In review and in prospect
The last couple of weeks’ events delivered good optics for Philippine President Bongbong Marcos — an official meeting with the Leader of the Free World and some face time with the new head of the British Empire.
Back home, the “Unity Team” is increasingly divided over Marcos’s “repivot” of foreign policy towards an old colonial master; away from the trajectory towards China his predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte put the country on during his watch. Well that, and statements he's made recently admitting there “were abuses” in Duterte's drug war have put on the defensive the bloc within the team that remain staunchly loyal to the former president.
All the chatter is, of course, fuelled by sentiments stacked upon mere belief that Filipinos are in any position to influence much of anything going on in their neck of the woods — one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints today. Whether or not the Philippines allows itself to be a welcome mat to US military power is ultimately irrelevant. Missiles and warplanes will crisscross its air space, warships will jostle for position on its waters and subs will lurk underneath them in the event the heat is turned up past boiling point. All Filipinos could really contribute to regional, much less global, affairs is their usual “victimhood” amid all this.
Even in times of peace, Filipinos lead a precarious existence. Theirs is an economy that imports, consumes, and, as an outcome of those, serves. There is no commensurate tangible industrial or agricultural production that will sustain its more than 110 million people if the country's access to international trade and shipping (if you could even call net capital import “trade”) is compromised by, say, war. The Philippine economy is a rickety house of cards, indeed. Even small global supply chain blips send prices soaring or diving and millions flicked into or out of poverty on regular bases. It won't take much to tip the Philippines over into a catastrophic scenario.
For now, at least, it is Cold War II. What Filipinos really need to do, at this point, is put in a good effort to plot their roadmap to a set up for success amid all this. That cannot be done as long as camps within the Philippines’ fragmented society cannot see past the petty traditional politics built around cults of personality.
Last week's blog posts
May 6, 2023 by benign0
"One noted activist, Kelsey Hadjirul who had filed a case tweeted that Uba 'was a known sexual predator, facing several cases from different sectors'."
Black skin is beautiful too according to Pinoy Big Brother star Bianca Gonzalez
May 6, 2023 by benign0
"The worship of fair skin is just too deeply-embedded in Filipino society. No less than the Belo Medical Group cosmetics empire of beauty guru Dr. Vicki Belo screams that even just 10 percent lighter skin equates to '100% sosyal'."
Why are Filipinos so physically unfit?
May 3, 2023 by benign0
"Many of these participants can be observed struggling to move their own weight in a rapid enough manner to achieve this objective. A few of them are visibly out of breath as they attempt to both run and issue their shrill 'activist' slogans..."
The Senate: a political institution that lost its luster
May 2, 2023 by The Unpopular Opinion
"This can be seen when one keenly observes and contextualizes the general and midterm elections held from 1992 until 2022. Three decades’ history of electing senators reveal patterns that put a spotlight light on how feeble and fragile political institutions are in the Philippines."
Filipino movie and TV actors don’t know how to play rich people
April 30, 2023 by benign0
"...people who write and perform for the Philippines’ mass entertainment businesses come from those baduy classes. As such, they craft the characters of their stories, direct their 'talent', and perform the parts using the underclass perspective they bring to the industry."