Guo not POGO must go

There is a glaring effort from several sectors headed by Senator Risa Hontiveros to totally ban POGOs from the country. This is short of saying that certain agencies in government have failed miserably to monitor and regulate the influx of Chinese mainlanders.

Perhaps the lady senator should also castigate the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for gaining the notoriety of turning foreign visitors into milking cows. And it is true. It is an open secret that crooked Immigration personnel earn at least P50,000 per head daily upon “documented” entries of arriving visitors.

Yes, there will always be bad eggs in any organization. Rotten "itlog ng pogo" if you ask me. But these are just a fraction from a good number of foreign individuals working in the country.

The connections of Mayor Alice Guo must be dealt with accordingly – including herself who has fibbed away repeatedly to the consternation of the public. But let us look at the sunny side up (pun intended) of the POGO: their contribution to the PH economy in 2022 was approximately P53 billion or about 0.31% of the country’s GDP from rentals, wages, and operating expenses. It once reached a whopping Php104 billion in 2019 (0.67% of GDP).

And while tax revenues from POGOs have fluctuated over the years, total taxes in 2021 amounted to approximately P7.5 billion. Discontinuing these operations would thus result in a revenue loss of about P64.5 billion which directly contributes to a just a little over 0.3% of our GDP.

Of these, POGOs are expected to employ a workforce from a 50/50 sharing. 50% Chinese and 50% Filipino. Yes, POGO operations have a significant contribution to the PH economy, but they also are to be blamed for POGO-related crimes.

This is where our government agencies should play a bigger role in preventing such crimes from happening. It can be done with a strong political will and to stop the bad eggs in government from raking in dirty money from pay-offs and bribes.

It will also be a good way to clean up the Immigration Department. It will be a balancing act between revenue gains and national security. A challenge as well for the country’s National Security Council (NSC) and for the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

We are named after an evil king

Would you support the idea of renaming the Philippines to Maharlika, in the hope of bringing international recognition and assert our national pride and self-respect?

For more than 400 years, we have carried a name imposed on us by foreign colonialists while our Asian neighbors have reclaimed their noble past, thus changing their country’s names to as follows: Formosa to Taiwan, Dutch East Indies to Indonesia, Siam to Thailand, French Indo-China to Vietnam, Burma to Myanmar, Cambodia to Kampuchea, East Pakistan to Bangladesh, and Ceylon to Sri Lanka.

Observe the following reasons why PH should refuse to be named after King Philip II of Spain: He was the instigator and administrator of the dreaded Inquisition which murdered countless victims of oppression and colonial cruelty all over the New World including ours; among his first acts when crowned king was to order the burning of Andalucia at stake of thousands of Moors who inhabited the place which was a province of Spain; and, he died a disgraceful death caused by venereal disease, and by the time he died, his body was covered with foul-smelling ulcers festered by insects.

So why Maharlika? Many say the Philippines carries a shameful stigma and what is referred to as "karmic affliction," Maharlika is of a "mantric" significance’ and of a spiritual meaning.

It breaks down into "Maja" or great as in Taj Majal (Mahal), Mahatma Gandhi, Mahayana, Mahabharata, and other noble names, and "Likha" which means to be born or created. It, therefore, means "nobly created" or "born great."

During the Majapahit and SriVijaya empires’ golden age which covered all of East and South Asia with the Sulu Archipelago and center, Maharlika was revered  by the rajas and sultans as the name of “noble and free warriors” who won not only fierce battles and wars, but in particular the affection and admiration of all peoples.

It also breaks down into Maha which means good in Sanskrit. "La" meaning a cup or a container, "Lik" meaning small and "a" which is a feminine gender suffix.

Together, they mean a “small place of great people,” or a “small container filled with great things.” So, would you support a name change?

Mad Max on our streets

I need to ask this question again in the same manner I did from a past column. What are we doing about the massive number of underbone motorcycles now harassing our streets because of recklessness and dangerous maneuvers? Who is to be blamed? What is the Land Transportation Office (LTO) doing about this?

I am aware that it is so easy to buy a brand new underbone motorcycle these days, making the item very affordable to anyone earning a minimum wage daily.

Other motorists, pedestrians, and the general public are traumatized each day by their recklessness and mindlessness, not to mention that all of them are multi-tasking (looking at their mobile phones) while driving their motorcycles.

 It would be asking too much from these riders to exert a little bit of safety procedures while on the road. But almost always, they are the ones who would give you the evil look or the dirty finger if you blow your horn to get their attention.

Hence, chaos ensues on our streets all the time because even when one is careful, one will always encounter a reckless motorcycle driver.

No, a number coding system will not work since there’s just too many of them already. We will just have to live with the reality while the LTO does nothing.

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Factoid: Dr. Jose Rizal disliked the United States because of the discrimination he received while there. His ship was momentarily detained because of the anti-Asian sentiments prevalent then. In his essay “The Philippines: A century Hence” he predicted that the US would be a global power someday and would set its sights on the Philippines thereafter.

Email: sleeplessinmyshuttle@yahoo.com