21st CENTURY PHILIPPINES
"Never let anyone tell you it was the Philippine national character that moulded our country into a stagnant quagmire fit only for breeding Third World criminals and mosquitoes. Our shameful degrading situation was imposed upon us by contagious corrupt regimes like former President Arroyo's administration in Manila, which infected every level of national and local government all the way down to remote provincial Barangay, SK and Purok.
In reality it was the Filipino national mentality that enabled us to rise above it with creativity, humor and a humble willingness to do menial work overseas for the sake of our families back home, while our so-called leaders basked in the hypocritical glories and luxuries of their ill-gotten gains.
Times have changed, and the 21st century is steadily and surely being taken over by People Power. This is not the same as Communism, which collapsed in the USSR and all Eastern Europe and is being transformed by China into a modern mixed economy.
China's current teething troubles may well evolve into an economic model the rest of the world will follow, because the USA's unnecessary financial crisis imposed on us all is clear evidence that American Capitalism has now also failed despite its inane imitation by Eurozone countries. Nevertheless, there are very serious issues of Human Rights that still need to be addressed by China before it can receive approval of the world as its next leader.
At the same time, in my view, the West is equally guilty. Does not the West's heavy-handed enforcement of endless escalating taxation combined with corruptly squandering these enforced tax revenues on bailing out unethical greed-obsessed bankers without any public referendum also contravene Human Rights? I sincerely believe it does, and it has wiped out all my previous respect for the USA and the European Union in one stroke. They are trampling on the basic God-given rights of real people in real distress, just as Western history and literature inform us the rich have been doing to the poor for centuries. There are stll millions of people living in destitution and poverty in the West that the USA and EU don't want us to know about because instead of helping their poor, Western governments are Hell-bent on further enriching their rich.
With access to much more information, mostly on the internet but also from TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, text messages, phone calls and even the snail mail, the Filipino national mentality has matured and is no longer seeking leadership from the USA or Europe or China. Filipinos and Filipinas are now collectively and actively demanding political, economic, educational, social and religious reforms that will eradicate poverty and benefit our country's entire population.
It wiil be a struggle, but we know we are right. We are on the straight path, and we are in it for the long haul. Our time has come. We positively know without even the slightest tiniest doubt that we shall overcome whatever obstacles are placed in our path. GOD is on our side, People Power is here to stay, and no corrupt politician's private army can ever stop the inevitable. As the Scriptures foretell, our dedicated, determined and relentless progress will achieve GOD'S KINGDOM here on Earth, and it won't be in America."
- Pacifico Dagsi Balagtas, writing for Filipino Feelgood Factor
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"I'm a doubting Thomas and I go where the investments are most attractive. The idea is to create your
own future and not have it shaped by circumstance. You have to keep your thoughts positive because
your thoughts become your words. And you have to keep your words positive because your words
become your actions. And you have to keep your actions positive because your actions become
your values. And you have to keep your values positive because your values become your destiny."
- Peter Thomas, global investor
"By setting a national example from the top, Gloria Arroyo's presidency dragged the Philippine Republic
down to a globally reported rock bottom of dishonor and disgrace. In financial terms her tenure was more
corrupt than that of the dictator Marcos. She made it impossible for Filipinos - urban or provincial, male
or female, young or old, rich or poor - to believe any longer in accountable politicians, interested teachers,
compassionate priests, honest judges, patriotic generals, law-abiding police, trustworthy bankers, caring
public service employees, ethical businessmen, principled diplomats, impartial newsmedia or even humane
doctors. Filipinos with credibility in any sphere of human existence found themselves throttled at every turn
by the toxic contamination nurtured and spread by obsessive greed emanating from the contagiously corrupt
seeds tenderly germinated and aggressively propagated at Malacanang Palace under Arroyo's administration.
Her responsibility for atrocities of the Ampatuan clan in Mindanao was typically indirect yet evident nonetheless.
Infinitely corrupt political whitewashings and corrupt legal technicalities will undoubtedly persist in delaying justice,
so ASK YOURSELVES THIS SIMPLE QUESTION, THEN JUST ANSWER IT WITH CONSCIENCE AND HONESTY:
How could the Ampatuans have acquired such power, wealth or weaponry without connivance from Malacanang?
Even Philippine professional army officers were astonished that the Ampatuan firepower was greater than theirs."
- PNIR
"It's not my fault that Philippine politicians are corrupt. My business is business and my motive is profit.
When the public officials in one city ask me for under-the-table payments, I ask them what's in it for me. If bribing
them will bring me profits, I accept their demands. If not, then I don't invest or do business there.
The problem with Manuel Manoy Alipon is greed. He is obsessed with it. He drives business away,
and local people suffer because the new jobs that would have been created in Santa Rosa are
created in cities welcoming new business and new investment without Alipon's avaricious extortions."
- Paulino Villanueva, Filipino investor
"Philippine society is buried in the quagmire of graft and corruption, poverty, and other
social ills. It is social movements, not political movements, that can serve as the best
engines to change our society now putrefied by politics where power is put above principle,
a society ran to the ground by an economy infested by greed. Moral transformation of our
nation is the concern of everybody. The Moral Force Movement recognizes the need to change
and the change that counts is the change of ourselves -- change based on realization that we
have oftentimes faulted others for our problems when we ourselves have defaulted in our fight
for our moral virtues and principles. The MFM is a social movement that would enlist the
support of everyone to restore morality in government for a just and humane society that has
been shattered by stubborn structural injustices and encumbered by the greed of a few."
- Reynato S. Puno, retired Chief Justice of the Philippines (written before the May 2010 Elections)
"If the Philippines is to end the politics of corruption and use of naked power, electoral reforms
must start in earnest from all - the people, the leaders, and the politicians. It's time Filipinos
got the governance they deserve. Electoral reforms must also be seen in the electorate itself and
the politicians. People need to stand up for what is good for them, and to demand concrete solutions
to problems that ravage them. We must finally overhaul the rotten political system that has only made
our people miserable, and this we can start with the use of appropriate technology to automate our
elections. Some candidates believe that the only way to assure victory is to monkey with the results
which happen in the long and slow count. These politicians are those who are willing to make fortunes
from irregular deals and tainted projects, the proceeds of which would be used to win votes."
- Senator Loren Legarda (written before the May 2010 Elections)
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"Reform is a fundamental theme of this administration: first to rid ourselves of corruption and second to shore up
our competence. We will play a key role in ensuring that reform takes place at all strata of government. Indeed,
the pillars of justice stands firmly only when the DoJ and all its attach agencies are performing up to par. Therefore,
it is imperative that any grand effort to reform government in this new administration must begin with the most
stringent and ardent efforts to reform the DoJ itself. From the CHR, I am well versed in the weakness of the WPP
and I have been tremendously troubled by the injustices that emanate from its failure to be 100 percent effective.
I humbly offer you my devoted leadership just as I will ask you to offer your experience, knowledge and expertise."
- Leila De Lima, Justice Secretary, Philippine Republic
"I was elected to office on the promise to fight corruption and do better for the poor. ... I'm very
fortunate to have the whole economic team and members of my Cabinet driven by the same
desire to effect real changes. ... Acting with compassion towards those who need help is a
response that is both humane and necessary. ... Universal human dignity should not be defined
by geographical, racial, or cultural boundaries. ... Combating inequality remains one of the
greatest challenges of our times. ... The chasm between the powerful and powerless, the haves
and have-nots, remains to be bridged. ... We are committed to changing all of that. ... Those
who have demonstrated abuse of their countrymen will merit an extended stay in the New Bilibid
Prison in Muntinlupa. ... We're given this one chance, we hope to be able to really transform
our society to such a degree that whoever follows us will be compelled by the voice of this
majority to continue what we have started. ... I assure you that the Philippines is committed
to good housekeeping practices in its domestic and international dealings with investors. ... The
Philippines is indeed open for business, not the under-the-table kind but the legitimate kind. ... This
does not mean a cumbersome and intrusive government but rather a government that allows private
enterprise to thrive while ensuring they remain cognizant of their social responsibilities. ... In
all humility one of our most prestigious survey firms gives us a net approval rating right now of
about 88 percent even after the hostage incident. ... That emboldens us to face anybody and
everybody in our country with the support of our people and say unless you have these
numbers behind you, we are in the majority and it is the majority that decides in a
democracy. ... United, nothing is impossible. ... We call this People Power."
- Philippine President Benigno 'Noynoy' Aquino, speaking at the United Nations Assembly, New York
"Business leaders here in America are excited about the new administration, the new opportunities, and we
hope there are ways the American businessmen can participate and hopefully move the Philippines forward.
There's a lot of opportunities and we're excited to work with the President's Cabinet. Transparency,
good governance, ridding of corruption is really critical to American companies and companies from
all over the world being enthusiastic about the Philippines. Corruption always has a double deterrent effect. Additional to ethical problems, corruption adds another layer of cost that makes a lot of doing business in the Philippines uneconomical."
- Alex Feldman, President of US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Business Council
Email our publisher for a free copy of our e-book "The Filipino Feelgood Factor", which is a short original book plus (in the same digital edition) a compilation from some of the original books that inspired The Secret movie. It will be emailed directly to you as a PDF attachment. You'll need a free Adobe Reader on your computer (click on above logo if you don't have it).
This e-book won't cost you a single centavo, because our book is free anyway and all the original books on which The Secret was based are out-of-copyright, so there are no royalty fees to pay on them. The English language of around a century ago may seem a tad old-fashioned to us today, but the selections are easy to read and will tell you everything you want to know.
FREE is a pretty good deal compared with paying a mentor/coach to tell you the same thing, or buying expensive new books on the subject by authors who merely rehash out-of-copyright books into modern English as if the content was theirs.
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BEWARE!!! BEWARE!!! BEWARE!!!
"FUN TOUR" PROMOS
OF CEBU PACIFIC AIR
CEBU PACIFIC'S ONLINE CHEAP FLIGHT PROMOS ARE GENERALLY FINE BUT IF YOU BOOK A "FUN TOUR" PACKAGE TO INCLUDE A HOTEL STAY, YOUR TRIP CAN BECOME A NIGHTMARE.
Some friends of mine booked a 5 day 4 night "Fun Tour" with Cebu Pacific and paid in full online 3 months in advance including the 4 night stay at a hotel chosen from the recommended list on the Cebu Pacific website.
Before their trip, on searching for the hotel's website to print out a location map, they discovered to their astonishment that the hotel had closed down almost 2 weeks previously, yet no word of this had been communicated to them by Cebu Pacific.
Then came the serious problem with CP's online bookings: contacting anyone about them is almost impossible. Their website gives no email address. Just "Hotline" telephone numbers in Manila and Cebu that are permanently busy.
My friends spent nearly a whole day repeatedly dialling before at last getting through. But these "Hotlines" are not to Cebu Pacific. They are to a Call Center with the function of filtering, taking notes, and passing queries to a supervisor who decides whether or not to pass them on to Cebu Pacific. It's a slow, laborious, frustrating, inconvenient, costly (you're paying for phone call) process.
In this case my friends' message was considered serious enough to pass on, and some hours later they received a call from Cebu Pacific saying they had contacted the destination hotel which informed them it had only been closed for a single day and there was no problem with it.
My friends questioned this because it contradicted the notice on the hotel's own official website, and were asked to hold while Cebu Pacific double-checked. The caller, who gave no name or direct line for future contact, returned to say the hotel had confirmed it was open and there would be no problem. "Just go there." So they did.
"Fun Tour" was Nightmare Trip for vacationers who booked Cebu Pacific online promo.
Upon late night arrival at the destination airport and clearance through immigration and customs, they encountered another regular difficulty with "Fun Tour" promos. No transportation to hotel is included. After trying unsuccessfully to find a bus going in the right direction, they were finally forced to take a taxi, which cost them as much as a night at the hotel, which they reached at about 2am.
When they got there, the door was open but the reception desk was unattended. Calling out and knocking on the counter a few times eventually resulted in the appearance of someone clearly irritated at being disturbed. She looked at the reservation details on the Cebu Pacific e-ticket, brought a man out from inside and told my friends to follow him.
The man, whose manner was equally disinterested and offhand, made no attempt to help carry their baggage and walked out of the hotel into the street, where it had started to rain. Carrying their own baggage and struggling to keep up, my friends followed him in the rain through narrow dimly lit streets, then up some stairs, through an empty building, down the stairs on the other side and further along another dark and wet street to end up at a different hotel.
This hotel was part of the same group of budget hotels, but it was not the one my friends had chosen and did not provide the same room facilities. The hotel receptionist was aggressively rude on being questioned about the one they had booked, confirming that it had permanently closed and adding that if my friends did not like this one they could get out and go somewhere else.
They pointed out that they had paid for 4 nights in advance, had already lost half of the first night, and asked if they could get their money back. The receptionist replied that they had paid the owner, not him, and there would be no refund if they did not stay there. He then demanded a substantial deposit for the room key, although no such deposit was mentioned on the Cebu Pacific website.
The Cebu Pacific e-ticket shows 4 nights' stay with checkout on Friday September 30.
By then it was too late and my friends were too tired to search for another hotel, and without refund they did not have enough spare cash to pay another hotel for the same 4 nights they had already paid Cebu Pacific for. Reluctantly they paid the room key deposit and stayed there 4 nights.
On the positive side, next morning their included American breakfast was fine, and the hotel's eatery staff were efficient and friendly. When they wandered out to walk around, they found that the location was in a tourist area largely frequented by backpackers so there was plenty of cheap transportation for sightseeing and a pickup point nearby for the airport shuttle bus.
However, my friends' "Fun Tour" package vacation nightmare was by no means over. The worst part was yet to come...
- Edu Garcia (Story of Cebu Pacific customers' ongoing nightmare to be continued.) See also www.ThePhilippineWay.org
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THE ABOVE REPORT IS BAD NEWS, SO
BELOW IS GOOD NEWS FOR FILIPINOS
"The society is again united and the only ones who keep on complaining like a broken record are
those who want to return to power to continue their fun that comes from our oppression. .... They
are the ones who brought the problems we are shouldering now and they have the temerity to attack
us continuously. Are you still going to pay attention to them? Are you going to be deceived again? ....
Those who want to maintain the old system really want to destroy us, they are like huge crocodiles
who prey on government coffers. .... Remember that while many of our countrymen are concerned
for the country, there are a few whose interests are to continue the bickering. .... I have long appealed
to those who do not want to join us in the right path. .... Following the straight path is no joke. .... We
are serious when we say we will walk the straight and narrow path. .... All of you involved in wrong
governance and have caused troubles to the people, I guarantee you, your days are numbered. ....
Tingin ko ay malapit-lapit na rin ang panahong sasabihin ko sa kanila ay 'goodbye' at ang matatanggap
naman nilang 'hello' ay ang pagpasok nila sa Munti. .... The trust of the people is fueling our administration's
achievements. .... Our fight will continue and will not stop until the necessary reforms are in effect."
- President Noynoy Aquino
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