Philippines - Manila - Facts on the Fire

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I've received countless comments - well over 1,000 - supporting my view of Manila expressed in my notorious post of 4th September. Unfortunately a TINY minority have disgraced themselves by writing incoherent insults, especially on Facebook, some directed at my family members. These people demeaned themselves and disgraced their country. By and large they were young and living outside the Philippines.

What follows is an edited version of a post I just placed on my Quartermaine's Worlds Facebook page. For those that want facts to see where I came from on the original post, here they are.

And please, if you can't help making a fool of yourself and writing offensively, remember, I WILL publicise your name by printing it in full (assuming you have the courage to put your name to it - most don't).

Philippines is currently placed (using official GoP statistics used by the World Economic Forum 75 out of 142 countries; last year it was 85, so it is doing a bit better; well done! It's a middle-ranked country overall. I'm delighted. Really, I am.

However, the WEF says that corruption, poor government and bad infrastructure are among the worst in the world (rankings diversion of public funds 127, burden of government regulation -126). As for infrastructure, NAIA terminal 1 was voted by an independent survey The World's Worst Airport.

Manila, Manila..... Ranked 178 out of 215 cities in terms of quality of life, I quote: "Dhaka (201), Jakarta (189) and Manila (178) are amongst the (Asia) region's cities scoring lowest".

The IMF ranks per capita incomes at 124 under Sri Lanka and Mongolia. Not doing so well there either, unfortunately. For all these key elements Philippines stands among such shining examples of well-managed economies as Uganda, Chad, Zimbabwe..... (oops there I go again!).

What about tourism? 86th out of 133 - behind Indonesia. Here's what the survey says: "weak in areas of safety and security (113th), health and hygiene levels (87th)".

I didn't make these data up. And I draw attention to them regretfully because some of my younger readers - especially those claiming to be educated - seem incapable of understanding that I reflect my own experience in my travel posts, but usually it tends to fit with reality because I do actually base my opinions somewhat - just somewhat - around the reported and verifiable facts.

Now, frankly, the subject of the Philippines is taking WAY too much attention for a country that by ASEAN standards is still struggling. I really do hope it succeeds. I promise I do.

Almost all the Pinoys I've ever met have been nice people and they deserve MUCH better. I hope the "educated" (very VERY small) minority which writes nothing but insults in language that speaks of the gutter and that seem to live OUTSIDE the Philippines returns to its homeland to help instead of wasting time on me.

But if any person in this tiny minority is capable of providing me with a coherent argument why I am wrong in my judgements - about Manila in particular - I'll apologise.

But I really doubt I'll have to, so till then......Cheers😊

For the full unexpurgated post, please look at Quartermaine's World Page on Facebook. It was edited for this blog out of respect for TravelBlog.Org who are nice people and want to run a polite platform

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