Is Our Pinoy Economy So, uhm, Well...Worthless?

This is a glowing report from a certain Pinoy economic analyst which was published through chain emails around 3 months ago:

PLDT continues to lord it over listed companies in the Philippines, topping once again the 2007 list of most profitable companies. PLDT earned a net income of P36.0 Billion in 2007, 2.5% higher than its 2006 take. A far second in the list is Ayala Corporation which cleared P16.2 Billion in net income, 33% more than its 2006 earnings. However, two other Ayala companies, made it to the top 5. Globe Telecom earned P13.2 Billion and made it to #3 while BPI, the country’s most profitable bank, landed 5th with a net income of P10 Billion. Henry Sy’s SM Investments Corp, made P10.0 Billion last year, good for #4 on the list.

12 Most Profitable Philippine Companies

#1 - PLDT, P36.0 Billion

#2 - Ayala Corporation Holding, P16.2 Billion

#3 - Globe Telecom Services, P13.2 Billion

#4 - SM Investments Corp., P12.0 Billion

#5 - Bank of the Phil. Islands, P10.0 Billion

#6 - Phil. National Oil Company, P8.65 Billion

#7 - San Miguel Corporation, P 8.63 Billion

#8 - JG summit Holdings, P 8.61 Billion

#9 - Piltel, P 8.3 Billion

#10 - APC Group, P 7.2 Billion

#11 - Metrobank, P 7.0 Billion

#12 - Banco de Oro, P 6.5 Billion

At first glance, one could casually conclude that, with the big money these Pinoy companies reportedly earned, the average Pinoy would then have little reason to opine that the country is dirt poor. These figures, instead, seem to indicate a healthy and vibrant economy, filled with formidable companies and enterprises which would have the utmost capability of employing millions of Pinoy workers and would be able to compensate them heftily, just like any other First World economy is capable of. Yeah right.

Fact is, whenever I see these statistics being bandied about as if Pinoy companies were shining paragons of wealth and glut, it always makes me dizzy with regret and dismay. If one would take the time to frame these same representations of allegedly outstanding financial spreadsheets within the much bigger picture of global economics, even these numbers amounting to billions of pesos would disappear unnoticed in the middle of a gathering of far more impressive mountains of figures.

Come on, my fellow Pinoys, let's admit it. No matter how much PLDT should tout itself as the biggest earning Pinoy company, that same entity would pale in comparison to other such companies that operate in other Asian countries just next door. Let's put this in the proper perspective, please. PLDT is a Pinoy telecommunications giant which has been in operation in the Philippines since the pre-World War II era. Well, SingTel of Singapore is in the same line of business, and was incorporated much later. And yet, considering that PLDT is the older company of the two, which of them would earn more in a year? Of course, there is almost no need to answer that it would be SingTel, which boasts of services which even PLDT is paying it to perform for us Pinoys ( specifically satellite services for cellphone transmissions ).

Such lists like the ones above sound more like mere bragaddocio. Why don't we just take a look at the top earning companies in Korea? We don't need to research that much about them, you see, because they would probably be pretty obvious. Extrapolating from what is apparent to most of us, then ( because these same companies readily make their presence known here in our own country ), let us say that top three Korean companies in terms of revenue are:

1. Samsung - quite easy to assume as at the top spot because almost all PC's in the Philippines and all over the world have components made by Samsung; this, aside from the ubiquitousness of its other products like HD TV's, cellular phones, etc.

2. Hyundai - the number 1 producer of top-of-the-line seafaring vessels all over the world, as well as manufacturer of its own line of automobiles

3. Kia - car manufacturer

Wow, compared to these three giants, all Pinoy top twelve companies could be comparable to ants loitering underfoot.

Korea, which, like the Philippines, was also practically razed to the ground during World War II, now suddenly possesses a roster of extremely profitable companies which dominate the world. On the other hand, our number 1 Pinoy company, PLDT, is touting itself as the leader only in one country. It's like saying, yeah, Sarao may have been at one time the most prevalent brand of jeepney in the Philippines, but it seems to be lilliputian when placed against Toyota, which is number one wherever anybody travels around the world.

Doesn't this make it appear that our Pinoy economy is, well, just flat out worthless? The Korean companies mentioned above employ many hundreds of thousands of workers of different nationalities in Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. PLDT employs...how many workers in one single country? If you were to shoot down all PLDT offices with nuclear arsenal, the world at large would nary feel a shudder. PLDT simply wouldn't make a difference. The whole world economy would proceed on as it always has, as if PLDT never even existed in the first place.

Now, imagine some crackpot terrorist organization pulling off the ultimate stunt and demolishing all traces of Samsung everywhere. All world continents would probably feel its ruin, and the loss would be almost unimaginable. With Samsung's earnings feeding the pockets of so many millions of people around the world, its demise would well be a catastrophe of gargantuan proportions.

And we're just taking into consideration one giant company here. There are lots of other bigshot firms out there which control the life or death of the world economy. It's quite a long list. Unfortunately, NOT ONE PINOY COMPANY would belong in that list...if we were to say that PLDT is the biggest we have.

Might as well erase the whole Philippines from the world map. Nobody would miss anything we've earned anyway.

Maybe it's about time that our Pinoy leaders start thinking about this.