Well-Behaved Filipinos In First World Countries VS. Dysfunctional Filipinos In The Philippines - It's All About Systems!

I remembered how often the story of successful Filipinos abroad always has a ring to the ears of Penoy Praydists. There are stories of Lea Salonga-Chien, Regine Velasquez-Alcasid, Lydia De Vega-Mercado, Cecil Licad-Menenses, and the late Leandro Locsin of how they succeeded. Some may want to credit the "uniqueness" of the Filipino blood which isn't always the case. But even if there is this Filipino blood uniqueness (which may be a result of years of interbreeding between Malaysians, Indonesians, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese) but if the system is faulty then you have to expect that results won't be as good. A bad system is a guarantee that there will be more bad results than good. That's why the Filipino majority doesn't hold good while the Filipino minority tends to be better.

Try to notice Filipinos who have kept a good reputation and have kept their jobs or even citizenships in those first world places. I don't want to deny that there are problems caused by Filipino workers in some places but such incidents are easy to count. How often do you hear of a Filipino getting hanged in Singapore for murder? How often do you hear of a Filipino getting deported like Edz Ello? Why the incidents may not escalate as much is because Filipinos wanting to continue working in Singapore eventually comply. What makes them comply is the SYSTEM. Why do you think the Philippines is still mounted with such incidents with such nigh impunity? Why do you think the Philippines is full of people who can't even follow simple guidelines while Filipinos who stay in first world countries are in fact compliant to simple guidelines? Again, the difference is in the SYSTEM.

The problem with the Philippines is not democracy itself but the kind of democracy that runs the country. Many countries where Filipinos eventually succeed and let out their potential are in fact democracies. However, the democracy in the Philippines is however best described as a government for stupid people, by stupid people and for stupid people which ends up making the majority stupid. Why are the majority of Japanese and Singaporeans compliant with guidelines? It's because of their SYSTEM. Majority of Filipinos end up as losers because Philippine democracy is not really democracy but a dysfunctional sense of freedom. There's hardly any discipline in the Philippines. The undisciplined Filipino is not the bigger problem -- it's the system that allows them to continue to stay in their condition and breed others staying in that condition!

Why do many Filipinos that stay in the Philippines usually have the LOSER mentality? It's because one constitution after the other (and recently, the 1987 Constitution) endorses it in the form of economic protectionism. There have been more than decades of state protectionism -- something that was amended by former presidents Fidel V. Ramos and according to Asian Correspondent -- Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and even Noynoy Aquino. State protectionism has only created nothing more than pampered brats out of the oligarchy. If there's no competition then why bother to innovate and be competitive? There's hardly any competition so why bother learning new stuff? The result of this sissification because of a lack of competition. However, Filipinos who succeed abroad live in countries that have a healthy amount of competition. These countries (whether presidential or parliamentary) have high Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) which results in the country's local businesses in the quest to either innovate or perish. 

May I mention that the countries where many of these Filipinos succeed are even parliamentary countries? It's because the parliamentary form of democracy is respectful of both the majority and minority. True, the majority wins but it doesn't mean that the minority has no voice in a democracy. A democracy is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people -- NOT a government that's only for the majority, of the majority, and by the majority. Countries respectful of the minority's voices benefit better for this reason. The minority may be right where the majority is wrong. That's the purpose of the Parliamentary System's weekly question hour. The minority parties have the duty to offer alternatives to the majority. However, that kind of thinking isn't prevalent in a presidential system because it's all about bandwagoning.

Again, it's all about systems. If you believe that it's just the people and not the systems and you happen to be a SYSTEMS ANALYST -- then you deserve to be FIRED from your job and just look for another job. It's because any good systems analyst would really figure out the system is what needs to change first before the people.