Live in the Philippines

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Is anybody minding the store?

Expats, Philippine Politics, Safety / by

Imagine this situation, if you would.  Your brother just died in a foreign country, far away from his home.  You are mourning deeply for his loss, quite sad.  When your brother died, it was under unfortunate circumstances which caused an uproar, only making your loss more painful.

Your brother’s body is shipped back home from the foreign land where he died.  You and your family have made all of the arrangements for a nice funeral and you are hoping to get over it and hopefully get back to a normal life as time passes.  After the body is repatriated, though, you and the family open the coffin and the body inside is not your brother after all.

How would you react?  Would you rejoice, thanking God that perhaps your brother did not die after all?  Maybe it was a case of mistaken identity when he was reported dead.  Certainly, the person in the coffin was not him, so you have a glimmer of hope.  You have a little glimmer of happiness and joy in your heart when you realize that your brother is not the one in that casket, after all.

My friends, it is rare that I write about the same general topic twice in a single week, but today I felt that it was justified to do so, given some new information that just came to light.

The situation described above played out in real life three times Wednesday in Hong Kong.  Remember those Chinese Tourists who were killed after being taken Hostage in a bus in Manila last week?  I wrote about the incident on Monday in my article, The Manila Massacre.  You see, when the bodies of the dead tourists were sent back to Hong Kong, three of the caskets were mislabeled.  Three of the families received bodies of somebody other than their loved one!  Can you imagine toiling with a grieving family like this?

Back in the Philippines, who is minding the store?  Has the whole country gone on vacation and just left things to operate on autopilot?  It would seem so.  Stupidity.  That’s what it is.  It’s stupidity, ineptness and a general “I don’t give a crap” attitude that allowed this to happen.  There can be no other excuse.  It is shameful for the Philippines.  I love the Filipino people, and the country, but there is no excuse for this.

The country was already hanging their head in shame when the botched rescue attempt happened last week and 9 people were killed.  But, to send the wrong bodies to some of the families is a slap in the face to the loved ones left behind.  There is no excuse for it.  I certainly would not expect the President to personally check every casket to ensure that they were correctly marked, but somebody under the authority of the President should have been following up to make sure that everything went as smoothly as possible to ease the burden on the grieving families in Hong Kong.  I can think of no botch up that could have been worse than what happened.

Frankly, a lot of what happens in the Philippines happens because a lot of the people just don’t care much.  Every day I see attitudes of people that don’t really care if they do their job correctly or not.  You go in office buildings and look for help, and you have 30 or 40 employees sitting around doing their makeup and such while dozens of people are waiting in line to get their business taken care of.  It is this kind of “I don’t care” attitude that caused this foul up to occur with these victims of the Manila Massacre.  Does anybody care?  I suspect that the number who actually care is quite small, and I’m ashamed to say that.  Like I say, I love the Philippines, but sometimes you have to stand up for what is right, and that time is now for me.

Certainly there are Filipinos who take pride in doing a job right.  I don’t think that could be said for the people involved in repatriating these bodies back to Hong Kong, though.  The simplest of work could have ensured a more peaceful time for the relatives of the victims.  For nearly 2 weeks we have heard a lot of Government people here saying that they are so sorry for the incident and such.  But, to let this happen is shameful.  Not much else I can say about that.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bob,

    I could not agree with you more on every point you made here. It is disgraceful and utterly disrespectful to the tourist who lost their lives, their grieving families and to the Philippine People, too; not to mention to the dearly departed and their relatives whose bodies were sent to Hong Kong by mistake.

    Thank you for another great article!

  2. Unfortunately this is just another example of a culture that seems to prefer apologies to getting things right.Planning and decision making are certainly not a strong feature of the Philippines.

  4. Hi Bob

    It just so happens that something similar happened here in my hometown in the U.S. a family donated their dead relative’s body to the University medical school. The remains were returned to the family after the school was finished with them. Except that the remains were of someone other than their dead relative. The family currently has a lawsuit against the school.

  5. Sir Bob, I am speechless, look I love the people here as well but that is pathetic sorry to say. I actually shed a tear, for the families and the further degradation of the reputation of the Philippino people. I agree with all the above comments and I am sure the s…t will hit the fan.

  6. While this may seem harsh, I have to say that it doesn’t surprise me at all. Not that it has anything to do with having occured in The RP, however. Any of the other members whom have worked in government know that the cardinal rule for civil service employees & politicians, alike, is CYA(cover your a**). The #2 rule is; when “stuff” happens, walk away quickly & point at someone else, before they point at you.

    Government is no place for leaders. The “step up & take control of a bad situation” type of person is backstabbed by the same people who don’t have the nerve to do it themselves. and others learn from this process that if you stick your neck out, you’ll lose your head. Yes, there are a few “idiots” who know what will happen, yet, step up anyway. These are the common man’s/woman’s heros, but they don’t last long & the government will publicly denigrate their character(ergo, “the axe”).

    In this tragic occurence, rather than ensuring that everything after the fact was handled properly, by appointing a specific aide to oversee the situation, The #1 Filipino, the president, dropped the ball. I am a non-voting supporter of Aquino, but he messed up, big time, no excuses, no passing the buck.

    My FB friends will note that one of my friends, Clarence Hui, holds a lot of swing in HK society(Google him). He & I had been talking about him coming to visit when I get back to Davao. He is an “old friend” & too polite to say much, but I know that this incident – the shooting -has left a bitter taste in his mouth. Now, they mixed up the bodies? What a mess!

    • Bob,
      I have to agree with Mike on this, the main cause of this appalling screwup is not Filipino culture as much as it is the inherent incompetence of government agencies everywhere. The problem isn’t that Filipinos don’t care, it’s that government employees have no incentive to care, whether in the Philippines, the US, or anywhere else. If this had been handled by a private business being paid by a private customer, this wouldn’t have happened, because the private business owner would lose money if it did, and the careless employee who did it would have been fired on the spot. I note that the problem of dozens of employees sitting around while the customers wait around occurs mainly in government offices or in companies like PAL etc that are essentially government sanctioned monopolies — I’ve generally found the service provided by private businesses in Davao to be pretty good, sometimes extremely good.
      Jack

      • Hmm… don’t know about the service in Davao by private business being good… I find most service here to be rather poor…. we all have our own experiences, though. 😉

  7. Bob
    This is the first I heard about this mix up. I must say its pretty shocking and yet another black eye for the RP Government.

    PS I had my Wife pick up your Sandals(size 11) I will shoot you a email shortly.

    • Hi Neal – If your wife is out shopping, she must be feeling better, and I’m happy for that! At least I hope you didn’t send a sick woman out to buy something for me! 😆 Thank you for picking those up, though! Much appreciated.

      Yeah, you’re right, another black eye. I am starting to tire of all the black eyes and such! I hope that the country can make a turn-around.

  9. I totally agree with everything that you said. People need to stop with the attitude of not caring what they do. It does effect everyone and so forth. Shame on the people that was in charge of sending back the decease to the family. People need to start taking pride in their work ethics, not saying it’s only a job. In the day’s of my mother and grandmother, it was sure different with people’s all over attitude of the thing’s that they do. No matter if it’s their job, respect of other’s and so forth.Just my openion.

    • Hi Tina – I think that 20 years ago, this is not how things were in the Philippines. I can remember coming here that many years ago, and I didn’t see the lack of concern among the people that I see now. It’s very sad to see.

  10. Nice article Bob…

    I watched the hostage takeover here on TV unfold and was surprised at the complete ineptitude of the Manila police in handling the situation, and was totally surprised by the public officials response. I would think a city as large as Manila would have a team that could handle a situation like that and bring it to an end quickly.

    Having just lived here just 2 months I have made many of the same observations as you….it seems like this society is broken in many ways and not sure what it would take to “right the ship”.

    Pehaps things are so ingrained that change will never come.

    There are so many good things about the Philippines and it’s people, perhaps one day they can figure it out and make the changes needed.

    Greg

    • Hi Greg – It’s an article that I wish I didn’t have to write. Righting the ship is going to take an effort by every person from the President down to the shoe shine boy on the street. I hope it can happen.

  11. This is all unbelievable … I just had to shake my head when I heard that last night on national news here in America. If theFilipino government likes to think of these things in terms of lost tourist dollars — they need to prepare for a major hit on this one. A few people’s stupidity is going to cost the Philippines a boat load of tourist money, probably for years to come. News tidbits like this are the sort of disgusting things a potential tourist remembers for years.

    A similar situation as the bus hostages took place in the lobby of the Discovery Channel’s headquarters building here in America yesterday (a guy with a past history of protest held three hostages while making irrational demands…) That crisis was resolved then he made the mistake of point his gun at one of the hostages. A split second later a sniper ended that crisis with a single bullet.

    In the Philippines, the police botched the hostage situation big time, then had the nerve to add insult to injury by draping the hostage taker in the Philippine flag like he was a hero, and finally, now, have once again showed their ineptitude by mixing up the bodies. Sad to say, but the whole world watched this on their own TVs and probably now think of the Philippines as a backward country indeed.

    If there is someone in the bowels of the Filipino government responsible for graphically charting growth or decline of tourism dollars, that chart is going to need a few feet of depth added to the bottom because the losses are going to be staggering. And of course, all of this played out with total disregard in the governments initial reaction as to the human loss and suffering with everyone seemingly focused on loss of tourist dollars.

    • Hi Rich – I have seen the Tourism Secretary, Lim, talk about this situation on TV (the hostage shootings, before the casket mix up) and he says that tourism will be back to normal in 3 or 4 months, because people will forget. What a bad attitude… how about saying that we are going to assure that nothing like this happens again, instead of saying that people will forget….

      • Hi Bob,

        I thought I was the only the one thinking the same way as you just wrote about Sec Lim’s interview. I thought he was a dolt for saying that. And more, I’ve heard him say things about tourism that really sucked, like we don’t want backpackers. (The article was copied and pasted in a forum.) It shows the quality of people in the new government. I feel bad for the ordinary local Filipinos.

        Alex

        • Hi Alex – I have indeed been noticing the things that Lim has been saying. I think he needs to realize that the Philippines needs every tourist it can get.

      • Hello Bob,

        I only posted nepotism because it is one of the first thoughts that came to my mind after reading your article. Nepotism and/or payments (corruption) often seem to be how people are hired or promoted. Sadly, you sometimes have the least qualified people making the most important decisions. The result is less than the best doing a job more qualified people are denied.
        I thought about this in two ways with regard to your article. How did some of the office workers you referred to get the jobs they don’t seem to care about, and the same question comes to mind regarding everyone involved in this tragic and sad hostage situation and aftermath.
        Simply, are the best people in-charge, or are more qualified, competent individuals being denied the opportunity to produce a more acceptable outcome?

        My heart goes out to all who are suffering because of this tragic, horrible event.

  13. Hi Bob,

    “I certainly would not expect the President to personally check every casket to ensure that they were correctly marked, but somebody under the authority of the President should have been following up to make sure that everything went as smoothly as possible to ease the burden on the grieving families in Hong Kong. ”

    Actually, under the circumstances, I would have expected exactly that…to botch this aspect of this sad, sad episode is a bridge too far. I’ve been quietly critical of some in Hong Kong for blaming the Philippines too much for something that could have happened in any country…even though the Philippines clearly botched the situation. But this is just too much. I can’t believe that every aspect of the repatriation of bodies wasn’t strictly handled by competent people in the Government to ensure that no mistakes were made…unless it didn’t even occur to anybody that these kinds of things matter. I’m afraid that nobody in Manila considered this important. Seriously, somebody in Manila needs to get a grip fast.

    • Hi rc – For me, I would not expect the President to personally handle this… Presidents have other problems to deal with. But, I would expect somebody of importance appointed by the President to oversee it. Unfortunately, it seems that neither happened, and it will hurt the country.

      • I’ll tell ya what Bob…my wife is filipina (she’s there and I’m in the US….we’re waiting on her IR-1 visa) who worked in HK for 8 years. We talked 2 nights ago and she brought this subject up. Of course, at that time, neither of us knew anything about this travesty. But she was much harder on the Government than I was…in fact, I was defending them against the hard feelings that some in Hong Kong felt toward filipinos in Hong Kong. She actually sided with them…and thought I was a bit off base. I’m starting to think she was right. There really is something wrong there that goes beyond lack of training and poverty. She certainly seems to think so.

  14. I trully feel sorry for the families of the victims its a real shame this has happened to them on t0p of what already happened .Wake up Philipines get your act together.

  15. it is sad to know that Filipinos abroad are competent workers,while here in our own country we seem to always do lousy jobs…I guess it has something to do with stricter rules and regulations in other countries.Filipinos can easily adapt to different situations, so why don’t the government impose stricter rules and really punish those who violate even the simpler ones as littering.It’s about time Filipinos learn discipline…Of course I don’t mean all the Filipinos, maybe 60% of the population…

    • Hi mar – It’s true, when Filipinos go work abroad, they are highly sought after and are good workers. I wonder, is it partly because of the OFW situation that those here tend to be less concerned about their efforts. The job is not as important when you have a steady flow of income coming from that brother or sister abroad. Just a thought.

  16. 2 trite expressions come to mind:
    1. When you aint got nothing you aint got nothing to lose [ Bob Dylan i believe]
    2. been down so long it looks like up to me

    People who grow up with nothing, and no hope for anything better ever, tend to take on that hopelessness and not even realize that more is possible. I believe that for a lot of filipinos they are lost in despair , with their only outlet for some happiness being thru their fantasies of the lives of actors, singers, telenovella stars etc Because there truly is no hope of a happy ending for them in the real world. I dont think most foreigners can even conceive of what it is like to be in such a hopeless situation. We say ” they just need to get themselves motivated” But how do you get yourself motivated when no one has ever shown you how , and motivation is looked down on as being too ” high pride” , and there was never any reward if you did try harder ?

    • Further to my last post on this article, I wd like to add something from a link that Bingkee posted on Major, Major ,results:– about complacency :
      Quote:
      When I lived in the Philippines from 2003 to 2007, I was asked, what is the difference between the Philippines and Indonesia? My answer was, “In Indonesia, they have hope.” I came to the conclusion that in spite of all the things the Philippines has going for it, its people didn’t demand enough of themselves, or of their government. Political apathy and a willingness to accept a low common denominator of performance have taken their toll on the psyche of the Philippine people.

      bingkee says:
      September 3, 2010 at 9:01 am
      read this

      and this about complacency;
      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/the-philippine-bus-and-mi_b_694544.html

        • John- everything that I write is one mans opinion-mine- just as I assume what you write is just your opinion [ and not the consensus of some group that you represent]
          I never said that his opinion is more credible than ours- in fact I think it is just as credible as my opinion- and that my opinion is just as credible as his- or as yours.
          You seem to be trying to draw some kind of negative about what he said John- i’m not sure why?? Personally I think there is a great deal of truth in what he says- and I posted his comments because they mirror in a lot of ways what I said myself earlier today

          • I represent no group, Ian. Everything I say here is my opinion and mine alone based on my personal interpretation of past history and current events that unfold before my eyes. I started that comment about the credibility of an opinion as a joke, remembering something that I heard about Ernest Hemingway’ errors in punctuation and so forth in his books. The errors are accepted simply because he IS Ernest Hemingway! So just because the guy writes for Huffington Post, his opinion is more credible than ours is what I’m saying.

            Also, although I fully agree with his assessment about the political apathy of the Filipino people, being complacent, and accepting the lowest common denominator and all that, I take exception to his juxtaposing Venus performance at the pageant against his argument on complacency. I’ve already posted my personal opinion about why I though Venus failed to take the crown. It wasn’t because she was complacent.

            Oh, by the way, he also said the Filipinos are a largely homogeneous society – this from a person who lived in the Philippines from 2003-2007. The CJK are a homjogeneous society, but the Filipinos?

            • John- hahaha- your joke was competely lost on me because I have never heard of Huffington Post !!! So I didnt put that into the mix.
              But I also had to google CJK – hadnt heard that term before either !! lol

              You are educating me John !

  17. Bob:

    I guess I’ve been living under a rock… I had not heard this. I avoided commenting on the hostage situation, and I tried to give the police as much benefit of the doubt as possible (I wasn’t there under fire, botched hostage dramas in other places, too much media, etc.)

    However, this is inexcuseable. Can you imagine the uproar were those coffins containing Filipinos from the Middle East or elsewhere?

    Mr. Lim is incorrect, too. Several kidnappings in Mindanao and Abu Sayaaf incidents over a decade ago still result in US and other government warnings and in a reputation of being dangerous… That will impact tourism for many years to come. Yes, a specific incident might be quickly forgotten, but a tarnished reputation tends to linger for a long time.

    • Hi ian – It’s the old blame game again. I saw the story reported around 3pm yesterday. Last night I watched the news at 10pm and they were saying that the coffin mixup had not been confirmed, and maybe didn’t even happen. They are doing anything to duck blame on this because it is too stupid of an error… sad, sad.

      • Yes, props to Ian, he definitely beat me to it. This has become surreal now…not only because 8 innocent people were inhumanely slain by a psychopath…but now because a nation’s good reputation has been needlessly flushed down the toilet. I love Filipinos too (especially one in particular), but this tragedy has now been compounded by several orders of magnitude…and it was all avoidable. Not only are the initial recriminations being proved true, but Manila doesn’t even seem aware of what they are doing wrong and how it is being seen by the rest of the world. This is another very sad day that I don’t think the Philippines will live down for a long time. Another sad day. A lot of good Filipinos see what is happening and, like us, are just as stupefied.

  20. My two sense worth. We are in the middle of a trip to Cebu and back. VERY nice staterooms on the two boats we have taken. BUT, in all the details surrounding this, yech! Again and again and again they have been messed up.

    So why do I tell this story in a blog about the Manila Massacre? When all these endless problems occurred, if I had pointed out to the ones involved that they were wrong and had messed up, I would have had very unhappy people on my hands, and I’d bet at least one of them would say, If you don’t like it, go home! Filipinos do NOT like to be corrected or told they are wrong. All sorts of terms for it, such as hiya, but the bottom line is that one Filipino will not correct another unless the first one is demonstrably above the other in the hierarchy. And even in this case, they will get resentful looks. so if it is next to impossible to correct Filipinos, then HOW can they improve?

    My big question is, if, as seems to be the case, Filipinos HATE to be corrected, then why do they seem to purposely mess up all the time?

  21. I have commented on this site more than a few times and generally my comments defend the filipino people and the country itself…but this is simply pathetic, outrageous, completely disgraceful.

    I really hope this world wide incident leads to some serious changes in the filipines. I absolutely love the filipines but who the heck are the people in charge here? My goodness, how much more pathetic does this whole incident have to get?

    God, I am not left speechless very often but this about did it.

    • Hi Todd – Mostly, I don’t think Filipinos need to much defending here on this site, because I am a strong advocate of Filipinos, and I don’t think there are many times when Filipinos are portrayed in a bad light. It’s hard to see a positive side on this one, though.

  22. I feel horribly for the HK familes. This whole thing was one cluster F#@ after another. A Country run by 4th graders. I’m speachless !

  23. Hi Bob,
    Unbelievable,you would have thought,the authorities would have made double the effort to get things right after such an appalling disaster.
    The Philippines was already out of favour with HK after the incident,now this.
    I read last week there had already been 550 flight cancellations at PAL by future HK visitors,as if PAL doesn’t have enough problems already.How many more HK visitors will shy away from visiting after this added incident?
    regards,Chas.

  24. “Manipol said they then asked the Chinese embassy for photographs so they could identify the bodies. Manipol said the Chinese embassy sent them images via the fax machine. Naturally, the images they got were dark. He said they then asked the Chinese embassy for the passports of the 3 victims.

    Manipol said 2 representatives of the Chinese embassy came to the funeral parlor but did not have the passports with them. Thus, he said they asked the embassy representatives to help them identify the victims. Had the Chinese embassy given them colored photographs of the victims, Manipol believes the alleged mix-up would not have happened.

    Since the Chinese embassy was in a rush, Manipol said they based their identification on the descriptions from the autopsies of the victims. Manipol said this could be the reason for the mix-up. ‘Chinese embassy also at fault’

    “I requested them na, ‘hanapin ninyo ang passport.’ Nang nagpadala sila, nag-fax sila ng passport , pero blurred siya. Binase ko na lang sa profile ng mukha. May square. Iyong isa, medyo bilog ang mukha. So sabi ko, ‘ito ‘to’. Then we put the label sa mga boxes,” Manipol said.”

    Awww, come on Mr. Manipol. You sound just like a lowly government employee in D.C. – lazy, incompetent and irresponsible. Not only are you an incompetent of the greatest magnitude, but you also blame everybody but yourself when things go wrong. If you are in charge of labeling the bodies and are in doubt – even the tiniest doubt as to the identity of the corpse – you do not guess. Ever. It’s your responsibility to make sure that those bodies are 100 percent identified and correctly labeled, or you simply DO NOT release them. You can’t say that if only they sent you a colored fax, there wouldn’t have been a mix up. So why did you go ahead and labeled the bodies anyway? The last paragraph of the article above says it all.

    “Binase ko na lang sa profile ng mukha. May square. Iyong isa, medyo bilog ang mukha. So sabi ko, ‘ito ‘to’. Then we put the label sa mga boxes”

    If this quote is true, you ought to be fired from your job.

    • Hi John – I agree with you. In addition, Manipol said that he didn’t even get the names of the people who helped him. It calls everything he said into question. Even if it were fully accurate, there is no excuse for the mistake.

    • “You sound just like a lowly government employee in D.C. – lazy, incompetent and irresponsible. Not only are you an incompetent of the greatest magnitude, but you also blame everybody but yourself when things go wrong.” Lowly? it starts at the top!

    • RC:

      What is more disturbing, in my mind, is the anger the Filipinos commenting on the article are showing about compensation payments. This wasn’t the HK government’s fault, and the victims deserve to be compensated.

      Wanna bet that if Filipino tourists were killed that compensation would be demanded?

      This, like everything else, will be settled with money.

      (As an aside, Noynoy did apologize already)

  26. Hi Bob,

    Glad you are on top of this, for the sake of the ordinary, average Filipinos I know who probably have more self-respect, pride in themselves, and heart than the pols and bureaucrats who cannot admit it was palpak and give their MAXIMUM effort. At the moment, it’s one palpak to the next. Well, “their brain is just for decoration.”

    After over 100 years of continuous relationships with HK, being friends and good neighbours, the Philippines, i.e. its government, finally screwed that one up royally. The families of the deceased tourists and the people of HK, absolutely do not deserve the performance they’ve been getting.

    Alex

  27. HO BOB……….

    Here we go one more bad thing to happen and this is not funny mate how would thay like it if it happend to them i may ask this and why did it happen like this the way thay did die was very bad to start with out sending a body home that was not one of there own mate it looks to me there was one to menny bodys there at one time…..very sad god help us and no one can….
    from peter martin tassie

  29. This thread is on fire, but I have to bow out and get some sleep. I have to get out of Ocean City first thing in the morning. We have an uninvited visitor coming to town, name’s Earl. Hurricane Ear, to be exact. Good night folks!

  30. Hi, Ian:

    Can’t resist peeking in on LiP even though I’m supposed to be asleep by now in preparation for an early trip out of town tomorrow to avoid Hurricane Earl. Let me just say that anybody who loves to visit the Huffington Post site and quotes articles from HP writers to buttress or validate their arguments is a friend of mine. I would much rather read Huffington Post than the Weekly Standard or watch Fox News any day, if you know what I mean. I am not saying I won’t have you as a friend if you don’t like Huffington Post, though. LOL

    Sorry about CJK, Ian. It’s a terminoloy we used back in my days working for the U.S. government to refer to the Asian countries of China, Japan, and Korea.

    No, no, I’m not educating you, as I myself am still receiving a continuing education, courtesy of LiP, from Apo Paul Keating, the Pasuquin sage. 🙂

  31. As I have stated before….common sense is the rarest commodity in the Philippines. As sad as this is, it does not surprise me at all. I walked into Cruzteco today, for the THIRD time in as many days to ask why no one had yet bothered to repair our business phone line which was STILL laying on the road after a passing truck ripped it down. At 1:30 pm, the girl at the “help” desk was still not back after lunch, when she did finally return, she asked the 6 repairmen slouching in the customer seating area when they were planning on fixing the problem. MAYBE late this afternoon, which every one living here knows really means next week sometime, as they are closed on Saturday of course. I got the standard “So Sorry Sir”.
    The saddest part of it all is that this is not the first time trucks have ripped it down, and no doubt they will not mount it any higher this time either.
    Bob, you are absolutely right, no one cares enough to do a good job. Sorry, I should have said MOST people here, as I have met a very few that try to do a good job. Regardless, I do not anticipate the situation will improve.

  32. Hi Bob – Of course, being from the far northwestern tip of Luzon, but currently outside the country (for more diversity), I have a different view of this mix-up mini-tragedy.

    Culturally-related eagerness to avoid discomfort for others may play a small part, but I think a major contributor is the inability to say “No” directly in response to a question or request.

    My scenario: The labeling of caskets is not a major, “important” task like, say, placing bodies into caskets, checking identifications on computer records, driving a vehicle, etc. “Putting a tag on a box” is probably a task of the lowest order, and not part of the job descriptions of any regular hire employees. As such, this task falls to the very junior employees – new hires or temps.

    As is commonly demonstrate in the Philippines, whenever someone with an uncertain job (don’t know if they’ll be working for a day, week, month, etc.), is offered a task to do or is asked whether they can do the task, the answer is always “Yes, sir.” Even if one can’t read, if asked whether he could read a newspaper article and relate its contents to others, he’ll say, “Yes, sir, I can do it,” regardless of his abilities.

    If he can read the paper and relate the contents to others, he does it. If he can’t read, there’s no problem – just another part of the task which is learning what the article says. He may very well go to someone else who reads, learn from that person what the article says, then will go and relate the contents to others. Mission accomplished – not in what Westerners would call a “normal” or “regular” or (sometimes) “preferred” way, but accomplished nonetheless. Utilitarianism – the “ends” being most important and the “means” being open to whatever may be done – is how things work here, more or less.

    So, in the case of the mislabeled caskets: I’d say a low-level employee looking to secure a little more permanency in his current job, volunteered or agreed to perform the task regardless if he knew how to do it. He performed the task and employed “On the Job Training” to learn how to do it next time. He’s added to his skill set. His value as an employee has risen. Getting three wrong was the price of tuition.

    Told you it was a different approach. Perhaps it’s time for my meds? 😆

  33. Sadly I have come to the conclusion that years of political corruption and nepotism have removed any sense of pride and hope from the ordinary Filipino – they know that they will be exploited, cheated and abused by those in authority no matter what they do.Those who are unable to obtain an overseas job basically lapse into apathy – like the old Soviet Union – our employers pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.The best brains leave and are lost to the economy.I have worked with Filipinos all over the world since 1977 and know how good they are when given the opportunity and recognition – a huge difference to working with Filipinos in the Philippines. It grieves me to have written this as I have spent some of the happiest times of my life in the Philippines but after careful thought I can not find any other reason for the way the country is sinking well below its capabilities.

  34. Hi Bob,

    This problem is not unique to the Philipinnes. There has been a big problem in the USA at Arlington National Cementary with the burial of deceased individuals who served our country. It seems that there are 4900 to 6600 graves unmarked, improperly marked or mislabeled.

    • Hi, Jack:

      Yep, I read about this in the Washington Post some years back, but it seems nothing is being done about it or they are slow in correcting the problem.

      Jack, allow me to tell you a little classroom story that occured at Monterey High School in Monterey, California, many moons ago.

      It seems that this snotty kid had the temerity to question his English teacher over getting a D minus in his English composition because of misspellings and punctuation marks. He protested, “…but, teach, Ernest Hemingway had those kind of misspellings and punctuation marks in many of his books…”

      Before he can finish his sentence, the teacher cut him off, saying, “You are NOT Ernest Hemingway, John Reyes, so shut up!”

      The United States gets a pass, the Philippines doesn’t, over the mislabeled caskets simply because it IS the United States! LOL

  36. So why is the HK govt not making a big fuss over this big mistake? As of Sept 3, 24 Oras reports that the Funeral parlor claims that it was representatives from HK that identified the coffins. When asked for their comments, 24 Oras says that HK has no comment about this.
    What happened was no doubt a series of unfortunate events caused largely by ineptitude.
    I however blame also the media for their easy access to the story even today when investigation is still going on. Here in the US, when a crime scene is first identified, media can only hope take a picture or a video from the distance. And they can only get vague informations on what happened. It’s not anything like there.

      • Yes they are outraged. No argument there. But their spokesperson did not say anything about the coffin mislabeling, Instead, she continued to remind the Phil Govt of no whitewashing. Quite frankly, I’d be pleased if they categorically lambaste the Phil Govt over those coffin switching. And if you do find any link about that, please share it here.
        I’d appreciate that.

  37. Bob, UR correct – so many don’t give a crap (old management term!)

    Is it coincidence that the Philippines, along with much of Latin America and other ex-Spanish colonies, are now among the world’s economic basket-cases?

    By contrast, think of Singapore (a true economic miracle, and so unlike many other Asian countries), and India (a massive working democracy, with rapidly growing technological industries and burgeoning middle-class) – both coincidentally former English colonies, and underpinned by a professional civil service which is generally above corruption.

    A 1997 paper by Prof Robin Grier from Tulane University is insightful:
    “Examples of such ‘Spanish’ traits include a proclivity toward hierarchical, authoritarian government and religion, a disdain for punctuality and the work ethic, and the lack of public spirit” “The characteristics of Catholicism, such as a focus on the ‘other’ world and penance for sins, makes it less conducive to the work ethic and economic development than Protestantism.”

    Prof Grier conclude that countries with a dominant Catholic culture under-perform those with a Protestant culture.

    On the other hand, one notes that many Filipinos are sustained by their Faith.

    So what’s missing in the Philippines?

    An entrepreneurial can-do culture, a national energy to improve the nation, clear leadership that transcends the military, and a sense of social justice to improve the lot of the poor.

    One also notes that the lack of national energy means that the Philippines appears to be internationally-competitive in virtually NO area (with the exception of Manny Pacquiou). Consider Sport (Olympics, World Cup?) Inventions? Academia? Literature? Global media? Art? Technology? Commerce? Tourism? Food production (maybe Dole?).

    The only place with a customer service culture seems to be Jollibee. God bless’em.

    But it’s a 2-edged sword. Sure everything works in Singapore, but my dollars go a lot further in PI.

    • Ha ha, william – your last sentence sure says a lot! If the Philippines turned around completely, many expats could no longer afford to live here! 😆

      There has been much said over the years about the Spanish influence in it’s former colonies, and not much of it good.

    • “On the other hand, one notes that many Filipinos are sustained by their Faith.” – William

      Exactly. The Filipino attitude of placing their fate in the Divine Providence (bahala na), is apparent in almost every facet of Philippine life. Take for example the incident in Cebu(?) a couple of years ago where an entire village was swept away by a mudslide. People knew what was coming – the impending disaster was widely announced days in advance – yet the people, devout Catholics as they were failed to take precautions. You can imagine the villagers on their knees praying before their patron saint and probably muttering, “bahala na”…

  38. You never get something for nothing. I have owned homes in the Baja in Mexico, and to get someone to work on you house there you are looking at $10 usd an hour- or $80 usd a day- or about 3600 pesos a day. Compare that to most painters/carpenters etc in Davao who will charge you about 200-500 pesos a day here. In the Dominican Republic we usually paid about $50 usd a day, or 2250 a day.
    And believe me, in Mexico or the DF you still have many of the same problems ie not a lot of attention given to providing quality work, lots of work breaks taken, dont expect me to show up tomorrow if anyone i have ever met is having a birthday etc etc
    Everytime i get a bit frustrated about something here I try to think about how I could get the same quality service elsewhere- but for 5-10 times the price !!! lol
    And we have all had occasion to get really bad service in first world countries- when we were being asked to pay premium dollars for things. If it wasnt for the poor service provided in certain fields- ie contractors- lawyers would starve to death.

  40. Hi Bob. With the attitude I have seen toward Foreigners by the locals & now this series of not much better than insults cast toward them. Am I the only one that receives a message that foreigners–tourists are not wanted there at all by the average

    • Hi Guy – Without a doubt, I have come across people who are rude and don’t like foreigners. But, I would say that is less than 10% of Filipinos. I find that almost everybody I meet is friendly and loves foreigners. Our experiences are different on this one.

  42. Guy- I do not consider giving an honest, objective response to things as ever being any kind of insult.
    How you can take comments- based on peoples personal experiences- about a lack of training, a lack of education, a problem getting good service as being an insult is beyond me.

    Definition,
    insult ( ) v. , -sulted , -sulting , -sults . v.tr. To treat with gross insensitivity, insolence, or contemptuous rudeness
    And if you will read peoples posts you will find many many kind and supportive attitudes expressed toward filipinos on this site.

    To answer your question- YES ! you are the only one

    • Guy,

      I grew up in Luneta. Well, not really inside Luneta. But since I used to live Ermita all my life, I can assure you that nothing of that sort ever happened there. The botched hostage crisis, the unnecessary flag draping and now the mismatched coffins are just symptoms of an inept management. Average Filipinos do not insult foreigners, at least not intentionally. They do not tell or express indirectly to foreigners that they are unwanted here. Any observations to the contrary must be borne out from your own expectations on how Filipinos must treat you.
      That said, average Filipinos may have poor concept on how to attract long-time customers or tourists. That I concede.

  44. Let me just say that I’m terribly sorry for the poor relatives who fell victim to such sloppy procedure. Can’t help feeling slightly sorry for the poor sod who f****d up too, God help them all.

  63. Bob, I’ve only lived in the Philippines for a little over a year, and while I certainly share your love for the Filipino people (especially since we are both married to a Filipina), I completely agree with you that some people here just don’t care. I’ve run into that attitude at our local hospital in Guimaras, and it completely infuriates me.

  64. If we all work together we can move forward right now we seem to be compounding our mistakes by pointing fingers and embarrassing ourselves further with incidents like this. My God when will it all stop. Pilipinas kong mahal

  67. I wonder how may pesos over all this will cost the Philipines? Of course, they said everything be back to normal in a few months! Pretty sad for the Chinese people that died and for their relatives..sure they will not forget it all in a few months.

  69. Yes, it’s disgraceful, and it comes down to this Smooth Interpersonal Relationships thing really, because it prevents proper accountability. Once the culture changes, the country can change and move forward. Keep the good bits, bin the bad. In the meantime, for our lifetimes at least, just enjoy the nice sunshine and the fruit.

  70. What a shame. This country is getting worse and worse. Let’s see: hostage crisis; mislabeled dead victims; dead victims sent to wrong family; police abuse and mistakes; President keep on apologizing; president oblivious to peoples economic problems; rampant unemployment; corrupt and unethical politicians; Senators and Congressmen belittling the President; people losing faith on the new president; expensive health care and rising drug prices; hatred against Muslims; killings in the southern part of the country; politics controlled repeatedly by a few influential families; favors to big companies and corporations; drug problems; neglected children and lack of parenting; low school achievement; daily shootings in the capital city and surrounding suburbs; daily report of sexual assault and robberies; traffic problems and rude drivers,m etc.

    This are the news from the few days issues of Washington Post and issues happening in the areas of DMV (Wash DC-Maryland-Virginia).

    @John M: The reason Filipinos criticized their government is because they can. Can you imagine Chinese people criticizing their government? They will be arrested, shot and then bill the family for the cost of the bullet.

    Have a nice day, guys. Thanks for your web magazine, Bob.

    Mars

  71. Bob, I’m being sarcastic, what I’ve described above is what’s also exactly going here in the US, especially near the US capital—only on a different level.

    Thanks,

    Mars

  72. I am in ageement with you. What is more shocking to me is President Aquino’s action during and after the blood bath in Luneta. Last Sunday at the funeral of a friend and a supporter he said , “…in two to three years we will all look back and this will all be laughable and what seems now to be such a grave crisis will not seem as a crisis at all.” As I read the article in the Philippine Inquiry last Monday I immediately thought how would I feel reading it if I had been one of the hostages, a family member that lost a loved one in the crisis, or a politician in Hong Kong or China. President Aquino has stated that as he watched the crisis unfold on television he knew it was not being handled properly. If he knew it was not being handled properly why did he not intervene immediately? I am not impressed with his taking full responsiblity and saying “The buck stops here” if he takes no action to remove or ask for resignations from the incompetetent members of his administration. Three times since I have been here the media has interfered with a crime scene. Instead of the President calling for laws or issuing an Executive Order to dictate media behaviour at crime scenes he is allowing the media to come up with their own guidelines and be responsibile for enforcing them upon themselves. Media is not interested in anything but scooping a story. Blood and guts bring audiences. It is like asking the wolf to guard the hen house.

    • Hi Tom – Yes, some of the stuff that has come out has only made the situation look worse, unfortunately. I am not going to comment specifically about the President, but it seems that he is saying enough on his own.

  73. I think that what we have here is a failure to communicate ! And for some things I dont think that we will ever truly understand the filipino mind..
    USA/Canada/UK/Germany etc etc former residents tend to think in a way that is fairly similar. I am talking about rational thought processes .
    But what we fail to understand many times is that the filipino psyche is very different than our own. To us many times it seems to be inferior in process. But we have to temper our judgments by realizing that we are in some ways totally different creatures ! lol We are not just cultures who look at things differently on occasion- we are cultures whose background and make up is incredibly different ! And those different backgrounds dont just mean that our rational thought processes will take us in different direction- what it means sometimes is that even the processes themselves are incredibly different- enough so that nothing in our experiences has prepared us for what we encounter.! But then again- maybe I’m not talking about the filipinos in general- maybe I’m just talking about my wife !!! lol
    I love her to bits, but 21 years of schooling for me did little to prepare me for figuring out filipina thought processes ! In fact I think it just made it even more difficult for me . So why should I be surprised that I cant figure out how the president, or the Ombudsman, or the leader of the Police in Manila, or Mayor Lim possibly come up with the things that they do !!
    I am not used to sitting back and not getting involved in what is going on around me, but filipinos do not generally want foreigners getting involved in their own affairs [cant blame them for that! lol], so all I can do here is sit back, smile, and shake my head in amusement! haha

    • You got it right…I belive most of the Fillipinos are good people..but their way of reasoning on things is as you said incredible different than others or mine…but! That is their country so I would say they have the right to think how they like…my self, in what little contact I have had with Fillipinos.. have come to the understanding that it would be a huge adjustment on my part to be around one full time…example fun of it…..ever tried to say no to a Fillipina woman on something? As far as any of their politcal stuff..best to just stay out of that….on the most part they have little interst in what most of us foreigners think or feel about stuff like that…