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S.M.N.I. Truth That Matters

Welcome back to Business and Politics. We're talking to Dr. Cecilio Pedro of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce.

Sir, very interesting discussion. I feel a bit overwhelmed because there's so many things we have to do.

But let me just go back to your experience, right?

Because you're into manufacturing. You were into manufacturing. Now your son is running it.

The government now is looking at exporting goods from the Philippines, which I think is the right policy.

But I think the more basic questions we have to make or grow things that we can sell abroad.

You mentioned from the agriculture side, mangoes and durian as possible commodities from the Philippines.

But how difficult would it be generally for Philippine companies?

And again, taking from your experience from Lamoyan, to scale it and then maybe look at ASEAN, even China market.

What are the gaps that the government needs to address so that it can be easier for you to do that?

The big ticket items in manufacturing like cars and other heavy industries like iron,

all of these require a lot of investment in energy production.

As you said, that's one of the things we need.

We should look at light industry.

Light industry is where China is very strong at.

But they're also strong in heavy industry.

But there are many light industry out there that are having a hard time exporting to the world

because of the West and the American strategy of stopping China.

So suddenly they're looking at possibilities of partnering or partnership with countries like the Philippines.

And this does not require much energy, more on labor-intensive work.

Like what kind of?

Like garments.

Paper, maybe?

Yes, paper.

The small toys.

If you go to 168, you can buy a lot of water containers.

I see.

A lot.

All made in China.

Yes.

Now, this is now a thrust of China, of Chinese businessmen moving out and looking.

Every week, we have businessmen coming over and talking to us.

What opportunities are available to us?

What kind of facilities and what kind of incentives do we get if we invest here in the Philippines?

And we discussed this with BOI, by the Department of Trade.

Then we offer all of these incentives to them.

Like today, this evening, there's another group coming in.

So I have to accommodate them.

And tomorrow, we'll have another meeting.

Almost every week, we have investors coming in.

But what is available to us?

What do we look for?

What else is there?

We have a workforce.

No problem.

A lot of people don't have jobs.

That's not the problem.

The problem is the incentives.

What incentives are available to us?

What kind of permits will be needed for this?

We'll go back to the same problem we addressed.

We discussed this already.

We bring it out already to the President.

Light industries.

Sir, you said there's opportunity.

Obviously, there's a lot of interest.

Does it worry you what's going on with China and the U.S. and how maybe the Philippines can be affected,

particularly on trade, on investments?

Obviously, when we do business with China or when we trade with any other country,

it helps smooth out those problems, right?

What is the Chamber doing maybe to help bring attention more to the business side and less on the geopolitical problems?

I always say this.

I have Chinese blood, but my heart is Filipino.

So we want to help this country.

How do we help this country?

Let's bring in investment and let's provide jobs.

Job generation is the key.

If there's no job, there's no future.

Our countrymen need jobs so that we can move forward faster.

So how do we bring them in?

You look at your competitor.

Our competitor will be Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and even maybe we're looking now at Cambodia,

Laos, and even Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India.

Everybody is looking for investments.

Everybody is coming out with their own incentives and their own strategy.

What are we going to do?

We can do our part, but we need the government to do their part, right?

And together, this is a synergy.

If it's just us, it won't happen.

This is a synergy.

Once we combine this synergy, then hopefully we can compete with the other countries that also are looking at synergy in their own areas.

So let's look at our advantages.

Our advantages here in the Philippines, number one, is we speak English.

Walang problema.

If they come over and employ our people, they speak English.

If you go to Vietnam, you have to speak Vietnamese.

Karamihan sa kanya, don't speak English.

The same thing with Thailand, the same thing with Indonesia.

They had a hard time communicating in English.

Unlike here, most of us, at least, if we cannot speak properly, at least we can understand.

Laking advantage ito sa Philippines.

Now, how do we take advantage of this?

That's one.

We are highly educated.

We may not be the best educated, but we're highly educated.

90% or 95% of Filipinos are educated in a way.

At least hanggang high school meron.

So this is one way of promoting our country.

We are highly educated, highly competent, and very good in English-speaking nation.

Capitalize on this, that's one.

Pero kailangan din pa rin other elements.

Isa lang yan.

There are a few elements to look into.

But we capitalize on this, pero talo naman tayo sa ibang areas, wala rin mangyayari sa atin.

We have to look at the weaknesses and hopefully correct some of the weaknesses or take out the weaknesses

so we can focus on our strength and capitalize on our strength to be competitive in the world.

Hindi ng Pilipinas ang pinag-usapan ngayon, the world ang pinag-usapan.

Kalaban natin, hindi Pilipinas.

Kalaban natin, hindi Pilipino.

Kung hindi the world Chino, kalaban natin.

Malaysian, kalaban natin.

Thailand, lahat sila kalaban natin in terms of being competitive in the business sector.

Business is all about competition.

If you cannot stand the competition, don't do business.

Forget it.

You will not survive.

You have to compete and you have to be the best, nothing less.

Sir, you talk about the importance of education and a lot of people are connecting that also to food security,

especially at the lower levels.

Sometimes the problem is children going to school hungry, maybe even malnourished,

so it doesn't really sink in.

What can be done about that?

Because if you don't address that from an early age, that will have a cascading effect throughout that person's life

and it affects all of the things that we want to do.

Do you see that as an urgent need or are there other things that we should look at that is more fundamental and more basic?

Malnourished, I don't think that is a major problem.

There are a few segments of malnourished population, but very few, maybe in the hinterlands.

What I am concerned with as far as education is proper oral hygiene.

Masakit ng ngipin, hindi na papasok yan.

You can't think and you can't do anything.

Yes, and unfortunately, we are one of the highest population with oral cavities.

More than 95% may oral cavities.

Bakit?

They were not properly educated on how to take care of their teeth.

Madali lang yan. You just have to brush your teeth regularly, clean your teeth after every meal, tapos na yan.

Maybe it's because toothpaste are so expensive.

That's why we decided to sell it at a lower price and make it affordable to all people in the country.

The key here is brush your teeth regularly.

Proper oral hygiene.

Hopefully, in the process, we will bring down itong oral cavities to a level that is more reasonably competitive to the rest of the world.

Yung mga iba, halos wala ng cavity.

Tayo na lang ang 95% of our population may cavities.

You should go to your dentist regularly, at least once every three months, every quarter, to check.

Yung cavities, pag naagapan, walang problema yan. That will last also.

Tapos na yung promotion. Let's talk about other things.

Ang daming punting gawin eh, di ba?

Where do we begin?

Because like I said kanina, it seems overwhelming.

But if you would break it down to what should be done first for maybe the next year,

ano bang dapat tignan muna?

Is that possible?

Several sectors eh, di ba?

If you're talking of the government, anong unahin nila?

Sabi ko, ease of doing business, unahin mo muna yan.

Change some of the rules in the environment.

Some of the rules are not friendly to business.

Palitan natin, di ba?

So those are things. Government naman yan.

Private sectors, how do we make ourselves?

Intelligence, AI, go to technology.

Upgrade your technology.

Everybody in China now is into Lazada, Alipay, ano ba?

They don't shop anymore in the stores.

Pag pumunta sila sa store, titignan nila, hawakan nila yung produkto and then uuwi sila.

They will buy online.

It's cheaper and everything is delivered to your house.

Halos walang tao sa mga department store.

Naaawa ko sa department store. They have to close down pretty soon.

That is the direction we're going.

The direction we're going.

So how do you make yourself competitive?

Go into technology.

Make sure that you're part of Shopee ba rito? Lazada?

Or whatever is available.

Amazon is coming in.

Alibaba.

Alibaba is coming in in a big way.

So pretty soon we have to be there.

If you're not there, you're not competitive.

You