Former Project Inspector at Department of Public Works and Highways Philippines 8y
Things that I don’t like in PH?
- Constant meddling of religious groups in Philippine politics, and the religious fanaticism of its people. Include conservatism, the very ideology why the country has always been socially backwards. This resulted to the extreme anti-intellectualism and the discouragement of critical thinking in the country by religious fanatics and old-man reactionaries, peaceful or not.
- Extreme neoliberalism which resulted to foreign companies getting their hands at our very own natural resources at the expense of the local people including minority groups. The result is the agricultural sector in the country has been in almost total neglect and deterioration and the farmers disillusioned and forever disenfranchised.
- Selfish individualism of people resulting to one’s rights being trampled more often than not. One example is just a simple land boundary quarrel between two farm tenants that will soon spiral into a shooting spree. But the most famous example of this is the corruption of a politician since that person will find a way to bolster his/her wealth and feed up that person’s ego.
- Prestige and fame-oriented mentality. See those Pinoy Big Brother and Pinoy Fear Factor contestants? Surprise! 90% of them more or less became actors and workers in the Philippine showbiz industry. That’s just one example. Another is the typical Filipino trait of buying high-end cars to show it off at the people they know so close, even if their house is thatched or just way too tiny to have a garage, the end result of which is heavy traffic in every major city in the country.
- Monarchical type of politics. Many people have a preference towards political dynasties at their respective provinces since in their minds it preserves the status quo and the seeming prosperity and peace one pioneering political dynast has established by keeping the dynastic family in power.
- Little incentive and rights to blue-collar workers. Some of these workers are not even socially insured at all. And nearly all of them are contractual, therefore making life for them increasingly difficult should they not find another job given the unemployment rate in the country and the choosiness and evilness of the recruiters.
- Increasingly privatized healthcare, therefore reserving quality healthcare for the rich and powerful only, most of the time. The average and the destitute get the dismal, if not abysmal, performance of some underfunded state-owned hospitals. This is what disgust me the most as a Filipino.
- Little incentive to public utility drivers, except to those working in big bus companies. They only get the subsidized 4P’s cards, while the rest they get it from the money they earned from the commuters. Notoriously, some of them are even working under the infamous boundary system, where they still get to pay a huge percentage of their earnings as rent to the owner/operator of the vehicle, say van or jeep. The result is most of the public utility drivers will spend a long time waiting until their vehicle is full of commuters, just to maximize their profits.
- Regionalism. Made possible due to the fact that the country is a melting pot of people with different languages, cultures and way of life.
- Criminalism and recidivism of petty and dangerous criminals. Brought about by the extremely high rate of poverty and wealth inequality in the country, most of the time. This can be also attributed to lack of education in some parts of the country.
- Its people’s extreme lust for money, at the expense of others. Well, just many of them, not all. It was seen as the means to survive and eventually have a good and enjoyable life, or if not enough, use it as the means of getting others out of their way. They would do everything, good or bad, just to get it.
- Awful urban planning of most of its cities. Most of the major cities in the country are laden with teeming numbers of squatters from different places in the country, therefore contributing to the congestion and serious loss of safety, sanitation and delivery of basic services in the cities, oftentimes with the city governments not doing anything about it either in fear of provoking the anger of some marginalized groups or because they are corrupt as crap. Some cities in the country do even have a seemingly dysfunctional and corrupt zoning committees for allowing such things to happen. Examples are the Torre de Manila that sits astride disgustingly in the background in the Luneta Park commemorative for the national hero Jose Rizal, and the construction of the largest SM Mall in Mindanao in Cagayan de Oro literally in the center of already the most-busiest and most traffic-infested downtown in Mindanao.
I can’t think of more, but the moment I could the next time, I will update my answer.
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