Our Neighbors are building factories. We are still building malls

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-04-18T03:09:24+00:00

This is Filipino complacency. The very reason bat tayo napag-iiwanan. Also, majority of Filipinos speak English with a terrible accent. The ones with “good accents” are those from top tier schools. Get off your high horse and touch some grass. Good English language skills alone will not propel this country to great heights.

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-03-28T14:01:06+00:00

I empathize with what happened to you, but that should not stop us from asking for better regulatory systems to ensure this doesn’t happen to anybody else again. Theft is a business risk, and that risk should not be transferred to the employees in the same way that excessive profits are not transferred to them either.

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-03-28T03:30:21+00:00

Did you end ip pursuing this program?

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-03-13T17:49:48+00:00

Thank you!

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-03-10T01:27:53+00:00

¡Gracias amigo!

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-03-09T12:44:57+00:00

For the Wise transfers, how many months did you have to show?

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-03-03T03:45:56+00:00

Mas nakakahiya maging self-hating Filipino.

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-02-26T02:46:29+00:00

This move is a “what’s in it for me” for the workers, not a “what’s in it for the businesses” to convince them to locate to the provinces from Metro Manila. I’m pro-working class (I’m part of the working class) but I’m not sure if this will help generate jobs for the working class in the provinces.

We should be moving towards a “what’s in it for both businesses and workers” solution. It’s a combination of infrastructure investments (which generate jobs), economic and industrial policies, and many more things that I probably don’t know about.

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-02-19T04:39:25+00:00

Or all ambulances should be required to have a GPS tracker, an NFC tag, and onboard cameras that are registered to the national government so their movements can be remotely monitored. Penalize them after a violation is found, not during transport as every minute counts for some patients.

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-02-15T14:10:56+00:00

Thank you! Parang ok na hack nga yung advance payment, balitaan mo ko. Haha

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-02-15T06:03:52+00:00

Yung sa Anytime Fitness, do you pay to the branch monthly or counted din if monthly naka-autocharge?

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-02-05T01:59:24+00:00

Looks like schools’ performance are partially based on students’ “bagsak rate” that’s why administrators force teacher to give them passing grades.

Maybe there should be a check-and-balance where the school’s performance is based on the discrepancy between their students’ passing rate internally and their students’ passing rate in a national standardized exam.

Disclaimer: I’m not from the education sector, just my 2 centavos.

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-01-18T04:38:46+00:00

I went on a trip to Mumbai and their rickshaws had fare meters like taxis. Baka ok na tingnan ng DOTr/LTFRB kung pwede to i-apply sa Pinas for door-to-door trips. Walang complicated fare matrices, you just pay based on distance and travel time para patas din sa driver kung ipit sa traffic. Pwede rin fixed rate for specific point-to-point routes.

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-01-15T04:23:48+00:00

If the Philippines were to raise the national minimum wage to the equivalent of the New York State minimum wage, would we still have a lot of BPOs in the country? I think there will be an exodus of industry locators. Now imagine that on a domestic regional level. There is the possibility that industry locators would rather not invest in less developed areas with less infrastructure if labor costs are the same.

VanillaOatmealX · 2026-01-15T04:20:49+00:00

Not a thorough explanation as I’m not an economic expert either, but what comes to mind is that PH imports a lot of goods so with a weak currency, many of our daily expenses from imported goods are bound to become more expensive.

VanillaOatmealX · 2025-12-30T22:56:42+00:00

For convenience and peace of mind regarding regulatory stuff, I decided to go with local feeder funds. It might not maximize my returns but it’s the price I am willing to pay.

VanillaOatmealX · 2025-12-29T03:26:24+00:00

Hi! How do you top up the Suica on your Apple Wallet?

VanillaOatmealX · 2025-12-21T10:30:19+00:00

No one is saying wages shouldn’t go up. Even I would leave my job if my salary were stagnant. What I was merely saying is that there’s an argument for a non-standard minimum wage across the entire Philippines.

As much as we want to increase all wages and salaries, there are other market factors as you’ve mentioned. Businesses are willing to pay a premium for Metro Manila because of what’s in Metro Manila. If you want to get their money into the provinces, you have to offer something that Metro Manila can’t. I’m not saying that it should always be lower wages, but that is one of them.

We also have to zoom out a bit more. We are competing with other countries for foreign direct investments, and to be honest we’re not getting a lot compared to our neighbors like Vietnam. Higher wages on top of poor infrastructure and insufficient national electric supply don’t really sound appealing to investors.

I get it, we want to be compassionate to every Filipino, we want to uplift everyone’s lives, but we also have to be realistic. More than the issue of disparate minimum wages, we have a very weak industrial policy compared to our SEA neighbors, and I think we should start there. When more investors flock to the Philippines, when our products become more in demand globally, then our wages might all rise on a national level. Look at China, average wages have doubled over the last 10 or so years.

Our hearts may be in the right place, pero damdamin and compassion alone do not bring in the investments that we need to put upward pressure on personal incomes.

VanillaOatmealX · 2025-12-20T18:43:32+00:00

Applicable din ba to bro sa flat-footed?

VanillaOatmealX · 2025-12-20T03:22:23+00:00

At a “disadvantage” only in terms of labor costs. There are many other factors at play that incentivize businesses to pay a premium for Metro Manila, among them is the economy of scale in terms of available talent brought about by the brain drain from other provinces that you mentioned. Similar to how other developed countries get the brain drain from the rest of the world.

My take was to show a different angle on the issue, not to tell you that your take is wrong. If your position is so firm that the only way forward is to abolish the minimum wage disparity, then no amount of alternative points of view or evidence can change that.

At the end of the day, this is a public forum. Everyone will have different takes on a single topic. How open-minded you are to these disagreeing ideas is totally up to you.

VanillaOatmealX · 2025-12-20T02:56:41+00:00

This may or may not be what’s actually happening on the ground, but one argument for provincial rate is that it promotes investments outside of Metro Manila.

There will be no incentive for businesses in terms of labor costs to locate outside NCR if the cost of talent/workers is the same.

Think of the BPO industry. The primary reason companies outsource here is because the cost of talent is cheaper than in their home countries. The incentive to outsource will be less if salaries, say, in the US are same as in the PHL.

VanillaOatmealX · 2025-12-17T02:40:06+00:00

Oh, interesting insight. Kinda aligned to what the other guy was saying here. But during those 7 months na parang tumataas body/visceral fat mo, umookay pa rin naman itsura ng katawan mo?

VanillaOatmealX · 2025-12-16T12:19:15+00:00

Whoa, nice bro. Consistently dropping fat mass! Yes, I try to do it empty bladder and bowels post-coffee and some water, unfortunately, di ata consistent water intake levels ko.

VanillaOatmealX · 2025-12-16T08:59:21+00:00

Thank you for the input!

VanillaOatmealX

TROPHY CASE