Real talk: Hoping for a better progress

Now that a new President has sworn into office I am hoping that more opportunities will be open for Filipinos especially those that live in the province. I am pro about his suggestion of raising the minimum wage for provincial areas, abolishing the taxation for those with low income, processes be done within 72 hours. Although nothing is final yet and parameter are not yet set like what is the cut off for your salary not to be taxed, etc I see a light on these things.

I am not a big fan of the new President or any of those who were candidates because I doubt if in the past they never committed corruption, stealing, etc.

VAT or TAX issue

I also want the 12% VAT on all goods be removed. Recto who proposed that already said a long time ago that the Philippines were able to gain the goal and it was time to remove the 12% VAT but of course due to corruption many would not want to remove it.

Yung kinain o binili mo may VAT tapos yung pinangbayad mo dun nabawasan na nga ng tax. Grabe siya diba?

I am aware that Filipinos have sari sari stores, online shops or services as sidelines with no BIR permits because they are trying hard to make ends meet. Parang hindi ka naman talaga mabubuhay sa sweldo mo lang. Sometimes they put their good on sale just to make "bawi" the capital or expenses they used rather than their goods be expired or get worn out. Kahit hindi na kumita, mabawi lang ang ginastos.

On the consumers side there are many who do "tawaran system". I know they too have hard time doing budgeting but honestly small time businesses only profit "papiso piso lang". So sometimes I assess first if the store looks like they can afford cutting the price before I ask tawad.

Wage issue

The salary doesn't fit especially if you are the bread winner or just a few of you earns income in a family. Even people who are still single find it hard to sustain themselves with the kind of salary they have knowing that the cost of living is very high.

Whenever I visit Manila I sometimes ask myself "How many of these people I see have lots of savings or stocks?", "How many ask additional money from their parents even if they are working because their salary is not enough?", "How many of them is working just for experience?".

I attended a suppliers forum in a university located in a province last few days. I was shocked that there is a law that all government units and the Philippines should be on 100% public bidding. The category for public bidding is per contract is above P1M. I was thinking those who proposed that law are for sure high end businessmen. Are they aware that they will kill those small businesses? Of course those who can join the bidding are those big companies.

There was a comment that most are still shopping bidding. I told myself of course because the suppliers cannot shell out big "bond fee" and then had a hard time running after end users for payment. Also end users might have no bug budget. There were even complaints that the suppliers were not paid hundreds of thousands of pesos and it has been years already. So I realized to be a businessman you should also be ready to invest a lot of money and be open minded that you could lose huge amount of money.

Job Opportunities

When you look at job fairs most are production workers and qualifications are highschool graduate. Is it because most did not finish college? I don't know. I haven't checked the Philippines' stats on education.

I do not fully trust the K12 because on the other hand it promotes parents not to spend or invest in the college education of their children. After grade 12 they will likely encourage their children to work for a living. Why study more when you can gain money now?

There was an article read by my friend that the government considers you have a work when you are applying for a job and the government will add you to the stats that are employed. Isn't applying different from employed?

When I visit  Manila there are people living from provinces that travel everyday 1-2 hours just to get to work. They balance relationships, motherhood/fatherhood, being a worker, etc everyday. I just can imagine how tired and sleep deprived they are especially aging parents. Maybe some of them are always running after time because they need to be home before dinner, cook dinner for their children, help them with the assignments, iron uniforms, etc then wake up at 3 or 4am prepare breakfast then catch the bus at 5am.

Manila As Center of Opportunities?

I am also wondering why almost all companies and government offices are in Manila? It is already so crowded and the competition is very high plus public transportation system is poor (traffic, high fare, etc). For me those who live in the province have little opportunities because of this.


These are just some of my random thoughts.

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Well at the end of the day reality is you are the only one who can make your life better.
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I still have to listen to the speech of the new President. Gotta watch it on Youtube in a little while. Will talk to you guys soon.