Here we go again, dressed up as responsibility. This week, The Manila Times reported that the Philippines is considering mandatory social media user verification to curb abuse. The pitch is neat and comforting. Order over chaos. Safety over noise. Names over anonymity. The subtext is even clearer: if everyone can be identified, everyone can be managed. That is not about
Tag: democracy
Every nation has flaws, but not every nation repeats them with the stubbornness of a drunk who swears he’s sober. We Filipinos have perfected the art of messing things up, proudly, consistently, and sometimes cheerfully. From politics to culture to economics, we manage to sabotage ourselves with a creativity that could have made us great if only it were directed
I’m sorry, Philippines. I love you. But we need to talk. We are bad at choosing our leaders. Not just bad — catastrophically, world-class bad. Other countries have bad elections. We have recurring nightmares. This Is Not New — It’s a National Pastime We’ve been miscasting our presidents since the Commonwealth. We had Manuel Quezon, brilliant orator, champion of the
Short answer: no.Long answer: hell no—but let’s talk about why it feels like we should. Congress in the Philippines isn’t a store where you can return defective products. If it were, customer service would be the busiest branch in the country, right after DFA passport renewal. You voted for them—or didn’t, because you were busy posting #IStandWithWhatever on Facebook instead
Singapore teaches us a lesson most Filipinos can’t hear over the sound of their own excuses: you don’t get spotless trains, clean streets, and a GDP per capita that makes your neighbors jealous by clutching every shred of “personal freedom” like a toddler hoarding candy. Singapore traded some of it in—cheerfully—for progress, order, and a government that doesn’t need to
“A nation once poised to soar—grounded by the very hands entrusted to lift it.” Once upon a Republic, the Filipino Dream was real. Not the American kind with white picket fences and Disneyland tickets—but the Filipino kind: a home with hollow blocks that didn’t crumble in a typhoon, a job that didn’t require a passport, a country where your vote