Why Chinese are prosperous and Filipinos are poor

The Filipinos are like the Native Americans of the USA and the lumads in Mindanao. We were the native people. Our ancestors owned this land and they left to us our ancestral domain. But we didn’t use our brains. The aliens came and now they are our economic masters. The Chinese came, they worked very hard, and planned their moves with the wisdom of Confucius and the discipline of Lao Tzu. The Pinoys were outsmarted, outflanked, and outwitted. Today, Pinoys are servants of the Chinese.

In the earlier 19th century, the controlling elites in the Philippines were the Spanish friars and military officials. Rizal used his novels to portray those twin social cancers, the abusive military rulers and the religious zealots, using the fictional characters of Capitan Tiago and Padre Damaso. Because of the encomienda system, the biggest tracts of land were owned by Spanish elites. Until now these are in the hands of their descendants, the hacienderos of Negros and other provinces. Those were times when the richest people in the country were Spanish. As examples, we had Don Andres Soriano Sr., Don Manuel Elizalde, Don Carlos Palanca, Don Vicente Madrigal, the Aranetas, the Roxases, the Lacsons, the Montelibanos, the Imperials, and others. The Chinese started as vendors, peddlers, and factory workers. Today, only Razon and Ayala remain. All the wealthiest ones are Chinese. Why?

Today, the controlling elite are mostly Chinese. In 2020, the top billionaires were the Sy siblings, Manuel Villar, Enrique Razon, Lance Gokongwei and siblings, Jaime Zobel de Ayala, Andrew Tan, Lucio Tan, Ramon Ang, Tony Tan Caktiong, Lucio and Susan Co, Mercedes Gotianun, the Ty siblings, Vivian Que Azcona and siblings, Isidro Consunji, Roberto Ongpin, Soledad Oppen-Cojuangco, and Ricardo Po Sr. Among the top 17 billionaires 14 are Chinese. Most of the 17 lost money in 2020 but Injap Sia gained $300 million due to his very successful IPO of Merry Mart.

Injap is the future Henry Sy and Lucio Tan. He became a millionaire before 20, a billionaire before 30. I think he can be a trillionaire soon with his partnership with Caktiong in their Double Dragon real estate ventures. Injap started Mang Inasal in their family garage and in less than 10 years, it prospered by the hundreds of franchises that Injap procured. Caktiong of the Jollibee group was terrified that Mang Inasal would kill Jollibee and so offered to buy Injap's company. Injap was so wise, he sold three-fourths of Mang Inasal's stocks to Tony for P3 billion. He retained one fourth and used the P3 billion in real estate. Since both of them were born in the year of the dragon, they named their joint venture Double Dragon. I predict Injap shall become richer than Tony, and even the children of Henry Sy. Visayan Chinese are wiser, more aggressive, passionate, and visionaries.

Why then are Chinese prosperous? Five things. First, they have vision. Second, they take risks. Third, they look at the big picture. Fourth, they are hardworking. And fifth, they are bullish and persistent. On vision, they create long-range goals and break them into strategic plans. Filipinos (except Manny Villar and Manny Pangilinan) think only of today and perhaps tomorrow. The Chinese look at the next 10 years. Second, the Chinese are willing to take calculated risks. They invest to earn profits and their income are variables. They gain and also lose, but mostly gain. The Filipinos are segurista, they just want to earn wages and salaries that are fixed and sure. About the big picture, Pinoys are myopic, they stay in their comfort zones. Chinese try all sorts of things. And work, many Pinoys are lazy (Rizal said that too). The Chinese don’t sleep until they earn for the day.

Lastly, Chinese never surrender to problems. They built the Great Wall after all. All obstacles were there, but they never lost their will. Pinoys are onion-skinned. We acquired many of our bad attitudes from the Spaniards and we failed to imbibe the work ethic of the Chinese. If we did we would be like Manny Villar or even better. In the words of Shakespeare:” The fault, my dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” We think small and are very slow. The Chinese think big. They act very fast and very steadfast, focused, and persistent. These are the secrets of their success. We know these all along but Pinoys are hard-headed, self-righteous, and very difficult to discipline. Our greatest enemy is ourselves.