AS of last April, the government’s national debt has ballooned to P13.6 trillion. When the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte began, our national debt stood at P5.7 trillion, accumulated through decades. In just seven years, our national debt has risen by an incredible 142 percent.
In short, the country is already above the 60 percent debt-to-GDP ratio, which means each and even newly-born Filipino is now indebted to the tune of P113,000. The government’s ability to pay our debts would depend on how it manages its financial leakages. A former NEDA secretary says that financial leakages pertain to a big chunk of the national budget being regularly lost to corruption.
Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong says he was stunned, as most of us were, that only very, very few members of Congress “had raised hell” over our national debt and corruption.
Magalong gave a talk last March to about 1,000 municipal mayors, all members of the League of Municipalities, and had a chance to speak before vice governors of numerous provinces three weeks ago.
‘Magalong is being terribly naive to expect anyone from the ‘honorable’ ranks in Congress to admit to an unlawful practice!
He narrates how the meetings went and how he was affected. “I was very concerned. The way we process, the way we manage our local government units. For the first 15 minutes, everybody was just so enthusiastic, listening to me, looking at my impressive presentation. And then, I started talking about traditional politics. I started talking about corruption. which is a direct correlation to poverty. They also started looking at their cellphones, virtually avoiding my stare. Are we not going to ask ourselves, ‘Is corruption already a norm in government? Is good governance becoming an exception?’
“It’s very saddening that they have a percentage in every project. They have not yet become tired. They already have a percentage. But they are still the contractor, they are still the supplier. Kami sa Philippine National Police, we’re willing to contribute a reasonable percentage of our pension fund for the national government to address this huge issue. Pero nakakalungkot, nothing has been heard from our legislators that they’re willing to give up their pork barrel. Kahit man lang sana sabihin nila na bawasan n’yo ‘yung pork barrel. But nobody, for some reason, nobody would admit na meron silang pork barrel, But now that I’m with local government, the fact remains there is still pork barrel.”
Magalong is being terribly naive to expect anyone from the “honorable” ranks in Congress to admit to an unlawful practice!
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Tab Baldwin had a mouthful to say on how coaching of the Philippine national basketball teams has miserably failed to maximize the outstanding talents of our players. The following are excerpts from an interview of the former Gilas Pilipinas coach by retired PBA star Eric Menk on his “Staying Major” podcast.
Baldwin talked about the “ingrained hoops culture of this basketball-crazy country and how it hinders local players from becoming successful. Philippine basketball needs a change of culture for its teams to succeed internationally. I think there’s a blinder on the Philippine basketball landscape because this country has been so good in basketball for so long that it has become insular: it doesn’t look outside enough. and when it does look outside, it looks only at the US. And it’s a big mistake because we can’t be the US. It’s simply impossible. But if you’ve got to rise to the level of your opponents, and when your style of basketball can be exploited by disciplined intelligent teams, and they will force you to innumerable mistakes, you have to look at yourself.”
Baldwin, who steered Gilas to a silver medal finish in the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship in China, “encapsulated” the Philippine style of basketball “from a negative standpoint as opposed to what should be.
“It’s very simple: in Philippine basketball, you put the ball in a player’s hands, and that player sees what he can do to create for himself. When that runs into a wall, then he gives it to somebody else who does the same thing. Great basketball is played by players who, whatever they do on the floor, they do it to see what they can create for their teammates. That’s why this was created as a team game. It wasn’t created as a ‘your turn, my turn’ style of play. It was created as let’s see what we can cohesively do together to create the most efficient outcome.”
Baldwin has done a remarkable job instilling that mentality with the Ateneo Blue Eagles, transforming the Katipunan-based dribblers into a well-oiled machine that thrives on team play on the way to ruling the UAAP last season. He also led the New Zealand tall Blacks to a historic semifinal appearance in the 2002 World Championship (now FIBA World Cup).
He said: “Most players and teams in the Philippines are still blinded by the deep-rooted culture of hero ball, preventing them from accepting changes. I think we’re in conflict with that in this country because we have great, great basketball players who really don’t know how to use their skills to help one another in their plays.”
