New President

[Sander Martin]

29 minutes ago, Methersgate said:

This being the Philippines, when someone important says something patently stupid, like the steel plant idea. we can operate on the "All The President's Men" principle, and "Follow the Money"!

Two of Duterte's big campaign sponsors were the Yao's (Universal Steel, who have 52% of the Philippines' rebar market) and the Jacintos, as in the old National Steel. Duterte has said that he intends to increase spending on infrastructure to 5% of GDP - a fairly huge figure - and he has put Mark Villar in charge of Public Works and Highways...

So that's two and two... let's make five...

Suppose that the steel for all this new infrastructure were to come at two prices - one being the international price, plus tariff, and the other were a preferential price for "Filipino Steel"... Wouldn't that be a sweet deal? 

Well there is corruption here we know. Increased infrastructure building even with the corruption? Yes please (our street in Iloilo looks really nice now after a year of building). I just wish they would get some foreign expert advice as road building here is slow as ??????. One of Annes cousins is a road worker and i told him that when i was working for a curbing company while living in Christchurch New Zealand. We made atleast a kilometer of curb+channel in one day with a team of 5 (not counting the concrete truck drivers).... It would take atleast a few weeks to accomplish that here with a team of 20.

Edited May 21, 2016 by Sander Martin

[MikeSwede]

Just read an article in Rappler, ending as follows:

"- So there's no reason for us in the media to be afraid of your administration?

- You only die once, so what's the problem? Death is a one-time affair. Hindi naman (It's not) by installment. Wala ka namang babayaran (You don't have to pay for anything)."

I am feeling confused, was that a threat or a promise??

Article here:

http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/133778-duterte-sunstar-interview

Edited May 21, 2016 by MikeSwede

[robert k]

10 hours ago, Sander Martin said:

Dutertes goal of getting a steel mill going is a joke. Steel mill itself is great, but hes ad on TV said that once he gets the steel mill going Phillipines can start producing cars, cellphones etc. There was a huge list of items that have steel parts. Yes while most items contain steel(some more, some less), then steel is the easiest component. There is alot more in building a car then a steel frame :D... The reason why there isn't meny multi national manufacturing plants here is all political and how corrupt and hard everything is. 

Just look at Thailand. Plants everywhere, all the big Japanese car builders have plants (because of the Thai rule that if its a imported car you pay double the money on tax). Thats why 99% of the cars there are Japanese brands made in Thailand. You got to be really rich to own a BMW or Merc when the cars cost you double on what they cost in Europe.

Actually the Philippines could and I think should build cars. Aircooled Volkswagons to be specific, 1940's technology. Partly because I think it would be competitive with buying chop chop cars from Japan and assembling them in the Philippines which creates no wealth FOR the Philippines as a whole. If one has the steel mill, you have to feed it ore, (probably scrap for a while) but then the mined ore will need to move on trucks, someone will have to mine the ore, these will likely be decent paying jobs all along the line. The Philippines needs the jobs. One of the roots of Philippine poverty is 20 applicants for every job. Other non first world nations used the Volkswagon as a springboard, Brazil and Mexico notably. The support industry and assemblers will all be relatively high paying jobs, which the Philippines desperately needs.

When a country imports durable goods, they are paying for jobs in another country. It means that Filipinos are paying Japanese, Korean wages from their much lower Filipino income. The only people in the world not benefitting from low cost of Filipino labor is....The Philippines. The Philippines needs some heavy industry for that to change. The steel mill is a first step. It will also clean up a lot of the scrap in the country as an added benefit

[Methersgate]

On Duterte's federalism proposal, this table from the Bureau of Revenue is interesting:

http://www.bir.gov.ph/images/bir_files/research_and_statistics/Coll%20per%20NSCB%20Region_CY%202014.pdf

[chris49]

On ‎5‎/‎21‎/‎2016 at 6:46 AM, Methersgate said:

Hang on a cotton-picking minute!

I wrote: " I just think that conditions for foreigners may become a little more adverse. I don't go as far as some Pinoys who foretell the "next Venezuela"! 

You call THAT "Scaremongering"? You must scare easy!

That's not the quote I highlighted.

[chris49]

On ‎5‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 1:29 AM, Methersgate said:

Duterte is a populist, and, when things go wrong, he will point the finger at any available target. This is likely to include "foreigners

This one.

[Methersgate]

My apologies. But I still believe that I am likely to be proven right.

[mogo51]

Well I think we as expats, should be more careful what we say about what Filipinos should or should not do with their own country.  They just did that and I repeat, Duterte won in a landslide.

[Methersgate]

No, as I have just explained, he did not "win in a landslide", he just won.

Here is a report by AFP in a Filipino newspaper; interesting reading. Senator de Lima has also just been elected, btw...

http://www.rappler.com/nation/133893-department-of-justice-halts-davao-death-squad-probe?utm_content=buffere1d09&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

[OnMyWay]

On 5/21/2016 at 2:16 AM, MikeSwede said:

Just read an article in Rappler, ending as follows:

"- So there's no reason for us in the media to be afraid of your administration?

- You only die once, so what's the problem? Death is a one-time affair. Hindi naman (It's not) by installment. Wala ka namang babayaran (You don't have to pay for anything)."

I am feeling confused, was that a threat or a promise??

Article here:

http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/133778-duterte-sunstar-interview

I liked the article.  A lot of common sense there.  I think that last comment was a bit of a joke as he was talking directly to a group of media peopl.