We are still highly uncompetitive vs. ASEAN!

Our special presentation on our talkshow Straight from the Sky is entitled, “Why Are the Kids Smiling? That’s because of the Lingap Child Development Center.” This center, that helps abandoned, abused or exploited children, was created way back in 1988 by the City of Toledo. By the 2005, an American from Michigan, Mr. John Drake, took over the center as a private facility and raised money to support it. Today, the center has some 85 children living there not as inmates, but rather a huge family.

What I see in the Lingap Center is a huge hope for children who were born from irresponsible parents. The chance for a better life is given to them by John Drake whose passion is helping the poor kids here in Cebu. May God bless him. With us tonight are the people working at the Lingap Center: Lonnie Cooper, a US Peace Corps Volunteer; Mrs. Gina Gadiano, Manager of the Lingap Center; and the two children they brought with them, Rose Mae Tabo and Kit Omar Rubin, who will share their stories. So watch this very interesting show on SkyCable’s Channel 15 at 8:00pm and on My TV Channel 28 at 9:00pm with more replays on My TV Channel.

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Last Friday evening, I went to the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel to attend the Abante Cebu 2012 forum. There were two speakers,one was Mr. Dylan Wilks, whom I interviewed on my TV show some years back. He has since married Anna Meloto, the daughter of Tony Meloto of Gawad Kalinga (GK) fame and has come up with a product that he calls “Human Nature,” which sells Filipino made products. What’s remarkable in his business philosophy is that, they are paying their people higher than the minimum wage to make them better and responsible citizens.

He also pointed out that it is a company policy not to fire employees. Since his employees enjoy higher salaries, the bad ones only get suspended, but never fired. Being the son-in-law of Tony Meloto, Dylan adopted a policy, which for me was very Christian … “I cannot live in a house in Forbes Park knowing that my employees live in shanties.” Now, if only Filipino businessmen adopted this policy, perhaps we can eradicate poverty faster than the promises of our present and past governments.

The other speaker was Guillermo “Bill” Luz, who acts as Private Sector Co-Chairman of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC), which is a Public-Private Partnership, created back in 2006. Bill Luz gave us a power point presentation of the country’s competitiveness vs. ASEAN. Actually, he had other reports as well, but it can’t fit this column.

Anyway as for the World Economic Forum 2011 report for ASEAN, the Philippines came out no. 7 out of 8 countries. In the IFC Doing Business Survey, we were no.7 out of 8 countries. In the IMD World Competitiveness Report for 2011, we were 5 out of 5 and lastly in the Future Brands, Country Brand Index in Asia Pacific, we’re no. 14 out of 17 countries. No sir, it was not a pretty sight looking how far behind we are even against our ASEAN neighbors. If you want to know more information on this you can go to www.competitive.org.ph and see the presentations.

After his presentation, I talked with Bill Luz and told him straight in the eye that I felt a sense of déjà vu wherein if we turned back the clock to 10 years ago, the figures would remain the same. But if you moved further back in time, you will see how much Vietnam and Cambodia were behind us. That was the polite way of saying “We’ve heard this one before.”

What that presentation only reveals is that even under the Aquino Regime, nothing much has changed. We just can’t compete with the rest of the world in so many aspects. We can only second guess that the reason for that is our politicians are just too busy politicking! The Senate Impeachment trial has become some kind of a reality TV show that entertained the Filipino people and kept them away from the gut issues like prices of basic goods and fuel products that the Aquino Regime has not addressed.

Above all, we are not doing anything to fix the ills of this country that’s why we have stagnated and if we don’t get our acts together, we just might end up at the bottom of the ASEAN line up of nations. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think our competitiveness will improve under the Aquino Regime because he is working to divide our people rather than unite us.

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The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) will hold the Sustainable City Dialogues 2012 from Feb. 6-10, including an Understanding Choices Forum on Feb.9th. Today, RAFI will feature two internationally known speakers, Archt. Senen A. Antonio, a US Urban design and planning expert, and Dr. AbdouMalig Simone, an Urbanist and Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths College at the University of London. For more information, get in touch with RAFI at 418-7234 loc.520.

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