Penalizing Telcos for Unreliable Services Will NOT Give Better Services to Filipinos

Is it me or are Philippine politicians that fond of band-aid solutions? A few days ago, I ended up reading from The Philippine Star where Senator Jose Pimentel Ejercito Jr. aka Jinggoy Estrada proposed yet another band-aid solution. Here's an excerpt from what Estrada wants to do:

It seeks to amend Section 20 of the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines to include a provision mandating refund credit to a customer who experienced a service outage and disruption for an aggregate period of 24 hours or more within a month.
Under the proposed measure, the refund credit shall be also granted to customers subscribing to a service on a prepaid basis.
“Why should we pay for a service that we have not benefited from? And at a time when almost everything depends on gadgets and digital devices, it is important to have a fast, accessible and reliable connection,” Estrada said in Filipino.
“Genuine accessibility can only be achieved if the connection services are regular, reliable, consistent, uninterrupted, and fast to allow continuity of activities and interconnection among different users,” he added.

I really must laugh at the proposal if it's intended to be long-term. Sure, there's the problem of a choppy Internet connection. The proposal seems good on paper until we realize one thing. How can two or three telecommunications companies (telcos) ever fill the need of an archipelago? There are 7,107 islands and a total of 18 regions, 81 provinces, 145 cities, 1,489 municipalities, and 42,029 barangays. The real problem is all about supply and demand.

The real constraint is too few service providers and too many islands. Back then, we only had a duopoly with Globe and PLDT. I heard DITO is now questionable though I can't verify that. Fortunately, there's now Starlink in the Philippines. There's also the Public Services Act of 2022 which was renounced as "imperialism" by fools. If we think about it, the Philippines has been overtaken by Communist Vietnam.

Please stop believing fools like Bayan Muna, IBON Foundation, Kabataan Partylist, League of Filipino Students, and Migrante International (to name a few). They keep saying it's "imperialism". A big question that's worth throwing on their faces if they can really have a long-term solution. If their solution is again, based on their dream of a protectionist advancement, they really need to check out what happened during Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward. The dream of a protectionist industrialized utopia only ended up in failure.

Do I need to specify that the removal of 60-40 shares of ownership means that FDIs don't need a local partner? That would encourage more FDIs to come here. Nobody in their right mind would want to invest in a country where they must find a local partner, be allowed to own only up to 40% equity, and have to share 60% of the net income (read here). If you're afraid of them getting rich--they only get rich based on net income after taxes (read here).

The real solution is all about healthy competition. Welcoming FDIs to invest and compete with the locals fill in the supply and demand gap. Local businesses might have better connections now thanks to Starlink. Local businesses can benefit from better telco services to communicate with both local and international customers. The refunds will not help boost the speed. With more telcos, we can expect the supply and demand gap in the Philippines to be closer.

Davide vs. Mahathir: Which Lolo Should Filipinos Take Economic Advice From?

The real issue isn't that something is old or new. Instead, if something old or new still works, or doesn't work! Many modern laws are built on some ancient principles, while adjusting to the current times! The Constitution of Japan is actually older than the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines. However, it's more effective for the reasons that (1) their constitution is silent when it comes to regulating economic activities (ex., protectionist measures), and (2) it's a parliamentary system. Honestly, it's a pretty straightforward constitution compared to ours! As Mahatir Mohamad turned 100 today, I would like to raise up Atty. Hilario G. Davide Jr. once again. The problem isn't Davide's age but his unwillingness to embrace change when needed (read here ). This time, it's time to bring up a contrast between wise old people and unwise old people. A young person can be right where the old person is wrong. A young person can be wiser because he or she lea...

Overspending as a Narcotic of the Filipino Masses

Harvard Health Publishing It's almost time for the New Year, right? However, there's the problem that so many Filipinos just refuse to do any financial New Year's resolutions . It's a continued series of broken New Year's resolutions year after year , such as not doing anything about one's financial and economic literacy . Then again, can Filipinos learn financial literacy when the school environment is too theoretical ? As I observe the same cycle in the Philippines, from January to December, it has always been a financial mess for many Filipinos. The problem starts with mishandling money, such as how paychecks are often handled by people . There's always some joy in spending, whether we want to admit it or not We can't deny that if we bought what we want (especially with one's own money), there's some feeling of satisfaction . For example, a person who stops begging from their parents and starts buying what they want, with their money , can ...

Is Christmas Toxic Positivity a Cause or an Effect of the Philippines' Lack of Progress?

Lessandra When it's Christmas, it's so easy to think of the song of the late Andy Williams, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year". The music itself reeks of toxic positivity, whether one likes it or not. It's a shame, really, because December 20 was also the anniversary of Asia's Titanic, the sinking of the Doña Paz ! We live in a society that somehow never learns from its mistakes, like a person who's stuck in gambling debt, is still hoping to get rich gambling . Despite all that, Christmas toxic positivity still abounds in the Philippines. We still have a lot of ongoing bad habits, such as starting Christmas in September and then doing last-minute Christmas shopping during the week of Christmas. That's why every time I drive on the road on Christmas, I tend to shout, "Isn't it any wonder why the Philippines never improves?" The term Noche Buena has evolved over time . For some, it's simply the Christmas dinner. However, so...

Why the Old Chinese Education System in the Philippines Can't Pass the HSK Standard Today

Bahay Tsinoy, museum of Chinese life in the Philippines There are a lot of cavemen-minded people out there. Some would argue that Pinyin is making things too easy, never mind that Mainland China was the first to move to abolish Zhuyin. I was looking at the comments on the Bahay Tsinoy Facebook page, and I was not surprised by them. I try to talk about Pinyin and even ask, "Can you get your business permit with Zhuyin?" I guess I was being too blunt in what I did or not. Those old books above were useless . It's because they required people to learn Chinese first and an overdose of memorization . Memorization helps but without understanding, it doesn't help. Besides, you can't even use those textbooks above to teach Mandarin in the language centers (read why here ). People who graduated from Chinese schools talk about their experiences. Some of them even said, "We just memorized so we don't get whacked at the ruler by the siansi (Hokkien for teacher). Fo...

Why I Don't Intend (or Even Recommend to Anyone) to Invest in Cryptocurrencies

I remembered the time when I started to do some monetary investments (bonds, mutual funds), got scammed by a bad customer who hasn't paid me back until now, and how the journey of personal finance is no easy task. I feel like it's time to talk about another Ponzi scheme called cryptocurrency. First, we need to define it before I will state why I don't even intend to invest in it. Cryptocurrency is defined by Investopedia as follows: A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technology—a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers. A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any central authority, rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation . A clear lack of regulation and extreme volatility make it very dangero...

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