Raul Roco can beat Ate Glo and FPJ

The opposition is banking heavily on FPJ or Noli de Castro to agree to run against Ate Glo next year. Both are reluctant to run. It is highly possible that they will decide that they can best serve their country by staying in the sidelines. If that happens, as I have written in this column last week, Joe de V will get his dream "national unity coalition" with Ed Angara and Danding Cojuangco joining Ate Glo against Raul Roco.

Before people start giving up on Raul when such an alliance materializes, let me convey the good news that Raul Roco can beat Ate Glo in a one on one contest, according to the latest numbers of Pulse Asia. In fact, the numbers indicate a landslide victory for Raul to the tune of 62 percent against Ate Glo’s 29 percent and nine percent undecided.

The further good news is that in a three-way fight between Roco, FPJ and Ate Glo, Roco leads at 45 percent against FPJ’s 29 percent and Ate Glo‘s 22 percent. The field work for this survey was done before Ate Glo’s announcement that she would run. But I don’t see how that the figures could be drastically changed by the announcement. On the contrary, her support may be eroded seriously, given the high percentage of people who want Ate Glo to keep her Dec. 30 promise.

Of course the skeptics among us, and to some extent that includes me, will say that Roco can‘t beat the party machines. Roco may win the votes but lose the counting. That’s probably true but then again, the important point is being made that Raul Roco is not a hopeless case and may even win. While he may not be as well-funded and organized as Ate Glo or even FPJ, there seems to be enough voters who are tired of politics as usual. Roco should work on the protest vote and offer a credible alternative program of government.

I was amazed at how much inroads Raul has made in the D and E segment of the population. If he knows what is good for him, he should continue to work hard to gain the confidence of this segment of the voters because that‘s about 70 percent of the total.

He must also get his wife Sonia Malasarte Roco, a native Boholana and daughter of a pre-martial law Bohol congressman, to exert even more effort to get the Visayan vote. This is the region where Ate Glo narrowly beats Raul.

Metro Manila, specially the segment of the voting population with a college education, is inclined to vote for Raul. Ate Glo has severely disappointed this segment, specially with the Pidal scandal and PIATCO. These are the voters who can help Raul raise funds for the campaign.

In the United States, former Governor Howard Dean, a leading Democratic contender for the presidential nomination, was able to raise more money from small citizen contributions than his rivals who tapped the traditional big money vested interest groups. Raul should look at adopting this model. An imaginative campaign would give people a stake in his victory by helping to raise funds and consolidate his early lead.

WoW Philippines

One more item in my WOW Philippines experience that Dick Gordon and Philippine Airlines must work on. Our flight out of Manila to Bohol was delayed one hour. Our flight back to Manila from Bohol was delayed two hours. I thought all along that Philippine Airlines has improved its operations so much so that PAL no longer means Plane Always Late. All I know is, this is no way to encourage domestic air travel.

A foreigner on our flight back to Manila was in near panic because he had to catch a flight to Singapore. The ground crew who assisted the foreign passenger was in near panic too as she requested the baggage handlers to hurry up because she was being given just 20 minutes to get the passenger on board the international flight.

There must be a good reason why the flight schedules are being messed up. But hopefully, the airline addresses this problem right away. It is not fair to have passengers wait for hours, in fact the whole morning, for a one hour flight. It simply is not fair.

Chinoys

I received this e-mail from an expat Chinoy who reacted to my column last Monday.

My name is Christopher Balonan. I am a second generation Chinoy. I grew up in Manila. But I am currently residing in China.

Mr. Sycip has hit the nail directly on its head when he lamented that young Chinoys are no longer as hungry as their forebears and, therefore, no longer as ready to suspend present gratification for future rewards. There is no other place where this contrasting trait between the Chinoys and mainland Chinese can be clearly seen than here in China. There are a lot of Chinoys who have invested here in the mainland, but very few have succeeded aside from Carlos Chan of Oishi. I think the main reason for this is the difference in the mindset.

Mainland Chinese are hungry, so hungry that they are so aggressive. They are willing to work 24/7 and they have no social life to talk about. When it comes to expanding the business, Chinese companies here are willing to borrow high interest loans to finance their capital expenditure. This is because their outlook of the economy is so bright.

They have this thinking that if you don’t exploit the opportunity at hand, other people will. They are left with no choice but to expand faster than their competitors.

On the other hand, Chinoys here are passive and maintain their "Manila style" business operation, which means they operate based on the style and pace of how business is in Manila. Chinoys are more defensive when it comes to investing and expanding the business. This is attributed to the pessimistic view of Chinoys after experiencing the boom and bust economy that moves in lock step with the movement in Malacañang. Also, a lot of Chinoys doing business here have businesses to fall back on in Manila. As a result, they are not as hungry and aggressive as the mainland Chinese.

I think the difference in mindset between the mainland Chinese and Chinoys will lead to the mainland Chinese companies to experience exponential growth while Chinoy companies are left far behind playing catch up. Chinoy companies here in China will experience exactly what is happening to the Philippines if we don’t change our mindset. I think for the Philippines to change at all, it has to start with a change of the people’s mindset.

Flight Turbulence

FPJ and Erap were flying to the United States when the captain announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, one of our engines has failed. There is nothing to worry about. Our flight will take an hour longer than scheduled, but we still have three engines left."

Thirty minutes later the captain announced, "One more engine has failed and the flight will take an additional two hours. But don’t worry, we can fly just fine on two engines."

An hour later the captain announced, "One more engine has failed and our arrival will be delayed another three hours, but don’t worry – we still have one engine left."

FPJ turns to Erap with a worried look. "Pare," FPJ says, "pag nasira pa yung one engine na yan, talagang sobrang delayed na tayo. Siguradong iiwanan na tayo ng ating mga sundo sa airport."

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]