Saturday, May 18, 2013

The Philippines under Marcos Regime

I found this in FACEBOOK, and I felt the urge to share this. Please try to read with open minds.

THE PHILIPPINES (A FOOLED NATION)
By: Bryan

I’m actually studying International Trade Law and Economics here at Busan National University South Korea. My Professor once said that the economic models of East Asia as well as the South during the post war era particularly in the 1960’s are based on Japan and the Philippines. He added that the Philippines is one of the richest nations next to Japan in that time and also once envied. Having said all these I was actually proud and happy seeing all my classmates of other nationalities looked at me with smiles on their faces.

But, what struck me the most is when my professor asked me, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR COUNTRY? I couldn’t answer back. From this, I saw the sudden shift of emotions in the class. I went home having this in mind. I was quite puzzled of what really happened.

Then one day, my wife, a Korean national found a documentary about the late Pres. Marcos and his wife Imelda made by a Korean film company. He is actually very famous here in Korea and is known to be a great president.

In the documentary I saw a lot of things I couldn’t imagine happened during those days. I was surprised to see the prosperous and peaceful life the Filipinos back in those days were enjoying. I saw people wearing formal clothes (suits), a clean and magnificent city, happy people walking on the old streets of Manila, thriving communities and places everywhere and many more.

An interesting as well as quite controversial part of the documentary is the part wherein Bong Bong Marcos was interviewed. He was asked, the same question my professor asked me, WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS COUNTRY? He said, "My father loved and cared for this country a lot and my mother as well. While saying this, suddenly he paused with teary eyes and said, “We were betrayed by the Americans”. He believes that his father trusted them but they put him down. He also thinks that they used his mother’s (Imelda) lifestyle to further destroy their reputation. Though he admitted she is living an extravagant life, she also did a lot of accomplishments, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Philippine Heart Center, Lung Center of the Philippines, Kidney Institute of the Philippines, Nayong Pilipino; Philippine International Convention Center, Folk Arts Theater, and the Coconut Palace are all Imeldas' brainchildren. Nonetheless, all major social and public buildings and institutions in the country today were actually built during the Marcos’s reign.

What inspired me the most is the time when I heard the story of the late president of Korea Park Chung Hee who visited the Philippines ones in the 1960’s. Mr. Marcos and Mr. Chung Hee were believed to be good friends. Pres. Chung Hee and Marcos once visited the Radial Road 8 now called North Luzon Expressway. I heard that Mr. Chung Hee literally cried on Mr. Marcos’ shoulder saying “ I wish my country would be just like the Philippines”. Right after he came back to Korea he started a plan to create expressways similar to what he saw in the Philippines to literally connect the cities all over Korea which were divided by tall mountains. He succeeded on doing this. And, it is said that this move is one of the keys of the Korean economic boom. Unluckily, he was assassinated. Some say that the Americans were behind the assassination.

I know Marcos cared for his country a lot that he wanted to put it on the map. I even saw in the documentary that he bought a lot of properties at Wall Street at that time because he wanted the Philippines to be known and dominate the world market. He also initiated a group of powerful south East Asian nations (SEATO) and is believed to have been headed by the Philippines to strengthen its economic relations further which is also one of the models of economic integrations (G2, G3,G7, ASEAN, and so on) these days. Another international diplomatic accomplishment of Mr. Marcos was the joint effort of Japan and the Philippines to form the Asian Development Bank in 1966 with headquarter in Mandaluyong. Some say that it somewhat became just like the world bank of Asia and its sole purpose is to give foreign aid to poor countries at that time. Unfortunately, the Philippines is the ones receiving aid nowadays.

For me, I think Marcos is the best president the Philippines ever had. During his time the economy was at its peak, unemployment was low, peso against the dollar was at its lowest, poverty rate is not that high (compared today), in short the Philippines was at its finest.

But, not until the Americans came to realize that the Philippines will grow strong and powerful as time goes. They were afraid it will take over the Wall Street as it already started buying properties and putting up state owned investment firms on the U.S. soil. One, thing is for sure, that the Americans should stop this. Then it all began. They had their plan of destroying Marcos’ reputation and putting him down using the media and some manipulated social and political entities whose dark aim is to privatize Mr Marcos' nationalistic legacies. The sad part is they succeeded.

And, the saddest part is, we were fooled as well.



Just me, 
Phioxee 

Monday, April 1, 2013

Is it really UNLIMITED CALL AND TEXT?

There is really no such thing as UNLIMITED when it comes to call and text with our local network providers here in the Philippines. In fact, this has been a standard business practice worldwide.

source
Are you guys AWARE of the Fair Use policy of Smart, Globe, and Sun networks? Yes, there is such thing as fair use policy. In the US, it is called Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). It means that your UNLIMITED call and text are not really meant to be unlimited if you already reached the maximum call minutes and text messages. This is to control the use of the bandwidth or the usage to accommodate all the prepaid users nationwide. Unless you have a monthly plan with these network providers, you'll be prioritized and can really enjoy the UNLIMITED services.
If you're a prepaid SUN mobile user, you'll have to wait for about 15 minutes to call another Sun number for free. With Globe unlimited promos, you can call right away without waiting, but the network will stop you after consecutive opportunities of calling other Globe numbers.  
source
Worst of all is Smart network. After exhausting your allowable minutes for your unlimited promo, you won't be able to call again until your promo expires. There are even times that you can no longer send a text message, because you exhausted them all by sending nonsense group messages to all your Contacts.
source
You don't believe me? Try to read their Fair Use Policies. You can also call their Customer Service to ask honest answers about this matter. Just mention Fair Use Policy right away, so you won't have to receive sugar-coated answers. 

SMART?    HERE
GLOBE?    HERE


Guys, we don't have to complain about it, we just have to be AWARE of it. 



 

Just me, 
Phioxee

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Robbery at ATM machine

I just wanted to share something to the public.
Not of all of us know about this emergency sequencer, and worse, not all banks are doing this security measure, especially in the Philippines. This technology definitely exist, but this does not exist in our country. Only the United States law enforces this type of technology in most banks.



Just me, 
Phioxee 

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Call Center Agent

Are we aware why there are a lot of Business Process Outsource companies in the Philippines? No? Alright, yes we are. That's because we offer cheap labor. Why? Simply because jobs are not enough to accomodate job-hunting Filipinos. There are needed services, but the budget for jobs is not enough to sustain salaries. Thus, you would see a lot of people working for different works but bearing one job title. We have manpower, but we don't have financial resources. 
Headset

But according to an economist who quoted from HERE, that once dollar falls to 39 Philippine Peso, many of these BPO companies might close. Well, a sad realization that we cannot get happy enough when our own currency strikes against foreign currencies. We're just too dependent on imported - not just goods - but with JOBS. 

I really hope our nation would soon come up with a strategic plan to somehow sustain our own people with our own companies.


Just me, 
Phioxee 




P.S I'm a call center agent, and I'm not thankful that I have to work for foreign companies and let them use my capabilities.