Over the past couple years I have made an effort to acquaint myself with business and civic interests in different parts of the country, because one of the common criticisms I sometimes hear—and for which I do not often have an effective rebuttal, to be honest about it—is that the political, economic, and intellectual leadership of this country is too “Manila-centric” in its perspective. What seems important here in the capital is often at odds with the priorities and problems in the greater part of the country, which is not news, of course; the disconnect between what is imposed on the rest of the country by Imperial Manila and what the rest of the country needs or wants has been a source of tension since the entire archipelago was first cobbled together under Spanish rule.