps (mostly shielded but still politically leveraged)DSWD food packsPoliticians sometimes piggyback on these programs for credit-claiming.—
8. Structural Drivers of PatronageAcross eras, similar root causes repeat:
1. Inequality
2. Weak political parties
3. Personalistic culture
4. Fragmented governance
5. Lack of universal social services
6. Power of land/wealth over politicsThese keep the patronage system resilient.—
9. Key Trends Moving ForwardThree forces challenge or reshape patronage today:
9.1. Digital politicsCould weaken traditional patronage networks or create new digital patrons.
9.2. Youth demographicsYounger voters less tied to local machines, more issue-oriented.
9.3. Universal basic servicesIf achieved (healthcare, education, transit, jobs), reliance on politicians for survival may decline.—
Summary
The Philippine patronage system evolved from kinship-based reciprocity in pre-colonial barangays to colonial intermediaries, to elite electoral patronage, to crony capitalism, and now to a hybrid mix of dynastic, bureaucratic, and digital patronage networks. What remains constant is the primacy of personal relationships over institutional governance.—
My comment to Joey regarding land grabbing in Luzon.
Land grabbing is not history in luzon, the budol to land owner’s collective to sell to land owners is one form.
Exhibit A: Villar City
Manny Villar, though late in the game, got rid of the rest of the salt making in Paranaque, Las Pinas and Cavite. First came with good intentions of low cost subdivisions then these good intention might lead to perdition, the way things are running.
===
In addition
The other powers that be might be sucessful in the power play in not making Manny Villar president thanks to those powers, we got blessed with Pnoy.
Though this started with good intentions of lacson and Madrigal wanting to expose anomalies and other can of worms this to me is literally the way to perdition is paved with good intentions.
Another hodgepodge of issues I glued together.
Here is the updated, fully synthesized, cleaned thread — now incorporating the crucial point that Ayala also considered divesting, which further underscores the structural issues.—SYNTHESIZED ANALYSIS WITH AYALA DIVESTMENT CONTEXTThe LRT-1 situation reveals two interconnected vulnerabilities:1. Micro-level service failures (e.g., neglected restrooms), and2. Macro-level structural weaknesses in the PPP model — highlighted by the fact that multiple major investors, not just one, have considered exiting.This combination raises serious concerns about the future of large-scale mass transportation promises in the Philippines.—1. “Small” failures point to big governance problemsIssues flagged by the acting DOTr Secretary — long-neglected restrooms, poor accessibility, station disrepair — are not trivial. They signal deeper systemic problems:weak enforcement of service-level obligationslack of accountability from private operatorsinsufficient monitoring mechanismspoor user experience → lower ridership → lower revenuesThese operational lapses are early-warning indicators of failing oversight and weakened PPP governance.—2. Multiple major shareholders considering divestment amplifies the alarmIt is not only MPIC (MVP Group) that signaled divestment.Ayala Corporation also previously considered divesting its stake in the LRT-1 concession. This is extremely relevant because:Ayala is known for stability, long-term investments, and disciplined risk assessment.If Ayala — one of the most conservative and credible investors — questions the viability, it adds legitimacy to the concern that the underlying business model is structurally weak.This combined pressure from both MVP and Ayala underscores that:ridership risk,fare regulation risk,operational cost pressures, andcontractual rigidityare not isolated complaints but systemic issues felt by the top-tier Philippine conglomerates.—3. Impact on future nationwide mass transport promisesThis development weakens the political feasibility of grand infrastructure narratives.Future leaders promising:the Mindanao railwaythe north-south commuter rail expansionprovincial light rail networksintegrated multimodal hubsfull modernization of urban railwill face increased skepticism from investors and lenders.Why?Because if the main metro line — in the densest urban region — cannot assure stable returns, investors logically doubt the viability of regional systems with lower demand and higher risk.Future investors will now ask:> “If even Ayala and MPIC struggled, who can succeed?”This is a credibility challenge the government must address.—4. PPP is not dead — but it needs a redesignThe divestment signals do not spell the death of PPPs. They indicate that the current model is:under-calibratedtoo exposed to ridership volatilityvulnerable to political decisions (fare pricing)lacking robust shock absorbersTo fix this, PPPs must evolve toward:availability payment mechanismsgovernment-backed minimum revenue guaranteesinflation/pass-through fare adjustment formulasenforceable maintenance KPIsstronger real-time oversightdepoliticized fare-settingpredictable regulatory environmentCountries with similar failures adjusted their models, not abandoned them.—5. Who will invest now, realistically?Despite the blow, the door remains open to:foreign strategic rail operators (Japan/Korea)sovereign wealth fundsdevelopment banks (ADB, JICA, AIIB)domestic groups willing to enter under improved termsBut they will require:stronger guaranteesclearer risk allocationcredible long-term planningprofessionalized oversightAyala’s and MPIC’s concerns validate these demands.—6. Bigger lesson: governance determines credibilityThe LRT-1 case shows that:the daily user experience (clean facilities, functioning restrooms, accessibility)the financial viability (ridership recovery, cost structure)and the governance environment (policy consistency, enforcement)are all directly linked.These are the real foundations of credible infrastructure delivery — and the basis upon which promises must be made.Ambitious transport plans will only regain credibility when:the government fixes oversight,risk-sharing is realistic,contracts are adaptive,and public welfare is prioritized without sacrificing investor predictability.—7. ConclusionThe combined signals — operational neglect + Ayala and MPIC considering divestment — reveal a PPP model under stress and a governance system that needs reform.This incident:challenges the credibility of current and future mass transport promises,weakens investor confidence in Philippine rail projects,and pressures the government to revamp PPP structures.Yet it also offers an opportunity.With structural reforms and a modernized PPP framework, the Philippines can still pursue a robust nationwide transport modernization program — but credibility must be rebuilt, not assumed.—If you want, I can now further compress this into:a one-page policy brief,talking points, ora section for your white paper.
A depressing read. The only savior is the taxpayer through government decisions to make up the shortfall of revenues to expense. There is a natural barrier to success in that costs (the price of trains for instance) are first world whereas the fare structure has to be keyed to low Philippine wages to attract riders. I think there has to be a recalculation of how cities are built aimed specifically to reduce commuter traffic. That is, major employment centers must develop residential centers. Given that that is a long term fulfillment, government will have to heavily subsidize trains.
Sad indeed. No different from the too big to fail bailouts shouldered by tax payers. PPP was too good on paper until it is not.
The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOST_Hybrid_Electric_Train was a PNoy project BTW, aimed at ramping up the Philippine capability to build trains, but like many things PNoy started (think also Project NOAH which is finally getting back its rightful place in the scheme of things) this was only half-continued “because PNoy”. It probably ain’t the same quality and all as the Hyundai (MRT7) and other trains running on the LRT and MRT and even the future NSCR lines but one has to start somewhere. I was already telling some people around 1995 when the MRT3 was being built damn guys, upgrade the bus-building capabilities the Philippines already has to building trains (even if the motors will continue to be foreign-made for a while) because local capability-building is important in such matters.
In my old blog, I mentioned how Munich boomers often have American oldtimers, the kind of cars they probably just dreamed of during the postwar period, when the likes of LCPL_X’s grandfather based in the McGraw military base bagged their chicks because they had the bigger car, while they just had the money for a BMW, a pretty trashy car in those days. Joey has mentioned how Vinfast cars are going the same way Japanese cars went in the 1960s and Korean cars went in the 1990s. Unfortunately the Filipino way (with exceptions we know) is to want the topnotch stuff at once and import it instead of levelling up to world class, patiently.
TBH,
Your examples above were the exact reasons, I almost took offense to Joey’s sorry not sorry comment about our STEM professionals.
Good thing the good old breathe in breathe out worked that moment.
There is a German saying that “no master ever fell from heaven” meaning that mastering ANY craft takes a while. If I look back at how green even the excellent informatics graduates of the University of Passau (Bavaria focused on making some places really excellent in specific subjects and that place was one for informatics) were during my early career in Germany, I can see how true this was and those with the humility to go through the grind came the furthest.
Joey’s specific comment about the very arrogant lady engineer he once had dinner with is an example of how many of the best of the best in the Philippines are probably good but don’t become great because they already think they are world class when they still have to “eat a lot of rice” as the Filipino saying goes. Probably she was way better than someone I encountered in Germany, an Adamson engineering grad who had worked on the LRT1 as a construction worker. Doesn’t necessarily mean that Adamson isn’t good. Probably that specific person, a quintessential “jeproks” (yes, that generation) spent more time on chongki and chicks than on studies. As for UP and Ateneo IT grads at the UN, many were mayabang. When I see how a UST grad (not yet part of Big 4 then!) they mocked (also because he was from a poor family) built a real career abroad on being a patient problem-solver, I see a convergence with one of Joey’s examples.
Just a short timeline of the South Korean car industry:
1.) 1955 – locally modified surplus US military Willys Jeeps; welded sheet metal on existing frame; South Korean analogue of Filipino jeepney which had similar origins
2.) 1962 – South Korean government implements strategic manufacturing plan: “Automobile Industry Promotion Policy”; subsequently South Korean companies assembled imported kits from Japanese companies Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Toyota and American companies General Motors, Ford; predecessors of SY Motor, Kia, Hyundai, Daewoo enter auto business
3.) 1975 – Hyundai Pony, the first South Korean developed car; design assistance by British Leyland Motor; South Korean concept refined by Italdesign (now owned by Audi); exterior body with assistance from Ogihara (Japan); Machine presses and tooling were bought from I believe Renault; Gasoline (petrol) engine and transmission were bought wholly from Mitsubishi; Pony exported to Latin America
4.) 1986 – Hyundai enters US market with the Pony (Hyundai Excel in North America); Popular because Hyundais were cheap, but quality was so bad that South Korean cars had a bad reputation for poor craftsmanship, badly fitting panels, cheap plastic interiors, mechanical and electrical issues
5.) 1989 – First fully in-house Hyundai model, 1989 Sonata (previous generation was not fully in-house); All mechanical tooling, injection molds, glass, body and platform developed by Hyundai; Engine and transmission locally build for the first time, but was a Mitsubishi licensed engine
6.) 1992 – First wholly designed and built South Korean automotive engine, Hyundai Alpha engine
7.) 1990s to 2000s – South Korean cars gradually replaced purchases of Japanese and American models in South Korea. I was there during the latter half. Still quite bad quality
8.) 1998 – Hyundai introduces industry-leading 10-year engine and transmission warranty. Quality and customer satisfaction started improving rapidly
9.) 2004 – Hyundai customer satisfaction tied to Honda for #2, after #1 Toyota, by J.D. Power survey (Americans used to refer to this ranking when buying cars before widespread internet)
10.) 2015 – Luxury brand Genesis launched by Hyundai. All engineering in-house; notably European-looking designs due to recruiting top Italian and German automotive language designers, including Filippo Perini formerly of Lamborghini. South Korean companies have now attacked every single automobile segment, and are in the top 10, top 5 of many segments
From initial South Korean government vision and support for local industry, it took 50 years for South Korean companies to rival and tie Japanese companies, from whom they formerly assembled imported kit cars.
South Korean companies used imported gasoline and diesel engines, transmissions for 30 years. Sourced from mostly Japanese and American auto companies, but also from French, Italian and British auto companies. Engines and transmissions are probably the hardest part of a car to build.
South Korean companies got encouragement and support from government bonds through a unified, but more importantly consistently stable South Korean government manufacturing policy. Initially there was a lot of investment from US and Japanese companies, who subcontracted automotive parts manufacturing to South Korean companies through automotive manufacturing alliances.
South Korean companies, despite dominating many market segments in the US, still see themselves as underdogs and thus continually innovate. Tesla for example, recently adopted some design elements from Hyundai and Kia in refreshed Teslas. South Korean companies are unafraid to try new things and pilot new segments after establishing prior segments. But more important to recall that each South Korean company focused on building one model decently before moving on rather than trying to do everything at once and failing.
Nowadays the fast startup times of Chinese and Vietnamese auto companies are because BEV powertrains are much simpler to build than complicated gasoline/diesel engines and transmissions. But probably before a Philippine company attempts to go all BEV, important to note that Chinese and Vietnamese companies had years of experience doing final assembly of imported kits.
Thanks, that’s interesting, and shows that even during the time of Syngman Rhee, who apparently didn’t have that good a reputation, Sokor already was laying foundations for its future car industry.
I have seen pictures of areas outside Seoul in the 1950s that looked barely different from Balara in the 1970s, the same place looking like 1980s Cubao by the 1970s, and a bit like 1980s Virra Mall by the 1990s.
I guess moving slowly but surely forward is better in the long run than Pinoy cha-cha, meaning one step forward, two steps back.
For decades, the Philippines built with ingenuity but never scaled beyond it — we turned Army jeeps into icons yet stayed stuck there, assembled cars but did not design them, built ships we don’t sail, and mined ores others refined. But this diagnosis is not our destiny. Our realistic promise is to climb the value chain deliberately, following the proven steps of countries like South Korea: long-term industrial planning, performance-based protection, patient state finance, mandatory technology transfer, supplier tooling support, and export-driven clusters. We will move from assembler to co-designer, from ore exporter to midstream processor, from shipbuilder-for-others to maritime innovator, and from improvisation to continuous innovation. We will not catch up overnight — but we will catch up on purpose, one rung at a time, with a strategy that finally matches our ambition.
I think an important prerequisite for that is this part of Joey’s short summary of how Korea built its car industry:
The last part, in bold, is probably still hard to do in a country like the Philippines were programs of previous admins are scrapped just because they were from the previous admin.
Even if PNoy continued late GMA economic policies and built on them. Even if Duterte at least didn’t change the tourism slogan after Pnoy. Even if Marcos Jr. seems to have a sense of institutions and stability.
also from Joey.
What possible areas or industries could the Philippines start with?
Actually setting up factories to manufacture the DOST hybrid electric train in series for the PNR line going Southeast? Encourage formation of Filipino-run data center operations? Technology transfer from the Dutch for flood control?
Even barangay pet projects have no continuity. Continuity is also the justification used by dynasties.
no continuity coz they run out of funds? there was also change in govt and new incumbents canned projects as they have other priorities. people who champions causes and projects die and their projects die with them. and right of way sometimes has ways of killing off projects.
though there are times when projects dragged on and on, hoping to get more funding on top of current funding, piling on money, until someone sees tru the charade and projects are stopped before completion.
Cash cow projects. We do get outraged, we just get easily distracted with multi-pronged issues.
Continutity means continue to elect dynasts para tuloy ang ligaya, this is the fix it because it is broke imperative. Magagalit tayo only aftyer watching Bayaniverse at isigaw natin: Bayan muna bago sarili, tapos wala na.
there is this poem by Heneral Luna in the movie where he says soon we will all just be dust.. so is it all just dust in the wind?
KB wrote that:
so is the Philippines really just the Land of Constant Beginnings, with nothing lasting? I already mentioned that the major difference between Quezon and Atatürk was that the latter left ideas many people continue to believe in to this day, and not just believe but act according to those beliefs.
Because often Filipino religious and political beliefs are mere lip service, not saying there are no true believers there, but I think they are few.
@Irineo,
Chatpt interpretation of your comment.
Here’s a clean, thoughtful piece you can use as a commentary, essay paragraph, or opening reflection — inspired by the blog comment but elevated, cohesive, and resonant:—There’s a line in the Heneral Luna film where the general reflects that “soon we will all just be dust.” It’s a chilling reminder of mortality, but also of a deeper national anxiety: if all things pass, does anything in the Philippines ever truly endure? KB once wrote that “people who champion causes and projects die, and their projects die with them.” It’s a painful observation, but one that echoes across our history—initiatives rising with fanfare only to fade when their champions fall out of power, run out of energy, or simply pass away.This has led some to call the Philippines the Land of Constant Beginnings: always starting, rarely finishing; forever launching, seldom sustaining. And when we compare ourselves to nations whose founders left behind institutions, doctrines, and civic virtues that people still actively live by—Atatürk’s Turkey being a classic example—the contrast is stark. Quezon had charisma, vision, and bravado, but he did not leave a durable civic creed. Atatürk left ideas that became habits, habits that became institutions, and institutions that became identity.Our problem is not the absence of belief, but the fragility of belief. Too often our religious and political convictions reside in slogans, rituals, and performance—lip service rather than lived service. We have true believers, yes, but they are outnumbered by those who believe only when convenient, or when watched, or when it costs nothing.But perhaps the real tragedy is not that we are “dust in the wind,” but that we behave as though we are—forgetting that even dust, when it settles together, becomes the soil in which something lasting can grow. Nations endure not because their heroes live forever, but because their people choose to carry forward the discipline, the values, and the institutions those heroes fought for. Our beginnings will remain constant only as long as our follow-through remains absent.The challenge for the Philippines, then, is not to wait for another Luna or another Quezon, but to build a culture where ideas outlive their authors—and where belief is not a performance, but a practice.
I tend to look for both evidence and counter-evidence of whatever assumption I have. This could be an exception to a general observation I made which may or may not apply to a majority or even plurality of Filipinos, what do I really know?
https://x.com/rapplerdotcom/status/1989968235794485365
I do not know what to make of it.
Here’s what might be “wrong with the picture,” based on the description you gave (since no actual image was shared):
1. The symbolism of the military renewing an oath in front of religious leaders
A military oath of non-partisanship is normally a state function. Doing it in an event “with religious leaders” risks creating:
Blurred lines between church and state
Possible impression of religious influence over the military
Optics suggesting the military needs religious endorsement to affirm its constitutional role
In a country with constitutional separation of church and state, this is already a red flag.
2. Public, ceremonial re-oath-taking can look performative
The AFP already swears this oath upon entry and through regular service traditions.
Doing a very public “renewal” can be interpreted as:
An attempt to counter ongoing rumors of politicization, which ironically highlights the issue rather than resolves it
PR damage control, implying something is unstable internally
A response to political pressure, which contradicts the message of neutrality
3. Timing and context (Nov. 16)
If this aligns with:
political tensions,
rumors of destabilization,
high-profile investigations involving national leaders,
then the event looks like a reactive messaging campaign rather than a routine military tradition.
4. Messaging mismatch
Non-partisanship is a constitutional duty — not something dependent on public ceremonies.
By staging it:
the AFP risks signaling that neutrality is conditional, needs reassurance, or is currently in question.
5. “Courtesy Photos from the AFP”
This indicates that the AFP publicized the event themselves, which reinforces:
the idea of self-justifying PR,
not a normal military tradition but a communications strategy.
—
If you want, you can tell me the political or news context around this event and I can identify the specific political signals or red flags that observers (military analysts, political scientists, journalists) might point out.
“Self-justifying PR”
I love computers. They are so smart, occasionally glib, and make mistakes now and then just like humans. They are not yet mean but can be used for mean purposes. China is flooding the zone, I think, with pro-China articles.
“Word on the street” from those I know in the masa is that a certain religious “sect” is agitating for a military coup. There is enough support from one side’s base that Brawner has had to come out on multiple occasions to state, almost plead, that the AFP should not meddle in civilian affairs. Since September there have been a couple of attempts to sway military officers their way. One can have at a guess of which “sect” this is, and why they are organizing rallies against alleged corruption without pointing fingers but strongly implying all blame lies with Marcos. I also found it interesting that Philippine media has reported out official statements from Malacañang, Teodoro and Brawner referring to this religious group as a “sect.” Personally, I think the upper classes are not paying enough attention to this particular thread.
I agree with you and the word on the street.
see, that is where the major difference to for instance Japan and Korea lies. In Joey’s example of the Korean auto industry, you have admins as different as Syngman Rhee (NOTORIOUSLY corrupt post-Korean war leader), the likes of Roh Tae-Woo and Chun Doo-Hwan (dictatorship and soon after) until today’s admins continuing things because they were FOR (SOUTH) KOREA, I assume. In the Phillippines, it has to be credited to the current “rajah”, so to speak.
That is probably why most major projects are run by private entities, whether it is Cebu-Cordova bridge, Manila subway, NSCR, MRT7, Skyway which is finally complete after decades, and Filipinos used to crediting projects to a President have a hard time because one signed it, it started in another’s time, all that. As long as Filipino leaders and Filipinos don’t think more in terms of whole country no matter who is in charge, that will probably not change much.
Also important to note that prior to the Korean War, nearly all the major industrial activity was in the future North Korea. Same situation before the Vietnam War where almost all industry was located in what was North Vietnam after the partition. South Korea was mostly agrarian and quite poor. Syngman Rhee had a bad reputation after he took proto-dictatorial powers in 1956 by bending the South Korean constitution (but not quite breaking it), but the initialization of the industrial plan was a year before that in 1955. The seizure of the South Korean government in the 1960 coup by Park Chung Hee aside, both Park and his successor Chun Doo-hwan both maintained, and built upon Rhee’s industrial policies.
Under return to full democracy, South Korea continued the policies… but very important to point out that it was under the democratic government by multiple parties since 1987 when South Korean companies started really challenging themselves to do become exporters, as the companies were also challenged by South Korea to make better products. The domestic market, having never really having nice things previously, is happy with simple, cheap, and even badly made products. Think of the origins of Ford and Volkswagen and those company’s first mass produced cars the Model T and Type 1 (Beetle). But to enter established markets the product quality needs to become much better, like how Toyota made “econo-mobiles” for years before diversifying into their luxury brand Lexus. The most famous example of South Korean companies, under government support, becoming more serious about developing an export market is the 1995 even when Samsung’s then-Chairman Lee Kun-hee ordered the public smashing and burning on a pyre of more than 150,000 Samsung electronic devices, then directing Samsung to develop AND manufacture better products that foreign customers might WANT to buy rather than buying because the South Korean product was cheap.
When I think about the Philippine political penchant of misappropriating, sometimes outright stealing, credit while repeating stock phrases like “credit where credit is due,” I can imagine how the datus and rajahs of old probably operated. In the modern time, what’s wrong with admitting that “Japan helped us with this,” “South Korea helped us with this,” “America helped us with this,” and “due to the hands-on experience watching our benefactor build something, we’ll be able to learn how to do it ourselves soon.” In the case of the CCLEX, the MRT7, or even the old MacArthur Highway, nary an admission of outside help; rather politicians tend to pound their chests and say “I did this ALONE.” Duterte thought he could get the PRC to help him build stuff, and he probably would’ve taken full credit as well. Certainly something a good number of Filipinos don’t want to admit to even if they might have an idea on the underlying truth. I understand the pride-based huffing and puffing about even minor criticism being interpreted as a major attack on ALL Filipinos, but I consider that to be a toxic trait that lacks self-awareness. Hard to improve if one cannot admit to one’s faults. Hard to improve a country if politicians who reflect the same sentiment continually get elected.
Having observed and worked in the Middle East previously, those Arab oil sheikhs operate in much the same manner. Dubai is a shining modern city, as long as one doesn’t leave the official city limits. Saudi Arabia is trying to replicate the same on a grander scale. Even tiny Bahrain and Qatar go on obscene building sprees with their current resource extraction model. But how much of it was really designed and built with local Arab hands? What experience was transferred and internalized? A pithy amount. What will happen when those oil sheikhs run out of petroleum reserves? That fear is what is driving Saudi Arabia to go on a building spree now to try to diversify, yet they seem to be failing as they still hire foreign expertise and foreign labor. There is no Saudi experience doing even the basics. So how can Saudi do advanced stuff on their own if they didn’t have a ton of money to buy experts and labor? I guess in the end, the Philippines would be alright as long as the Philippines’ natural resource, excess human labor, is replenished in the next generation. But there are examples available to do things better. The American-Canadian model, the Western European (minus UK) model, the Japanese model, the South Korean model, and so on. The Philippines has plenty of examples to mix and choose from.
probably that is because the ideas of “galing” and “gahum” among many Filipinos are indeed somehow of it being innate, somewhat like Lam-Ang at least in the versions of the legend I know was a grown man after one month and went to war against the Igorots when he was one year old.
The Youtube video below is the first episode of the teleserye Amaya which was about pre-Hispanic Philippines, and had many historians advising it including my father. The song at the start on top of the balangay is about how Rajah Mangubat more or less did everything perfectly at impossible ages and never lost. It has a crazy scene where Rajah Mangubat kills a Datu who dared opposed him by just using his finger.
These tribal ways of thinking are still very deep in many Filipinos. Most Filipinos comprising the new middle class now probably had grandparents or great-grandparents who left the continuation of the old barangay culture and had their first battery-operated transistor radios. Most readers here are old middle class and some are part of that old middle class that left for the USA or other countries.
for many Filipinos, that would unfortunately look weak. See how Joe describes it in his classic article on Face and Power:
This is the key quote:
so you are either the datu or the one who has to bow to the ground before the datu, a true hampaslupa (literally slapsoil) which apparentlly is one of Cynthia Villar’s favorite words. Of course that is far from a modern society, though it may yet develop into one.
a German manager who worked in the Gulf States told me that over there, the credibility of a statement often depends on WHO says it and how that person is perceived by society. Also not a modern mindset. Why am I reminded about how DDS have their respective influencers, those they believe like “kuyas”?
The difference with that culture and that of GRP is that the latter just wants to break the perceived gahum of political enemies, not improve anything.
Sometimes I think just as Filipinos have a great ability for adapting to immediate circumstances, I also think Filipinos have a hard time giving up the past and “tradition.” The thing is, “tradition” for most intents and purposes is mostly used as a justification for something the person(s) with greater power want those with lower power to do. The widespread but often dismissed abuse of utang na loob tradition is a prominent example. I’ve found that Filipinos often treat traditions as rigid and immutable, wielding it more as a cudgel to bash perceived offenders of “tradition” rather than using tradition for expressing the positive aspects of culture.
But what is a tradition? Traditions are behaviors, customs and beliefs passed down from one generation to the next generation. Traditions carry symbolic meaning and a connection to the past. Traditions evolve with new elements added and some other elements forgotten. I do wonder, when tradition is prevented from evolving, is it still tradition or is it reinforced dogma with no room for reinterpretation? Many traditions can arguably originate in cultural superstitions with varying degrees of actual historical accuracy, but fidelity to the literal truth is often not the point of tradition. Rather tradition is a way by which a culture structures, and ultimately expresses itself. Traditions can either be a guidestone to expand possibility or tradition can constrain towards a long gone past, depending on how the culture views its traditions. It’s hard to move forward when one is stuck on a past that might not be true to begin with.
Aside from the teleserye Amaya being quite OA (I had watched it years ago), Mangubat is portrayed almost completely the opposite of what is known about the historical Rajah Mangubat. Mangubat, whose name means something like “to raid” (or “to make battle”) in Cebuano, was supposedly the son of Lapu-Lapu who reigned after Lapu-Lapu abandoned Mactan after unsuccessfully challenging Humabon and returned to Borneo. Of course Lapu-Lapu is venerated by Cebuanos and has become somewhat of a Philippine national hero for killing Magellan, even if Pigafetta’s chronicles portrayed Lapu-Lapu as neither being the actual killer of Magellan, and that Lapu-Lapu basically cowardly ambushed Magellan. Interesting last year, the Cebuano wannabe rapper Range999 was feted as a modern day Lapu-Lapu when he murdered the American in the Cebu bar, with his reason being that the American had offended Cebuano pride (apparently the girl the rapper was courting paid too much attention to the foreigner). And of course, the real Mangubat submitted to Legazpi and provided warriors to conquer Luzon.
I find the Arabs quite interesting. In my time working in the Middle East they often told me stories about the Islamic Golden Age (true), but conveniently most omitted that the Islamic Golden Age was ushered in by the open-minded Abbasids from the Umayyad periphery. The Umayyads themselves, who were from the original heartland of Arabia, were harsh rulers who justified themselves based on “tradition.”
Well the thing with the South Korean example is that Koreans living in South Korea did culturally evolve, especially after the Korean War. Countries in the ancient Sinosphere always viewed the Koreans as backwards country bumpkins who while war-like were more likely to make war on each other’s small kingdoms than to outsiders. Koreans never expanded beyond the small Korean Peninsula and more often than not were dominated by others. While there are still Koreans today who think of “Korea Number One” in terms of mostly bluster (heard this often as a kid, when South Korea definitely was not so great), most South Koreans have evolved culturally beyond that while honoring a modernized version of their traditions. Instead there is no longer a need to bluster and boast when South Koreans can point to how much progress they have made. That progress requires the hard work of society, but it also needs to be shaped and led by capable but most importantly, willing leaders.
nobody knows who really killed Magellan among Lapu-Lapu’s men.
the article I wrote here published on March 16, 2021 is based on me pretty much slogging through the online versions (thanks MLQ3) of Pigafetta’s chronicles, among other things, very intense work after year end 2020 with much time as we were on lockdown then. The most important thing I extracted among other things from the sources was that a) the coast of Mactan where Magellan and a few men anchored and went out to fight Lapu-Lapu on boats was not reachable by Spanish cannons as the water was very shallow as per Pigafetta (I wonder where exactly Mactan’s littoral areas are like that) and b) Magellan’s men were NOT professional soldiers for the most part, his expedition was unlike that of Legazpi (especially after Urdaneta returned with Mexican reinforcements) an exploration and trading mission at most.
It is possible but of course not provable that Humabon was tactically friendly to Magellan as he knew he had no chance of defending Cebu against his cannons. The main figure Legazpi dealt with was Rajah Tupas of Cebu, but I believe Legazpi who was pretty old was more calculating and less impetuous than Magellan. And he I guess applied the Spanish tradition of playing out rulers against each other, practiced in the Reconquista and continued in the Americas, to the hilt.
I’ve seen videos of what happened with the American and the Cebuano rapper BTW, from the CCTV of the parking lot of the Waterfront Hotel I think. The American made the mistake – my evaluation – of getting overconfident on a turf where his rival and his folks were instead of simply leaving. Somewhat like Magellan. Filipinos will usually not play the away game, to use a sports metaphor. But maybe the American wanted to stand his ground, we will never know now.
That is how I see modern Bavaria as well. The instrumentalization of tradition for control which reactionaries worldwide practice doesn’t happen here. GOOD Conservatism can mean honoring tradition but embracing progress in one’s own specific way. That is a long topic especially if one would deal with the reactionary types in the Philippines, as opposed to those who modernize only on the surface, maybe even worth a separate article at some point.
The Battle of Mactan happened a bit off of Punta Engaño (Spanish: Deception Point) on the shores of the now Magellan Bay. Engaño was formerly called Pungosan/Pangusan from the (Central Philippine) root word pungos, to cut the tip off of something. Supposedly it was a pre-Spanish leper colony according to local Cebuanos. Today Punta Engaño is commonly used as a boat landing by local fisherfolk due to the shallow waters. The waters of Magellan Bay and the Mactan Strait are probably deep enough for wooden sailing ships, so the lack of naval artillery support in the battle was more likely due to the suddenness (it was a sneak attack) and the angle the cannons needed to fire. Magellan Bay is quite constricted and does not leave much room for naval maneuvering.
That being said, I really do think that myths can become detrimental when 1.) not true to begin with 2.) if not true and contain little to no allegorical value to guide the current generation. Early American biographer Mason Locke Weems’ famous story of a young George Washington confessing “I cannot tell a lie” when confronted for chopping down his father’s cherry is an obvious fabrication, but the point was as an allegory on honesty that embodied the early American moral beliefs for future generations. I wondered after watching the CCTV of the Cebuano wannabe rapper gunning down the American, even if the American disturbed local sensibilities with his rudeness, what value was gained when locals compared him to Lapu-Lapu and seeing him as a local hero. As if that was a big victory since he languishes in jail on a murder rap. Apparently he is a minor celebrity at his jail. I could not help but find the comparison to Lapu-Lapu ironic.
Yeah, like in Bavaria, there are many examples elsewhere of traditions being evolved to move a society forward are plentiful. When I was living in Japan a lot of the festivals associated with particular towns and provinces originated in Shinto (pre-Zen Buddhist animism) religious rituals. To a lesser extent there are festivals with origins in early Zen Buddhist practice. Most Japanese have forgotten the actual festival origins, but it is an opportunity for community gathering, transmitting traditional Japanese culture and costume even if Japanese people wear Western clothes normally. Japanese festivals have also been a big tourism boon. Interestingly in the Philippines the major street festivals are a recent tourism-specific development since the late 1960s to 1980s. Sinulog, Ati-Atihan, and Dinagyang were all “backdated” to have origins in the veneration of Santo Niño, but are more like Mardi Gras and Carnival. Of course the historically inclined will know that both Mardi Gras and Carnival started as a Medieval peasant festival to mark the coming of Lenten season where peasants enjoyed their produce before the Lent Fast. The masks and costumes come from an even earlier Roman and Greek harvest fertility festival, with the masks originally being apotropaic (protective magic) masks to ward off evil spirits, then later granting anonymity, to today being just for fun. In Cebu, many Cebuanos have forgotten the origins of Sinulog started under the late mayor Florentino Solon and just assume Sinulog has always existed. Meanwhile in Japan, the Japanese who participate in their festivals recognize some historical basis of the festival even if they don’t know the whole details.
what value? The usual “you see, white man must not disrespect da Pilipino, because Pilipino will fight back”. The usual narrative that the Filipino is “maisog” or “astig”. That narrative can be so corrupted, like for instance how DDS mocked PNoy for being polite to Westerners by calling him their lapdog, while Duterte played the maisog narrative to the hilt as in “putang inang EU” and not taking orders from “white people” at the ICC. Simplistic narratives breed that kind of stuff.
most Bavarian festivals are, usually they are related to agriculture and seasons. Even the Oktoberfest though new (early 19th century due to a royal wedding) has similarities to a lot of harvest festivals that take place in similar times, even if it is now a very commercialized affair and the ritual of the mayor opening the first keg and giving the first stein to the Prime Minister of Bavaria is a ritual introduced after WW2.
Nothing wrong with new traditions in that sense, because after a while they do turn into something real for the community, like for instance the Ibalong festival as it is now celebrated in Albay. The lowland Christian Filipinos lost a lot of their old traditions when Spain came, unlike for instance the Cordillerans who have their old harvest feasts. I think one scene in Apocalypse Now the movie was scenery from a real festivity.
I discovered at some point that the way the 1705 Bavarian 1705-1705 uprising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavarian_uprising_of_1705%E2%80%931706 had been recounted by many was a product of its reinterpretation in the 19th century through the lens of Romanticism and the new Kingdom of Bavaria.
Walking through the streets of Lower Sendling, just below the hilltop where rebels from Upper Bavaria were massacred by Imperial Austrian troops, I noticed that most of the “peasant leaders” as per the signs explaining the road names were actually innkeepers, an important group of people as those who knew all classes of the time and got all the news as people passed by their taverns.
Only one, Kidler, was a rich peasant, and was drawn and quartered (same punishment as William Wallace) in the center of Munich, while another, Plinganser, was a kind of notary public, a minor functionary and was imprisoned and later pardoned. The Blacksmith of Köchel was known to be a mythical figure invented by Romantics (big R) though in Andor https://www.starwars.com/databank/brasso is similar – or Little John in the Robin Hood tale.
What’s the lesson? That one should be careful with simplistic revolutionary narratives in general. Take them with more than a grain of salt.
Or how one deconstructs narratives. The narrative of Matthias Kneißl (executed in Munich in 1902) as a folk hero was deconstructed in a 2008 movie while still showing HOW sympathy for him developed due to the huge gap between rich and poor in Bavaria back then. I haven’t watched the Quezon movie but it probably did the deconstruction badly based on all reviews so far. BTW the filmmakers of the 2008 Kneißl movie had to go to the Czech Republic to film his original village, as there aren’t any places that run down anymore in modern Bavaria. They did manage to make a good story of a simple man at the edge of society back then provoked into fighting a cop and glorified as a rebel when he went into hiding when all he wanted was to have a chance to migrate to the USA for a better life.
But maybe it takes the hindsight of having overcome old societal challenges to develop such a clear view.
ICYMI, this was my take on how wrong ideas have led to Dutertismo, quoted from my old Twitter account by MLQ3 back in 2019:
https://opinion.inquirer.net/121916/looking-backwards
To frame it in the context we have been taking about, people who can mistake a Cebuano rapper who kills a foreigner for Lapu-Lapu (who himself was already a questionable hero if ever) can also mistake Duterte for another Dagohoy – even if Dagohoy was also a weird “hero” figure, a cult leader datu type.
To mention Romanticism once more, German Romanticism framed Arminius or Herrmann, the Germanic warrior who defeated Varus in the Teutoburg forest, as an early hero against Latin people. Seen in the context of 19th century German nationalism that saw the French as the enemy who were considered as having kept down the Germans for centuries, that kind of “hero” made “sense” as part of propaganda. I don’t see what sense Lapulapu makes as a hero even if he is part of history. Just as little sense as Arminius, who had no sense at all of what a German nation was. Tamblot and Dagohoy of Bohol at least make some sense as leaders who tried to resist Spanish control, even if their reasons were purely personal, not in any way broader. Diego Silang? An Ilocano who tried to secure his own fiefdom by being an ally of the British in the late 1700s. But such hero stuff is loaded in the Philippines, a lot of egos and sensitivities are involved.
P.S. I would add that the idea of an “unfinished Philippine revolution”, very common especially in UP circles, a revolution that would end “postcolonial elite rule” has been very toxic to the entire Republic since decades. Even the debate whether Rizal was the real national hero or Bonifacio, being “of the masses” was more deserving is part of that old debate which is a debate about the present pretending to be a debate about the past. The weirdest take about the “unfinished revolution” was by historian Prof. Rey Ileto not too long ago, who wrote that the Makapili (yuck) were the true culmination of the Katipunan and the puppet Republic under President Laurel was the culmination of the unfinished revolution. Ileto has openly praised Duterte BTW. Or take journalist Carmen Navarro-Pedrosa, exiled to UK due to Marcos Sr., who praised Duterte’s Presidency in 2016 as the “end of the postcolonial period of the Philippines”. P.P.S. also Prof. Patricio Abinales, originally from Mindanao, who wrote that the Philippine state is just a continuation of colonial rule with new actors. Many sources of crazy ideas.
I have been embarrassed by my countrymen when visiting the Philippines more than once. The unfair characterization of the Philippines as a place where a foreigner can find a younger submissive woman does attract more losers from my country, Canada, Western Europe, and apparently now Southern/Eastern Europe too, who were rude to begin with, than decent men who tend to be more quiet. The guy who was killed was one such loser, though that doesn’t give one person the right to murder another. The irony I found was that the Cebuano rapper is also a loser, who reminds me of too-old-aspiring-rappers here in Los Angeles who perform on street corners, trying to sell their homemade burned CDs. What is interesting to me is how much (momentary) viral fame the rapper got, even to the point where the jail officials allowed him to make a music video (in Tagalog no less, to try to garner national support) with fellow inmates. But I focused mostly on his reaction to facing the consequences, where he answered a reporter’s question to the effect of “lesson learned” then proceeded to play victim that “prison is hard.” The whole “lesson learned” after the fact without actually learning anything is one of the root causes of why Filipinos often trip up on themselves. It’s like saying “I’m sorry, and I’ll do it again.” Anyway, I’ve encountered plenty of “maoy” in the Philippines who were trying to intimidate by being “isog” and “astig,” and if they did not stand down to reason a dospordos usually solves the problem. Filipinos need to look to the POSITIVE aspects of isog and astig; bravery to protect others when one need not be, and coolness under pressure when others break. “Fronting” as we used to say here in Los Angeles 1980s and 1990s gangland, is not isog and it is not astig. Someone who is fronting is another word for a poser btw.
For sure there isn’t anything wrong with new traditions, but what shocked me about some of these new Filipino fiestas is that we are only a generation removed from the festival founding, yet most already seem to think the festival has existed since the ancient pre-Spanish times, or they think that imported Mardi Gras/Carnival-type costumes are authentic native costumes. I go back to looking at whether or not a tradition has a good or bad effect on the culture. Constructing a greater image of oneself, like in the story of Lapu-Lapu or the festivals like Sinuglog seems to me to be setting up oneself to fail later as it may be yet another shaky foundation to build upon.
By the way, the Western (especially American) far-left and their adjacents regularly cross-pollinate and meet with the global (especially Filipino/Indonesian/Malaysian and Latin American) far-left and their adjacents. A lot of them made far-left ideas the main part of their identity since a young age like my high school self-appointed rival, a thought leader in the last decade for that movement that is well-read by them, including published works. The self-appointed rival had already traveled to Cuba, visited the NPA in the Philippines, the Naxalites of India, and so on by the time we graduated from high school. His father is a corporate lawyer, and like most of these far-leftists they are elites or at the very least, comfortably upper middle class. Out of touch in just another way from the mainstream elites they rage against. Contrarian just to be a contrary. The convenience of the “unfinished revolution” (they mean a far-left revolution) is that since they are the fringe, they would never accomplish their goals, and thus can continue bleating for decades.
re losers and posers, yes I know what you mean, passport bros and the like, as well as those Filipinos who want to prove something by “showing it to the white man”, of course via cheap shots.
re traditions, of course there are also very old ones like Penafrancia in Naga, which might actually have pre-Christian roots. Get what you mean though.
re far left, the problem with some far left types is that they can turn far right if they want to feel close to power. Prof. Rey Ileto might be a complex case as he is the son of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Ileto who was one of the first Filipino generals produced by West Point. There is a chapter in one of his books where he ironically describes himself I think as a feeble academic son of a very physical military man.
I do see an issue in how the Filipino Far Left idea of an unfinished revolution has been adapted to the toxic stew that is DDS “ideology”. They did support Duterte at the start until he dropped them after some time.
The idea that liberal democracy is somehow un-Filipino is unfortunately also mainstream partly due to their influence in Filipino academe. Or that ideas like human rights are totally foreign concepts. I am happy that there are nationalistic intellectuals like Dr. Xiao Chua who disagree with that DDS allegation. Considering that Xiao also is a bit of an influencer even many in the masses know I find that good. Though Visayans might not like his pro-Tagalog stance..
I find myself ambivalent on Prof. Rey Ileto. He has some interesting theories, though it seems to me that most of his theories are an attempt to squish the romantic image of the peasant masa into the story he’s trying to weave. A big mistake, and a tendency of some in the elite class to justify their own worldview, imho.
But yes, part of this fringe mixing is accelerated by the Internet allowing easier connection than writing each other letters (conspiracy theorists used to also communicate by written correspondence in the pre-BBS/pre-Internet days). Suppose there are 10 people. 9 are relatively normal in disposition and 1 is a possibly insane person. In a pre-Internet world if the insane person started spouting nonsense he would be shut down by the majority, and either change his views or at least retreat to his own thoughts. Algorithms that prefer controversy and outrage inorganically amplify the crazies, who are also able to create their own self-reinforcing communities free from social criticism. Here in the US the far-left and far-right somehow have come together in what some observers called the “Horseshoe Theory.” Interestingly the common threads are conspiracy theories, anti-social behavior couched in “anti-government” framing, and most importantly I think, anti-Semitism. I’m really surprised how much casual anti-Semitism exists in the Philippines, where there is a negligible Jewish presence. Perhaps that has a root in Spanish anti-Semitism (Expulsion of the Jews from Iberia and conversos), but there is also a major element that originated in Maoism through Stalinism. In my estimation a lot of Philippine far-left espouse some version (sometimes watered down) of Maoism.
Dutertismo, like Trumpism, is large incoherent. Duterte was famously a Maoist sympathizer who then developed some far-right traits. Trump who co-opted the far-right, is literally implementing communism in the US nowadays by state seizure of major American companies and forcing private entities to accept political commissars on their boards. Mostly though, Dutertismo and Trumpism seem more interested in capturing power in order to do corrupt things and grift. Their political coalitions due to lack of ideology and diametrically competing power centers are a lot more brittle than the unstoppable power they cosplay publicly. A lot of their supporters are fueled by resentment though, so probably the only way to finally defeat these movements is by addressing what the people are resenting. Economic conditions has a lot to do with it, as well as foreign influence from Russia and China that reach out and press touchpoints in social media algorithms.
I just had a thought that perhaps “advanced” liberal democracy as some on our pro-good governance side want might actually not be a right fit for the Philippines at this time. From historical context citizens tend to demand more liberalism once they gain more agency and economic power, either singly or collectively. For example, though Singapore was under a “good authoritarian,” eventually Singaporeans demanded a liberal democracy, as did South Korea which was under first a proto-authoritarian then multiple military dictatorships, but South Koreans also demanded liberal democracy once their personal conditions improved enough. By the way, speaking of South Korea, Koreans had never experienced any form of democracy — ever — until 1948. Until then, Koreans had only experienced autocratic kings and being overlorded by foreign autocratic emperors, but they figured it out somehow.
As for the far-left influence from Filipino academia, it seems to me that their position is a Filipinized version of small-c communism or at the very least, self-sufficient barangays working collectively together in total utopia. Well we have some clues that ancient barangaic life wasn’t that peaceful nor did even next door barangays work together most of the time as datus would’ve been rivals. Being highly educated in fields of theory, yet only mostly interacting with likeminded people puts these people into a bubble where they validate each other even if their takes are bad. All the while living mostly comfortable lives in Western-style gated subdivisions where they don’t have to deal with the usual hoi polloi that make up the vast majority of the country right outside the gates. In the US our far-left insist that everyone should be housed (agree), but that house should be basically a McMansion with land, that people should work in jobs they enjoy (preferable but unrealistic), and that a shitty finger paint artist deserves to be fully taken cared of by society, and so on. Being stuck in a bubble causes people who don’t even understand the theories they espouse come up with weird ideas. I always say, at least back then the far-left actually READ and UNDERSTOOD Marx. Now everything is just on vibes.
Enjoyable read. I’ve learned to take so much with a grain of salt in our whacky times that I carry a bag of iodized salt in my backpack. The iodine is for sanitation given how dirty discussions are on social media.
Joey and I touched on rare earth I proposed that DOST and ways to make it work because no one was successful as of yet.
And it will if they start even if takes fifty years as long as they do not stop the next administration.
Japan’s way to shrug China’s export ban of rare earth’s eorth copying.
Partnering with Austrslia and ewaste recycling and landfill mining.
They have the know how, they have the tech and they have the people to do it, but they are getting older. They need to pass the know how to someone like us, but we must give them a reason too. We do assemble cars for them we are part of the value chain in semi con, our coast guard us getting second hand ships but we shunned them when they offered to have a ship breaking and recycling facility because of environmental reasons but we allow a lot of planet earth destroying projects before, so it is still about lobbying.
The security guards and receptionists are in the lobby most of the time, they must be very powerful.
Dang it, too many typos to edit.
Consider it a style, hahaha! Like a speaking accent. It makes people read harder, it’s a good thing!
Thanks, Joe for being with me through thick and thin, as I told my wife, even through thin and fat.
My pleasure, for sure.
I knew chatgpt could turn my comment into something. Here it goes.
Japan’s rare earth strategy shows that even a resource-poor country can build security and independence through persistence, alliances, and technology—something the Philippines can copy if agencies like DOST commit for decades, not just one administration. Japan partnered with Australia, invested heavily in e-waste recycling and even landfill mining, and built a full ecosystem of know-how that we could tap into—especially since Filipino industry already contributes to Japanese value chains in semiconductors, auto assembly, and even maritime assets. The irony is we once rejected Japan’s offer to help build a modern ship-breaking and recycling facility “for environmental reasons,” even while allowing far worse, show-piece-destroying projects elsewhere; so yes, a lot still comes down to lobbying. If we want Japan to pass that expertise to us before their expert workforce ages out, we need to give them a strategic reason to do so. After all, in this country the “lobby” is where power is—just ask the security guards and receptionists who never leave it.
Excellent questions.
The Philippines does have an auto manufacturing capacity, and it is growing with introduction of the Toyota Tamaraw, which I’ve seen on the streets already. But building to compete in the international market is a whole different ballgame and I can’t comprehend how the Philippines could do that.
For me, ship and boat building make sense. Ports harbors riverways. Replace outriggers with mid-sized simple craft. Start a sailing craze. Anything to do with water, do it. Scuba gear, surfboards.
Trains, not enough volume in the Philippines alone. Niche products like missiles and ammunition. Drones. Design new flood technology as you suggest. I dunno. It’s hard to crack.
Re trains.
he DOTR and PPP body is psyching themselves up, even with the repeated pull-out pronouncements of MVP and Ayala group from LRT 1, they said they have many proposals from other moneyed people or something to that effect.
I have supported your bee fleet, the military industrial simplex, add the ideas you mentioned above.
Unfortunately in this dynastic PH, if there is a will, there are relatives.
Francis mentioned tatak pinoy, but before that there is the slogan: Yes, the Filipino can….now we are back to asking, yes they can, but will they?
Speaking of moneyed people.
The Villar’s investors pull-out because of them literally valuing themselves too much that they got audited and had no choice but to lower their price and expectations.
If they lose customers, tenants en masse, no PR expert can do damage control.
The Villars don’t seem very sophisticated to me. Somewhere between Mom and Pop and fly by night.
A proposed amalgamation would be: Mr and Mrs Mc Fly.
Ha, yes!
It would be fascinating to understand the financials of a train company, revenues and costs. Given the huge ridership, new records I believe, I’d raise the fares to sustainable levels to cover maintenance and refurbishment of CRs, and if government doth protest, let them pay the required income to get to profitable and quality maintenance. Everyone has to contribute to get quality into trains. Ridership will be there if it is a quality ride.
It’s good to know DOTR has confidence they can get operators. Alas, I have little confidence in DOTR.
populist leaders, often block fare increase proposals.
People’s chicken in the egg outrage would be, why increase fares when you have poor service and how can we afford to ride?
I’d respond by explaining the goals, quality stations and train service, and present the financials.
I paid a bit of attention to how those matters look like over here during the time when the MRT3 was particularly being criticized. Of course all the moving parts of trains and those affected by them cost maintenance: the wheels can develop “out-of-roundness” due to wear and tear which will damage the tracks, so they have to be honed back to full roundness, the pantograph which gets its current from the overhead wires should adjust and not spark too much, all that.
The electrical network of a train system is also what in IT we would call a “point of failure”, and a really big one. So is the signalling technology used. Neglect any part of the equation and you have years of maintenance and overhaul before you, only possible on weekends or late nights if you don’t want to disrupt rush hour. Another rule of thumb is all parts of the network not underground but outdoors are vulnerable to the weather.
Expensive to run, for sure.
Re Financials
Our Congress spends its energy discussing the budget for almost a year then an anomaly is exposed about insertions, the recent ones are not the first time we are stuck in this episode.
Constant beginnings-start, stop, abandon then reset.
For Private Conglomerates
Even one shared powerful voice in the board makes it about influence does not come with the number of shares so long as there is a power source, and transmission lines are supported by transmission towers, if you get my drift.
Now as to PR, Damage control and Info communiques,
All are co-existent,but like national security, everything is need to know.
*powerful voice with one share
Yes, the failure to build seems prominent. Cars up and down, ships modest, trains and buses zero, arms and ammunition nil. Drones, nary a whisper.
I think those who have more impressive car parks than even some of the rich here in Munich are part of the problem over there. I do know a house near the woods over here with a duplex garage, and I have seen the two Porsches in them. To be fair, I was part of a conversation of some obviously rich people over here many summers ago along the river side, and they were talking about their sea yachts and how much gas they guzzle so they aren’t poorer than the Discayas for sure.
But the Philippines already had shiny modern US cars all over town in the 1960s, when Singapore probably still looked way shabbier than Cubao looked by the 1980s – I am saying 1980s because 1960s Cubao was a shiny, squeaky clean place. So the priority mostly has indeed been to buy (like Arab oil sheikhs which is one of Joey’s analogies) to look like big shots today, not learn and build to be real big shots some time in the future.
I’m in Cebu a lot and am impressed with the number of cars and the plethora of condos selling from 4 to 25 million. There are malls all over the place. So there is a lot of money in Cebu. I think having rich people is a symptom of success if it is honest wealth. So I like seeing fine cars. It’s oddly comforting. Government is the weakness, not being able to manage anything competently.
Government mismanagement in the Philippines is indeed a major issue, making life potentially precarious for a lot of middle class people.
I can imagine that a lot of the people who lost their cars in recent floods around Cebu City are call center folks who haven’t paid them off yet.
P.S. my 1960s examples (and I also have 1990s examples) are about a lot of Filipinos, especially many in power, overestimating gains.
it will be important to make what looks like a boom now truly sustainable and also spread the wealth a little better.
I think people also develop a more long-term attitude if government manages to provide a framework of stability.
Yes, makes good sense.
Since cars are still indispensible not only for the rich, this is where park and rides could be made useful.
One instance mall parking space are useful is SM Manila where employees of manila city hall can park. Not free but convenient.
I know of commuters who park there car in malls to commute to work, and some park their bikes if hey can not bike all the way to work.
Like gated communities, I just bite my fingers everytime there is a comment about it in this space, I live in a gated community and many do.
Cars are also indispensable in Germany once you live outside the larger towns. My comment about cars was about the likes of the Discayas and their luxury cars, literally “those who have more impressive car parks than even some of the rich here”. I mean it isn’t even bad for us over here, it feeds our working class who help build certain car brands, but is it good for the Philippines if people have such priorities beyond what the country can carry?
This isn’t about regular cars people need to get to work. In the Philippines, not all public transport is safe, I would have to get used to how things are there to use it, how the pace of life is and probably after a week or so when I turn darker due to the sun, all that.
Gated communities are a reality over there, MLQ3 noted that even UP Diliman which used to be more open about being open (as my comments about UP Balara and Old Balara show) has become relatively gated. Also a question of safety. That all developed over decades, a policy matter and not the fault of residents.
Unfortunately, that means some people can decide not to care what goes on outside the gates anymore. A question of personal attitude.
Filipino leftists would probably tell me we in Europe and USA are gated as well, our gates are where migrants and refugees come in, well those of us who want to be aware know what is the cause for them trying to come, and at least it isn’t within our own country, and towards our own people.
Here we can use public transport, people can send their kids to public schools, shopping happens in town centers (though there are also nice malls in many places now) because urban planning, public security and public education works. As Joe said the main issue in the Philippines is failed policy, not individuals. Though Filipinos do exist who care only about their own comfort and having the latest iPhone, just like very difficult people exist in the DE classes there.
During our youth, the ultimate status symbol was having a chedeng that bragging right theme lasted for a long time till the 90s. Of course a teen showing off his daddy’s de Ocho to friends was also a thing then.
I recall from my PH visit in 1986 that saying someone was “just a Pajero type” back then meant not so high class. I’ve also read some stuff about the 1990s and Virra Mall as the car flexing hangout back then, seems that mall is no longer upmarket nowadays.
The only neighbor we had in UP Area I with nicer cars was an engineering professor, probably one with good side jobs.
There is a bit of upmarketleft, though the open spaces were replaced by structures. Greenhills had a reputation in the 90s for dibidi dibidi and its predecessors, from bootleg movies to software with malware. Plus the PC repairs is still breathing though in the ICU .
Hey I resent that Pajero insult. My first car here was a second hand Pajero that had a small diesel engine that could barely get me up the hills of Mindanao. What a tank. The brakes eventually gave out so I got a brand new Honda Civic. Does that change my character? lol
Before Pajero was a Segment division from Montero but they looked the same back then and I think during that time Montero was considered a foreign Mitsubishi brand. That makes it prone to steering wheel conversion and the rest that follows.
The Pajero knock off was Pareho. Yes translated to the same.
That Pareho was never scaled up, it was good only for a few units then remembered only by a few people.
Also the proto typed Fiber Gless framed car the Conge, it never leveled up
sa amin, sa probinsya, payong was status symbol. we have a few rich kids in our school and they’re the ones who can afford to go to school with automatic payong. school is walking distance, their parents owned businesses in the poblacion. poorer kids like me go without payong and bear the heat of the sun. on rainy days rich kids are driven to school, may mga kotse e. and yet, they attended the same public school we do. their parents have been told it is better for their kids to get immersion and be with kids their own age, regardless of status. many rich kids struggle but adapted quickly, learn the linggo of the masses and toughened up. they even contracted the same childhood diseases as we do like measles and chicken pox, mumps, etc.
rick kids have better quality school bags, wear shoes and socks while the rest of us goes to school in tattered shoes and tsinelas. and their lunchboxes are to die for. they all have the books required, while we rent, borrow and share books. and they are always the teachers pet. we dont wear uniform in primary schools.
some of us got invited on their birthdays, where we gawk and wonder at the opulence. the spread of food, the nice clothes worn and the is pop music and disco dancing.
some rich kids are mayabang but they get brought down a peg or two by lesser kids who are quicker in wit. we fight and call each others name, but in the end, we were just kids and bad feeling are easily forgotten. there are always bigger kids around who are quick to awat a fight and brought end to it, mostly rotc cadets (scouts) in upper primary grades. outside of school, fighters usually avoid each other, giving cold shoulders, snubbing. but everything can be cured by a smile, even bad blood.
You are still lucky not to have far and remote schools that we hear of tales of having to cross seven mountains, now if you use waze even if your school is nearby you will be rerouted untilyou have reached your destination.
No wonder the Discaya couple bought a rolls royce because of the umbrella.
I remember tuloy junjun binay, once pinayongan sa gabi kahit walang ulan!
the discayas have their car collection auctioned specially the ones that did not pass customs. pati customs kasabwat pala nila.
Force of habit or program by guards, I saw a body guard once follow every movement of his principal until his principal told him to back off.( That was the men’s room of the community pool area)
Quickfix
Replace the agency leadership and his team.
Though it was BIR reshuffle in the recent news.
Same pattern of saving face and replace the competent with the ones you promised the position in the first place.(3 year ban after losing elections or other reasons)
another quick fix:
pass an emergency stop-gap law that confiscate assets of bolters and immediately freeze their bank accounts just when evidence of their wrongdoings are revealed. since bolters cannot be prevented from bolting overseas coz some have ready fake travel documents on standby and have many connections to agencies that ease their escapades, they should be hit hardest at the hip pocket. only when they return to the philippines can their assets be unfrozen subject to court order.
bolters should not left us in quandary, and because they did, we should have a ready law that immediately put us in level playing field with them. bolt, and the will be quickly dealt with, not dealt only when they return and face justice.
at the moment, our law seems to favor the bolters. and we are held in abeyance subject to their return, if they return.
Yes, good idea.
Good idea,
The but part is the likes of Duterte and Bato having a taste of their own medicine in bypassing the rights of others. They will question the unconstitutionality even if the SC will say later that there is no violation of the constitution.
One of my pet peeves. Lack of IRR.
Apparently apparently Bato cannot be surrendered to the authorities because even if it is the IHL or International Humanitarian Law law PH version that it must be done, no IRR so Bato’s lawyer insists that the law can not be enforced.
The section of the Philippine law that addresses the potential surrender of suspects to an international court, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), is Section 17 of Republic Act No. 9851 (The Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity).
Section 17 of RA 9851 (Jurisdiction)
Section 17 outlines the jurisdiction of Philippine courts over the crimes defined in the Act. The key passage regarding international cooperation states:
Section 17 of RA 9851 includes provisions allowing Philippine authorities to forgo investigation or prosecution if another international tribunal is already handling a case, and permits the surrender or extradition of individuals to an appropriate international court or state. This section has been the subject of legal discussion regarding the procedure for surrender, particularly following the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute. Some interpretations suggest RA 9851 could potentially serve as a domestic legal basis for cooperation with the ICC under certain conditions, even after withdrawal.
ahem, stuff bato’s lawyer. he does not have right of way. those that do are silent and not showing their cards on the table. maybe bato’s lawyer is just fishing, see what comes off the bait.
so where is the honorable senyor bato now? aint he apparently missing! I hope he’s not gone to heaven with enrile.
He had a picture taken holding A Santo Nino showing that he has found the lord. RIP JPE
rest in peace, jpe. apparently, in our folklore, the dead is given 30 days to remain earthbound, paminsan nagparamdam and show themselves to loved ones. they sometimes paramdam adversaries to let them know all is forgiven. 30 days, for the dead to resolve all their earthly angst, to visit all the places they have meant to visit while still alive, to drop all earthy investitures, etc. after 30 days, no more paramdam. end of mourning.
BTW, the one taken with a picture of Santo Nino was Bato.
The practice is 40 days, to match the number the Bible writers most often used.
apparently, santo ninyo is helpful mostly to the pure at heart. gwen garcia did not get a pass even though she was often seen dancing with the image of the santo ninyo at the sinulog festival in cebu, and then, gwen lost the governadorship to pam baricuatro.
same with imelda marcos, she was once pictured smiling and holding the imahe of the santo ninyo, then makoy’s regime fell on edsa.
bato ought to be careful, the santo ninyo cannot be used as a prop na walang kapalit!
30 days lang po sa amin, we follow tradition, not necessarily the bible.
Ok but I was also talking about the Catholic tradition.
The section of the Philippine law that addresses the potential surrender of suspects to an international court, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), is Section 17 of Republic Act No. 9851 (The Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity).
Section 17 of RA 9851 (Jurisdiction)
Section 17 outlines the jurisdiction of Philippine courts over the crimes defined in the Act. The key passage regarding international cooperation states:
Section 17 of RA 9851 includes provisions allowing Philippine authorities to forgo investigation or prosecution if another international tribunal is already handling a case, and permits the surrender or extradition of individuals to an appropriate international court or state. This section has been the subject of legal discussion regarding the procedure for surrender, particularly following the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute. Some interpretations suggest RA 9851 could potentially serve as a domestic legal basis for cooperation with the ICC under certain conditions, even after withdrawal.
Yes — that argument has indeed surfaced in public and legal discussions, especially in relation to the ICC’s ongoing probe into the Philippines’ “war on drugs.” Let’s unpack and analyze it carefully.
—
⚖️ The Claim: No Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) = No Surrender
Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s lawyer (and others aligned with this position) argue that Republic Act No. 9851 (The Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity) cannot be enforced—particularly the part about surrender to an international court—because it lacks Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR).
Their reasoning goes roughly like this:
1. RA 9851 needs procedural guidelines for implementing the surrender or cooperation mechanisms with international courts.
2. Since no IRR has been promulgated by the Department of Justice or the Executive branch since the law’s enactment in 2009, the law’s procedural provisions are “inoperative.”
3. Therefore, no legal mechanism currently exists to effect surrender to the ICC, even if the law mentions it.
—
⚖️ Legal Counterarguments and Analysis
However, this claim is not legally airtight. Several legal and constitutional points challenge it:
1. Absence of IRR does not invalidate a statute
Under Philippine jurisprudence, a law remains valid and enforceable even without an IRR, if the law is complete and self-executing.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled (e.g., Pimentel Jr. v. Aguirre, G.R. No. 132988, 2000) that implementation cannot be suspended simply due to lack of IRR when the statute itself provides sufficient guidance for enforcement.
RA 9851 is substantive in defining crimes and jurisdiction—it is not dependent on administrative rules to take effect.
2. Section 17 is self-executing
Section 17 explicitly states that the Philippines may surrender or cooperate with an international tribunal, and that jurisdiction may be deferred if another tribunal is acting on the same case.
These provisions are complete in themselves—they do not require an IRR to recognize the possibility or legality of surrender.
The IRR would have helped clarify procedure, not authority.
3. The obligation stems from the law, not the IRR
Even without an IRR, the State’s obligation under RA 9851 to cooperate with an international tribunal remains part of domestic law.
The law mirrors the Rome Statute’s complementarity principle, meaning the Philippines has domesticated the framework of cooperation and surrender.
4. Political vs. legal discretion
What truly hinders surrender is not the absence of IRR, but executive discretion and foreign policy stance.
The Department of Justice and Department of Foreign Affairs must authorize such cooperation, and under the current administration, there is political reluctance to engage with the ICC.
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⚖️ In Summary
Issue Pro-IRR Argument (Bato’s lawyer) Counterpoint
Effect of missing IRR No IRR = law cannot be enforced Law remains valid and enforceable if self-executing
Section 17 surrender clause Cannot be used without implementing guidelines Provision is substantive and self-executing
Basis for surrender Procedural deficiency Legal authority exists; political will is the real issue
Legal bottom line No domestic mechanism Domestic mechanism exists; only procedural refinement needed
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🧭 Interpretive Insight
The “no IRR” argument is largely procedural and political, not substantive. It serves as a legal shield for non-cooperation, but it does not erase the fact that RA 9851 is an active law that incorporates ICC-style accountability into Philippine jurisprudence.
Even without IRR, Philippine courts and authorities could act if they choose to, since the statutory basis exists. What’s missing is not legality—but political willingness to interpret and operationalize that legality.
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Would you like me to draft a concise legal brief or policy note summarizing both sides of this issue (with citations to Supreme Court rulings and RA 9851 text)? That would make it useful for academic or journalistic use.
“Lack of IRR does not invalidate a statute.”
What ever the logical fallacy of Bato’s lawyer is called, many will take his word for it.
My hope is I hope go back to formally recognizing ICC, to reduce the number of excuses.
I hope whatever protection the Senate gives to bato, it must have a time frame, not this seemingly unlimited timeframe of protection as pronounced by the senate president.
ahem, there are sinkholes in the senate, with senadores sometimes going behind each others back. senate pres only have goodwill of support, not sworn statement of support. senadors are known to cannibalize each other during session and can easily change sides. if it can be done to de lima, it was done also zubiri, and can also be done to sotto. they may appear collegial, but they have to watch their own backs.
bato is not protected state witness and it can go bad for him.
Excellent Ahem. It syncs with the theme of the Blog, sinkholes and all.
The nuances of corruption
A determinist says: “Given the system’s structure, corruption was inevitable — but we can change the structure next time.”A fatalist says: “Corruption is our destiny; nothing can change that.”A pessimist says: “Even if we try, corruption will likely return.”A defeatist says: “Why bother? It’s hopeless — don’t even try.”
Personally I think views and perspectives do not define a person, but it does leave a lasting impression if it hits a mark.
Here is another roundup of different perspectives.
The perspectives of a realist, optimist, pessimist, fatalist, and determinist on the concepts of patronage, subservience, and agency involve differing views on human nature, power structures, and the possibility of change.
Realist
A realist views these concepts as practical, observable dynamics of power and social structure. They see:
Optimist
An optimist views these concepts through the lens of potential for improvement, individual growth, and positive change. They see:
Pessimist
A pessimist views these concepts as evidence of inherent flaws in human nature and society, often leading to negative outcomes. They see:
Fatalist
A fatalist views these concepts as the unavoidable unfolding of a predetermined destiny or fate, where individual actions make no real difference to the outcome. They see:
Determinist
A determinist believes that all events, including human actions and social structures, are the predictable result of an unbroken chain of prior causes (causality). They see:
“Personally I think views and perspectives do not define a person, but it does leave a lasting impression if it hits a mark.”
Yes, a view or perspective may be offered in good faith and then discovered to be wrong. A person of “good” character would admit the mistake, a person of bad character would excuse it. One’s character is defined by one’s ability to “own” choices. For me, any how.
Because in my book, you have a good character.
In my writing venture, I am asking a mentor about an article I wrote, and I happen to overhaul everything everytime he gives an opinion. In the end, he gave me guidance to do the following everytime I write: fix thesis, then support thesis and own your views.
My first overhaul was valid because I over quoted him even with chatgpt hallucinations, which some is exactly the opposite of what he said upon double checking, but I told him no harm intended, but I did not blame chatgpt, but admitted non verification. When I overhauled it I was told not to make my thesis a moving target then I said I will stick to this version and revise only what the editors ask me to revise.
Even in this space, I was repeatedly given writing advice by you, Gian and Irineo and it will sink in soon, but I am appreciative of Irineo’s recognition of my improvement through the years.
Haha, I’ve always enjoyed your writings through thick, thin, and typos so do carry on!
Haha
I remember Mary Grace who has an aargh for every typo.
And Bert’s damn keyboard.
Come to think of it, I did carry on with the same bad habits
Touch screen or Chinese keyboard hahaha
Thanks Joe.
Thanks for that Irineo.
Now the comment, I was thankful for got misplaced somewhere here.
The United People’s Initiative claims they have retired AFP Officers among them and they have been noisy prior to the rally yesterday.
But for the AFP to be in a rally (sort of) to pledge allegiance of the soldiers or panatang makabayan ng kasundaluhan is unbecoming.
I am Catholic but my first impression ( right or wrong ) is this looks like one upmanship bet INC and Catholics
Masking fragmentation by claims of unity from all corners.
Tribalism by faction or a tribe sub divided.
I like the CBCP’s handling of the situation, stating explicitly that they are not involved in the rally, and taking a firm anti-corruption stance. Well, Pope Leo is opposed to US violence against immigrants, and has said so, so the Church is on high ground for sure.
Thanks for this mind stabilizer, Joe.
I have a lot of JoeAm comment thread inspired articles no name attribution but you know who ou are.
Ha, terrific. Bring it on!
Lessons learned .
Lessons learned from Korea that there are no shortcuts and no matter how many leaders ousted and executed they still follow a roadmap.
We must put a stop to Change scamming.