The Unwavering Pinoy: How Do You Pay Off a Debt ( Utang ) Worth 52.5 Billion US Dollars?
Submitted by tlpnds on July 11, 2009 - 12:33am.
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The Philippines has a debt, or utang, worth 52.5 BILLION U.S. Dollars ( as of the time of this writing, the first week of July in 2009, 1 US Dollar is equivalent to around 48 Philippine Pesos). If you are a Pinoy, you are one of those obligated to pay it back. Now, how do you do that?
It sounds like an insane amount. We Pinoys can easily imagine taking a Pag-Ibig FUND loan of around 2 Million Philippine Pesos to be able to secure a house and lot for our families. 2 Million PHP is equivalent to around 40,000 or so US Dollars. Can you in your wildest dreams imagine taking a Pag-Ibig FUND loan worth 52.5 Billion US Dollars, or the equivalent of around 2 Trillion 520 Billion PHP? ( Don't bother counting the zeroes ).
If you have that much cash with you, it probably means you won the Lotto each and every dayfor 2 months in a row. Or maybe 3 months in a row. Or maybe a year. Such an amount is thatbig. With a Pag-Ibig FUND loan like that, you could probably buy three or more SM Supermalls...including all the merchandise inside.
A 2 Million PHP loan is in itself quite a burden enough to repay, and most Pinoys would even prefer to pay it back within 25 long years, just so's it wouldn't be too much of a burden on the wallet. How much more a TRILLION Pesos worth of utang?
Would any single person be stratospherically mad enough to secure an utang like that?
Hilariously enough, there is. Just search the name "Bernard Madoff" on the Internet, and you'll discover that this stupid person actually has a debt to hundreds, maybe thousands, of people that is said to be worth a total of around 65 BILLION US Dollars. That's even bigger than theutang of the whole Philippine nation! It's so preposterously humongous that Bernard Madoff was recently sentenced to 150 years in prison for not being able to repay that utang. He was condemned as a swindler and a thief for committing the biggest, most unbelievable fraud inhuman history. To get a sense of how much money 65 Billion US Dollars is, money experts recommend that you imagine stringing together 1 Dollar bills side-by-side lengthwise. That string of money could stretch from the Earth to the Moon and back to Earth again 12 times.
Photo Taken From:Well, the Philippines seems to be better off than Mr. Madoff, because instead of just one Pinoy having the 52.5 Billion US Dollar-utang, it's the whole population that shoulders it. That means we are 60 or 80 million souls who are supposed to pay it back to our creditors. If it's also any consolation, that much money strung together in 1 Dollar bills might only stretch from the Earth to the Moon and back to Earth again only 10 times instead of 12. Perhaps.
But how can we repay an amount like that? Would it be as simple as paying for a typical Pag-Ibig FUND loan? Can we settle it in 25 years? It is imminent that each and every Pinoy is obligated to pay this loan back, so we'd better find a way to do it.
Do we raise taxes? Do we send more OFW's abroad, so that their remittances grow exponentially? Do we sell all SM Supermalls in the Philippines on E-Bay? Can we just simply tell our creditors, "Oh Hell! That's a stupid amount! I refuse to pay it back!"
The floor is open to suggestions! Again, how do we pay off an utang worth 52.5 Billion US Dollars?
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Mahabang Suggestion, Pero Maaaring Epektibo
Kung kailangang kumita ng pera ng Pilipinas para mabayaran ang utang niya, eh di dapat mag incorporate tayo sa pamamaraan ng gobyerno natin ng mga steps na ginagawa ng mga mayayamang kumpanya para kumita sila ng pera.
For example, sa buong mundo ngayon, ang pinakamayamang car company is Toyota Motors. Which simply means, they are earning the most money and selling the most number of cars worldwide. Kung si General Motors ng America can be likened to Juan Manuel Marquez, no. 3 pound for pound boxer in the world, ang Toyota compared to General Motors is Manny Pacquiao, the number 1 undisputed pound-for-pound, at pinakamayaman.
Ngayon, kung merong mga programa ang gobyerno that more or less follows the procedures of Toyota Motors for earning money, maaaring maka ipon tayo ng enough dollars para mabayaran ang utang natin.
At ano ba ang ginagawa ng Toyota Motors? Meron silang tinatawag na "The Toyota Way", or ang "philosophy of production" nila. I will enumerate it below:
1. Base your management decisions on a long term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term goals
2. Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface
3. Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction
4. Level out the workload
5. Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time
6. Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment
7. Use visual control so no problems are hidden
8.Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes
9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others
10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy
11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve
12. Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi genbutsu)
13. Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly
14. Become a learning organization through relentless reflection and continuous improvement
Paano kaya ma a apply ang mga ito para kumita pa ng mas malaki ang Pilipinas?
1. Base your management decisions on a long term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term goals
Wala pa kasi tayong "long term philosophy" as a nation, yun ang problema. Sa ngayon, and in fact for the last 20 years, ang pinaka industriya ng ating bansa ay mga OFW's. Ganito ka simple yun. Kung this year, 2009, 12 million ang OFW's, dapat by next year, 2010, maging 13 million or 14 million na sila para mas malaki ang kitain natin. Kasi kumikita ang bansa through "remittances" eh. Ngayon, kung ganun pala ang "long term natin", dapat siguro every year mas marami at mas marami ang magiging OFW.
Dapat muna magkaroon tayo ng "long term philosophy". Parang South Korea. Ang long term philosophy nila is not to send more and more Koreans abroad. Ang gusto nila, every year, mas marami silang na e export sa ibang bansang mga cellphones, cars, ocean liners, televisions, etc.
So maging malinaw muna tayo kung ano ba ang "long term philosophy" natin with regards to our source of national income. Personally, mas gusto ko sana magsimula sa development of agricultural exports. Sana every year, mas lumalaki ang rice production natin para makapag export na tayo sa ibang bansa ng rice. Isama na din natin ang fisheries exports. Tsaka coffee. Sana, imbes na mas dumami every year ang OFW's, mas padamihin na lang natin ang amount of agricultural products na lumalabas sa bansa natin.
2. Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface
Dapat magkaroon ng "open forum" kung saan lumalabas ang mga problema ng gobyerno. Dapat ang gobyerno pa nga mismo ang nagiging transparent tungkol sa mga problema nila. Ang magandang example ng ganitong sistema ng "transparency" sa gobyerno ay ang British Broadcasting Corporation, ang information department ng United Kingdom. Mas popular ito sa pangalang BBC Channel sa TV. Ito kasi ay "government funded" station sa UK, kumbaga, katulad ng "PTV-4" sa Pilipinas.
Ang kaibahan lang ng BBC sa PTV-4, malaya ang BBC na magpahayag ng mga significant problems ng gobyerno sa mga nanonood. Hindi ito simpleng "mouthpiece" ng UK government. Good or bad ng UK, sinasabi ng BBC. Nakakapagtaka talaga kasi government-funded din sila e. Pero nasa constitution ng UK na ang BBC ay halos untouchable as a media arm. Dapat siguro dito magkaroon din ng ganung klaseng independence ang PTV-4. Hmmm.
3. Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction
Kung susuriin natin ang kalagayan ng Pilipinas, iisang bagay lang ang sobra sobra ang dami dito in terms of material volume. Nope, hindi tubig, kasi kung sobra sobra ang tubig dito, dapat wala nang mga tao sa mga bundok o sa mga squatter na walang tulo ng tubig ang mga gripo. Dapat wala nang nag iigib sa mga deep well. So hindi tubig yun.
Lalong lalo namang hindi pagkain. Eh di dapat kung sobra sobra ang pagkain natin, dapat wala nang nagugutom. Hindi rin trabaho. Obviously, kakaunti ang trabaho dito sa Pinas kaya umaalis ang karamihan papuntang abroad. Hindi pera...alam natin yan. Hindi pulis, hindi sundalo...hindi kahit alin sa mga ito.
Ang sobrang dami sa Pilipinas ay...mga anak. Ganito ang isipin natin. Sa Japan, sobrang daming kotse nila doon, sobrang daming bisikleta, sobrang daming pagkain, sobrang dami rin nilang mga "elderly people"...pero kulang sila ng "young people". Kaya nga kailangan pa nilang mag import ng mga caregivers, kasi yung elderly population nila lumolobo. Dito sa Pinas, ang lumolobo sa atin is young people.
Isang malaking factor sa health ng economy ang inappropriate number of children with relation to the number of adults who can support them. It doesn't matter kung 100,000 lang ang population or 1 billion. Ang importante, within that population, ilan ba ang children at ilan ang capable adults who can economically sustain them? Sa China, ang ratio is 2 parents=1 child, kasi one-child policy doon. Dito sa Pilipinas, hindi ganun. Pero mapapansin naman natin na kahit saan tayo tumingin, may bata. Naghahanap ka ng trabaho, ang una mong makikita batang nagugutom. Naghahanap ka ng makakainang Jollibee o carinderia, ang una mong makikita, batang palaboy. Dito sa Pilipinas, overproduction tayo ng bata. Kailangan natin ng "pull" factor para matigil ang surplus ng bata dito.
4. Level out the workload
Yup, kailangan ang lahat ng tao nagtatrabaho. Kadalasan sa Pilipinas, kapag na promote na sa mataas na posisyon, puro utos na lang ang ginagawa. Kayong mga pulitiko, lalo na, mag trabaho kayo. Labas kayo sa kalye at magpakita kayo diyan. Dapat magpakita sila ng example of hard work. Hindi yung laging nasa opisina at nagpapasulat ng mga speech sa mga ghost writers.
( to be continued )
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