| Photo by Naomi August on Unsplash
Yes, for the rich to be richer and the poor to remain impoverished. Many Filipinos, including scores of Overseas Filipino workers and immigrants (OFWI), realize the Philippines is poor because of “The Imperial Manila” (TIM) and its practices of “Crony Capitalism.” The TIM moguls and their cartels wield enormous but illegal (and often immoral) influence on the country’s policy and decision-makers. The TIM donates in every election billions of pesos in political contributions to the leading candidates — for the presidential, congressional, and local contests. Thus, the TIM maintains the status quo.
The TIM’s “partnership” with the politicians is the reason the minimum wage is that low, especially in poor provinces where the workers are paid the equivalent of US$0.87 per hour. And Metropolitan Manila has remained the “homeless capital” of the world for several decades.
On December 30, 2020, this column suggested to President-elect Joe Biden how his incoming Administration could solve, if not substantially reduce, homelessness in the United States and the world. The columnist presented the list of the five metropolitan cities.
The top five are:
- Manila, the Philippines, with a population of nearly 14 million. The most-homeless city globally is (Metropolitan) Manila, with 3.1 million homeless people, with 70,000 children.
- New York, U.S., home to 8.5 million people, is the second-most homeless city globally, with a homeless population being 74,000.
- Mumbai, India, total population: 18,500,000; the homeless population at 60,000
- Los Angeles, U.S., total population: 4,000,000; homeless at 58,000.
- Moscow, Russia, total population: 12,000,000; homeless at 58,000
The TIM’s moguls and cartels always prefer profits over poor people. And sad to say, some Filipino “taipans” are of Chinese descent, and many have huge investments also in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its satellite of Hong Kong. This was why the previous Philippine presidents were allegedly always at the beck and call of the PRC Politburo chiefs. Because of the adage that “money talks.”
This columnist has been studying the island republic of Taiwan since he became 1970 Dean Van Lines’s acting regional director for now, ASEAN countries, plus Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. He was then the regional manager of the DVL’s subsidiary office in Manila until the parent company in Long Beach, California, was sold to another American moving company in 1972.
After this journalist became a Facebook member in 2010, he organized a group called “SorsoGold,” a term he coined “to make Sorsogon a land of golden opportunities.” Then — as a gubernatorial candidate in 2016 — to prepare his home province to become economically empowered and financially independent from TIM, he changed the name of it to “SorsoGold (Turning Sorsogon Into ‘Little Taiwan’),” which can be accessed here.
“The TIM’s moguls and cartels always prefer profits over poor people. And sad to say, some Filipino “taipans” are of Chinese descent, and many have huge investments also in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its satellite of Hong Kong. This was why the previous Philippine presidents were allegedly always at the beck and call of the PRC Politburo chiefs. “
Curious readers may access in said Facebook group this journalist’s postings about his fascination with Taiwan and his belief that the earliest settlers in Sorsogon were Taiwanese aboriginal settlers more than 4,000 years ago. The postings also mention his friendship with some Americans of Taiwanese descent and other data about Taiwan. And begin an “Industrial Evolution” in Sorsogon.
In 2021, Taiwan’s gross domestic product amounted to approximately $775 billion (as rounded off). Gross domestic product (GDP) denotes the aggregate value of all services and goods produced within a country in any given year.
The Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) of the Bicol Region dropped to 517.5-billion pesos (or $10.35-billion at an exchange rate of US$1/PHpesos 50) in 2020 from 564.9 billion pesos in 2019. It was slightly lower than the 2018 GRDP of 522.0 billion pesos. There are six provinces in the Bicol Region, and Sorsogon is the fifth-poorest among them. There is a shortage of information regarding the individual province’s GRDP. However, Bicolandia is one of the poorest regions in the Philippines.
It is public knowledge that Sorsogon Province’s share of Bicolandia’s GRDP does not even amount to 10 percent. Even a one-billion-dollar out of the Bicol Region’s $10.35-billion GRDP is a stretch of the imagination.
In this Sunday’s column, this columnist will write details of his prediction that voters will force Sorsoganon political leaders and local business leaders to adopt the slogan of an “Economic Republic of Sorsogon” (ERP), as ventilated in the 2016 election campaign for governor. When that happens in 2025, within ten years or earlier, the people of Sorsogon, including Overseas Sorsoganons, may earn approximately $32 billion or more per year (give or take $500 million). This target is just 0.042% of Taiwan’s GDP of US$ 775 billion (as of 2021).
Yes, this Sunday’s column will explain how Sorsoganons — with the help of stakeholders from the United States, Taiwan, Mexico, Spain, and the Hispanidad communities — can reinvent the Philippine economy. And, yes, become the show window of back-to-basics “Cooperative Capitalism” of the people, by the people, and for the people. And start a 25-year process of making the proverbial “conquest” and orderly dismantling of “The Imperial Manila.”
