The truth about Philippine Gold

 (Published ENRICH magazine, 2023)

I LOVE GOLD. Many of you do, too, I'd wager.

Owning gold, either in the form of fine jewelry or 24 karat gold bars 99.5% pure, makes you feel special; like you're a SOMEBODY whatever your station in life might be. It's as if gold opens an escape hatch away from this shithole called Earth and into a problem-free golden world -- if only for a few minutes of joyful fantasy.

And the exhilarating FEEL of cold, pure gold in your hands can ignite an ecstasy almost similar to an orgasm. Gold is utterly beautiful. Thank God for gold. It's still the next best investment after cash.

A woman's chastity cover made of gold crafted by Filipinos..

Golden Filipinos

The Filipinos' affinity for gold is as enduring as it is cultural. It dates back centuries to before the arrival of the rapacious Spaniards in 1521.

Gold was extensively used by pre-Hispanic tribes in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. Items of gold were symbols of power among the maharlika and badges of status among tribes.

Ancient Filipinos widely used gold as jewelry, body ornaments, accoutrements, clothing, currency, works of art and gilding for weapons. The popularity of gold is well documented by archaeological records and in many written accounts from pre-colonial and the early Spanish colonial period.  Gold, however, led to our subjugation by the Spaniards.

Even today, it's not well-known that gold was the main reason why Spain set out to conquer the Philippines. It was never about Spain spreading Roman Catholicism and the word of Christ to the heathen natives. This is pure nonsense. It was all about stealing gold from innocent Filipinos and enslaving them in the process.

The extensive use of gold and the incredible artistry of our ancient jewelry makers were on full display for the world to marvel at during an exhibit entitled "Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms" held 2016 in New York City.

This widely applauded event showcased magnificent works of gold discovered over the past half-century in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. On display were jewelry, regalia, ceremonial weapons, ritualistic and funerary objects from the 10th to the 13th centuries.

Hammered gold plaques created by ancient Filipinos displayed at “Philippine Gold Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms” held 2016 at New York City..

The golden treasures included necklaces, pendants, bracelets, finger rings, pectorals, “kamagi,” waistbands, dishes and bowls. Such was the excellent craftsmanship of Filipino goldsmiths that they created wee ornaments so minute it’s almost impossible to discern their intricate details with the naked eye.

Of keen interest to visitors were the "chastity covers," which are triangular pieces of gold with rounded corners and engraved with floral motifs. It was worn by Filipino women over their genitalia. Hailed as the star of this exhibit, however, was a stunning golden sash (or caste cord) made entirely of gold beads. This five-foot long masterpiece weighing four kilograms was worn over one shoulder and across the chest. It extended to the hip and was adorned by a now lost finial.

Gold was a most popular metal used in jewelry-making because this precious metal was readily available throughout the archipelago. Our ancestors, therefore, flaunted their gold with freedom and abandon, which we sadly can't say for their descendants today.

Then, as now, the most important gold mining sites are the Cordillera Mountain Range in North Luzon; Camarines Norte (the “gold town” of Paracale) in the Bicol Region; Masbate in the Visayas, and Davao de Oro (literally “Davao of Gold”) and the Butuan-Surigao enclave along the Agusan River in Mindanao.

There are gold mines in 40 of our country's 81 provinces. Of the 40, 15 provinces are identified as "gold-rich" by the national government.

The Philippines today sits on the world's second-largest gold deposits, said a 2019 report by the Investing News Network (INN), a Canadian investment news website. This hoard has remained mostly untapped since 2017 due to a ban on open-pit metal mining. Our country was ranked 24th in global gold production in 2018, producing 36.8 tonnes (metric tons or MT). It will soon move-up in this ranking.

A golden sash or caste cord.

Gold fever

The good news is that the next few years should be a golden era for Filipino gold-lovers. Much of our golden wealth is about to come out of the ground and into the light.

This impending new gold rush has been unlocked by a national government order reinstating open-pit mining throughout the Philippines. In December 2021, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reversed the four-year-old ban on open-pit metal mining implemented in 2017 by the late DENR Secretary Gina Lopez, an environmentalist and mining industry foe who died in 2019.

Lopez's ban on open-pit mining included gold, silver, copper and complex ores. It was intended to “protect the environment," said Lopez. She also criticized open-pit mines as “perpetual liabilities” for the Philippine government.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Administrative Order (DAO) 2021-40 signed by former Secretary Roy Cimatu formally repealed DAO 2017-10 that imposed the mining ban.

Brushing aside loud protests against DAO 2021-40, DENR claimed lifting the ban will “revitalize the mining industry and usher in significant economic benefits to the country by providing raw materials for the construction and development of other industries and by increasing employment opportunities in rural areas where there are mining activities thereby stimulating countryside development.”

The mining industry hasn't lived-up to its full potential because it's been “mired since the 1980s in klutzy laws, environmental battles and land rights issues,” noted a story in Forbes magazine. In addition, most indigenous peoples in the country (especially those in Mindanao) are against mining. The indigenous also have special rights that allow them to veto mining projects in their lands.

The national government, which isn’t earning as much as it should from gold mining, and commercial miners are eager to exploit the country's remaining untapped gold deposits. The mining industry contributed only PhP31 billion ($600 million) to the Philippine economy in 2020 by way of taxes, fees and royalties paid to the national and local governments, said the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).

In contrast, the Philippine business process outsourcing (BPO) industry plows-in some PhP1.63 trillion ($30 billion) into the economy each year, according to Nexford University, a fully online university based in the United States.

MGB data also reveals the Philippines produced 20.8 MT of gold worth $866.7 million in 2018. The country produced 22.8 MT of gold valued at $894.6 million in 2017. In March 2019, the government estimated the value of the country's remaining gold deposits as ranging from $9 billion to $11.2 billion.

On the other hand, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) estimated our gold reserves in January 1998 at 101.6 million MT of gold ore, equivalent to around 240 MT of gold. The government said 27.7 million MT of gold ore containing 36 MT of gold was extracted from 1988 to 1994. This is equivalent to extracting 3.9 million MT of gold ore, or 5.14 MT of gold, every year.

The Philippines is studded with mineral mines. Fully 25% (or 764,000 hectares) of the country's 30 million hectare total land area were subject to mining concessions as of July 2021. More than nine million hectares are said to be laden with large quantities of valuable mineral deposits.

These mineral deposits are worth more than $1 trillion, estimated Mongabay, a conservation news web portal based in the U.S. Most of these minerals are copper, gold, nickel, aluminum and chromite. Our country exported metallic and non-metallic minerals worth $5.2 billion in 2020. Copper, gold and nickel were the three top metallic exports in that order. 

The Philippines is the third largest gold-producing country in Southeast Asia after Australia and Indonesia. China, Australia and Russia are the world's largest producers of gold, said INN.

Half of the world's gold production goes to jewelry. Around 10% is used industrially while a third goes into gold bars and gold coins owned by monetary authorities and central banks around the world.

Gold bars

Only the rich get rich from gold mining

This wealth from gold is restricted to a few in our country, however. It's because small miners that comprise the Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) sector dominate local gold mining.

ASGM accounts for 70% of the Philippines' gold production, said the planetGOLD program. The remaining 30% goes to the commercial or large-scale miners like Philex Mining Corporation, the largest publicly-held gold and copper producer in the country.  PlanetGOLD is a multi-sectoral program that works to improve ASGM production practices and work environments in nine countries, including the Philippines.

ASGM also employs more than 500,000 miners and provides livelihoods for over two million Filipinos, most of them poor. On the other hand, gold mines are traditionally controlled by local oligarchs and local warlords that either employ ASGM miners or receive payment from miners for the right to mine their land. Hence, the wealth from gold mining stays in the hands of a very few.

There is a difference between "Artisanal" and "Small-scale" mining. The former refers to unorganized mining that doesn't use sophisticated machinery. It uses brawn, muscle power and other rudimentary methods to extract and process minerals and metals on a small-scale. Small-scale mining refers to more organized miners that may or may not use sophisticated machinery. These miners make a lot more money than artisanal miners.

Artisanal miners also frequently use toxic materials -- especially mercury which is a neurotoxin that damages the nerves -- to extract gold from ore using the mercury amalgamation process. This process also releases toxic materials into the surrounding environment, posing dangerous health risks to miners, their families and nearby communities.

Artisanal gold mining is one of the most significant sources of mercury pollution in our country and in other developing countries such as those in Africa.

Yamashita's Gold

The Philippines never runs out of tall tales about fabulous gold hoards with wealth (much of it gold) beyond imagination.

Our Baby Boomer generation (Pinoys born from 1946 to 1964) and Generation X (1965 to 1985) were regaled by the fantastic tale of the multi-million dollar "Yamashita Treasure" said to have been buried in 1945 by the Imperial Japanese Army somewhere in the mountains of North Luzon.

There's also the fabulous "Golden Buddha," a three-foot tall statue said to be made of pure gold discovered in 1971 by treasure hunter Rogelio Roxas. Roxas claimed to have found the Golden Buddha and crates filled with gold bullion that were part of the Yamashita Treasure.

He later filed a lawsuit in Hawaii against former president Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, for the theft of this statue and the treasure he discovered. He also sued the couple for abusing his human rights by ordering his torture.

Roxas, a former soldier, died in 1993. In 1996, his estate and the Golden Buddha Corporation received what was then the largest judgment ever awarded in history -- $22 billion. Interest increased this huge sum even further to $40.5 billion.

The Hawaii Supreme Court in 1998 said there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's finding that Roxas found the treasure and that Marcos stole it.

The court, however, later reduced the award for damages. The final judgment against Imelda Marcos (her husband died in 1989) ordered her to pay the Golden Buddha Corporation $13.3 million while Roxas’ estate was awarded a $6 million judgment on the claim for human rights abuse.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals determined "The Yamashita Treasure was found by Roxas and stolen from Roxas by Marcos' men."

Fool’s Gold

Millennials and Generation Z have to contend with the even taller tale of "Tallano Gold." The many and massive lies that comprise this scam and conspiracy theory beggar the imagination.

The myth that is the Tallano gold was resurrected by followers of the current president during the presidential campaign of 2022. His supporters insist the wealth of the Marcos family comes from gold bars that were paid to the president's late father by an entity called the "Tallano-Tagean Royal Family."

This fictional family was alleged to have ruled the "Maharlikan Empire" that owned pre-Spanish Philippines and also ruled Sabah, South Borneo, the Spratly Islands and Hawaii. It paid the late president more than 400,000 tons of gold for the legal services he supposedly provided them.

Jose Victor Torres, a professor of history at the De La Salle University Manila, said the Tallano gold is a "historical hoax." This lie has been kept alive by Filipinos that hope to get rich quick despite not being proven by any historical document.

"It's because of money," said Torres in January 2022. "No matter what you say that it's fake or not, pagtitiyagaan talaga iyan ... People are willing to sacrifice the truth for money."

History professor Francis Gealogo, former head of the Department of History at the Ateneo de Manila University, said there are no historical accounts to prove these claims. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself has disavowed the existence of the Tallano gold.

“Walang ginto. Walang ginto,” said Marcos Jr. in February 2022 when asked to confirm if their family owns metric tons of gold and if they’d give it to his supporters.

He previously asserted he hasn't seen the Tallano gold in his entire life. He jokingly said the public should tell him about the location of the Tallano gold.

“Baka may alam sila, sabihan ako," he said. "Kailangan ko iyong gold."

 

 

Philippine Pharaohs: infrastructure as legacies of presidents past

 (Published in ENRICH magazine, 2023)

MUCH LIKE THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN Pharaohs of the Old Kingdom that built the Pyramids, Philippine presidents since the Commonwealth have turned to building infrastructure to cement their political legacies in the consciousness of their countrymen.

In this sense, the costly and oftentimes contentious roads, buildings, bridges, seaports, airports and other public works built by seven Philippine presidents from Manuel L. Quezon to Ferdinand E. Marcos can be regarded as ostentatious memorials intent on proclaiming the greatness of the men -- the Philippine Pharaohs -- that built them.

Thus, the epitaph to Quezon's infrastructure spree might read: "In honor of Pres. Manuel L. Quezon, the greatest builder of roads in Philippine history before the advent of the Republic, and builder of the North-South Circumferential Road, now known as Epifanio de los Santos Avenue".

The inscription to Pres. Carlos Garcia's infrastructure program might declare: "Let it be known that the Pan-Philippine Highway -- the largest road building project in Philippine history -- was planned in 1961 during the administration of Pres. Carlos P. Garcia".

That of Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos might proclaim: "Recall that the administration of Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos built more concrete roads than any other administration from 1900 to 1965".

It might be useful to know what claims to infrastructure greatness were made by past presidents who served from 1935 to 1986 under the Commonwealth and the Philippine Constitution of 1935 (as amended), when much of the infrastructure we still use today came into existence.

Quezon, the greatest infrastructure builder

Before the Commonwealth came into being on November 15, 1935, the colonial road systems bequeathed it by both the Spaniard colonizers (1521 to 1898) and American colonizers (1898 to 1946) can be rightly termed as primitive and completely inadequate.

Even by 1935, most “roads” in the Philippines were narrow dirt paths only wide enough to accommodate two carabao-drawn carts traveling in opposite directions. Manila and a few other cities had asphalted or macadam roads built by the Americans. There were only 97.5 km of concrete roads in the entire country in 1935.

The few gravel paved roads in existence connected municipalities and cities. Better roads were paved with boulders, adobe blocks and gravel. Good roads to the provinces and within the provinces were practically non-existent.

William Howard Taft, U.S. Governor General of the Philippines from 1901 to 1903, remarked that "in no way were the Islands so backwards as in their lack of communication in the interior regions."

The Americans, who acquired the Philippines from Spain in 1898, reported only 1,450 km of the Spanish road system remained usable in the first decade of the 20th century. Practically the entire road system was built on the island of Luzon, which had the Walled City of Intramuros in Manila as its centerpiece of government. The Commonwealth was forced to upgrade the Philippines' primitive road net due to the increasing number of automobiles and other motor vehicles, which were driving commerce and economic growth.

The first motor vehicles (these from the United States) reached Philippine shores in 1910. Registration of motor vehicles began two years later.

In 1936, the Commonwealth reported the registration of 3,067 motor vehicles, up 17% from 1935. The total number of registered motor vehicles in 1936 consisted of 28,420 cars, 17,355 trucks and buses and 518 motorcycles. Out of this total, 14,213 cars, 5,017 trucks and 320 motorcycles were located in the capital city, Manila.

As for roads, the Department of Public Works and Communications reported gravel surface roads (or second class roads) comprised 80% of all national and provincial roads. It also said half of all gravel surface roads were only four meters wide. These were the roads, originally built for animal-drawn farm carts, which motor vehicles had to contend with.

When it bowed out of existence on July 4, 1946, the Commonwealth had attained eternal fame as the greatest builder of roads in Philippine history up until that time. It constructed practically all of the 26,000 km of national and provincial roads that came into existence from 1900 to 1950. It also made the largest investments in Philippine road building over that same 50 year period.

The Commonwealth’s intense zeal for road building was driven by Quezon, who strongly believed in the immense value of roads in boosting national economic progress. In his speech before the National Assembly on Feb. 1, 1938, Quezon said the Commonwealth's road building and public works programs were meant to give life to his belief that "adequate transportation facilities and other public works were necessary for the existence of a strong national life".

The following year saw the Commonwealth release PhP54.1 million for road and bridge construction, the largest sum allocated to these tasks before the Second World War. This amount was equivalent to 40% of all government appropriations for highway building from 1901 to 1941.

Among the most invaluable of Quezon's infrastructure projects was the North-South Circumferential Road (NSCR). This modern highway was widely called Highway 54 by Filipinos at the time before finally being officially renamed Epifanio de los Santos Avenue in a law passed by Congress in 1959.

“To facilitate the expansion of the City of Manila, in accordance with approved development plans, to provide more ready access to the suburbs and to permit the acquisition and development of parks contiguous thereto, an appropriation of P1,500,000 is recommended for the construction of a circumferential road around the City of Manila from the south end of the Taft Avenue Extension to the Balintawak Monument, via Welfareville, Camp Murphy, and San Francisco del Monte,” said Quezon in a speech about the NSCR before the National Assembly.

NSCR was to be the main road from Manila to Balintawak City, the new metropolis Quezon planned as the country's magnificent new capital city to replace Manila and center of the national government. This new city to be hacked out of forests to the north and northeast of Manila was also intended to become the most beautiful city in the Philippines.

Balintawak City "… politically shall be the seat of the national government; aesthetically the showplace of the nation -- a place that thousands of people will come and visit as the epitome of culture and spirit of the country; socially, a dignified concentration of human life, aspirations and endeavors and achievements; and economically, as a productive, self-contained community," according to Quezon.

The National Assembly, however, renamed Balintawak City as Quezon City over Quezon's strong objections. Quezon City was born on October 12, 1939 by virtue of Commonwealth Act 572.

Pres. Manuel L. Quezon

Roxas and rebuilding

The Republic of the Philippines came into existence on July 4, 1946, only nine months after the end of the Pacific War. Manuel A. Roxas, the republic's first president, had no recourse but to embark on a policy of national reconstruction with the help of the United States to rebuild the shattered economy. The U.S. initially set aside $136.9 million for rehabilitation.

His almost two-year stint as president saw Roxas concentrate on rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by the war. In his First State of the Nation Address on June 3, 1946, Roxas reported Philippine roads “are a shambles ... Bridges and roads are in crying need of reconstruction. The nation’s transportation facilities, as you all know, have been completely disrupted”.

During his term that lasted until April 15, 1948 when he died of a heart attack, Roxas also had to contend with the massive graft and corruption arising out of war reparations, criminal gangs and brigands, and a Communist insurgency that became a full-fledged rebellion by the communist Huks a few months after he took office. All of these slowed the pace of infrastructure reconstruction and rebuilding.

Quirino continues reconstruction

Pres. Elpidio Quirino (1948-1953) continued Roxas' reconstruction of public works but also built new roads and bridges. Quirino reported the construction of 663 km of new roads during his First State of the Nation Address on January 24, 1949. The following year saw him commit Filipino soldiers to fight in defense of South Korea in the Korean War that lasted from 1950 to 1953, or his entire tenure in office.

In his final State of the Nation Address in 1953, Quirino pointed out "Nearly 29,000 kilometers of roads and over 9,000 bridges are now being maintained and kept open to motor vehicle traffic. We have exerted every effort this past year to maintain and add to our system of highways and bridges and of other means of communications".

Magsaysay and farmer roads

"The Guy," a popular nickname for Pres. Ramon Magsaysay (1953-1957), who was Quirino’s successor, embarked on a program aimed at building concrete roads that would help farmers more easily transport their produce to municipal and city markets. This farm –to-market program was part of Magsaysay's five-year highway-building binge implemented by the Bureau of Public Works.

The year 1954 saw completion of the upgraded Highway 54. The new highway was a four-lane asphalted roadway from Balintawak in Quezon City to the highway's intersection with what is now the South Luzon Expressway.

Garcia's Pan-Philippine Highway

Pres. Carlos P. Garcia (1957-1961) boasted that during his administration, "The age of cement roads has come to the Philippines." He also said the use of cement instead of asphalt to build roads "will be far more economical in the long run”.

His first State of the Nation address saw Garcia promise to cement all national highways, including EDSA, and set aside PhP35 million in appropriations to begin this project in 1962.

Garcia wanted the main roads traversing agricultural and industrial areas (with a total length of 15,000 km) paved with cement to reduce the expensive cost of maintenance. Garcia’s final year in office also saw planning begin in 1961 for the largest road building project in Philippine history: the Pan-Philippine Highway.

Garcia's Pan-Philippine Highway was to begin at Aparri, Cagayan and wind-up in Davao City, a distance of more than 2,000 km. The Department of Public Works boasted it would complete this mammoth project in only five years, a target it failed to attain.

Highway 54 was renamed Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) on April 7, 1959 by virtue of Republic Act No. 2140.

Pan Philippine Highway

Cong Dadong’s roads

Pres. Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965) focused heavily on road building since he reverted the Philippines back to a free enterprise economy.

During his final year in office, Macapagal reported the construction and improvement from 1962 to 1964 of 7,633 km of national, provincial, city and municipal roads at a total cost of P107.9 million. His administration also built and improved 3,500 linear meters of bridges at an expenditure of P22.6 million.

Macapagal also wholeheartedly supported the Pan-Philippine Highway, which was re-scheduled for completion in 1969, or four years after he left office.

The concreting of EDSA began during Macapagal's presidency and the highway’s last extensions were built in 1965. In the process, the northbound lane was extended from Balintawak to the Bonifacio Monument at Caloocan City. The southbound lane was extended from Taft Avenue to Roxas Boulevard.

Marcos' infrastructure frenzy

It's not well known the many road building projects undertaken by Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos (1965-1986) concentrated on building and rehabilitating roads connecting the provinces since there were no more big ticket projects such as the Pan-Philippine Highway in the pipeline.

Marcos' road building spree had the aim of boosting local economic growth. He also saw the Pan-Philippine Highway and other major road networks as one national road network.

Like Quezon before him, Marcos considered roads as guarantors of economic growth. Marcos outspent even Quezon in his zeal for road-building. His administration’s infrastructure investments accounted for 6% of our gross domestic product (GDP), the highest among all Philippine presidents.

This allowed Marcos to boast in his Fourth State of the Nation address in Jan. 1969 his administration had “built more concrete roads than were ever built from the turn of the century to 1965”.

He said “from the start of the American regime to the end of the past administration, the government built only 995 kilometers of concrete roads, 7,268 kilometers of asphalt roads, 39,075 kilometers of feeder roads, and 76,693 lineal meters of permanent national bridges”.

“In the three years of the present administration, we increased the total length of concrete roads by 105%; that of asphalt by 20%; that of feeder roads by 15%; and that of permanent national bridges by 17%".

By 1980, or eight years into Martial Law, Marcos was able to assert that “infrastructure, which is the basis of our economic planning, shows a quantum leap … Today a system of 129,186 kilometers of highways and access roads joins our remotest barrios to the centers of commerce and population. The entire system can now be said to be linked from the north to the south, island to island”. 

EDSA in the 1970s

From overpopulation to depopulation: the Philippines a century hence

 (Published in ENRICH magazine, 2023)

THE WORLD'S EIGHTH BILLIONTH person was born in the Philippines on November 15, 2022. This symbolic milestone was announced to Filipinos by the Commission on Population and Development (PopCom).

PopCom said the eighth billionth person is a girl, Vinice Mabansag, of Tondo, Manila. The agency gifted the mother and child with a “welcome cake” to mark the historic occasion.

"The world has reached another population milestone after a baby girl born in Tondo, Manila was chosen to symbolically mark the eighth billionth person in the world," said PopCom in a Facebook post. "Baby Vinice was welcomed on Nov. 15 by nurses at Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, as well as representatives from the Commission on Population and Development".

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the event as an "occasion to celebrate diversity and advancements while considering humanity's shared responsibility for the planet". In a statement, the UN said the steady growth in the global population is due to higher fertility rates, especially in the world's poorest countries (many of which are in Africa), and to people living longer thanks to advances in medicine, public health, nutrition and personal hygiene.

New born baby Vinice Mabansag, the world's eighth billionth person

Good news?

This landmark event, however, might herald an end to the pronatalism and its focus of child-bearing and parenthood that has been a hallmark of Philippine society since the end of the Second World War.

A relentless drop in fertility since 1946 means the Philippines will eventually come to grips with the perils of depopulation or population collapse. Depopulation has the power to make the Philippines old before it can even become rich. It might also put paid to the Philippines' cherished dream of becoming a First World country.

When a country's total fertility rate (TFR or births per woman) persistently falls below the replacement fertility level of 2.1 children per woman, its population grows older and shrinks. This outcome can slow economic growth and endanger pensions for the elderly.

Depopulation will also trigger slower growth in living standards, argues Prof. Charles Jones in a new study, “The End of Economic Growth?”, published in 2020.

He contends depopulation will give rise to a vicious cycle in which low fertility in one generation causes low fertility in the next. The end result will be a downward spiral in population. This scenario had earlier been given the name, the “Low-Fertility Trap Hypothesis”, by demographer Wolfgang Lutz and colleagues in a paper published in 2006.

Lower birth rates will also result in a smaller pool of young people entering the labor force. Coupled with an ageing population, the dearth of young people will strain a country's economic resources and might see a decline in growth. Rapid population ageing is a consequence of low fertility.

Japan’s labor force, for example, will drop from 68 million to 46 million (a 32% decline) by 2050 if present demographic trends continue. Germany will see a plunge from 41 million to 28 million.

China, however, is the poster boy for the crippling dangers of negative long-term population decline. Its population (now at 1.412 billion persons) is forecast to shrink to 1.411 billion by 2023, according to Statista. This drop is the offshoot of China's disastrous One Child Policy implemented in 1980 when its TFR stood at 3.01 births per woman. The One Child Policy triggered a precipitous fall in China's fertility rate to 1.15 births per woman by 2021.

China, the world's most populous country, is now facing a population collapse that will write finis to its grand ambition of becoming the world's leading economic and military power by the 2040s. Also as a result, China might never become a First World country.

Early demographic data suggests an absolute decline in China's population in 2022 -- the first reduction in 60 years. China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the country's population grew by a puny 480,000 people in 2021, a record low increase that brought its population to 1.412 billion. In contrast, China's annual population growth stood at around eight million only a decade ago.

By 2050, China's population will decrease to 1.317 billion from today's 1.412 billion. This loss of some 100 million Chinese is depopulation on a massive scale and one from which China might never recover. On the other hand, India should have a population of 1.668 billion by 2050. It is widely expected to become the world's most populous country in 2023.

China population pyramid 2020

Becoming China

The Philippines is now faced with the potentially crippling phenomena where low fertility and a low birth rate reminiscent to that of China's become major barriers to economic prosperity.

The Philippines’ fertility rate in 2022 dropped to 1.9 children per woman between 15 and 49 years-old compared to 2.7 in 2017, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in November. That’s below the replacement level of 2.1 offspring per woman, which is the point at which a population replaces itself from one generation to the next.

It's the first time the country's fertility rate has fallen below the replacement level of 2.1 based on government data. The Philippines' fertility rate stood at 7.5 births per woman in 1950, falling by half to 3.8 by the year 2000. It has consistently decreased every year from 1950 to 2021.

The country’s birth rate is also on the decline. It fell to 19.778 births per 1,000 individuals in 2022, a 1% drop from 19.978 births per 1,000 people in 2021, said the PSA. The 2021 birth rate for Philippines was 0.99% lower than that for 2020 with its 20.177 births per 1,000 people. The 2020 birth rate was 0.98% smaller than that for 2019.

In comparison, China's birth rate plummeted to a record low of 7.52 per 1,000 people in 2021 compared to 8.52 in 2020, said the NBS. It’s been decreasing since 2017.

The birth rate and fertility rate are two different measures. The former refers to the total number of annual births per 1,000 individuals. On the other hand, the fertility rate counts the total number of births in a year per 1,000 women of reproductive age in a population.

Birth rates ranging from 10 to 20 births per 1,000 are considered low, and the Philippines now fits into this category. Rates from 40 to 50 births per 1,000 are considered high.

Steep fertility drop

The unexpectedly large drop in fertility is “the sharpest ever recorded,” said PopCom Executive Director Lolito Tacardon in November. Tacardon also said the reasons for the decline include easier access to family planning and birth control and a desire among half of currently married Filipinas to no longer bear more children.

Tacardon said the steep drop in fertility also means the Philippines now has the third lowest fertility rate in Southeast Asia after Singapore (1.1 children per woman) and Thailand (1.5). He noted the average Asian fertility rate is 2.2.

He claimed there are “more pros than cons” to the Philippines falling below the replacement fertility level. He saw the decrease as a "demographic transition" giving the country an opportunity to “hasten socioeconomic development”.

The country's population grew by a scant 900,000 persons in 2020 and 324,000 in 2021 compared to 1.5 million in 2019, the year before the advent of COVID-19 pandemic. The birth rate in 2021 was the smallest annual natural increase since 1946 when the country's total population grew by only 254,000 persons.

The government, however, is showing no alarm at these changes. It said the low population growth in 2020 and 2021 gives the country a greater chance to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. PopCom Executive Director Dr. Juan Perez III said this might also improve the services provided by the national and local governments.

“Filipinos remained prudent by continuing to delay having children or forming families during the combined economic crisis and Covid-19 health emergency," said Perez in December 2021. "Couples in growing numbers continue to avail of family planning commodities and services in all regions of the country, with eight million users of modern family planning methods in 2020, or an addition of about 500,000 from 2019".

PopCom in August 2022 revealed the country's population of children had fallen over the last two decades due to "lower levels of fertility". The Philippines is also seeing a lower percentage of younger people in its total population of 110 million.

PopCom said the population of Filipino children below 5 years-old had dipped to 10.2% in 2020 from 10.8% in 2015 and 12.6% in 2000, based on data from the PSA. The percentage of Filipinos below 15 also decreased, from 37% in 2000 to 30.7% in 2020.

Perez attributed the lower number of children born since 2015 to "the effectiveness of the Philippines’ family planning program".

He said this trend should be considered good news given the Philippines' persistent overpopulation problem. He argued there was “nothing wrong with the low birth rate” in 2020 and 2021 and described these outcomes as a welcome demographic transition.

“There were fewer births because avoidance of pregnancy, unplanned pregnancies, unintended pregnancies were the aim of most women, and the economic crisis as well is (showing) that whenever there is an economic downturn, births go down,” said Perez.

Based on the latest data, PopCom estimated the Philippine population at 109,991,095 for 2021. This new estimate is two million persons lower than earlier projections and is based on a 1.63% population growth rate.

“If integrated population and development measures are sustained, we can look forward to a more stable population that can effectively support Philippine development," noted Perez. "Smaller family sizes need to be supported by a national living wage structure that also allows parents to save for their households’ unmet needs in food, housing, and education".

Philippine population pyramid 2020

Rapid depopulation

The biggest downside to low fertility's is it reduces a country's population only among the young and not among other age groups. Persistent low fertility also creates the conditions for future population decline. Overpopulation will no longer be a problem for the Philippines.

Demographers say a slide in fertility must be halted if a population is to be demographically sustainable. Depopulation is a situation the Philippines might face if it's not careful and if fertility continues to decrease year after year.

It's been seen that countries suffering from low fertility can experience depopulation at an extremely fast rate. The example of South Korea is a dire warning to our country.

South Korea in 2021 reported the world lowest fertility rate of only 0.81 births per woman compared to the global average of 2.32. If this chronically low fertility rate continues, South Korea will see its current population of 52 million persons plunge to only 38 million by 2070, according to Statistics Korea. That's an almost 40% drop in a mere 50 years. The last time South Korea had a 38 million population was in 1980/81.

Japan is also in the same boat at South Korea as one of the few Asian countries experiencing depopulation. Its population is forecast to decrease from 126.5 million in 2020 to 105.8 million in 2050. This is a 16.3% population reduction. Japan's population is shrinking rapidly and the main reason is its low fertility rate, which stood at 1.37 births per woman in 2021. That same year saw only 811,604 babies born, the lowest number since Japan began keeping records in 1899.

By 2050, populations will decrease in more than half the European countries. Interestingly, some 60% of the global population resides in countries like ours where fertility rates have dropped below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman.

One more chance

It’s  odd that despite the Philippines ’ low  fertility rate of 1.9 children per woman, our country was still listed by the United Nations in its World Population Prospects 2022 as among the eight countries that will account for more than half of the projected increase in global population up to 2050.

The estimated Philippine population in 2050 will be 157.9 billion compared to today's 110 million, or an increase of 48 million Filipinos over the next three decades. This seems to explain why the UN included the Philippines among the top eight countries driving global population growth by 2050. Compare to this to Japan whose population will shrink by more than 20 million in 2050 from today's 126.5 million.

Our population will peak at 180.8 billion in 2090 before decreasing in the succeeding years to 180.1 million by the year 2100, according to the UN. The new UN estimates are significantly higher than those projected by the 2019 edition of its World Population Prospects.

The other seven countries that will drive global population growth in 2050 are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Tanzania. The report also estimated the global population at 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100.

The UN report also said the rate of new people being born around the world is definitely slowing down. The global population, however, is expected to continue increasing for many more decades. Population changes gradually over time, so countries like the Philippines facing future depopulation should have enough time to reverse course -- if they want to.

Demographers say the longer a low fertility rate persists; the harder it becomes to reverse depopulation. Countries wanting to avoid depopulation have to make higher levels of fertility a priority national goal while their demographics still allow for population growth.

The Philippines has an easy choice to make given it has the rest of this century to act. But can it be trusted to make the right decision?

Philippine median age 2020

It takes a brave young Iron Male to...

 (Published in ENRICH magazine, 2022)

LET'S TALK ABOUT "IRON MALES," shall we. Iron Males aren't a new gender classification.

This neologism of mine has nothing to do with gender. Iron Males are the guys that have to cope with, or have embraced, physiological and psychological accidents or behaviors many "real men" (the "Macho ito!" gang) don't consider manly.

These men have to, or dare to, be different in a monochromatic society such as ours where accepted gender norms are almost sacrosanct. With this swirl of confusion out of the way, let's talk about "moobs" and "fisss", and what they have to do with Iron Males.

Muscles or moobs?

A muscular chest reeking of raw power is most every man's dream, but being weighted down with "moobs", or man boobs, is a nightmare no man wants. It doesn't help that the medical term for moobs is "gynecomastia", which is Latin for "women's breasts".

Moobs are an embarrassing affliction for males, especially young adults, and with good reason. What young man wants to have big breasts that look more female than male? "Nakakahiya" is the apropos word that comes to mind.

It takes a brave young Pinoy male -- an Iron Male -- to reveal his "moobs" to the world. For a young man with moobs, stripping from the waist up in public or going to the pool or the beach demands an immense amount of courage.

Curiously, we seem not to be horrified when shirtless older, fat men reveal to us how nasty-looking huge moobs can be. We think moobs are normal among the fat and elderly. This double standard is unfair to young guys. Youngsters, however, have an edge over their older compatriots.

They can change their stars by resorting to a lifestyle marked by healthy diets and healthful exercise. Yes, moobs can be removed or "re-moobed" (pardon the pun) by a combination of diet and exercise.

Gynecomastia, TYPES 1-7

A widespread disorder

The Philippine College of Endocrinology Diabetes and Metabolism (PCEDM) defines gynecomastia as a "condition wherein there is an increase or enlargement of the breast tissue in males. 'Man boobs' or 'moobs' are commonly used terms for gynecomastia, but they may also pertain to having excess fat in the chest area, not necessarily the breast glands".

Moobs are quite common, however. They appear in up to 35% of British men, according to a clinical study published 2016 in the British weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, The BMJ.

The study called gynecomastia "the most common benign disorder of the male breast tissue". It also revealed moobs are most prevalent in men with ages ranging from 50 and 69. The same might probably be said for Pinoy males, as many of you might attest to.

The study also said it's normal for up to 70% of adolescent boys to develop gynecomastia. Of this number, 75% will resolve on their own within two years of onset without need or medical treatment or surgery.

"If the condition does not resolve within two years, or if it causes embarrassment, pain or tenderness, treatment is warranted," warned the study. This treatment includes surgery.

One type of moobs called clinical gynecomastia is caused by a hormonal imbalance between estrogen (the female hormone) and testosterone (the male hormone) in the breast glands. Men with this kind of moobs secrete more feminizing estrogen than testosterone. This imbalance stimulates the growth of glandular breast tissue around a man's nipples.

Estrogen stimulates breast tissue growth while androgens inhibit this growth. Men and women both have estrogen but the levels of this hormone are significantly less in men with moobs.

Testosterone is mostly converted to estrogen in our fat cells. The excess estrogen then binds to receptors encasing the nipple and stimulates breast tissue growth. This means the fatter or more obese a man is, the more likely he is to have women's breasts.

The other type of male breast abnormality is caused by excess fatty tissue (or chest adipose tissue) but isn't called clinical gynecomastia. This type of gynecomastia is called “pseudogynecomastia” or “adipomastia” and is commonly seen in obese men.

In both gynecomastia and pseudogynecomastia, swollen male breasts exhibit a more female-like appearance. Breast prominence is typically a combination of enlarged glandular breast tissue and excessive chest fat.

Moobs are classified according to severity from Grade 1 (minor enlargement with no skin excess) to Grade 4 (marked enlargement with skin excess). The latter is the worst to look at.

There are also seven types of gynecomastia that classify the degrees from horizontal a breast sags. The worst, Type 7, or an extreme sag, will see the top of areola below the chest fold.

You must be aware that only a doctor, preferably an endocrinologist specializing in male hormonal health, can tell if what you've got is gynecomastia, pseudogynecomastia or something else. His medical advice will determine what you do next. Don't self-evaluate.

Gynecomastia

How not to moobs

In the case of moobs, prevention is better than cure. Some doctors say moobs are entirely avoidable given the right exercise routine and an appropriate diet. It turns out losing weight and fat through diet and exercise might gradually cause moobs to fade. Daily exercise for young men will help boost testosterone levels, lower body fat -- and lose weight.

Some experts recommend two types of exercises to limit moobs: cardio exercises that burn body fat, and chest exercises that increase the size of the pecs or pectoral muscles located beneath the breast tissue. Recommended exercises are push-ups, walking, swimming, cycling and weight training.

On the other hand, some physiologists argue the key to reducing moobs is to lose weight. That's because spot weight reduction, or losing weight in one particular area such as one's moobs, is ineffective when it comes to weight loss. In other words, it's your body that decides where it wants to lose fat.

"Soy-tenly" not

If there's a food group mooby guys should avoid it's soy-based food products such as "taho", tofu and soymilk. These products contain phytoestrogens that might contribute to hormonal imbalance. Phytoestrogens are bioactive compounds with estrogenic activity.

Consuming too much alcohol is another no-no. It's been shown excessive drinking might suppress testosterone levels.

Beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks are high in calories. Imbibing too much alcohol will also lead to weight gain, which leads to more body fat. Keep this in mind since moobs can occur at any stage of a male's life.

Moobs is now an accepted colloquial term for "man boobs". It became a bona fide English word only in 2016 when the Oxford English Dictionary gave it an official seal of approval.

To "fisss" or not to “fisss”

Japanese "dansei" do it. Swedish "män" do it. German "Männer" do it, as well, as do men in other Central European countries.

The "it" that men of all ages in these countries have in common is they urinate while seated on a toilet. Pee sitting down?

This form of bladder relief isn't common among Filipino males. Almost all Filipino males piss standing up at home or away from home. It's a cultural thing our young guys have to unlearn.

It takes a brave young Iron Male to piss sitting down. We don't even have a Filipino word for this action. Me, I'll go with my invented word, "fisss", which sounds like piss but isn't piss so there's a difference.

The Swedes call it "sittkissa". The German equivalent is "sitzpinkler". The Nihongo (the Japanese language) word is "suwari-shon". There is no single English word for "to urinate while seated".

This practice has been accepted in Sweden, Germany and Japan -- more or less. But as with anything "unnatural", peeing while seated remains a hot topic.

“It takes a brave young Iron Male to piss sitting down. We don't even have a Filipino word for this action. Me, I'll go with my invented word, "fisss", which sounds like piss but isn't piss so there's a difference.”

 

Filipino males, especially young men, should seriously consider fisssing and pass this hygienic practice on to their sons. Filipinas should take the lead in convincing their men this is the culturally correct and healthy way to relieve male bladders.

Surprisingly, fisssing might be a common occurrence in the United States. A study released in 2007 revealed that 42% of married men fisssed, likely due to pressure from their wives. A perfect example of what women can do if they set their minds to it.

In Germany, some public toilets have signs telling men not to urinate while standing. The issue of a man's right to pee while standing became a very public spectacle in 2015 when a court in Dusseldorf ruled in favor of the male plaintiff in this case.

The judge said peeing while standing was within the plaintiff's rights and that this method was within cultural norms. He also said "urinating standing-up is still common practice" among German males.

The landlord had sued the plaintiff for damage (or stains) the latter's urine "splashback" inflicted on the bathroom floor. He sought damages worth $2,200.

Sign reminding German men to sit down to urinate

It's been reported more and more Japanese men practice suwari-sho to eliminate the ugly stains created by their splashbacks on bathroom floors and the disgusting stench of urine.

A survey in June 2021 showed that more than 60% of male respondents aged 20 to 60 prefer to sit. More than a quarter of men in their 20s said they had always been "native toilet sitters".

There are medical benefits to fisssing. Peeing while seated encourages a “more favorable urodynamic profile”, said a 2014 study by the Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands. It also helps men with prostate problems urinate with greater force.

Fisssing will also allow guys to use their mobile phones while parked on the toilet seat. That's a dubious advantage, however.

Urine is a hygiene risk because it can damage floors, carpets, furniture and other items. There is a mountain of online videos touting "solutions" to prevent pee splashback damage to toilet floors. Some homes have even installed urinals to prevent splashback damage.

Every man knows that even the best "aimer" misses the toilet bowl a lot. The result is that piss droplets ricochet off the toilet rim and could land up to three feet away, according to one study.

Pissing while standing also creates a fine but invisible urine mist that will accumulate over time on objects inside the toilet. That's one reason why porcelain sinks and bowls turn an ugly yellow color. This mist is also to blame for sticky bathroom floors.

The simplest solution to all this mayhem will be for Iron Males to fisss. No splashback; no stains; no stink.

Countries where men sit down to pee

 

Is ‘quietting’ your cup of tea, or would you rather ‘lie flat’?

 (Published in ENRICH magazine, 2022)

THERE'S A "QUIET" REVOLUTION raging among youthful employees in two of the world's richest countries that might just change our deeply held views about working hard for the money and the primacy of work in our lives.

By some fantastic coincidence, a growing number of young adults in the United States and China -- the former a champion of corporate capitalism and the latter the bastion of state capitalism – are simultaneously protesting their exploitation by companies that pay them a pittance but demand they work almost to death to boost shareholder value.

Their protests, which began in early 2021 amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic, have gone viral both online and in the real world and show no signs of abating. Some call this phenomenon a resistance movement against wage slavery. Others refer to it as a spiritual rejection of workaholism (or work addiction) and the workaholic culture. Still others claim they're anti-work movements.

What exactly is happening in the disparate workplaces of America and China?

In the U.S., young employees fed-up with low pay and long hours have taken to protesting today's more rabid rat race by embracing "quiet quitting", or "quietting", while also disengaging from their companies.

These people just "coast along" and do enough so they don’t get fired as slackers. In this sense, they're somewhat similar to the Hippies of the 1960s that were their grandparents.

Quiet quitting is basically a loud protest by young Americans against workaholism, which today goes by the new epithet of "hustle culture". The main objective of quiet quitting is to pay more attention to one's mental health and personal well-being. Workaholism defeats this aim.

In China, disillusioned young workers have taken to "lying flat" ("tang ping"; 躺平), or have embraced its more extreme offshoot called "let it rot" ("bai lan"; 摆烂).

Young Chinese are doing this to protest the widespread and brutal "996" (jiǔ jiǔ liù) work-to-death culture in some companies that drives them to despair -- and sometimes suicide. An online post described lying flat (or lie flat) as a “new cultural movement of the new youth in a hundred years”.

Another called the movement “a silent protest to unfairness, often the result of structural and institutional factors that can no longer be altered by personal efforts”.

On the other hand, going bai lan means an employee must "actively embrace a deteriorating situation, rather than trying to turn it around". It means what you think it means: if the going gets tough, let it rot. The phrase has its origins in Chinese basketball where a team losing badly makes the decision to lose the game instead of mounting a furious rally to try to win.

Both tang ping and bai lan seek to restore the healthy work-life balance shattered by China's notorious workaholism culture. The young Chinese that bravely decide to go these routes seem to want to earn just enough to meet their physiological needs without undue and unwanted stress.

In both countries, these young people see no need for working above and beyond, especially in what's being called "bullshit jobs". Just do what the job demands. Period!

Quietters and anti-966ers don't want employers to earn tons of money from their doing extra work without extra pay while being treated as mindless money-making machines.

The mobile phone is the leading tool for employee oppression. Quietters have taken to not responding to voice calls and texts from their bosses to discuss work after they clock out at 5:00 p.m. or during Saturdays and Sundays. No more “pakiusap”.

They're doing the right thing so they can attain the duty to enjoy life outside the office and spend more time with their families. They also want their jobs to align more closely with their personal values. One working American mom put it succinctly: her kids don't care how great an employee she is; all they want is for her to be a great mom.

Employers are taking notice of quiet quitting but can't figure out if they should be sympathetic or punitive towards employees embracing these new forms of labor protest. Some U.S. companies, however, have resorted to "quiet firing" employees they believe are quiet quitters by making their office lives so miserable they quickly resign.

Tang ping and bai lan cats

Dangerous "Dreams"

These twin protest movements imply a rejection of the "American Dream" and the "Chinese Dream" of prosperity through hard work. These dreams are now seen by more young people as tools worsening the massive income inequality and intractable inequities that are their daily lot.

The young reason that if the game is rigged against you, why play at all? Why not be like bench players on a professional basketball team that still get paid despite not playing as hard or as often as the team's superstars. Makes sense, right?

Employees that are Millennials (Gen Y, or those born from 1981 to 1996) and Zoomers (Gen Z, or those born from 1997 to 2012) are involved in this epic struggle to restore humanity in the workplace. The consequences of this fight for respect might profoundly affect the future nature of work in other capitalist economies such as the Philippines.

What's occurring in the U.S. and China is the latest take on the eternal "war" between employees and bosses, or between those that sweat and those that reap the rewards of this sweat.

Some countries in Europe have also been infected by the quiet quitting and tang ping viruses. It's unclear if these resistance movements will prosper to the levels they've attained in the U.S. and China, however.

What can't be denied is the repudiation of the idea that being a workaholic is both "good" and "necessary" for personal financial success. It seems there's a renewal of an old argument that people shouldn't be forced to sell their labor for the right to live decent lives. People aren't farm animals.

There must be alternative ways of working and living that employees and employers can agree upon that don't demand so much of employees' lives in return for so little reward. What this is, I don't know.

But the rise of work-from-home (WFH) or remote work, and hybrid work due to the pandemic might be a step in this direction. Hybrid work is a flexible work model combining in-office work with WFH.

It allows employees the autonomy to choose to work wherever and however they're most productive. The pandemic led to the popularity of both models as people reevaluated their jobs and careers.

Young Chinese lying flat

Goodbye office

The waning of the pandemic threat in 2022, however, revealed that employees worldwide no longer want to go back to their offices. A survey released in April 2022 by the ADP Research Institute that provides labor market and employee performance research confirmed return-to-office mandates will drive Millennials and Zoomers to quit their jobs.

It showed that 64% of the global workforce has already, or is considering, looking for new jobs if their employers order them back to the office full-time. The same resistance to full-time office work has manifested in the Philippines.

This rejection of in-office work persists in the U.S. The results of survey conducted by U.S. business intelligence firm Morning Consult and released in September 2022 revealed that four in 10 employed adults said they'd rather quit their job than return to an office full-time. Six in 10 said they’re more likely to apply for a job with a WFH option.

In the meantime, we're stuck with the phenomenon of quiet quitting, tang ping and bai lan. These protests don't seem to have the makings of a short-term trend that will disappear when world economies rev-up in a few years' time. The fuse has been lit and that's what matters.

Made in China

In April 2021, a Chinese employee named Luo Huazhong published an innocuous post entitled "Lying Flat is Justice" in the online forum, Baidu Tieba.

Posting under the username "Kind-Hearted Traveler", Luo said he had chosen to live a minimalist lifestyle in his home town of Jiande in eastern Zhejiang Province. He said he quit his factory job in 2016 and spent the next few years wandering around China. He survives by doing odd jobs, subsisting on $60 a month from his savings and eating two meals a day.

An apparent lover of Western philosophy, Luo waxed philosophical in his Baidu Tieba post. Here are his original comments in full:

“I have not been working for two years, just having fun and don’t see anything wrong in it. Pressure mainly comes from people around you who position and compete with you. It also comes from the values of the older generation.

“All sorts of pressures keep popping up before you all the time. Every time you search for a popular news, it is all about romances and pregnancies etc. of celebrities in ‘procreative surrounding’ (生育周边), as if some ‘invisible creatures’ (看不见的生物) are creating a kind of thinking and pressure on you.

“But we don’t have to be like this. I can just sleep in the sun in my wooden bucket like Diogenes, or I can live in a cave like Heraclitus and think about ‘logos’, since this land has never had a school of thought that exalts human subjectivity, I can develop one of my own. Lying flat is my wise movement. Only through lying flat, can humans measure up to things.”

This thoughtful post triggered the lying flat movement; created the “philosophy” called “lying flat-ism” and ordained Luo as the “lying flat master”. It also took the working Chinese youth by storm and angered China’s communist masters who saw it as subverting the officially sanctioned Chinese Dream movement.

Lying flat soon became a buzzword among the masses and the Communist Party of China (CPC) moved quickly to quell its popularity. The CPC removed Luo's original Tieba post that had over 10,000 followers. It ordered online platforms to "strictly restrict" posts about tang ping. Searches for tang ping on the Chinese internet now yield no results.

The CPC also banned the online sales of tang ping-branded merchandise such as the hugely popular lie flat cat cartoons on T-shirts, bags, keychains and other items, calling them subversive.

In May 2021 or less than a month after Luo posted on Tieba, Xinhua (China's official propaganda arm) published an editorial assailing lying flat as “shameful” and a “poisonous chicken soup”. In October, CPC secretary general Xi Jinping called for "avoiding 'involution' (nei juan) and 'lying flat'" in an article published in the CPC journal Qiushi.

Let it rot

Modern slavery

Life is tough in China, especially for young adults. Oddities in Chinese society mean many young people can't afford to marry, have children, buy car and own a home due a combination of paltry salaries and way too expensive items.

Young people have to bear the “burden of the three mountains” -- education, healthcare and housing -- while taking care of their elderly parents and in-laws. Most Chinese are struggling to stay afloat, especially with the continuing series of pandemic lockdowns, droughts, floods and an economic downturn threatening recession.

Premier Li Keqiang revealed that “China has over 600 million people whose monthly income is barely 1,000 yuan ($140) and their lives have further been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.” That’s four in 10 Chinese. In March 2021, Li said over 200 million Chinese hold “flexijobs”, which is official-speak for a person working two jobs at a time to make ends meet.

Overworking in China hit new lows when the brutal 996 working hour system came into vogue over the past decade. The number 996 means employees work from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., 6 days every week for a total of 72 crushing hours per week. Free time has become non-existent.

The most notorious champions of 996 are Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, who infamously called 996 a "huge blessing," and Richard Liu, founder and CEO of JD.com, one of China's two top B2C online retailers. Liu, the "Jeff Bezos of China", has been blasted for saying employees that avoid 996 are nothing more than slackers.

Employees committing suicide because they couldn't cope with the brutal pace of overworking demanded by 996 turned Chinese public opinion against the practice. In August 2021, the 996 working hour system was declared illegal by the Supreme People's Court.

It was also criticized as a violation of Chinese Labor Law since employees are only allowed to extend work hours by up to three hours for special reasons. The law says employees should not work more than 36 extra hours in a month.

The 996 culture keeps being attacked by Chinese as "modern slavery". The practice continues, however, due to lax government enforcement of the law.

Born in the USA

Quiet quitting began as a unique American phenomenon and was born out of the de facto massive labor strike otherwise called "The Great Resignation". Oddly, The Great Resignation or The Big Quit was recognized for what it was -- an unprecedented wave of nationwide mass resignations -- in April 2021. This was the same month Luo published his lying flat post that ignited China's lying flat movement.

In April, demographers reported a record four million Americans quit their jobs. By July 2022, that huge number had swollen to 11.2 million. The number of vacancies peaked at 11.9 million in March 2022.

Quiet quitting is more akin to tang ping, which is a rejection of societal pressures to overwork. In quiet quitting, an employee does only what his job demands and nothing more. It's also been described as "acting your wage". Quiet quitting is believed to have been inspired by the tang ping movement.

The word quitting in quiet quitting doesn't refer to an employee resigning his job. It means employees are "quitting" going the extra mile for the company without pay, and refusing to do jobs and overtime they're not being paid for.

People aren't farm animals. Neither are they mindless money-making machines.

The Chinese cat symbolizing lying flt

Today’s ‘New Ilustrados’ and the resurrection of the Filipino intelligentsia

 (Published in ENRICH magazine, 2022)

EDUCATION IS NOT MERELY the acquisition of rote knowledge. Neither is it a tool for ruthless political or material gain. At its loftiest, education is an arsenal of ideas -- and ideals -- wielded by informed citizens that must advance freedom, democracy and the liberal values girding them.

It presupposes critical thinking, moral values and a capacity for action. An educated person realizes his hard-won knowledge must ultimately be used for the good of society. He knows he must do something that keeps his country a haven for freedom and democracy.

All these words are majestic concepts. They have to be. Patriotic Filipinos have died for these ideals throughout our tumultuous history.

“Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is; a man who does not think for himself and allowed himself to be guided by the thought of another is like the beast led by a halter," admonished our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.

He believed freedom from ignorance can be had through education. His dream was to see a class of educated Filipinos lead his country in its fight for political reforms and equal human rights.

"Without education and liberty, which are the soil and the sun of man, no reform is possible, no measure can give the result desired," declared Rizal.

Filipino ilustrados in Madrid, Spain, 1890

Rise of the Ilustrado

In Rizal's time, the class of intellectual Filipinos were the "Ilustrados". "The enlightened ones" or "the erudite" launched the Propaganda Movement in 1872. Written words, both scathing and uplifting such as those published in “La Solidaridad”, were the Ilustrados’ chosen weapon in their fight against Spanish tyranny.

The Ilustrados of the 19th century consisted of well-educated young men from the elite or landholding class of native Filipinos ("Indios") and "mestizos" such as Rizal, and were roused to action by the liberal ideals of the Age of Enlightenment during their studies in Europe.

Among the demands made by the Ilustrados was for Spain to establish an educational system in Las Islas Filipinas independent of the rapacious Spanish friars or “frailes”. The Ilustrados demanded Spain grant Indios basic human rights, which would accrue once their Motherland was a Spanish province with representation in the Spanish Cortes.

"There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves," asserted Rizal.

While ultimately futile, the Propaganda Movement inspired the founding of the Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan in 1892 by warrior-patriots under Andres Bonifacio, an ardent devotee of Rizal. Revolution followed in 1896 and independence from Spain in 1898.

“A nation need not be the colony of a foreign power; it can be the colony of its own leaders.”

Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish writer and historian

The New Ilustrados

The Ilustrados were an intelligentsia. They were an educated class of intellectuals and university-educated men regarded as the country's vanguard in political, artistic and social thought.

Like Rizal, a number of Ilustrados were scholars, academics, journalists, literary writers, scientists, artists and teachers. More broadly, an intelligentsia consists of the educated and intellectual people in a society or country. Our intelligentsia today also comprises young adults whose intellect is being honed by their exposure to the immense amounts of truths on the internet.

The fight against Spanish tyranny in the late 19th century was ignited by the first Filipino intelligentsia. Today’s young Filipino intelligentsia -- which I call the “New Ilustrados” -- also has to confront grave social challenges but a revolution against imperialism is not one of them.  They face a new antagonist.

“A nation need not be the colony of a foreign power; it can be the colony of its own leaders”, noted the late Spanish writer and historian, Salvador de Madariaga, at his Jose Rizal Lecture in Manila in the 1960s. De Madariaga was one of the principal authors of the Oxford Manifesto on liberalism that details the basic political principles of the international Liberal movement.

The imminent danger facing this country stems from leaders wedded to ambitions at odds with the noble aim of seeking always the common good. In Roman Catholic social teaching, acting in the common good means respecting the rights and responsibilities of all and sundry.

This is not the case among segments of this country’s political elite that covet absolute power and brook no dissent in their quest for personal empire.

Endemic poverty, stubborn income inequality, the devastation wrought by climate change and social upheavals in Philippine society are some of the more intractable challenge the New Ilustrados must confront.

But where is this young Filipino intelligentsia?  

Does this collection of gifted intellectuals and knowledge workers exist as a distinct level of Filipino society? Is it at the forefront of intellectual thought in science, the arts, culture, technology, the academe and politics?

Or must we hunt for these beings with the intense zeal of astronomers searching for extraterrestrial intelligence? Do they gather in secret online chat rooms for fear of persecution by the jaded masses, there to revel in their shared knowledge among others of their kind?

Are the New Ilustrados the richly educated? The religious orders steeped in arcane learning? Are they civil society? Or, were I a game show contestant, is the answer letter D, or “All of the above”?

Are they the faceless intellectuals venting their anger at the rigmarole called Philippine politics and its endemic corruption while beseeching God to “deliver us from evil”? Is the Filipino intelligentsia the imperceptible academia engrossed in scholarly pursuits while banishing all else?

Do they write for the respected daily newspapers and media that fiercely uphold the holy tenets of responsible journalism against unhinged online bloggers and vloggers?

And who are the leading lights of this invisible stratum of society? The Ilustrados had Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar and Graciano Lopez Jaena. Who speaks for the Young Ilustrados of today?

Who are the Young Ilustrados thinkers? And where can one read about their multitude of opinions, and of the invigorating clash of ideas that mark an intelligentsia? Who are these people?

Without an intelligentsia, who is there to speak out with authority on the complex issues that bedevil the Filipino? Who will wield the intelligentsia’s power of using knowledge to goad governments and corporations into positive action for the common good?

In this Information Age, why are Filipinos who know more afraid to show society they know more? Is knowledge still a Scarlet Letter?

Yes, a Filipino intelligentsia does exist, but nothing much has been heard of or from it. Perhaps it’s because intellectuals prefer to work muted in the background, as if they were merely the neurons giving life to that most vital of organs we call the human brain.

Silence, however, is not always golden. There is a ringing truth to this centuries-old comment by the English philosopher Herbert Spencer: “The great aim of education is not knowledge but action”.

The Filipino intelligentsia must take action to change this country for the better by using its vast knowledge to make sense of the world around us. It must proudly announce its existence as a force-in-being.

It must assert itself as the intellect of this nation against the strident voices of sock puppet internet trolls, bombastic amateurs, rabble-rousers and those bent on kleptocracy. Where is the Filipino intelligentsia?

Dr. Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar and Mariano Ponce

Resetting Democracy

National Artist of the Philippines for Literature, the late Francisco Sionil Jose, essayed an answer to this question in 1988. In his diatribe, “The Filipino Intelligentsia”, he argued that our young and culturally weak country is “bereft of a system that assures civic continuity and that we are not heirs to an ancient intellectual tradition”. The outcome: a maimed intelligentsia.

He noted the brevity of our country’s history compared with those of our Asian neighbors such as Japan and China has helped stifle the full flowering of the Filipino intelligentsia.

“Without an anchor to such a past, we cannot really blame anyone and the building of a society in which the intellectuals have failed is still the Filipinos' sole responsibility”, said Sionil Jose, who was one of our foremost writers in English.

To our New Ilustrados will fall the enormous task of building a society where the contribution of our intellectuals cannot be denied and overlooked. Like their forebears, words and courage will be their weapons.

The question now is will our New Ilustrados take action. Over time, they will, and their actions might lead to consequential outcomes.

The main challenge facing the New Ilustrados will be to forge a true Filipino identity. This identity must be anchored on our cultural values and founded on the ideals underlying a strong liberal democracy such as freedom, equality before the law, constitutional government and opposition to tyranny. Call it “Resetting Democracy” for the better.

The core values Filipinos hold dear include a strong bias towards social harmony or togetherness as embodied in the “pakikisama” syndrome; a strong love of family; a yearning for education; promoting the common good; an expansive tolerance, friendliness and hospitality, and religiosity.

Pervasive materialism, however, is corrupting many of these values. The challenge facing the New Ilustrados as leaders will be to liberate our core values from the destructive influence of money, greed, politics and patronage. No easy task given our country’s everlasting poverty. Resetting Democracy must be a key goal for the New Ilustrados.

Sionil Jose came to the stunning conclusion that the “values which we have regarded as the foundations of our culture … must now be re-examined and discarded if the country is to change”. He also challenged the intelligentsia of his time to do more to advance social reform while upbraiding them for being “more concerned with the form than the substance of democracy”.

“I measure the stature of our leaders, and the members of our intelligentsia, by how much genuine commitment they give to this basic Filipino problem”, he pointed out. Sionil-Jose died in January 2022.

Where is the Filipino intelligentsia?

F. Sionil Jose