‘Buying is better than voting’

No. This is not about vote buying or elections.

It’s about a much better non political option that will help every Filipino — rich and poor. It starts with you. The only requirement is actual practice and participation. No discussion, no arguments, just action.

I came to realize this option after so many people kept asking "my expert" opinion on who could be the possible candidate that could unify the Philippines and lead it to economic recovery.

How should I know?! I don’t have a degree in political science, I never delved into political analysis. But since they asked, I always boldly said nobody.

Two EDSA uprisings, several government sponsored leadership coups in Congress and in Muslim Mindanao, a couple of large scale electoral fraud on the Presidential level, several demolition projects of political parties, successful partition of the Catholic church, pitting Catholics versus Iglesias versus Protestants, etc. Who could possibly be uninfected, untouched by our national discord?

The next question without fail is always: Without a leader, what do we do?

A few years back some glib smoothies in government decided to cover-up the issue of discord and failed leadership by focusing on economic recovery.

Of course! Talk money and everybody listens. But who’s got the money? Certainly not the diminished middle class, even the mighty Makati Business Club rarely talked about business. Just politics and governance thank you.

So the smoothies said if the Indians don’t have the pesos, the foreign investors certainly have dollars. Let us call upon them to be our great economic salvation. But they quickly found out that if Pinoys were demanding, the FIs were impossible to attract.

They demanded better infrastructure. Apparently an inoperable airport was not good enough. They demanded an end to corruption. How dare they ask us to imprison a large percentage of our political and governmental structure! They wanted an end to red tape. How could we stop alternative income generation for public servants!

So far it is clear that politics, government, and businessmen are not the do all and end all solution.

By then even I needed an answer and my pastor said he who lacks wisdom should ask God who generously gives without finding fault. I liked that, so I did. This is where I now ask "you" the questions.

1. What did England, America, Japan, Australia, Israel, Thailand, China and many other countries do in common in order to save their economies?

2. Aside from fuel, what comprises the next biggest expense for most Filipino people whether directly or indirectly?

3. How much time and effort do you apply towards maximizing your knowledge and benefits about this major expense?

4. Why do you fall for it?

5. What are you doing about it?

When they were just developing or coming out of economic disaster, the countries mentioned experienced the emergence of sponsored nationalist consumerism. In other words they decided to buy products made in their country over imports. The ordinary citizen made an extraordinary effort to support their manufacturers and producers.

In order to create jobs, they needed producers and manufacturers who make goods that needed consumers to buy those goods. The more they bought, the more they produced, the more people worked. No politics, no foreign investors. Just citizens doing what they did everyday.

In informal surveys, which have been substantiated by government data, most people are convinced that their biggest expense is education for their children. This was before fuel prices took over the pole position. Because income earners normally pay education costs in "bulk" quarterly, bi-annually or one time, they have the impression that this is the biggest bill to pay. A bill they can’t avoid or reduce.

But actual total cost comparison shows that food and groceries take up much more annually. What cloaks it is because people shop weekly, every two weeks or something similar. If they didn’t buy it, they certainly ate it at the fast food joints, malls and hotels. The rest were delivered by demons on motorcycles.

What shocked respondents is their thoughtless process of shopping and spending the largest chunk of their income. While it takes them years to prepare and select schools, when choosing a doctor and hospital was based on trusted referrals, they often shopped in a rush, with a list that was not volume specific, they never took time to compare products, not everyone made price comparisons.

What we term as brand loyalty, I’m sorry, to say may partly be a product of rushing and plain laziness.

How do you get trapped into buying "imported" products?

Lets’ forget colonial mentality. Let’s talk about creative misrepresentation and packaging. Get products made elsewhere, get a local endorser or celebrity, use local sceneries, throw in local idiosyncrasies. If it looks like, sounds like, it must be. Right? Wrong! You just got Pinoyed by a company making products outside the country.

Now your turn to get even and do something.

First, shop like you normally do, halfway stop and study what you bought and where the goods are made. Chances are they’re not from the Philippines. Next, return the non-Pinoy goods and replace with equal quality goods made in the Philippines. There will be resistance. Habits are hard to break, but you will discover there are choices.

Don’t shop in a hurry. By the end of the year, you will have spent P100,000 to P300,000 plus on average on food and groceries. Make time, take time. Bring the family and give assignments. Make it like a treasure hunt where you look for made, manufactured in Philippines and better priced. Some won’t be cheaper but the few centavos can make up for all the taxes you didn’t pay for. (Kidding!)

Warning: Read the labels properly. There is a big difference in "manufactured for" and "manufactured by".

Don’t wait for a movement to lead you. Movements fail because instead of leading, people are waiting. This is all about the power of one.

Buy Pinoy, be Pinoy.