Why Rich Pinoys Might Not Be Very Admirable

I declare with absolute certainty that Pinoys can be among the best in the world.

It is a fact that certain watchdog groups have already ranked the Philippines as one of the "Top 10" most corrupt nations on Earth ( haha ), thereby according it a place on that peculiar pedestal reserved only for such an "elite" group--however, despite the rounds of laughter this would provoke from the average Pinoy concerning such an honor, it is a conferment I'm sure most of us would rather hide under whatever cover in wholehearted shame.

We can still be among the Top, but of course we seek some demonstration of this which would elevate the Pinoy toward a different league, some achievement or status that commands unabashed pride, congratulations, acclaim, and perhaps even emulation.

Fortunately, all of us can take heart that a true blue Pinoy, Efren Reyes, is one such demonstration in the world of contemporary professional billiards. A Wikipedia entry declares:

It's further gratifying to know that Efren Reyes is not alone in the world of sports as both a Pinoy and a paragon of excellence which millions would envy. Who could ever ignore the equally formidable presence of Manny "the Pacman" Pacquiao in boxing? The Ring Magazine ostentaniously displays this:

By now it is widely known that part of the mystique surrounding both of these undisputed kings of their disciplines is that both of them started out as piss-poor, having been born into lives so deprived that it still borders on the remotest of probabilities that others like them could rise from the shackles of ghetto existences and emerge into sparkling prominence today. Since the resources and tools from which the motivation for pursuing excellence normally should spring has been absent from the circumstances surrounding Reyes and Pacquiao, the irony only makes their achievements all the more profoundly spectacular.

After all, isn't the drive to be the best more enabled in lives which have greater access to many factors which ought to encourage it? The experience of well-rounded education, freedom from desperate need for material goods, a wider variety of options and avenues for self-improvement--aren't these found more prevalent among those Pinoys who belong to the upper crust of our country's society? Perhaps it wouldn't be too farfetched to conceive that more figures such as Pacquiao and Reyes--Pinoys who bested everybody in the world at what they do--ought to emerge from privilege and not from the lack of it? To put it bluntly, shouldn't richer Pinoys also be the best in the world at what they do?

Granted, most of the "elite class" of Pinoys would most probably be engaged in enterprises other than being sportsmen. It is without a doubt that rich Pinoys are among the backbones of the nation's economy, the harbingers of wealth. Elite Pinoy families influence most of the country's interests in business and commerce. Their stock and trade is in capitalism and in the corporate arena, where the outpouring of their skills make possible the generation of jobs and wages for millions and millions of other Pinoy families, therefore sustaining the lives of the same.

In fact, as proof and document of these same efforts rich Pinoys exert in business and commerce ( again, their most preferred arena of expertise ), lists are often made detailing the exceptional achievements of this elite group. Posted below is one such example:

These companies being mostly owned and controlled by rich Pinoys, the list affirms in definitive fashion that they are not hesitant to make use of their resources and talents to make more wealth available not only to themselves but to those legions of Pinoys they employ ( and therefore, sustain ).

However, the question remains--in their fields of expertise, is it demonstrable that rich Pinoys are, much like Reyes and Pacquiao, also in the league of the best of the best in the world? Such lists like the one above reflects an heirarchy found in the Philippines, but are there other lists where--if the convention of boxing rankings become the model somehow, for the sake of argument--the "top pound-for-pound" rich people of all nations, so to speak, are converged and ranked? Would rich Pinoy familes who control major Pinoy corporations also figure prominently in such rankings?

Yes, such lists do exist, and Forbes Magazine, for one, would assiduously provide rankings among the world's elite all the time. Their latest roster of top performing companies ( again, owned by the richest people in the world ) run something like the one below:

Apparently, rich Pinoy companies, ergo rich Pinoys, aren't on the list.

Pinoy boxers and cuemasters like Pacquiao and Reyes are plucked from lives of poverty and deprivation, then rise to become honored as among the best and greatest in world rankings in their chosen fields.

Why can't rich Pinoys, who are supposed to have had the undoubtedly better chances at becoming the best in the world in their own specialties, do the same? Again, privilege and wealth ought to engender much wider opportunities for pursuing and reaching levels of achievement which should downright be more spectacular than what two once-dirt-poor Pinoy athletes have shown. Why have no rich Pinoys cemented their own glories, then, in the Forbes list above?

Now, we Pinoys certainly know who the truly wealthy and rich among us are. Whole streets and business estates are named after them. They own the spritziest and possibly biggest malls in Southeast Asia. They own beer companies. They own hectares and hectares of sugar farms. They own television stations and the Philippines' power companies.  One family even owns an airline, two banks, and the most profitable venture yet--a company manufacturing different brands of cigarettes.  They own...surely a lot more than a blog would cover. And we know that this elite group is mostly composed of families. In short, the richest of the rich Pinoys are at their core a short list of people with the same last names.

Other countries and peoples have their own rich families. Would they be a part of the world's elite?

Why, of course. Toyota Motors Company, by now the largest and wealthiest automobile company in the world and one of those listed in the Forbes 500, was originally spawned by the great Toyoda clan of Japan ( the Toyodas chose the title "Toyota" instead of "Toyoda" to name their products because the former name was considered "much luckier" ), one of the elite Japanese families that sprung to prominence sometime before World War II. Toyota Motors is acknowledged as a family-run company, and you can note those selfsame words below in another clipping:

The same webpage ( http://www.answers.com/topic/eiji-toyoda ) helpfully informs us that the Toyodas, right from the creation of their first automobiles, were determined to compete with the best in the world at making cars. With focus, persistence, resourcefulness, unshakable resolve, and of course, some help from their own reserves of wealth ( since they were a rich Japanese family ), they eventually achieved their goals. Today the Toyodas are credited as having revolutionized the world's car industry much in the same way that the American industrialist Henry Ford once did.

Rich and elite Japanese families like the Toyoda clan were once loosely classified together under the term zaibatsu. As Wikipedia says:

Although today the same word has evolved into the more modern ( and allegedly more accurate ) interpretation keiratsu, the essence of its denotation remains to be the same--a group of the richest Japanese families engaging in business and commercial pursuits which performed so exceptionally well that their enterprises catapulted the whole country of Japan into its present place as the second richest country in the world. Proof of this can be seen in the same Forbes list above. Almost all the Japanese companies listed can trace their roots to the pioneering efforts of different rich Japanese families ( thus, companies which are named after their founding families like Sumitomo, Mitsui, etc. ).

Would other countries have families that are analogous to the zaibatsu/keiratsu of Japan?  Again, yes of course.

The South Koreans call their illustrious rich and elite the chaebols.  As Wikipedia also says:

It turns out that Samsung and Hyundai are family names, after all.  And most of us Pinoys would surely be aware of the how undeniably great these names have become.  

It is apparent right away that these rich South Koreans are determined to reach a level and stature that would be to wealth what Reyes and Pacquiao have reached in sports!  

Could rich Pinoys do the same?

Surely, the opportunities would be within their reach.  If others have already done it, then why can't they?  Again, if two formerly piss-poor Pinoys could trailblaze paths that resound a large clang proclaiming their presence in the map of world achievement, albeit in sports, couldn't rich Pinoys likewise do so in their chosen fields of wealth generation, given that their present circumstances could afford them vastly more infinite opportunities than simple ghetto folk to do so?  The fruits of such an effort, should it be reached, would be of almost incalculable worth to millions of Pinoys.  As the experience of Japan and South Korea had shown, it would in all likelihood be tantamount to establishing a Pinoy country at par with the First World!  

And so, wouldn't rich Pinoys prefer to find themselves in the same elite company as those in the top tiers of so prestigious a list as the Forbes 500?  

Frankly, I have to admit that this commuter, in all earnestness, would certainly hope so. 

If not, then it would be...let's just say, one reason to regard these rich Pinoys as not very admirable.  Hmmmmm.   

A Purpose-Driven...Nation?

It was a mammoth bestseller. It seemed to appear out of nowhere and then the next second all the bookshelves were overflowing with stacks of copies. All of a sudden, one single book gave rest to the question everybody, Pinoys included, seemed to have kept buried deep inside themselves and which yearned desperately, clawingly, for a definitive resolution: What are we alive for?

The Christian author Rick Warren has calmly written down in plain, simple, perhaps even insightful language that one need not look far for the answer. God is our purpose in life, he declares, and he elaborates on this concept in such a smooth and comforting manner that the readers don't mind at all that it takes the time and effort to read a whole book just to fully grasp the implications of this message--even if that message has been the same old song being played since the Middle Ages. No matter that the theme behind the book might not be a landmark; the book's impact surely is--as seen in how copies still fly off the bookshelves in truckloads like popcorn.

Many readers of the book comment that Warren's writings helped them contextualize their acts in the proper perspective. This perspective puts lifelong goals in sensible order and imbues every activity with selfless and noble motives, and this actually translates to achieving the purpose for which we live. A pursuit such as this is unarguably beneficial and should be encouraged all the time!--whether you've read the book or not.

If such a guiding principle could empower individual people into realizing their potentials, shouldn't whole countries tread the same route? If a nation were driven by a correct purpose...then wouldn't that nation reach the success it was meant to reach?

But then again, do whole nations abide by a purpose? Why, of course they do! And they do bother to spell it out.

High school education among Pinoys would have taught us that one need not look for any bestselling book or esoteric sources to find the purpose of--for example--our own nation, the Republic of the Philippines. It's right there in the constitution, in the preamble.

Now, we Pinoys know that we don't care a whit about what those words mean. For all its formidable rhetoric, it might as well be saying that we are supposed to be ruled by heavenly spirits and not by humans. However, that does not necessarily mean that we do not have a gut instinct about what the real purpose of the Republic is, which is, of course, to generally provide Pinoys a good life--that is the purpose it's supposed to serve.

And how do Pinoys know what a good life is? Well, judging by the overwhelming sentiment that millions of Pinoys would rather stay in the United States than the Philippines, it could be taken to mean that a good life for a Pinoy is what the Americans enjoy in the United States.

By the way, if one would bother to read the purpose of the U.S., as embodied in the preamble to their consitution, one would find this.


It would appear quite readily that the purpose of the US could be contained in fewer words than the purpose of our own country! Which could probably explain why, should you ask any Pinoy to name in any specific terms why the Philippines exists, chances are that the Pinoy wouldn't come up with the answers--because memorizing the preamble to our own constitution is just too damn tedious.

Granted, the Americans themselves most probably don't bother to remember by heart their own preamble verbatim. And yet, Americans certainly know what the US is for.

The United States has always been the "greatest", that unsurpassable yardstick for measuring the best of human endeavour--the richest country, the best in weaponry and systems of war, the most cutting-edge in the fields of science, medicine, agriculture, manufacturing, space technology, electronics, education...you name it. They also enjoy the highest standard of living among all the First World nations. The Americans know that they must maintain this standing in the world community. Even their present President Barack Obama always says this in all his speeches. If you want to be number one in the whole world, they say, you ought to make it big in their country. To cite an example, Pacquiao became ranked the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the whole world not by fighting in his homeland, but in slugging it out in the fabled US of A! In that veritable heartland of boxing, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Japanese also seem to be certain about what their nation is about. It has always been all about overtaking what the United States has done throughout its existence. In short, the Japanese clearly want to take the place of the US as the leader of the world. They tried doing it during World War II by engaging in war with the United States ( interestingly enough, the war era Japanese constitution outlines an objective to become the Ruler of the World, with the finality of installing their Emperor, the living personification of the Sun God, as supreme leader ), they are still doing so now by perpetually trying to outdo the US in commerce and trade--evidence of this in their country being the second richest in the world.

Yes, my fellow Pinoys, some nations do know what their existence is for, even if it's not readily extruded from the obstruse semantics of their constitutions--even if the Americans themselves or the Japanese never bothered to read their own preambles. Ditto for the Russians, the Chinese, the Germans, and many more. Of special mention, among others, would be South Korea, a nation of determined citizens who struggled for over 60 years after World War II to become a First World nation after decades of deprivation--and is still putting its darndest efforts into reuniting with North Korea. Taiwan is currently fighting to remain independent from what they perceive as an "imperialist" China. Israel is struggling to defend its "Promised Land" from the influence of its Islamic neighbors.

You don't have to think too hard to understand that many nations are already driven by what each would perceive to be its purpose!

Which brings us back to the question: What is the Philippines supposed to be, then? If we Pinoys don't have a solid answer to that, then we are all doomed. If we believe that individual lives without a purpose--whether it be God or any other objective worthy of pursuing--is meaningless, how much more meaningless is the existence of a whole nation without a sense of what it is supposed to reach for? What then is there reason to continue living as a nation, and not simply dissolve into a nonentity?

There's this absurd fact that our preamble has dozens more words than the US's ( their preamble doesn't even have the words "Almighty God" in it ). It must mean, then, that we seek to do more than what the US has sought. Which could be taken to mean that, should the Republic of the Philippines achieve what its true purpose is ( well, whatever that may be ), we would in all probability be infinitely greater than the greatest nation on earth at this time! Now isn't that a thought!

Then again, we can't deny that Pinoys generally love what the US has! Talk to the average Pinoy on the street, and chances are he or she will readily exchange their soul to be able to live in the US. It's no surprise. It can be thought of as the same situation one encounters in any simple class of students. If the world community could be reduced to the population of a class of students, each country representing one student, the US would most certainly garner the most envy. Mr. Uncle Sam would be the undisputed leader of the student body, garnering all the academic awards and scholarships. In second place would be Mr. Nippon. In third place would be a tie up between Mr. Germany, Mr. China, and Mr. England, perhaps.

Now, Pinoys don't generally like haphazardly performing students, even those in their families. Pinoys prefer to like students who excel. And yet, in this master class of the world's countries, the Philippines would not be an excellent student. In fact, Mr. Philippines might be one of those brooding, introverted urchins who rarely participates in class discussions. In other words, whatever we are, Mr. Philippines would be an inconsequential member of the student body.

Would we ever be passionate enough to transform from unremarkable performer to the stellar? Our fellow "students" certainly are trying to do so. The US is certainly the top dog in this "master class", but who's stopping the others from trying to occupy its place?

Don't we Pinoys like to be like the US? Then, perhaps inside all of those abstruse terms in our preamble, there lies the core and meaning of aspiring to be the best democracy in the world. The US has been able to do this with less words.

If our purpose as a nation is not to be the top dog...then what is? Could a statement of purpose saying that "The Philippines' purpose is to become the best democracy in the world" be as broad and infinite in scope as saying "The Purpose of our lives is God"? Then maybe someone should write a book about it.

Or write a different kind of book, something that spells our real purpose as a Pinoy nation for what it must really be. Otherwise, we could be just fooling ourselves into thinking that a Pinoy nation exists, after all.

ano ba ang dapat ginagawa mo sa abroad?

( An old blog which I think may still be relevant... )

kaibigan, magandang balita. natanggap ka daw sa abroad.

wow, ito na siguro ang pinakamasayang nangyari sa buong buhay mo, dahil natupad na ang pangarap mo! sa wakas ay makakaalis ka na sa pilipinas! at mamumuhay nang matiwasay sa lupaing malamig, sa lupaing mas madaling makahanap ng pagkakakitaan, sa lupaing walang korapsyon, sa lupaing parang isang pitik lang ng mga daliri ay may kotse at bahay ka na.

lagi nga namang binabanggit ng mga pilipino na gusto nilang pumunta sa ibang bansa at doon na mamuhay. pinakamaganda talaga dapat sa U.S.! o di kaya, maswerte na sa canada. or sa england! pwede din sa australia!

parang iniisip tuloy natin na mga Pilipino lang yata ang mga taong gustong makaalis sa sarili nilang bansa upang mabuhay sa ibang lugar. kasi lagi nating sinasabi sa atin-atin na, bakit ang mga amerikano, gusto ba nilang umalis ng U.S.? o di kaya ang ibang mga lahi, mahilig ba silang maging overseas worker?

meron kayang isang lahi na gustong mag migrate sa pilipinas? as in, mag migrate sila nang maramihan, tulad ng ginagawa ng mga pilipino sa U.S.?

siguro, iisipin mo, puta, wala siguro. kung amerikano ka ba, dadalhin mo ang buong pamilya mo sa pilipinas? naku, kahit siguro bayaran ka pa hindi mo gagawin yun, di ba? ano ka, isang taong katumbas ng isang libo’t isang gago?

pero, magugulat ka, may lahi na mahilig mag migrate sa pilipinas. maaaring hindi ngayong kasalukuyang panahon mo napapansin, pero nung panahon ng espanyol merong lahi ng mga dayuhan na nag desisyong mag migrate sa pilipinas. at katakut takot sila nung nagsi datingan dito. gulat ka, ano? oo, meron, kaibigan. sasabihin ko na? mga intsik.

hindi siguro ninyo naaalala yung mga tinuro sa inyong philippine history nung elementary at high school kayo, ano? di ba, nung panahon ni magellan, pag dating pa nga lang niya dito, marami nang intsik sa pilipinas? at di ba, pagkatapos ng mga 300 years, pagdating ng mga amerikano, marami pa ring intsik? so, maipagmamayabang din natin na, uy, hindi lang tayo ang lahi na karamihan gustong mag migrate sa ibang bansa. mga intsik din. at mas matindi pa doon, sa pilipinas sila nag migrate. parang mga Overseas Workers din sila noon. kung mag re review ka lang ng mga babasahin sa philippine history nung elementary ka pa, mababasa mo doon na mga intsik ang kadalasang migrante dito sa pilipinas.

o, tumaas ang kilay mo? aba, oo siyempre! kasi hindi mo ba napansin, sa pilipinas ngayon, puro intsik ang mga mayayaman? di ba parang naiisip mo na rin ang sasabihin ko? bakit ang mga intsik, na umalis sa bansang sinilangan nila at namuhay sa pilipinas, mayayaman na ngayon at kung tutuusin, kontrolado na ang ekonomiya ng pilipinas? sige, kaibigan, magkamot ka ng ulo. teka, di ba, ilang dekada na rin tayong mga pilipino laging nagpupunta at nag ma migrate sa amerika? eh, kung gayahin lang natin siguro ang ginawa ng mga intsik sa pilipinas nung nagsidayo sila dito, baka tayo na ang may hawak ng ekonomiya ng U.S.! e sa milyun milyong pilipino na doon, e!

bakit nga ba hindi ganoon ang nangyari? e, di ba, simula pa ng world war II, naipon at naipon na lang ang mga pamilyang pilipino sa U.S.? di ba sabi nga doon, nagkakaroon na ng mga komunidad ng pilipino na sa dami e parang nasa pilipinas ka na din pag pinasok mo sila?

at papaano pa ang dami ng pilipino sa australia? sa canada? sa…ewan, siguro kahit saan sa mundo may pilipino, e.

e sa isang katerbang mga bansa na iyon, wala bang ni isa na ang lahi natin ay namayagpag tulad ng kalagayan ng mga intsik dito sa pilipinas? ibig sabihin, mga pilipino ang mga mayayaman?

bakit nga ba kasi nagsilipana ang mga intsik sa pilipinas? o sige, review ulit tayo ng history. noong panahon kasi ni magellan, mga 1521, mahirap rin kasi ang buhay sa China. oo, meron na silang gobyerno noon ( di tulad sa pilipinas, na noong panahon na iyon e hindi pa tayo naging bansa ), pero mukhang mapang api ang mga namumuno doon e. kasi nga marami sa kanilang gutom, mga squatter siguro, mga walang trabaho, mga walang pagkakakitaan. e, sa dami ba naman ng intsik e…( no offense sa mga intsik, ah, pero totoo namang marami na ang intsik noon pa man )

yung mga naghihirap sa China noon, siyempre, alangan namang umiyak na lang sila at humilata sa isang tabi habang umiiyak sa gutom ang mga anak? siyempre, maghahanap rin ng paraan iyan para maibsan ang kahirapan nila. so, naghanap din sila ng mapaglilipatan ng lugar. maniwala ka man o sa hindi, isa sa mga lugar na inisip nilang puntahan e ang pilipinas.

teka, brother, huwag ka magulat. ikaw, naghihirap ka rin dito sa pinas ngayon. di ba, kahit kazakhstan papatulan mong puntahan para lang makahanap ng trabaho? kahit pa iraq? para lang mabigyan mo ng matinong buhay ang mga anak mo. so, dapat maintindihan mo ang kalagayan ng mga intsik noong panahon naman nila ng kahirapan. baka may magandang job offer noon sa pilipinas. o di kaya talagang gusto lang talaga nilang pumunta sa ibang lugar. e, paano ba iyan, pilipinas ang pinakamalapit? tapos may tsismis pa na maraming trabaho sa pilipinas, kahit kargador lang. tapos ang nagpapa sweldo sa iyo, espanyol pa. pera din yun a! hindi ka makakahanap ng ganung trabaho kung manatili ka lang sa China! so, punta naman sila dito. marami silang nagpunta dito! nag tiyaga sila kahit sa barko lang sila nag biyahe. nag tiyaga sila kahit pa mababa ang tingin sa kanila ng mga pilipino at espanyol. oops, kaibigan, mangyari ay basahin mo ulit ang history books mo. dati, ang mayayabang, mga pilipino. oo! dati, pag nakakita ka ng intsik, ng singkit, iniisip mo: hayup ito a, mukhang katulong.

nung panahon ni magellan iyon.

ngayon, makakita ka ng intsik, malamang nakasakay ng kotse iyon. ikaw, wala. ha ha ha! tapos, baka ikaw pa ang inuutusan ng intsik. pero, biruin mo, dati, parang mga OFW ang mga iyan…hindi sa U.S., ha, or sa Japan. Sa pilipinas!

ang nakakagulat isipin, hindi lang sa Pilipinas ginawa ng mga intsik iyan. ngayon, maraming mayayamang intsik sa australia, sa canada, sa U.S…..ay naku, grabe. kung tutuusin, ang mga intsik ang pinakaunang mga pinakasabik mag Overseas Worker. talo nila tayong mga pinoy.

kala mo tuloy nauna tayo, ano? hindeee! mas nauna ang mga intsik sa atin!

pero, bakit, pagkatapos siguro ng 30 years na ilang milyong pilipino ang kumalat na sa buong mundo, bakit karamihan mahihirap pa rin? oo, nasa canada ka na nga, sige, may kotse at bahay ka. pero, hindi ka naman may-ari ng restawran. or, hindi ka naman may-ari ng sarili mong kumpanya. siguro, hanggang ngayon, wala ka naman talagang ipagmamayabang pag kinumpara ang buhay mo doon sa kapitbahay mong intsik sa australia. haaay….

teka, alis muna tayo sa mga intsik. punta naman tayo sa iba pang mga lahi na nag isip na mag Overseas Worker din noong naghihirap ang mga bansa nila. tingnan natin ang Ireland. hanapin mo sa mapa iyon, kaibigan. may panahon sa history na naghihirap ang Ireland noon. siguro mga 1600, sabihin na natin. parang pilipinas din sila noon, maraming pamilya ang walang makain. so, inisip din ng mga Irish na mangibang bansa. maging Overseas Worker, kumbaga. saan sila nagpunta? sa U. S. oo! sa Amerika sila nagsipuntahan. ngayon, ang mga Irish ang isa sa mga lahing kontrolado ang Amerika. mga mayayaman na ang mga Irish doon! hindi man lahat, pero maraming kumpanya sa U.S. na lahing Irish ang may ari. kumbaga, ginawa nila yung ginawa ng mga intsik sa pilipinas.

bakit nila nagagawa yon?

okey, sige, tingnan natin ang sitwasyon ng mga Pilipino sa U.S. ngayon. ilang milyon na sigurong pilipino ang nakatira sa U.S.! nangyari ito nung mga panahon siguro ni Marcos, siguro mga 1960’s or pataas. nagsimulang dumagsa ang mga Pilipino sa U.S.

paki halintulad mo naman sana iyon sa nangyari sa Pilipinas noong panahon ni Magellan, na marami ring Intsik ang nagsidumog sa Pilipinas.

sige, isipin mo na lang kaibigan. Cojuangco. Lucio Tan. Henry Sy. lahat ng mga iyan, mga migrante yan galing China sa Pilipinas. mga Gokongwei. mga Ti Ong Son ( ngayon Tiongson na sila ).

ayaw mo man aminin, pero kontrolado nila ang ekonomiya ng pilipinas ngayon.

okey, mga pilipino sa U. S.

sino ba sa kanila ang may business na katulad ng SM doon? teka…wala yata e.

baka may ginagawa tayong mali.

so…alam mo na, bilang Pilipino, kung ano ang dapat mong ginagawa sa abroad?

kaibigan, isipin mo, ha.