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Philippine physics: Why political inertia rules and how to overcome it


The Philippines is a land deep and rich with history, custom, style and life. It renders the typical American suburb rather barren by comparison, shaded mundane by good order, wealth, and mindless consumption. 
 
Joe America
The Philippines is also conflicted – a stew of peoples who often do not see eye to eye. The rich and the disenfranchised, the Catholic and the Muslim, the city-dweller and the provincial landworker, the enlightened and the ignorant, the onshore and the offshore, the old and the modern. 
 
The turmoil of recent occupations and a dictatorship gone sour are very present even today, called up frequently to caution against too much boldness. The stains of a lawless order are everywhere, even here, even now.
 
The Philippines is a land that befuddles and angers outsiders, frustrates and perplexes Filipinos both onshore and off, and intoxicates us all with its incredible warm, hostile, happy, busy, tragic, nonsensical ways, and the eternal hint that good times are just around the corner.
 
Do we who live here want the Philippines to change? To be wealthier, to bring millions of disenfranchised poor into the mainstream, to end its culture of corruption and too much death, or are we afraid of the cost, the possible loss of the distinctive style of Spanish Asia? 
 
Can the Philippines change yet remain rich with diversity and a lifestyle not drained empty by some mindless pursuit of profit and goods?
 
I personally believe it is possible – no, it is a foregone conclusion – the Philippines WILL change.
 
There are forces in play that cannot be stopped, modern communication, returning OFWs, a shrinking planet with foreigners liking it here, and a growing middle class.
 
Yet the forces of inertia are huge, and they are dangerous because they continue to prop up lawlessness and allow poverty to remain entrenched as the well-to-do work for themselves and not for the nation.
 
This blog post deals with that inertia. Calls it out, so to speak. This is not a comparison of Filipino and American lifestyles and values. It is a comparison between the Philippines today and the Philippines with an undefined future.
 
Two recent articles serve as background to this one:
 
In “A New Model for Disaster Recovery: 'The Lifeline Services Act'” I argued that recovery from natural disasters would occur more quickly if large corporations were required to lead recovery or face fines for complacency. Corporations today are incentivized by profit, not public service. Readers have observed that this kind of solution-based thinking is unlikely to be implemented in a nation that has difficulty following through on anything. The slow pace of the Ampatuan trial, the snail’s pace of infrastructure development, the laggard prosecution of Napoles, and the broad cast of pork plunderers and other examples abound. 
 
The prior blog post “Estop’s Fables: The Creatures and the Bell” served up the lesson that it is important to figure out what the nation should aspire to be, and then take acts necessary to accomplish that national ambition. It is not necessary to follow the American model or any model other than the one that works best. 
 
Reports of overpricing have hounded the construction of temporary bunkhouses for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban City. Rehab czar Panfilo Lacson said he is already investigating the issue. (Photo: AP/Achmad Ibrahim)
 
What do Philippine citizens want to achieve?
 
I’ve read the Constitution and heard a number of SONAs, examined the Development Plan and it seems there is a disconnect between the values they express and what is actually happening. The words all read right or sounded right, but deeds seem to bounce from one crisis to another with no continuity of goal. 
 
It is hard to discern the overriding aim of the nation. Is fighting corruption a proper national objective aimed to capture the spirit and ambitions of the land? Is reducing poverty a proper national ideal? Is defending the Spratleys or resolving rebellions a proper reason for being?
 
I’d prefer something more upbeat, myself. Health, happiness, and a fair opportunity for self-improvement, for example. Freedom within a context of responsibility that calls for obedience to laws. So I’ll propose this “national reason for being” as a starting point, and you can develop it further:
 
The purpose of the Philippine nation: To assure her citizens of freedom, health, happiness and a fair opportunity for self improvement within a system of laws that protect citizens as they pursue their aspirations. 
 
This would be a nation in motion, the sum of its citizens pursuing self-improvement in a land that sets rules and enforces them.
 
Now let’s consider why the Philippines today, as the modern world goes whizzing by, seems stuck in a rut of corruption and bickering with a poor system of justice, enduring poverty, weak manufacturing and investment, and a poor response to disasters. 
 
Why does so much happen while so little changes?

 
 
 
Fat cats and pride in the Philippines
 
A large segment of the population is happy with things as they are. These are the rich people who are getting richer “as is,” those in power who want to remain there, and the hyper-nationalists who resist change.
 
So there is a mighty core of influential people who don’t believe change is needed.
 
The unmovable mass of ignorance and impotence
 
Poverty creates impotence. Locals understand they cannot even influence Barangay policies, much less the national mood and means. So they are resigned to going with the flow, selling votes, doing as others suggest. 
 
What is this, 80 percent of the population? Just being narrowly pragmatic. They are best influenced by personal urging, which is why VP Binay has such power and influence. His network among provincial local leaders is huge. This is a network of favor and promise that is difficult to beat with idealism or even well-intended deeds.
 
A nation divided
 
Until most people get on the same footing, it is hard to move in unison. Until there is a common understanding and goal and passion, it is hard to get unstuck. And divisiveness characterizes the Philippines. So many islands and languages and local allegiances. The main religion appears not to grab the nation’s heart; superstition reigns and sinners abound. Most plunderers go to church. Provinces are kingdoms. Cities are dukedoms. Dynasties are entitled. Public office is considered a private domain and challengers are too often murdered.
 
Absence of nation-building values
 
The main value in the Philippines seems to be to get what one can get, not values that unite and promote shared well-being.
 
-It is not a law-based society, for laws are often ignored. Justice and the Judiciary are tied down in process and favor, not fairness. Speed is not seen as an element of justice. Punishment is never connected quickly and clearly to a crime. Bad behavior is too often a winning behavior.
 
-Beauty and ecology are not seen as precious, or why are people so intent upon trashing the homeland and turning the seas to barren wastelands of no coral and few fish? 
 
-The Golden Rule (“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”) seems not to exist. There is little effective push of care and concern and anger at those who get in the way of kindness, progress and productivity. Cheaters – so many of them – are viewed with a resigned shrug, or maybe even envied if they get rich enough. 
 
-There is little customer service orientation mandating competitive products and vigor. The citizen is not king, not matter how often President Aquino calls them “the boss.” Rather, there is a kind of upward draft of authoritarianism that sucks the life and profit out of commercial markets and turns a whole people cynical about government service. 
 
-Media are not regulated and can engage in their own kind of sensationalist plunder without regard for promoting public well-being. 
 
Without values that care for the community of the Philippines that are deeply held, there is little discipline and little passion for doing things well and doing them right. “Right” means acting for the greater good of the entire nation.
 
Consensus is a spiderweb of inertia
 
We have a bit of a conundrum. 
 
We have a nation of individuals working mainly for themselves, yet they are bound in a web of consensus built mainly on the concept of not offending others. Important decisions are not taken if they have not been properly aired and shared and approved by the various powers that be.
 
Justice cannot render justice because of all the legalistic I's and T's that must be dealt with so as not to offend. And worthwhile projects can’t get off the ground until 25 agencies approve the deal. If anyone is ignored, the screaming is loud and shrill. Offense is easily taken. Insult is cause for great anger. Deals die.
 
This is a nation that has little tolerance for mistakes. Or even perceived mistakes. People simply cannot “let go” of their personal offense if someone else takes a different course of action, or gets a result they consider wrong.
 
If there is any lapse, any problem, it is someone else’s fault. Too often the fault-finding is murderous. Too often every wrong outcome is laid at the feet of President Aquino.
 
“We” are never culpable.
 
It is too often a nation of critics. And from the great screams of relentless criticism emerges a fear of acting boldly, and paralysis.
 
 
 
What can be done?
 
The nation is stuck.
 
-The rich and powerful and super-patriots like what they have. 
-The masses know they have no power. 
-Divided interests supercede national commitment. 
-Core values that build community are weak. 
-Processes are paralyzed by a gigantic web of intense bureaucratic consensus and personal offense, easily taken. 
 
Normally, we would turn to education to find a way to get moving. But the Department of Education is hopelessly mired in its model of rote learning and authoritarian instruction. Schools don’t teach confidence and values and innovation, the soft, complex, personal skills. They mandate memorization of the Table of Elements. Computers and the internet are a low-priority part of the agenda. Never mind that the Table of Elements can be found there.
 
Legislators are locked into their networks of favor and influence. Half are ineffectual shoe-shoppers, secretaries or boxers and the other half have been bought or are bound by dynastic loyalties.
 
Justice fails to enforce right over wrong. The Executive branch is like Gulliver, tied tight in a thousand threads of ego and cross-agency Lilliputian minutiae.
 
What are the choices? Give up? Or rally in protest, demanding radical change? Perhaps it is a lot simpler than that.
 
First, we the people need to join together and push. Nudge the nation into motion, as it were, with thousands of little voices.
 
Second, we need to expect more of the political leaders. I’d suggest that it is important to redefine what a political party represents. For example, make LP stand for something other than putting the privileged into office. Make it stand for a long term vision, for continuity, for unity.
 
-LP should identify its roster of able leaders who can inject modern thinking and values into government thinking for many years to come: Roxas, Abaya, Angara the Young, Poe . . . Let the nation know it has capable leaders in the wings. Not a knee-jerk roster of ambitious self-servers. 
 
-Position these future stars to lead. Rotate them through the demanding executive jobs that give them the insight and strength to deal with tough problems. DILG Secretary Roxas has had to face extraordinarily difficult issues (Zamboanga, Tacoban) and he is a better national leader for the challenges. Three secretarial jobs are ideal for development of future leaders: Defense, Foreign Affairs, and DILG. 
 
-Teach that some measure of citizen sacrifice is needed to back those who lead even if they take a different decision than we would on a given issue. End the culture of criticism. 
 
The up-and-coming leaders ought to study the reasons for inertia and commit doing something about them. Remove the friction that causes inertia. Impose constructive national values. Cut through the crosspatch of vested interests. Leverage the middle class as a base of honest, rational thinking. Clean up the courts. Demand good national work from the Legislature.
 
This requires a vision of national unity, stability, good values, a measure of sacrifice for nation, and crisp execution.
 
It requires a measure of boldness. . . and once the nation is moving, momentum rules. — KDM, GMA News
 

Joe America is a blogger who writes about the cross-cultural experiences and observations of an American living in the Philippines. He is based in Biliran Island. This piece originally appeared in his blog on January 9, 2014. We are re-posting it here with his permission. 


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