A LETTER FROM AN OVERSEAS FILIPINO (PART ONE)

A LETTER FROM AN OVERSEAS FILIPINO (PART ONE)

My dear countrymen, I am featuring a letter from an overseas Filipino here just for us to get an inkling of how they feel about our country now:

START QUOTE: I am in Auckland, New Zealand. It is very sad to notice here that most Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble products here are MADE IN THAILAND. Johnson & Johnson products are MADE IN MALAYSIA. These products used to be MADE IN PHILIPPINES, Now, a lot of products are no longer MADE IN PHILIPPINES, we are being replaced by Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, aside from China. It has to do with our "genius" politicians, never ending quarrels, congressional hearings, corruption, etc.  They are not serving the people; they are serving themselves. Pity our grandchildren, what are their future might or will be!

No wonder, many of my engineering classmates went abroad after graduation. What a waste, those talents could have been used in the Philippines. When Rubber World closed due to never ending strikes, most of our designers and technical people went to China and work there. This is the REAL SITUATION.

Instead of bragging about OFWs, (causing plenty of broken families), we should give our talented people opportunities to work and help the Philippines. We educate a lot of these talented people and then let other countries benefit from them. Why is China progressing very fast?  It is because most of Chinese scientists and engineers, go back to China and work there, and because of their government policies that give them opportunities to work back home. That is why China is now very advanced in the field of AI, manufacturing and other in many fields.

I moved to China because my biggest client moved to China due to strikes (Factory in Laguna, 6 hectares). Six months after CBA. the owner gave up and moved to China, and the Chinese government gave him free land and other financial incentives.

That is what our government should do. Serve the people, not serve their pockets. I used to manufacture cashew nutshell oil (CNSL) and export to China. I also opened a small factory that processed CNSL into friction material (an additive for making brake linings), in China., at that time. During that time, in the 1990's, Vietnam also starting planting cashew nut trees on an industrial scale. When my Philippine CNSL source was no longer competitive, I had to use Vietnam CNSL To make a long story short, Philippines is not competitive in many areas due to government indifference to the businessmen’s problems. No incentives to business groups and never-ending taxes and corruption.

To renew a business license, you can choose either valid for another 30 years or 50 years, no charge (don’t have to pay any fee). Due to covid, Xiamen local government reduced personal income taxes. Also, for businesses, the government reduced taxes. That is how government helps business groups and wage-earning groups. It is not TRUE that the government subsidizes business, it is more of helping business groups.

I started doing business with China in 1983. I have seen them from practically having nothing to now having everything. Only those bad element Chinese are saying bad things about China. Most Chinese are satisfied with their government. There is no Utopia in a society, there are still problems in China, even in Europe, the West, but in the Philippines, it is a very big problem. END QOUTE.

When we talk about brain drain, it is usually the scientists, engineers and other professionals. But in this letter that I have published here, we learn about businessmen leaving the country too, to take away not only their talents and business acumen, but also their capital. How can we bring back these people, and how can we prevent these people from leaving? The letter writer already old us what the problems are, can we bring some solutions to them? Your friend, IKE SENERES/12-22-24/visit my blog senseneres.blogspot.com

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