Now take a look at the signboard above and see what's wrong with it. In case you didn't notice which you probably did notice, you end up reading "PNoy" instead of "Pinoy" when the latter was the word that should have been in it. The whole sentence was supposed to tell us that a Pinoy was beheaded in Saudi for murder but it made it look like President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III aka President Nobita/PNoy was the one who got beheaded. The screenshot above reveals how the Pwede Na Yan mentality breeds substandard performance. The news is supposed to inform people, not mislead people. You can see how the screenshot almost gave the impression that PNoy not a Pinoy was the one beheaded in Saudi Arabia for murder.
I can't really trace the whole idea to how the Philippines got into the Pwede Na Yan culture. In my case, I tend to blame the Spaniards' occupation of the Philippines. Much of the bad values that is prevalent today in the Philippines can be traced from the Imperial Spaniards. Imperial Spain is already gone and dead but its influence still lives on a lot in its former colonies. You might check out nations in South America that are worse than the Philippines. I suspect that back then, the Imperial Spaniards introduced Pwede Na Yan to its colonies so they can keep them under control. Maybe, just maybe that kind of mentality led to the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
The mentality if Pwede Na Yan means, "Oh that will already do." even if improvement can still be done. While contentment is a necessary trait, but you cannot deny that when you are content in your dirty environment (ex. the squatter's area) or your current state, mediocrity kicks in. The right kind of contentment demands you try your best while accepting your limitations. Unfortunately, many Filipinos are always appealing to the idea of Pwede Na Yan until the situation worsens leading to several failures. It's just like you don't fix a little leak until the situation gets really bad.
A lot of the locally produced Filipino goods don't really meet export quality. I will admit some Filipino goods are truly export standard quality but a lot of them may not actually pass standards right? Some of them are easy to break or some food products n the Philippines may not be safe for consumption. While I do acknowledge China has its own share of similar problems but the difference lies in how the governments are responding to the problem. The Philippines may soon become the dumping hole for fake Chinese products (I might write on that soon) no thanks to lazy customs who could have prevented them from ever coming in. The more I think about substandard production practices, it may also explain why a lot of accidents happen. For example, a fire may have been caused by not storing the flammable chemicals in a safe place.
Much of what Filipino entertainment today has to offer is really of substandard quality. For instance, take a look at how badly made most Filipino films and TV series are. Just think, back then, you have had classic Filipino films that had really good writing and love teams with good chemistry. Christopher de Leon and Vilma Santos-Recto had really good on-screen chemistry, acting and most of their scripts really were executed properly. Some Filipino music artists like Lea Salonga-Chien really knew how to do their art. Today, it's very hard to see that kind of quality in Filipino entertainment. Worse, most Filipino TV stations are known to be proud of their substandard entertainment. If any of the readers have seen Marina in ABiaS-CBN before, I remembered that show was full of bad special effects, overacting (poor acting wouldn't be too much of an issue if it wasn't for that one), overextension of plot for the sake of ratings leading to bad story quality and spoonfeeding the audience had made it a terrible, terrible show.
Not to mention, the government is also full of Pwede Na Yan. Actually the problem did not originate with President Noynoy - although people may tag "Pwede Na Yan" with him and the way he acts makes me call him President Nobita, after Nobita in Doraemon who hardly cared about improving himself and both wear yellow, wear glasses and have moms who resemble each other in terms of appearance. If he was really serious about "Daang Matuwid", raising up standards is really necessary. The whole PNP mishap during the Rolando Mendoza incident was a result of mediocre training and worse, why hasn't President Noynoy even apologize for the incident? While it's true that he did not stage it but he could have even intervened and two, the tragedy could have been lessened only if the PNP just shot down Mendoza at that exact moment. Again, were they really leaning on the stupidity of the Commission on Human Rights? I wouldn't discount the possibility that CHR is also condemning the act of killing for self defense which if they do, they deserve to be bashed for such stupidity.
Again, you want progress in the Philippines? Get rid of Pwede Na Yan mentality. It's time to raise standards to improve the country. Don't be happy with the Philippines' current stock market record or two, the rise in Gross Domestic Product as it's time to open up the economy. True sacrifices have to be made for greater happiness but again, sacrifices may lead to better happiness than the misguided notion of happiness. A misguided notion of happiness may just be nothing more than delusion like some people who are always wasting their money left and right like gambling even when you are poor - later you might see them grumbling and complaining that they are hungry. On the other hand, think of the person who works hard and saves his money for a rainy day that he can eat three healthy meals a day and have all his needs met because he works for it.
Just a thought provoking post.
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