Living in Ayala Alabang is very “isolationist,” as I guess is living in Forbes Park or Dasmariñas Village. To be stuck in these places is not to be in touch with life in the Philippines, other than in a second hand sort of way via drivers, house-helpers etc. and their endless familial financial challenges.

These “villages” are sterile places and I doubt that most ordinary Filipinos would want to live in them, although they may aspire to have the money which they think is needed in order to live there.

Attempts are made by the management of these villages to foster community spirit, but how can there be community spirit when most people in their big houses never even see their immediate neighbors, let alone talk to them. Often the only interaction with neighbors is when somebody starts letting off fireworks at inappropriate times or there is a noisy party and there are knocks on the door from the village security “please quieten down sir.”

To get out of isolationist Alabang into other parts of Metro Manila, or better yet the provinces allows a much better understanding of real life in the Philippines. It is so vibrant. There is such an amazing number of individual businesses and entrepreneurial activity, but this low level economic activity while in great quantity does not seem to have too much staying power, business initiatives open up and then close with surprising frequency. The spirit exists to an impressive degree. Sustainability is clearly a problem.

While much of the entrepreneurial spirit is of necessity because of the gross inadequacy of real employment opportunities, I guess a lot of it is also innate. Overall “necessity is the mother of invention” here. Low-level economic activity needs low-level service support, a tricycle driver is not going to take his bike to the Suzuki casa for servicing, he has to find a way of seeing to that within his financial means. People have to find ways of paying that match their income cash flow as working capital is not really available from the formal financial sector. So the vibrancy is there, driven in most part by financial necessity and compounded by the social need for communal “partying” and mingling, which is a characteristic of the Filipino. Informal finance is there to support things, but the businesses in many cases just can’t earn enough to survive for long. Business licenses have to be obtained and paid for, fire extinguisher inspections have to be done, even in some cases medical examinations for the staff. The burden of government bureaucracy adds an impossible weight to what is already a difficult challenge, so failure is the norm.

So sad that such vibrancy, creativity and enthusiasm, regardless of their motivators, are just finished off by the demands and lack of support available from a government elected to protect its citizens and legitimized to use force to do so.

The people who live in the isolated villages are in many cases removed from this vibrancy and desperation; most of them have not started from that point and managed to jump all the hurdles that are in the way, it would take a superman to do that successfully. They are the fortunate ones, born with the silver spoons in their mouths. Because of their privileged positions, they will have the communal power, if directed well to make a difference and produce more success stories from the enthusiasm that clearly exists in the bulk of society. They can help. Help in such a case would not be by handouts, it should be by using their influence to efficiently enact policies that make life easier for those struggling to monetize their creativity and skills at the lower levels of society. They can influence bank lending practices, they can influence the endemic corrupt payments that need to be made to achieve almost any economic progress, they can influence budgets and they can guide and patronize businesses which operate at the lower levels. They can through their combined influence make things easier, and if things are easier then everybody wins because there is more capital around to dispose of.

Well-intentioned foundations exist but these do not generally seek to get involved in policy and it is in that area that changes really need to be made and effected. Paternalism is rather out of fashion these days in most of the world, better to help people to directly contribute to economic development themselves, give them real hope and an attainable ability to personally achieve, because that is something which is sorely lacking out there on the streets . . .

Mike can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.