On Exploiting the Filipino Masses

Last Tuesday, an old friend of mine called me from his expensive gym/health club. He told me that he is joining the planned massive protest in Makati CBD of the political opposition the following day to seek the ouster of President Gloria Arroyo. He is joining the rally through a public university based organization headed by that public university’s former president.

He said that their organization wants Arroyo and Vice-President de Castro out and they want Susan Roces to head a transitional government. He continued with typical anti-Arroyo rhetoric. Although I have a different political view I was not pissed by his lines as I am tired of it and heard everything.

One of his last lines before he ended our conversation is that they are doing all of this protests and plans for the Filipino masses. When I put down the phone his last line disturbed, pissed me off and almost made me puke. (I was in the middle of an influenza bout.) How does a massive protest action in the middle of the CBD seeking the ouster of a sitting president with hopes of installing a revolutionary government help the Filipino masses? Are rallies now fully convertible to food, clothing and shelter for the Filipino masses?

I think the biggest victims of political exploitation are the Filipino masses. You hear politicians and wannabe politicians and street protesters claiming they feel for the poor yet in practice they do not. In fact these people are so blinded by their whimsical selfish agendas that they don’t know what the poor really want.

The truth is the mass really need a decent source of income, an affordable and livable home, cheap food and basic goods and access to affordable healthcare. The last thing the poor and the entire Philippines want is another revolution or any disruption that will contribute to even more poverty and economic uncertainty.

I wish that my friend and his group, other protesters and the opposition are actually fighting for what the poor really want and not what they think the poor want. I wish they were instead fighting to create more opportunities for the masses and not their own agendas.

those pseudo-economists

I hate those pseudo-economists claiming to know the solutions to poverty in the Philippines. They do not know anything remotely about economics. For all I know they are just failed and frustrated people with political ambitions dreaming of a utopia trapped in their ivory towers.

There is this person on the Net that I truly detest because of his or her utterly dumb ideas. This person wants to start a microfinance firm whose basis for lending money is a borrower's capacity to save. If you are first required to save ten thousand pesos to borrow the same or slightly larger amount makes no sense. You are better off using the ten thousand for your business needs than saving it to borrow. How stupid an idea!

Why is this person's idea dumb? First of all microfinance through the experience of Grameen in Bangladesh is not based on one's capacity to save. Microfinance is based on a need basis, probability that borrowers will become successful and historical basis of stable income in the business that they will be or are engaging at. For example a mother who has a single sewing machine in her dressmaking business in a shanty town may need to borrow five thousand pesos to pay for a new machine to expand. If this mother was asked first to save five or then thousand pesos she will be better off using her savings to buy her equipment than borrowing.

People want to borrow money because they do not have extra money or savings to use. People do not save in order to borrow money. Just imagine if you are asked to show you have $20,000 for a student loan or a credit card first no one can avail of a loan or a credit card.

From my own diary

Some random thoughts from my own handwritten diary dated July 8, 2005

The situation is getting worse in the Philippines. Yesterday President Gloria Arroyo announced that she is going to fire her entire cabinet. Sources say that PGMA did this to preempt the resignation of seven cabinet members and three sub-secretary positions who plan to cripple the Executive with their collective resignation.

The Liberal Party caucus says that they are also asking for PGMA’s resignation and is supporting impeachment. Personally, I think this move is so traditional politics. Their move is so suspicious because just a few days ago Liberal Party leader Franklin Drilon was touted as a possible vice president for a Noli De Castro presidency.

There was a rally in Makati-Ayala but did not last. Most of the crowd were professional protesters like those leftist groups.

According to Prof. Solita Monsod of the University of the Philippines in an ABS-CBN News Channel interview PGMA should be given due process. If she needs to face impeachment court she has to so that the public at large would no about the real truth. With this regard I agree with the professor. It is unfair to bully a sitting president out of office. Even Ejercito-Estrada was given a chance at impeachment.

A group of pro-Administration governors are threatening to secede from the Philippines of PGMA is booted out of office through extra-Constitutional means. They say that that the so-called clamor in Metro Manila is not present in their provinces. Now I’m wondering if I can go into exile in the Federal Republic of Mindanao if not Iceland.

If PGMA gets easily swayed by rallies for her resignation her successor will only suffer the same fate.

The Philippine Opposition et al

I do not like and do not have any respect to the current opposition bloc in the Philippine Congress and Philippine Senate and its members. It is just filled with worthless and immoral personalities that would do anything in the name of grabbing power. Aren't the personalities in the opposition minions of Marcos and Ejercito-Estrada?

A reason I hate and dislike the opposition is that they do not have a genuine honest to goodness plan for the Philippines if ever they are swept to power. All they could do is to come up with grand abstract notions such as "Ibalik ang Dangal ng Pilipino" (Restore the Filipino's Dignity) and alike. People are not swept to power or earn the trust of the people by selling them abstract ideas.

What would these opposition groups do if suddenly they are at the helms of power in the Philippines? How will they reduce the budget deficit and manage the ballooning foreign debt (made worse by the recent credit downgrades)? How can they stimulate the creation of jobs to stop rising unemployment? How can they stop the rising prices of goods and services? How can they minimize the effect of the rising oil prices to the public at large? How will they fix the problems of basic and tertiary education in the country and the high costs burden to families associated with it? How will they fix the problem of basic health care services in the country? How can they solve these problems if all they are good at are street theatrics and rhetoric (although they seem to be good at it because most of the members are TV and movie stars anyway)?

To be honest I don't like a lot of President Gloria Arroyo's policies but at least she is doing something and there is no alternative.

Speaking of an alternative, it seems that the opposition cannot even come up with a single voice or solution. If you could remember some opposition members are divided. Some factions want Susan Roces as new leader, some want (gasp) Joseph Ejercito-Estrada, some want a junta and one wants herself to be successor, bitch-par-excellence-bar-none, Loren Legarda.

Also, are we really that dumb that people with surnames like Marcos and Ejercito-Estrada are worth our care and respect?! The least that they could do is to RETURN their STOLEN WEALTH.

The Philippine situation today is a real basket case.