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35 views9 pagesA Damaged Culture
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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/ 9
aFORNAT!
VERTICAL FILE
OTe Bd
Teno ake he Pie
eeeeretiy The evi Barco was ot te sn
Gary assim te worldwide march of demos went on
faa fewest pe abt why we tek wit OF
sevtis peter for 30 ng. ano support Carron
Muto she anced sound coup attempt nd worked
Nee orate pblems the Maccose ad ned
‘Vie wow ofthe Now Phippines fenton
Te RNcee wou ke we believeth the only clos
Si ciah states dees ssn relon eh gi
1 ted States—is progressing under our wing, T's not, fr rea.”
Our Asia correspondent
a nation not only without nationalism birt also without much national p
/\ DAMAGED CULTURE
BY JAMES FALLOWS.
A New Philippines? ,
offers a dark view of *\!
sons chat go far beyond what the Marcoses did or stole,
‘The countties that surround the Philippines have become
the world’s most farnous showcases for the
econoinic development. Japan, Korea, Taiw
Hong Kong, Singapore—all are short on natural resources,
butall (as their officials never stop telling you) have clawed
+ their way up through hard study and hard work. Unforto-
nately for its people, che Philippines illysteates the cor-
make a naturally rich country poor
rable places to live in East Asia—
tier than & communist political s
to developmen. ‘The culture in question
ithas been heavily shaped by nearly &nua-
& heap that is home to 13,000
SERIALS DIY. The Agdao burvio, a slim near Davac. on Dfindanao
rad years of the “Fil-Am lationship.” The result is ap-
parcnily the only nun-commumist society in East Asia in
whévia the average living standard is going down.
ten beter since Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos fied the
country at the end of Febroary last yeas (though most Filis
pinos seers to think shat the threats to the Aquino govern
ment—ol which the worst was the bloody August coup at-
tempt—imperil such progress as the country has made)
Not so much money is being sucked out at the top. More
people are free to say what they like about the govern:
Ww disclaimers, Sore things obviously bat
iment, without being thrown in jail. Not so many peasants
are iwving, their chickens stolen by underpaid soldiers
foraging for food, although the soldiers, whose pay has
cen increased, ate still woefully short on equipment and
supplies.
“The economy hus stopped shrinking, as it had been do-
ing in the late Marcos years, and some rich Filipinos have
brought capital back home. I was not in the Philippines
during the Marcos era and can’t compare the atmosphere
firsthand, but everyone says that the bloodiess dethroning,
of Marcos gave Filipinos new dignity and pride. Early this
year, on the first anniversary of the “EDSA revolution”
(named for Epifanio de los Santos Avenuc, where many of
the crucial events took place), television stations fan
round-the-clock replays of all the most emotional mo-
ments: the nuns" attempts to protect the ballot boxes, the
Uefection of Marcus's two main military supporters, Juan
Ponce Enrile and Fidel Ramos, the abortive swearing-in of
Murcos, his sudden disappearance in an American helicop,
tet [ewes inspirational and moving and hervic, and as late
this summer, just before the attempted coup, some of
the same atmosphere remained. Filipinos ate famous for
their love of religious icons, A visitor would have 10 be
blind not to see the religious element in Corazon Aquino's
public role. Stores sell sinall Cory dolls with bright yellow
dresses and round-tiinmed glasses. ‘They'se not exactly
jcons, but I've seen them displayed in homes and cats as if
they were. Even when beginning to grumble about her
govetninent, many Filipinos speak of Cory’s goodness, pa
ee f
tience, and piety in tones that suggest they think of hes as
peccular, widowed Blessed Virgin, ant as the only person
with even the potential to hold the country togethex
Democracy has returned to the Philippines, in s big
way, As ifto make up forall the years when they could not
Vote: Filipinos have been analyzing the results of one elec-
tion and preparing for another almost nonstop since carly
fast year Election disputes have returned woo. For three
months after the legislative elections last May, long ce-
ccqunts dragged on to determine whether Joan Ponce En-
file, Marcos's former Defense Minister, whose switch 9
‘Aquino helped topple Marcos, would get one of the wes
ty-four seats in the Senate. Senators are elected nation-
wide, in what often resembles a popularity contest.
‘Among the new senators is @ Charles Bronson~style ac-
tion. movie star; Enrie is about as well known as the actor,
and though he has made many enemies, most foreigners |
spoke with found it hard to beticve that in an honest vote
count he would have lost to everyone on Aquino's list of
ominces, which inchided 2 number of newcomers aud
nobodies. Finally, in August, he squeaked in as number
twenty-four
Democracy has unleashed a Philippine press so varied
and licentious as to make even Americans feel nervous
of rather, to recall standing in grocery check-out lines look-
Jing at Midnight ond Star. Newspapers ate always starting
up and closing, but at any given time Manila has ac Teast
twenty dailies, most of them in English. Each paper fea-
tures its stable of hardworking stat columnists, any of
hain is capable of turning out 2,000 to 3,000 words of po-
Fitical commentary and inside gossip—the equivalent of a
whole American op-ed page—in a single day. Philippine
polities has a small-town feel, because so many ofthe ptin-
Cipals have known one another all their lives. This adds to
the velocity and intensity of gossip—especially the rumors
fof impending coups, which have cropped up every week
pprten days since Aquino rook power, and which preoccupy
political Manila the way scandals preoccupy Washington.
ne final disclaimer: it can seem bullying or graccless
for an American t criticize the Philippines. Seen from
Manila, the United States is strong and rich. Seen from
anywhere, the Philippines is troubled and oot, Why pick
‘on people who necd help? The Filipino ethic of delicadeea,
their equivalent of saving face, encourages people to raise
unpleasant topics indirectly, of, better still, not co raise
them at all, Out of respect for delicadeza, or from a vague
sense of guile that the former colony is still foundering, oF
teause of genuine fondness forthe Filipino people, the
United Seates tolerates polite fictions about the Philip.
pines that ie would ruthlessly puncture if dey concerned
France or even Mexico, Fdan't pretend thae my view of the
Philippines is authoritative, but P've never before been in
a country where my initial impressions were so totally at
tage withthe standarc,cosnforcing, let'-allpollxogether
view, Iscems to ie that the prospects forthe Phifippines
tre about as dismal as those for, s95, South Kores are
bright, In each ease the basic explanation seems wo be cul
NOVEMBER 1987 tire: in the one case a culture that brings out the produe-
tive best in che Koreans (or the Japanese, or now even the
‘Thais), and in the other a euleure cha pulls many Filipinos
toward their most self-destructive, self-defeating worst,
‘The Post-Kleptocratic Beonomy.
ONSIDER FIRST THE OVERALL ECONOMIC PICTURE.
Corn in both South Korea and the Philippines
have pointed aut to me that in the mid-1960s,
when the idealistic (as he then seemed) Ferdinand Marcos
begen his first term as President, the two countries were
economically even with each other, with similar per capita
incomes of a few hundced dollars a year. The officials used
this fact co make very different points. The Koreans said it
dramatized how utictly poor they used vo be ("We were
like the Philippine” said one somber Korean bureaucrat),
while to the Filipinos it was a reminder of a golden, hope-
ful age. It demonstrated, they said, that the economy had
been basically robust util the Marcoses launched heir
kleptocracy, Since the 1960s, of course, the Philippines
has moved in the opposite direction from many other Bast
Asian countrics. South Korea's per capita annual income is
now about $2,500—which gives the country a low-wage
advantage over Japan or the United States. That same in-
come makes Korea look like a land of plenty relative co the
Philippines, where the per eapica income is about $600.
“The average income in the Manila area is much higher
than that for the country 4s a whole; in many farming se
gions the per capita income is about $100.
ment seports that bout two thirds of the people in the
country live below che poverty line, as opposed to half in
the pre-Marcos esa. There are technical argumfnts about
where 10 draw the poverty line, but itis obvious that most
Filipinos lack decent houses, can’t afford education, in
some areas are short of food, and in general are very, very
oot. The official unemployment rate is 12 percent, bur if
all the cigarette vendors, surplus bar girls, and other un-
dcremployed people are cakeri into account, something
Tike half the human talent in the country must be unused
govern-
ee
"he Tando slum, on the oulskiris of Btanila
piers
/ see how litle has changed: GrpraL g yyy
Some Filipino economists contend that she country is
about wo tum the comner, is ready 10 make @ new start eco
nomically as it has done politically. Is the world price of
sugar stagnane? Plantation owners can flood seaside sugar-
cane fields and raise shrimp, which bring high prices and
for which Japan has an insatiable demand. Are Amesican,
Japanese, and Buropean companies shifting, their produc-
tion sites worldwide? Why not build more of the plants in
the Philippines, which believes it has a well-educated
work force and relacively low wages. Just befure the first
anniversary of the EDSA revolution 1 spoke with Jaime
‘Ongpin, an intense, precise businessman in his lace for
ties, who had become the new Finance Minisiey i the
immediate future, he said, the ctends looked good The
government was breaking up some of the cartels fal by
‘Marcos’ “cropies" and exposing them so competition. Con
scuction and small-business activity were picking up. The
[price of eopra (the country’s leading export) was finally ris-
ing. And the economy might giow by five or six percent
this year—more than the economies of Japan and the U.S.
Another economist, Bernardo Villegas, has been predict-
ing an East Asian-style sustained boom for the Philippines.
‘Many man-on-the-street Filipinos share a version of this
view, which is thac Marcos was the source ofall eheig prob-
lems, s0 his removal is itself a solution. ‘There is some
truth to what they sey, especially as it concerns Marcos's
last ten years in office, when he had graduated from his
eatlier, nationalistic, land-teform-and-induscrialization
phase and formed the “eonjugal dictatorship” with his wife.
Sui, for all the damage Marcos did, it's not clear that he
caused the country’s economic problems, as opposed 1g in-
tensifying them. Most of the things that now scem wyang
witi the economy—grotesque extremes of wealth and
(poverty, land-ownership disputes, monopolistic industries
in cozy, cormupt cahoots with the government—have been
‘wrong for decades. When reading Philippine novels or his-
tory books, I would come across a passage that resembied
whac I'd seen in the Manila slums or on a farm, ‘Then 1
‘wauld read on and discover that the description was by an
American soldier in the 1890s, or a Filipino nationalist in
the 1930s, or foreign economist in the 1950s, or a young
politician like Ferdinand Marcos or Benigno Aquino in the
1960s, “Herc isa land in which 2 few are speccaculatly rich
hile che masses remain abjectly poor, . .. Here isa land
consecrated to democracy but run by an encrenched plu-
ociacy. Here, t00, are a people whose ambitions run bigs,
“but whose fulfillmene is low and mainly restricted te the
‘geifeperperuatingreline," ‘The precise phrasing belongs 10
Benigno Aquino, in his early days in polities, but the
$ thoughe has been expressed by hundreds of othets. Kore-
ans and Japanese Jove to taunt Americens by hailing out
did, pompous predietions that obviously have not come
‘rue. “Made in Japan” would always mean “shoddy.” Ko-
rea would “always” be poor. Hah hah hah! You smug Yan~
hhees were so wrong! Leafing back through Filipinology
has the opposite effect: its surprising, and depressing, 10
Va B ae re tothe Phipines i ard 19 be-
Toei replacing Mavot with Aquino, desirable
scdnatce i wil io much besides stancing the ow
aoa eto te coun, In a socilopesl nse
ne ang Caran Aina ough the BOSA eval
seep be seth nt a3 fevolin But the
tomrin of the old onder
He ws
te nhs ra toes ren, in the not
ae gf Lunn, any of those whom he ensiched
cece ptr to the old-money,ol-famiy tie
we one dominaced he country’ pies,
ane pang refered to shorthand as Makat (he
a a ay sis and business cect of Ma
a ed Mascor the way bighvoned Amvricans
me cP raed Nizom clever and ambitious, Dut 50
a Aquino’ fay, dhe Cojuanges. is par of is
aaa eae crhet name ioseaes is Hispanie pre
ease cane grander came fom Chia and 2s
soa ated Ro ean Ko, which as get dito
ree fon eat Fpios speak ent Enis
eerie teen teaches of te sper cas, Las wd
ae eee itipement to speak prfet Casilian Spanish.)
Tier hesbang. Benigno Avie,
rein Her nanny mate In ah 1986 election, Ssladot
Cpa Lanne ith sna Jos Laurel, who was the Quis
reat Prcsdent under the Japanese. Many of het is
CRIS dpotnees and sponsored exnddates forthe Se
cae A tamiiar nares, And so when Corazon Aqui
eet Mateo, i wan av He Katharine Gioham, having
sree chad Niaon from ofice though her newspapes
see hn a residem-voJaequtie Kennedy Ona
sis, or Mrs. C, Douglas Dillon HI. The uaditional upper
sas Gack in ts ion ace. Carmen Nava Pe
Sees net ome of whose work wes banned under
Freee ectdy published 2 debunking bioeapby of
Meade Macon kiln. blows, imal chaps, w25
re he hae whe Imelda sways pretended co 8 3
ve inlet
wef ape: She wats te He stocking, educated i he
(reed Scent ven in Pench. She represented all
thar mel had ever ape." i
tapes om my second ap 40 dhe Phipps the
oars pn old me tae Aquino bad become
sarily pave in ofice, ating asi er only task had
rere lend of Mares and ide ut the perdi cOUs,
seer edtand seal A Tons as she did those jobs—the
se affce-nahe didnot feet dive to do much
cia she wil do something to prove that ud
cae neat che August oniny and preceding sci
eeaeytorce er\not ony to contol the ay Ore
we bac ao ake econo problems mare seis
Peet the best wil inthe od, she wil ave
‘of course, an Tl:
These
was also from 2 famous
uly heirlooms, nat recent purchases from
52
THe ATLAS TIE MONEN
rouble dramatically improving the country’s prospects
‘One morning this summer, as stared out the window at
the monsuon iain, [listened to wo foreign economists de-
ebe the economic trap in which the Philippines is
Scughe, ‘The men had wotked in the Philippines for years
saat ad absorbed the ethic of delcadexa. They did nok
areit aheir names, or the name of the bank they worked
Tor vevealed, ‘This seluetance might suggest that their
wes were unusually etitcal, which was not the case: they
rae erarkable only for how concisely they summarized
what I'd heatd in oxher banks, in embessies, in business
Mihecs, and from 2 few Philippine government officials
“The sien ticked off the list of possibilities for Philippine
deselopmentand explained the problems in each case.
Manyjecuring? “There were not many Viable sectors te
bean hah snd most of them were taken over by eranies
Thee industrial sector is used to guarantee monopoly and
high-toif protection. Jes inward-looking, believes it can-
nav compete, People are used to paying a lot for goods that
sie kay towshoddy in quality. Labor costs are actually
fiute high fora country at this stage of development,
‘They should be like Sri Lanka's but they're like Korea’,
‘pectuse waion organizing bas run fr ahead of peoductivif
Tee » poo! country but an expensive place in which te
produce, American and Japanese fms have set up some
cigctronscs assembly plants, but ehey're only buying labor,
soc building subsidiary industries or anything tha: adds
real ¥ i
Agriculture? “e's been heavily skewed for fifty years to
plantation crops. All those tradicional exports are down,
Sugar most of all. Copra is okay for the moment, but it's
never going (0 expand very much, Prawns arc the only al-
terative anybody ean think of now.” Agriculture is also
neadly paralyzed by arguments over land ownership. Since
the Spanish days land has been concentrated in a few giant
haciendas, including the 17,000-acre Hacienda Luisita of
the Cojuangco family, and no government has done much
to change the pattern,
‘nypothesieakargument,” an Austealian economist told me.
‘Forbes Park, in the wealthy Mokati district
NOVEMBER 1987
ae STN TES “This government simply is not going to cause a revolu-
tion in the social structure.” Just before the new Congress
convened, as her neardictatorial powers were about co
lapse, Aquino signed a generalized land-reform-should-
happen decree. Most observers took this 48 an indication
thar land reform would nor happen, since the decree Jefe all
the decisions about the when, where, and how of land re-
form to the indowner-heavy Congress
“Soriees and other industries? “Tvey'te very nruch influe
enced by the political climate. I think this has tremendous
potential a5 # tourist country—its so beautiful. But they
Yun't have many other ways co sell their labor, except the
Gbvious one.” The obvious one isthe sex business, visible
vn every part of the country—and indeed throughous Asia,
where Filipino “entertainers” are common. In Davao, on
the southern island of Mindanao, I watched TV one night
land sew an ad repeated over and over, Women wanted for
opportunities overseas. Qualifications: taller than five feet
tee inches, younger than twenty-one. When I took e2bs in
Manila, the drivers routinely ingvired if | wanted 2 wom
an, When my wife rewmed our children’s rented innet
tubes to.a beach vendor at Argao, the vendor, a toothless
told woman, asked if she was lonely in her room and need
‘ed a hired companion
“Resources? Exploiting navural resources has always been
the base here,” one of the economists said. “Bus they've
taken every tee they can easily get, Its nor like Brazil or
Borneo, with another fifty years 10 rip out the heart of the
earth.” Every single day Japanese diners take hundreds of
tnillions of pats of chopsticks out of paper wrappers, use
them for fificen minutes, and throw them away, Most of
the chopsticks started out as «ees in the Philippines,
though more and more of them now come fibm American
forests, The Philippines has more navurally spectacular
mountains and vistas than Malaysia or Indonesia, but you
tan travel far miles in zhe countryside and mainly see rod
ing hillsides stripped bare of trees. Like Americans who
speak of “conquering” the frontier, Filipinos sometimes
ake a more romantic view of what “taking every tee” can
ean, F, Sionil Jose, a prominent novelist in his early six-
ties, who grew up in Thocos, has written 2 famous five-vol-
lume saga——the Resales novels——about the migration from
the harsh Hocos region to che fertile plains of centcal Lo-
‘on. The Hocano migrants made a new life for themselves,
he observes, and they did it by curting down the jungle
and planting tice. “Phere is some hope with minerals and
told," one of she economists said. Indeed, a Forry-niner
Style gold rush is now under way in Mindanao, I was tld
that communist rebels, Moslem separatists, and formes
Philippine Army soldiers now work side by side in the gold
mines, proving that
The economists went on: “Geographically, the country
is fractused beyond belief. The most controllable area is
fight around Manila, but beyond that the government's
writ has never run very fat.” For instance, the newspapers
that blanket Manila have virtually no circulation in the rest
NOVEMBER 1987 :
__ Tae ATLANTIC Mo
Behind gates and high walls, she good life
of the coun
dined readership of all ewenry-plus daily papers is about
five million, "The edueation system has sun down tere
bly.” The Philippines spends about one eighth as much
money per student us Malaysia docs, Free education sui
Dinly ehiough the fower grades, and after that the anoul
fee of $10 a student keeps enrollment down to 50 percent.
he fifteen-c-twenty billion dollars thac Marcos
creamed off has had a big effect. There's a kind ofteortup-
5 was taken
among a population of $5 million, the con
tion that just recycles the money, but all ¢
nd tiven you have pojwlation growth, which is closer
fo three pervene than rwo-point-five, even though the g4-
eminent says two:paint-iwo. The populasion could §o
over a hundied million in fifteen years. Since the eeonarhy
iduesn’t grow that fast, the per capita income Keeps golf
down.” Mose people T met in the Philippines asked #e
how many children I had, When 1 1old them, the normal
response was, “Only ewo!” By the end of my stay I was €x-
perimenting, raising the number 0 test the Fesponse,
“Only sia!” a priest said on my last day.
“The economist concluded, “All in a
it’s a worrisome situation.”
‘you'd have (0 say
“The Meaning of Smoky Mountain ‘|
OUD HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING MORE THAN THAT.
Y Most of the tine I spent in the Philippines, 1 walked
around feeling angry—angry at myself when |
brushed off the latest platoon of child beggors, angry atthe
beggars when 1 did give in, angry ac the rich Pilipings for
Tiving behind high walls and guasdhouses in the fortified
Makati compounds euphemisticaly called villages, angry
as 1 picked my way among piles of human feces left by
homeless families living near the Philippine Navy head
Ghuarters on Roxas Boulevard, angry ata society chat bad
notated into a war of every man against every man.
Ts not the mere fact of poverty that makes the Philip-
pines so distressing, since some other Asian counttieyhave
Tower ving andar lg ies on he hoe
33 much poorer than the Philippines, and*China’s human
beasts of burden, who pull huge oxcarts full of bricks down
stects in Shanghai of Beijing, must have lives that are
among the hardest on the planet. But Philippine poverty
seems more degrading, for reasons 1 will try to illustrate
through the story of “Smoky Mountain.
‘Smoky Mouncain i, 1 will admit, something ofa cliché,
but it helps illustrate an important and non-clichéd point.
‘The “mountain” is an enotmous heap of garbage, forty
acies in size and pethaps eighty feet high, in the port dis-
trict north of Manila, and itis home to some 15,000 Filipi-
fos. ‘The living conditions would seem to be miserable:
* the smell of a vast city’s rocting garbage is so rank and pow
erful that I could nox breathe through my nose without
gauging. | did finally reich when I felt my foot sink into
something soft and saw that I'd stepped on a discaided
half-full blood-cransfusion bag from the hospital, which
‘was now emitting a dark, clotted ooze. “I have been going,
to the dumpsite for over ten years now and 1 still have not
gotten used to the smell,” Father Benigno Beltran, 2
young Mod Squad-style Dominican priest who works in
Smoky Mountain, has written, “The place becomes in-
fested with millions of flies that often get into the chalice
when I say mass, The smell makes you deaf as ic hits you
like a blow co the solar plexus.”
The significance of Smoky Mountain, though, is. not
how bad itis but how good. People live and word in the gar
bhage heap, and say they feel lucky to do so. Sinoky Moun-
tain is the center of an elaborate scavenging-and-recycling
industry, which has many ters and many specialized func:
tional groups. As night falls in Manila, hundseds of seaven-
gers, neatly all men, start walking out from Smoky Moun-
tain pushing big wooden carts—about eight feet Jong and
shaped like children’s wagons—in front of them. They
spend all night crisscrossing che town, picking through the
curbside garbage dumps and looking for the most valuable
items: glass bortles and metal cans. At dawn they push
their carts back to Smoky Mountain, where they sell what
they've found to middlemen, who own ficets of carts and
bail ous cheir suppliers if they get picked up by the police
in the occasional crackdowns on vageane}
Other scavengers work the garbage over once city tucks
Have collected it and brought it in. Some look for old plas-
tic bags, some for rubber, some for bones that can be
round up for animal feed. In the late afternoon at Sinoky
Mountain } could easily imagine I'd had my preview of
hell. 1 stoid on the summit, looking into the lowlands
where trucks kept bringing new garbage and several bull:
dozers were at work, plowing through heaps of old black
garbage. I'd of course heard of spontaneous combustion
bbuc had never believed in it until | saw the old garbage
steam and smoke as it was exposed to the ait. Inches be-
hind the bulldozers, sometimes riding in the scoops, were
about fifteen or twenty little children carrying basiecs, as
if at the beach. They darted among the machines and
picked out valuables that had been newly revealed, “Is
hard to get them to go to school,” 2 man in his mid-wen-
Tie ATLANTIC MONTHLY
ties who lived there told me, “They can make ewenty,
thirty pesos a day this way"—$1 to $1.50. “Here the mon-
ey is s0 good.” .
‘The residents of Smoky Mountain are mainly Visayans,
‘who have come from the Visayas tegion of the central Phil-
ippines—Leyte, Negros, Gebu—over the past twenty”
‘years. From time to time the government, in embarrass:
‘ment, has attempted to move them off the mountain, but
they have come back: the money is so good compared with
the pay for anything else they can do. A real community
has grown up in the garbage dump, with the tight family
bonds chat hold together other Filipino barangays, of
‘neighborhoods. About 10 percent ofthe people who live in
Smoky Mountain hold normal, non-scavenger jobs clse-
where in Manila; chey commute. The young man who
guided ine had just graduated from college with an engi-
necting degeee, but he planned to stay with his Farily, in
Smaky Mountain, after he found 2 job. The people gf
‘Smoky Mountain complain about land-tenure problems:
they want the city to give them title to the land on which
they've built their shacks—but the one or two dozen 1
spoke with seemed very cheerful about their community
and their lives. Father Beltran, the young Dominican, has
worked up a thriving business speaking about Smoky
Mountain to forcign audiences, and has used the lecture
fees to pay fora paved basketball court, a community-cen-
ter building, and, of course, a church. As I trudged down
fromthe snmmit of the mountain, having watched fictle
boys dart among the bulldozers, 1 passed the community
center. It was full of little girls, sitting in a circle and sing,”
ing nursery-schoo! songs with glee. If I hadn't come at che.
fast minute, I would have suspected Father Beltran of put-»
ting on a Potemkin Village show. f
‘The bizarre good cheer of Smoky Mountain undoubs-
edly says a lot about the Filipinos’ spiritual resilieneed But.
like the sex industry, which is also fairly cheesful, ifsays
something depressing about the other choices people.”
have. When I was in one of the countless squatter villages ,'/
in Manila, talking with people who had built houses out of
pplywoud and scavenged sheet metal, and who lived eight -}
(02 room, I asstimed it must be better to be poor out in the
‘countryside, where at Jeast you had some space and clean ;
air to breathe. Obviously, I was being romantic. Back
hhome there was no way to earn money, and even in Smoky ¢
Mountain people were only a fourccent jeepney ride away
from the amusements of the big city
In Smoky Mountain and the other squatter districts, 1
couldn't help myself: try as would not to, I kept dwelling
ton the contrast with the other extreme of Filipino life, the
wealthy one, The conttas is relatively hard to see in Ma-
nila itself, since so much of the town’s wealth is hidden,
literally walled up in the fortified “villages.” But one day,
shortly after i'¢ listened to scavengers explain why'some
‘grades of animal bone were worth more on the resale mar-
ket than others, I tagged along wich a friend and visited
one of Manila’ rich young families in the mountains out
NOVEMBER 1987. “To emer the house we had to talk our way past a tite
man at the gate—a standaid fixture not only of upper-class
areas of Manila but also of banks, office buildings,
MeDonald's—and then follow a long, twisting driveway to
f mountaintop palace. The family was, of epurse, from old
froneys they were also well educated, publicspirited, sin~
core, But | spent my day with thein in an ill-concealed stu-
por, wandering, from room to rourn and estimating. how
Trany zillions of dollars had been sunk into the art, furni-
fare, and fixtures. We ate lunch on the patio, four maids in
‘white dresses standing at attention a few paces off, each
beating platter of food and ready to respond instantly
swnen we wanted more. Another maid stood behind my
chait, leaning over the
forth co drive off any flics. As we ate, | noticed a suange rar
qiut sound from inside the house, a8 if several reporters
had set upa city room and were pounding away on old Un-
derwoutls. When we finished our dessert and went inside,
{saw the explanation. Anather two or three uniformed ser
vants were stationed inside the cathedral-tike living room,
incessantly twitching thei flyswatcers against the wall.
“The War of Every Man Against Every Man
A PSHOOTING FISH INT RARREL? SURE—YOU COULD
A“ pan cuen starkercontas berecen atk Ave
nue and the South Bronx. But that would mean only
Thar the United States and the Philippines share a prob-
fem, not that extiemes of wealth and poverty are no prob-
fem at all. In New York and a few other places the ex:
tuemes are so visible as to make many Americans uneasy
about the every-man-for-himself principle on which put
society is based. But while the South Bronx isan Amerigan
problem, few people would think of it as typical of Amer.
have been, the norm, =
‘good? Wisere some people shoo ecient, away from others for
5300 pesos, or $15, a month? It can’t be any inherent defect
in the people: outside ris culture they thrive. Filipino immi-
‘grants to the United States are more successful than immi-
tenants from many other countries. Filipino contract labor-
cts, working for Japanese and Korean construction
companies, built many of the hotels, ports, and pipelines
Middle East. "These are the same people who
shined under the Japanese managers,” Blas Ople, @ veter
an politician, told me. “But when they work for Filipino
‘contactors, the schedule lags.” It seems unlikely that the
problem is capitalism itself, even though Philippine Marx-
jsts argue endlessly that it grinds up the poor to feed the
tich. If capitalism were the cause of Philippine underde-
velopment, why would its record be so different every:
where else in the region? In Japan, Korea, Singapore, and
elsewhere Asian-style capitalism has not only led to crade
‘surpluses but also created Asia's first real middle class
Chinese economists can’t call what they're doing capival
6
ble and waving a fan back and"
1h residential neighborhood in Smoky Mountain
jsm, bor they can go on far hours about how “trarket re-
fortns" will lead to-a better life for most people
Tf che problem in the Philippines does nat Hi in the peor
ple themselves o, it would seem, in theit cholee berwcen
Capitalism and socialism, what is the problem? I think itt,
Cultural, and that it should be thought of as a failure of
Te may scem perverse to wish for mor
any part of the Third World. Ar
ily a
nied Nations, Nationalism can of cours
nationalism in
icens have come 10
< be divisive,
wwhes it see people of ane country against anochet. Bot its
Sisence ean be even worse, if that ieaves people in OM
See ee meer eal ae arn
Ed When a country with extreme geographic, tribal, and
Soval-class differences, like the Philippines, has only @
treak offsetting sense of national unity, its public life does
become the war of every man against every man.
cern with the tiny-countey
a
cn
“terests to the runation of, everyone. clse. | assume chat
Trost people inthe wenld have the same mixture of selfish
sad generous motives their cultures tll them when to
ule each impulse. Japan is song in lage part because
its nationalist-racial ethic teaches each Japanese hat all”
other Japanese deserve decent weatment, Non-Japanese .
fall neo different category. Individual Filipinos are at ;
Jeast as brave, kind, and noble-spirited as individual Japa-
ese, bu their eulture draws the boundaries of decent
Trestinent much mote narrowiy, Filipings pride them-
sites on their Hfslong loyalty to family, schoolmates,
Sompadies, members of the saine tribe, residents of the 5.
seme ornaeay, Phe mutual tenderoess among the people,
er'sinoy Mountain is enough to break yout heart But
i often ofthe ©
the boundaries of decent treatment are limite. i
fo the fam-
ily or tribe, they exclude at least 90 percent of the people,
NOVEMBER 1987, sae tahary An ecnse of his ugmenton=i
of nationaism-—people treat each oxher Woe the
wppunes than in any lice Asian counCTy | Bae °°
Hey ies uings ba saying het, this SB
eee ee taly eisputed by mst Filipinos. Tine and
pun heard inserviews abou the FPS people's ove
2 paiation and cheir proudly nationalistic SPs The
ore rfevalution seems emorionally 50 por ja the
Philppanes nor ony because it got rid of Mare but also
Pili JemonstTated a brave, satonal minded sh 1
acca vo agree with Che Filipinos dar those foN8 days
voriejed the country’s spiritual essence. TO 16. tough,
‘he episode seems an exception, even an 206# 00
se ePimore than a hundeed yeas certain tais Bove wwsned
ujpin domestic descripsions and foreign ODS AT of
corruption
Philippine society.
p
Pavveeencown Manila an unwary step CHD MEA A broken
leg. Holes two fect square and five fecr Ace Jur just be~
yond the eutb; they are supposed 10 be covered by metal
rates, but scavengers have taken the B16! sell
weep, Manila has a porerally beau sexing, divided
toy the Pasig, River and froncing on Maris bey Tut thie
Ps of the city’s sewage flows raw inte che Pasi which
ky Moun:
me of the pret-
ve aras empties into the bay; the smell of
tain is not so different from the sinell of
sient public vistas. ‘The Philippine celepbone SOE is
arose aan its counterparts anywhere else in non-eel
wine Asia---which bogs down che countty’s Dusiness and in
a stances its people—but the Philippine Penk Dis-
