Filipino politicians are all NATO: No Action, Talk Only

Why is the Philippines very poor? Because in our country, the people worship trapos or traditional politicians. Trapos destroy the economy by imposing too many burdens on the businessmen, heavy taxes, rigid rules, making it hard for industries and businesses to survive. And politicians talk a lot, making all things political, even the COVID-19 vaccines.

The problem with our politicians, and many times, ourselves too, is we talk a lot and do too little. Senators and congressmen talk too much. Governors are always in press conferences, mayors love being on TV or radio. The question is the same for all: Where is the action part? Everything is propaganda, all moves are PR. Show us results, there are hardly any. When there was a misencounter between PDEA and PNP, the Senate and the House wanted to investigate. Even the police and PDEA wanted to investigate. We are a nation focused on investigations, and yet there are no results. These investigations are only for show. For the politicians, in aid of reelection.

Do you know why Singapore and Malaysia are ahead of us? They talk less and do more. Do you know why businessmen are billionaires and why TV commentators, newspaper editors, and columnists are poor? Business taipans and industry moguls keep on working, doing, producing goods and services and selling them. All we do is talk and write. We pontificate but never translate our words into action. Look at Ramon Ang of San Miguel. Does he talk? No he keeps on thinking of business strategies and tactics. Look at Lucio Tan, nobody sees him being interviewed on TV. He never telegraphs his plans. He just focuses on planning and implementing.

Ang is a business genius. And his secret is that he keeps his secrets to himself. He never brags about them as the others do. I would love to work under that kind of man and learn from his work ethic and discipline. He should be the next president of the Philippines.

Tan started as an employee. Today, he owns the PAL, PNB, Asia Brewery, and more than 20 other businesses. He even owns the University of the East. The late Henry Sy started a small shoe store and now his children inherited a giant conglomerate. The late John Gokongwei started to sell goods in his early teens, selling some items while riding his bicycle. Today his family owns Cebu Pacific and the Robinsons Group under the JG Summit’s wide array of business portfolio. Manny Villar is another genius who transformed himself from fish vendor to a real estate mogul, the richest individual in the Philippines. Businessmen build the nation. The politicians destroy our country by stealing a lot from the government from taxes that businessmen and the employees are compelled to pay.

Why are these guys very, very successful? They do not talk a lot. They just whisper their instructions to a few trusted implementers of their brilliant ideas. They think, they instruct, they execute their plans through people and they get results. In contrast, our senators and congressmen talk a lot. They just talk, they investigate every event as if they are police officers or prosecutors. They call the media for “praise conferences” and they issue grandiose press releases and brag about things that are still in their realm of thoughts. They never report on the results of their reckless imaginative peregrinations. Better to follow the Chinese adage: Too much talk, too much mistakes. Little talk, little mistake. No talk, no mistake.