always in the crossfire

we are supposed to change politicians every three to six years.  yet we do not change them. especially at the local level. somehow we have already swallowed the notion that these politicians are entitled to three successive terms.  whether they have done well or not.  at the barangay level, leaders are supported by the mayors, who in turn get supported by the barangay leaders themselves. as do the congressman need the mayors. and so on going upwards.
the incumbents have all the government resources to back them up. the opposition needs to have a lot of money to be able to upset incumbents. all these for a measly pay. yet many of these supporters are so staunch and so determined even risking life or limb in the process of defending their favored candidates.  many get killed, and when the smoke clears, the politicians shake hands. while those who risked life for their candidates are forgotten.
in any election, the politician, whether he loses or wins, still stands. amid those who are caught in the crossfire, they would offer a few thousand pesos and a few inspiring words.
we may not know it, but high up, these seemingly opposing camps are really bosom buddies.

cheapskate

one thing i dislike among us filipinos is the habit of always finding cheaper goods or services.  this is just rational economic behavior. however, we do not mind whether the product we are buying is substandard or underweight. we do not care whether what we are buying are sometimes stolen goods for as long as it is good enough. we buy cellphones off the streets knowing they are stolen. or we patronize the home-based petrol dealers. the ones who sell gas in 1 liter softdrink bottles. some of them even water down the petrol in the hope of  gainign more. we know these are stolen goods yet we patronize them.
we also buy the best china phones knowing well these are imitations of known brands. we shy away from known and reliable brands because they are expensive, and prefer relatively unknown brands which could really be re-labeled. cheapskates we really are!

this sends a clear message to manufacturers to make more of substandard goods.

this is a clear message to snatchers to steal more cellphones.

this is a message to home-based dealers to sell more of stolen gas.

this is a message to steal more from each other.

attitudes

a certain news item in korea struck me deep.  students going to take the entrance exam for university need to be hauled to testing centers. what struck me was that, ordinary people, even police cars, expedite the trip. in the philippines, you could hardly see anybody offering you a ride. sometimes even neighbors shun each other.
i think there is a need to develop among filipinos a sense of national solidarity.  this means that we stop taking advantage among ourselves.  here, we are strangers in our own country. we avoid going around knowing the fact that ordinary drivers or tour operators take advantage of visitors by charging exorbitant rates for services and even of local products.

it is worse abroad.  filipinos take advantage of other filipinos by telling on those filipinos in hiding just to gain trust of the american authorities. or of denying them jobs, even if they could afford them. or of really maltreating them by promising them non-existing jobs.

we do not need to be really jubilant about manny pacquiao's victories and feel patriotic. oftentimes, these die down after a few moments seeing nothing has changed at home.  or whenever a politician promises a new covenant, a new beginning, etc, ad naseam.  we must go beyond wearing our national color in sports competitions or elsewhere.

the more important question is: are we ready to be at our fellowmen's side as the need arises?

election fever

in the philippines, elections almost never stops. you know why? while official election period starts during filing of candidacy, campaign is going on, although secretly --- mostly that is. after elections, the task of replacing people around the winning politician drags on until almost the next election period.  which means about a year before the filing of candidacy.  in the meantime, those incumbent rank and file and heads of offices, are constantly under the scrutiny of politicians. depending on whether the official is perceived to be 'friendly' or 'unsupportive', then it could merit a promotion or a demotion (floating status).  a floating status means he could be in the same position or designation, but another one is made to do his actual work.

the moment a politician comes to power, he becomes addicted to having vast powers at his behest. that's why it is hard to let go of any elective position in government.  and the more people support this kind of a set-up, the more the politicians will have a solid grasp of power in government.

politics and business

funny how some politicians go out of their way just to stay ahead.  in our small city, there is a comebacking politician who now is an admin officer and tries to dabble with so much, sometimes forgetting the bounds of his power.  even extending (albeit surreptitiously) to who gets the best stalls in the market, and condone penalties for those late stall rentals.  a politician who rode on votes of protestants stayed in power for two stints (18 years as legislator and 3 years as executive's chief of staff) and suffered a crushing defeat running in a much lower position. another politician who reviled a husband and wife team of politicians, but who ended up exactly where promised she wouldn't be.

as what my uncle once said, politics in the philippines simply means "poli-poli tikal" (a cebuano term meaning  to take turns at grandstanding).  were it not for some well-meaning academic and media and church leaders, philippine government would have collapsed under its own ills.

so much has to be done. some do more, some less, some undo what good that was done just to discredit the predecessor. some just gab their way to office. im  thankful for some of the appointive civil servants (this includes me of course) who have been doing their very best to better the city... keep the flames burning guyz!!!

kris and james

kris is a well-known TV personality, scion of prominent family, a daughter and a sister of our nation's president.  she is basking in the adulation of the filipino public. an epitome of wholesomeness, of finesse.  she has had some brief relationship with well-known personalities, until james came in.

james is a basketball superstar who has earned a following among sportsfans. soft-spoken and a shy kind of guy who shuns publicity.  he had a child of an earlier relationship. he really never made it to front page until he was linked to kris.  some even hinted that james did it to boost his career.  even some of those close to kris.


we may say their personalities are so diverse. yet their relationship flourished for some time. they now had a son. but last year just before the presidential elections, the relationship soured and eventually a petition for annulment is now in the courts.


for me, kris always hungers for attention, and failing relationships are too juicy for the tabloids always hungry for celebrity news. james may have some failings. maybe he is too young as some put it.  but maybe kris is also too conceited and just wants to be in the limelight every now and then.

countervailing power

an economics professor once told us of the potency of countervailing power.  an individual buyer is powerless against a monopolistic company, but as a consumer bloc which could organize boycotts, or lobby in congress could pressure such giant companies, or force these companies to face class-suit action. an individual worker cannot hope to have his voice heard, yet as a union, he can cause management to listen to his demands.


in our case, a cooperative has made lending companies and small retailers here to re-think their business strategies and start seriously improving their services and quality of goods to woo back their customers who have since started patronizing the cooperatives.  


the greatest come-on for members is that aside from a much lower interest charged on loans (cash or commodities), they get to receive a portion of what the cooperative earns in a year according to both the patronage and the share capital he has put into the cooperative.  many have since stopped borrowing from private moneylenders and commercial banks, and have purchased some of the commodities from the cooperative.


an ideal countervailing power for the small consumer.

a lost brother

oct 31, my 2nd son turned 19. he had a few of his classmates for some snacks and some bonding moments.  then a novena was said. my siblings arrived, all six of them in various degrees of prosperity and misery.  all but two are always with us in our family gatherings.  the 4th child lives farther away and cannot simply come even during these family gatherings.  especially the 3rd child for he lives in laguna, he can only come when finances permit.


he cannot come and go as he pleases for his earnings cannot allow it.  he is lost himself.  he has given so much of himself to his family neglecting his duty of respecting himself. the amor propio (pride of oneself) is lost. i wont talk about it unless he starts opening up, but i will talk about this with the other siblings.


once you lose yourself, you begin to lose self-worth. when you've given up so much of yourself, you lose your dignity. there has to be some limit and you should know when to stop giving. else,you would stop living . . .

political will

that was quite some muscle shown by no less than the governor of our province. he caused the meeting on all city and municipal mayors with their planning officers to discuss convergence of individual action plans of each city and municipality to jive with that of the province's thrust.  he promises all-out support for each city or municipality for as long as it it able to justify such a program.

veteran planners say the governor is competent and has the track record to effect drastic changes in the governance of the province.  he has ran his native city as a determined technocrat rather than a compromising politician.

so let's keep our fingers crossed...
of course, if he means well, i am ready for it...
that's what we owe to our people..

disgusting politics!

Last monday the barangay (village officials)and SK (youth government) elections was held nationwide.  it was a double whammy! In our barangay, two of my friends ran opposite each other, one was with the administration (by law, barangay politics is non-partisan) and the other for the opposition.  Although my personal choice would have been a better leader, the people around him and who are influential, makes him no better than the other.  The elections disproved the notion of clan voting, since money still talked.


I was particularly disturbed by the SK elections.  Vote-buying is as rampant as the barangay elections.  To think that they are young!...

a cousin's wedding

Last saturday, a cousin was wedded to her long-time boyfriend. She is the second of three daughters.  Except for her eldest sister, i knew little about them.  But her father, my uncle, had fondest regard for me.  A month before the wedding, he asked me to help compose a farewell note to her daughter which he will deliver during the wedding.  He was kinda distraught when I told him it has to be his piece.  Eventually I did compose something for him.
During the wedding reception, he started off with a wonderful opening, but to my surprise, the rest of his speech was mine!  It felt different when somebody delivered my speech.  I had goosebumps all over.
To top it all, I was asked to say, in behalf of all her cousins on the paternal side) a few inspiring words to the newly-weds.
If only my uncle had made efforts to bring her daughters closer, it would have been such a grand event... 

my finances

today i attended a financial education expo.  it was some refresher for me, since i also taught some finance in college. i had a smattering of finance, considering i studied economics in a master's course.  it's a different perspective when you just teach and when you actually apply it to your own finances. theoretically, finance is not really that hard. it is when you apply your learnings that is most tricky.

since the lecturers were from the central bank talking banking, they would naturally encourage saving your extra income into financial instruments.  but who would really allow money to accumulate in the bank until retirement. the failure of the US financial markets which affected the world economy will make us think twice. sure, the government would bail out these banks.  this means, instead of punishing imprudent banking behavior, the government (our very own money, or the taxes we pay) is in fact used to save the bank which is a private operation and in which the government really has no business in.

what could have been done is criminalize imprudent behavior, zealous supervision and monitoring of banking and financial transactions. no bailouts please! taxpayers' money must not be used to pay off greedy investors. that includes us --- ordinary depositors.  this means, we must aways closely watch our assets in depositary banks, or always ask our financial advisers how our investments are doing.

this means, everyone of us should have some working knowledge of finance.

In the service

for fifteen years i taught at a local college.  it was such a rewarding experience for me that even today i still long to be a mentor.  now, more than ever, after almost ten years in government service, i found even more reasons for teaching.  when i was teaching, i was so critical of government, and of government servants.  of course, this has since changed.  there are still those bureaucrats who enrich themselves, despite the oath "...hindi ko gagamitin ang aking panunungkulan sa sariling kapakanan..." (i will not use my office for my own ends); and there are still government policies that do not address poverty, but even encourage dependence on govenrment.

i am lucky to have a former teacher, a colleague, a co-worker, and now a boss, who is still that committed and so productive. and he demands much from each of us the highest standards of work performance we can give.  some would say he is a slave-driver.  i cannot disagree, but he gives consideration to us.  he has given us so much also.  that is why, i also try my best to work well and together with my co-workers, we try to excel.

and i would like these traits to be instilled among the students for we will lose the youth if we do not inculcate in them this culture of excellence.

a passion

everyday since early part of this year, i started a new diversion. fun rides on a mountain bike. every weekend and on holidays, together with a few friends from around town, we do up to 40 kilometers. sometimes on the road. other times on mountain trails and off-roads.  it's good for my health. and since i quit smoking two years ago, i now enjoy fresher and nicotine-free breaths.

sometimes other bikers from next town would join us. they have much better and more expensive bikes. me, i'm content with a less than 10,000 peso bike, as do my fellow bikers. we do this for our health and only for the weekends. maybe when we're rich enough to be able to bike away every day then we'd probably have more pricier bikes.

anybody wanna ride us this weekend?

philippine politics

it's both funny and sometimes tragic. the way politics are in the philippines.  funny, since they make enemies of friends, even of kinfolk. at times, they last for as long as the election period.  most times however, these animosities last for generations.  even the supporters tend to bequeath their favorite candidates to their scion.
tragic, since elections leave behind a path of destruction among the rival politicians and their clan.  and the most damage done is among the poor supporters.  i say poor, not just economically but politically as well.  especially the poor.
these are the most hopeless and most dependent portion of the electorate. they depend on their candidates not just during the election period, but even throughout the incumbency of his favorite politician. in terms of employment or smatterings of funding from government coffers.  they also lose politically. they exchange their vote for a few hundred or thousand pesos.  sometimes they risk limbs, and even lives.
this is one factor why we wallow in abject poverty. not just economic, but political, as well.
and this has driven out not just a few hundred filipinos to a foreign land, feeling hopeless.
no matter what however, i still think the filipino can. someday... somehow...

work ethic

backsliding p.noy?

it is becoming apparent now. p.noy, the much-awaited messiah? the one --- who will usher in a new dawn? where is he now on his promise of raising the filipino out of poverty?


contrary to good economic sense, he has just doubled the dole-outs.  a palliative for ending poverty is to directly give dole-outs to the poorest of the poor.  it will just increase the misery of the filipino. even encouraging the attitude of receiving something without having to do anything.  i'm talking about the conditional cash transfers to the poorest of the poor in selected households nationwide. a poor family gets 1,400 pesos a month for medicine and education. the only condition is their children go to school everyday for the next five years, and the mothers go regularly to the health center.


can we call this a new paradigm for solving poverty? a way out into the new morning for the filipino? 


this is even much cruel than marcos' or arroyo's. i think he will get negative grades even lower than gma's.

Starting With Me!

one campaign slogan in the recent elections (may2010), "simulan ko!" (i'll start with myself!")  this refers to making a change that starts with me, as a responsible voter.  that a better tomorrow can happen and it has to start with me.
100% true! i don't have to depend on city hall for my needs, there are simply too many dependents now.  i can, with all my friends, make a change for the better.  if i cannot be heard, i will make others believe in what i believe in.  if there are more who believe, then maybe we could have a louder voice.  corporations who make defective products are now at the mercy of consumer groups who could stage a boycott.  governments are at the mercy of their voters.  in our small city, we should not make city hall the sole source of our livelihood, there is simply too many of us sharing a measly budget.
we should try to redeem ourselves, and we should not wait for government or the church to do it for us. we ourselves should make it happen for us.

economic development and population 

population pressures has definitely a direct effect on economic development.  high population growth rates means more young dependents subsisting on a relatively small working population.  in a micro situation, this means, every worker has many children to raise. this includes cost of education and medical care.  for its part, a greater part of government budget must then also include more on social services like education and health. 

if there were less dependents, there would then be more for other expenditures like better housing and secure tenure. government may be able to concentrate more on economic services like employment generation, housing, livelihood programs, etc. 

this is one reason why i support the idea of having small families, planned households, informed choice.  this will free up some of our meager incomes to more productive activities. meaning, if we are able to halve our expenses on education and health care, we may be able to buy our own home lot, and eventually improve our houses, and probably invest on income generating ventures.  

10-10-10

10-10-10. october 10, 2010.
many of us try to make sense of the world around. the year 2000. jan 1, 2001 (01-01-02) or feb 2, 2002 (02-02-02), etc. but 9/11 couldn't have been significant were it not for the attacks.
everyday should be special. what is more important is how relate to others. do we greet our neighbors early in the morning?  its hard to really smile after a long night's sleep, but we could try to!
do we patiently wait in line at the bakery? maybe the other guy is really hungry, or another, why not we offer him a place ahead of you, what's a few seconds lost!
do we give in to the counterflow in a crowded street?  nothing passes until you give in.
do we try to overtake other vehicles in traffic and risk life and limb of others?
in a 2-hour travel, the average time a fast vehicle gets to his destination does not really amount to 5min, so maybe he has something really important, so let him pass!
these are just some of the simple things we could do or avoid to make the world a better place! to heal it!

is there hope for the filipino?
there was a discussion about the future of the philippines, of the filipino. will the filipino still be able to rise above oneself and be a respected person in the hall of nations?
without a doubt. i still believe the filipino can.

once he is able to get away from the yoke of dependence --- that the city hall is not the answer to almost all his needs.
the moment he sees the need the change the small things in his home, his community --- like responsibility in garbage disposal.
when he begins to transcend beyond personal reasons and take an active part in the barangay --- demanding performance from local leaders he chose to man the barangay hall .

yes, i think the filipino can still do it!

do you?

i think there is a real and urgent need to instill in us, filipinos, the problem of how to alleviate poverty. and that time is ... NOW!
poverty is not just a state of economic helplessness. this also means you are helpless against the politicians, except during the election period.
but the ordinary pinoy can try to inch his way out of the mires of poverty.  there are so many examples around us. but most of us refuse to see most of the time. with some great difficulty --- blood, sweat, tears, and other bodily fluids --- have oozed out of our parents just to see us through school. with ease, we while our time away with barkada, which mostly set the trend of how our future should be.  some yielded, some persevered.  those who yielded ended up in early, mostly forced, marriages. and before they know it, they have sunk deeper into misery, of helplessness. many end up as failed marriages and broken children.  some of those who persevered also shed their own.  however, since they know the meaning of sacrifice, they willingly accept ridicule and humiliation and have now landed as successful professionals.  some even ended up as distinguished in their fields of specialization.
this is not just an economic story. this is also a political story. when we decided to do something about changing our future, we have changed our political and economic life.

a step at a time . . .
that's how it all started ...
that's how things started
great things come from small beginnings!