Mr. President

I've never won an election. The few times that I ran in an election though, I was always running for the most senior executive position. The people who voted for me and nominated me, did see something - a presence that must have resembled talent for leadership (most likely it was just my loud speaking), and these people more often than not were teachers, department heads, and principals. Maybe I was that kind of boy that even though I thought of myself as a progressive liberal, I appealed to the establishment more (only the LORD knows why).

The most memorable probably was in my 6th grade when I ran for Jr. Mayor of the (then) Municipality of Muntinlupa. I was soundly defeated by a representative of one of the district's largest schools (I would enroll in that school the following year as a high school freshman). The principal of my school and the other schools were quite taken by my outspokenness and encouraged my nomination. Ugh.

I've lost so many times that I completely lacked any confidence to run for candidacy for any elected position in student government in college. I mean, there were supporters and people who were willing to back me. However, I had truly lost my nerve. When I was still into regret, I did regret not becoming a student official. I mean, after college I found myself writing laws for Congress! I think I would've been able to contribute to the creation of sound university legislation.

But enough of that. I didn't intend to get back into the habit of regret. What brought about this introspection is how the marketing professor in the MBA for Middle Managers program of the Ateneo Graduate School of Business treated me towards the end of the talk I delivered for her class (the talk was about the outsourcing industry; I had a lot of interesting talking points since I started reading this book).

I was sharing about the problems being faced by the outsourcing industry, and it so happens that these are the same problems that influence and affect so many things here in the Philippines, not only business and lifestyle. The crux of my theory is that the Philippine economy behaves as if it's the United States. We produce comparably little in terms of manufacturing, and we have ceased to have the agricultural ability to feed ourselves (we have been importing our staple food product - rice, for about a decade now). Economic activity is primarily through consumption: our available land is not being developed for production capacity - too much of it is being developed into resorts, residential subdivisions, and shopping centers (tiangges, department store-style ukay-ukays, and the variations of malls). We are a bargain retail economy. The other industry that remains stable are the food and recreation services that are situated in these shopping centers.

We don't produce anything in large scale proportions, and what we do produce is not competitive in terms of quality. Considering that we aren't an agricultural supplier in a meaningful way, where does our economy go from here?

Our largest source of revenue (dollar remittances from expatriate laborers) are being sent back here but are not invested. This money is spent on real-estate, recreation, and consumer goods and services. Never mind the impact on the family units: the spouse left behind ceases to work and develop qualifications for work. Even worse, participates in bigamy/adultery and makes dependent children on the income of the expatriate (But of course there are obvious exceptions).

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) which includes call centers, offer some respite from the expatriate diaspora. However, I have raised the threat of the diminishing supply of qualified english speakers (the demand is that strong) and the educational system as mandated by law is maddeningly far from able to supply technically-trained graduates who are also conversant in english. If legislation on the mandate to use english as the primary language for education is passed this year, it would take about a decade to bring english language proficiency to where it was about two decades ago. The current staffing of teachers and educators are not qualified to teach it. In that time our regional rivals (most notably China) may have developed a workforce that is much cheaper and provides similar value to what we offer.

But that legislation will not be passed in the current (since at least 25 years ago) political climate. The current congress cannot be bothered with actual legislation being too busy with struggling for control of the government. It frustrates me how our ningas-cogon (blowing hot and cold) nationalistic zeal dug us into this hole. I was part of it! I supported throwing out the American military bases in Clark and Subic back in the Aquino administration. While teaching literature and the politics of language in De La Salle University I actively and adamantly championed post-colonial thinking and nationalism and saw the practice of the Filipino vernacular (as then envisioned) as the key to progress.

But like I said, I will not traffic in regret. The lady professor was very taken and (in-jest, perhaps) invited me to take on a political career to effect the necessary economic policy. Suddenly I was in the sixth grade again, in the presence of a teacher who is from another school, finding me brilliant and asking me to go beyond what I think of myself and what I can do.

Seriously? I was delighted. There's no feeling like it.