first of all i really love our country. i love filipinos (well, most filipinos).

the reason i asked is because the number of people suffering and dying in philippines is ridiculous and i just dont have any faith in our government. hungry people would rather lose their nationality than keep it with empty stomachs. sick people would rather lose their nationality than die.

i might just be naive.

if ever a strong country would wanna take over ours, are we willing to give her up? shall we swallow our pride for the sake of the unfortunate filipinos? or do we fight for her?

sadly, from what i've seen from our government officials (with the exception of mr. bayani fernando), i would have to say yes.

it's easy to say "hell no" and "we're intelligent people, we can run our country," but it ain't easy to turn our backs to the suffering children, i think.

No, I do NOT love this country. Not as it is, anyway.

Try this exercise: when you have the chance to travel along EDSA (yes, Poeple Power Avenue itself), take an ordinary bus. Sit by the window facing the sidewalk and try to remember all those sad rhetoric you hear from the professed nationalists in your classrooms and in rallies you've been to. You may even ry to recall the events of EDSA Dos. Wasn't it all wonderful, those times when you listened to patriotic speeches and felt so one with your country? Then take a peep out the window. You'll find that your bus driver is violating traffic rules again. You may even get a glimpse of the naked women in tabloids sold in sorry-looking stalls that clutter the sidewalk.

But let's not elaborate on our faults, which we know too well. If ever a stronger country is to take over ours, I would still fight to keep our country free. Remember Aguinaldo? He took over a nation of cowards, with the help of a government run by his idiot cronies. But he was a symbol of freedom, that the Americans have nothing to teach us because we can, by right, make our own future. It meant, of course, spilling blood and leaving children to die of hunger, but such is the price of nation-building. Especially in our case.

I love the Philippines, as much as I hate seeing our countrymen suffer and die slowly everyday. But our suffering is complex - too many issues are involved. There are forces at work that keep us poor - vested interests, imperialism, the political indolence of the people. Many other nations fare worse than we do, but they are still proud in their freedom. So there. We can't just give up the country because we're poor.

Going further, we may also want to ponder whether this country is worth keeping together, given that some regions have sublimely broached the idea of seceding from the country.

Some says we should put a tag in this country as "FOR SALE"

My professor in a basic pol sci subject told his class that the best solution to our problem with secessioninsts is to let them go on and secede. But that's political suicide and may even spill over into war. I think a federal gov't structure should do the trick since we're a divided country anyway - you know, not just geographically but also ethnolinguistically.

By the way, I heard in the news the other day that Chavit Singson plans to cut Ilocandia off the Philippines. What do you think?

If secessionist leaders could muster enough support from their constituents via an election, then they would have the political clout to secede. I wouldn't be too concerned about war either bec. the military has proven to be inept in dealing w/ insurgents. What more another army that has the moral backing of the local population?



The trouble w/ a federal gov. though is that it still retains a centralized structure that could be manipulated by certain quarters to un-do the aspirations of more progressive regions. It will almost certainly retain a supreme court that could overrule the policies of local gov'ts. We also do not know if the restrictive economic provisions in the constitution would be removed under a federal set-up. If such reforms are not made, then a federal system will be meaningless.



Wait and see. All I can say is that the Ilocanos have practical reasons for wanting to break away as much as the Cebuanos do. Gov. Marcos has been complaining about the lack of investments coming into his province to service the booming tourism market, thereby denying Ilocanos hundreds of jobs, incomes and the opportunity for better quality of life.

The civilian government has been inept in building upon the gains of the military. Even the communists themselves said so.

Pathetic. Hindi magandang biro 'yan. (This is not addressed to the one who posted the said message but to those who seriously think that we are hopeless as Filipinos.)

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Why not? We have a population of 80M, most of whom live below the poverty level. There is no economic upside in both the medium and long-term that would result in significant improvements in quality of life indicators such as per capital income, investment, permanent jobs, etc.

I think that the solution lies within the character of the people, trite as it may seem. Whether be it a federal system or a parliamentary system, if the people who would supposedly lead the country, "states", or other basic political unit would be corrupt and self-serving, chances are we would find ourselves never further than where we are now.

Corruption per se is not a sufficient reason to justify the Filipino's inability to achieve material prosperity. In fact, it may not even be a significant reason. For example, back in 1997, the Philippines got a score of 3.05 in Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index. This is close to Thailand's score of 3.06 and South Korea's score of 4.29, with a score of 10 representing zero corruption. What this shows is that even if Thailand and Korea have had very high levels of corruption back in 1997, their people enjoyed a much higher standard of living than Filipinos. Overpriced gov't contracts, bribes, etc. were rampant in countries that were richer than the Philippines and the Philippines continued to lag behind.

I do agree with you that it would not be corruption per se. It could also be perseverance, ingenuity, teamwork/consensus orientation, self-pride, even religious beliefs (especially some misinterpretations of the "Bahala na" attitude). Also if business and government people do decide based on merits rather than friendships. Chances are Thai and Koreans are of a different mindset than we are. Given that all political structures being equal, they would still be miles ahead of us.

Just sell the country to America!