Soft powerhouse

Filipinos take pride in natural hospitality, but South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol may find himself getting an extra warm welcome during his two-day state visit here.

You know the reason: in the 13 years since a South Korean president last came visiting, Pinoys have discovered the delights of K-pop, K-drama, tteokbokki, bingsu and samgyeopsal.

These days, millennials and GenZs are sporting Korean hairstyles, dressing (and dancing and singing) like BTS and Jennie, and using Korean beauty products.

Without grabbing anyone’s maritime territory and alienating trading partners through economic blackmail, South Korea has conquered the world, through the projection of soft power.

It has also become an industrial and economic powerhouse – not yet on the scale of the second and third largest economies, China and Japan, but closing in, if the Koreans sustain their innovation and growth trajectories.

And to think that the Korean War armistice was signed only in 1953, with the two Koreas still technically at war today.

Perhaps the bloody civil war and the continuing threat posed by a heavily armed enemy sitting just across the demilitarized zone has developed a strong love of country among the South Koreans.

We saw dramatic, only-in-Korea manifestations of this patriotism in 1998 during the Asian financial crisis, when about 3.5 million Koreans voluntarily donated gold items in their possession to repay their debt to the International Monetary Fund. Some 227 tons of gold, valued at $2.13 billion, were donated.

Having a national enemy probably also helped foster a national urgency to excel – something that requires the development of human capital, through quality education and health care, and support for creativity and innovation.

The highly competitive education system has created mental health problems among Korean youth. But I’d take this problem anytime to seeing our 15-year-old students landing at the bottom in international assessments on reading comprehension, math and science literacy.

A highly educated citizenry does not pick clowns to run the government. It holds everyone to account, and does not hesitate to put anyone behind bars for wrongdoing – including presidents, owners and top executives of chaebols or conglomerates.

And South Korea does this through one of the world’s most efficient criminal justice systems.

There’s a strong sense of shame and personal accountability. In 2009, former president Roh Moo-hyun, accused of corruption, went hiking and jumped to his death in a ravine.

The Koreans have put four of their former presidents behind bars for offenses ranging from gross human rights violations to large-scale corruption.

In our case, when officials are accused of wrongdoing, they commit homicide, not suicide. Then they run for election. And they often win.

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The high literacy also means high awareness of taxation and the responsibilities entrusted to those authorized to utilize those taxes. We see this awareness even in K-dramas such as the 2019 TV series “Vagabond” (streaming on Netflix).

This kind of awareness is sadly lacking among millions of Filipinos, whose concept of tax payment is limited to personal withholding or business taxes.

There is low awareness of consumption and excise taxes on everything including the most basic – food, water, medicine and fuel (and coming soon, 12 percent on Netflix, et al).

Unaware of the ways of taxation, you won’t hear ayuda-dependent Pinoys demanding, like that “Vagabond” star, that state security agents do what taxpayers are paying them to do. Pinoys dependent on ayuda aren’t even aware that the dole-out comes from their taxes – the VAT they pay for their medicines, cigarettes, beer, utilities and fuel.

Because so much of our taxes end up in the personal pockets of an ever growing number of good-for-nothing politicians and bureaucrats, the government has abdicated much of its responsibilities and turned these over to the private sector.

Of course if it’s a private enterprise, nothing is free. Just look at all the fees now going up at the NAIA. All those higher costs incurred by airlines will be passed on to air fares.

Metro Manila, meanwhile, is now crisscrossed with private toll roads, with 12 percent VAT on the toll. Since the combined tolls, if paid every working day, can take away a substantial chunk of a middle-class worker’s earnings, many motorists opt to stay away, which defeats the purpose of easing traffic through an expanded road network.

Where do our taxes go?

Road tolls also add to logistics costs – among the highest in the region – which traders pass on of course to consumers, fueling inflation. And the steep tolls discourage domestic tourism. I know people who say they’d rather save the two-way toll payments and fuel costs in traveling outside Manila for budget trips to neighboring countries such as Thailand. Or, for the younger generations, to watch K-pop concerts in Seoul.

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Billions in people’s money are now being allocated to the ever-expanding new pork barrel, the unprogrammed appropriations in the national budget. Those billions can build all the roads and bridges needed to ease traffic in Metro Manila – without tolls.

The latest funding proposal will surely be approved – possibly with hefty additions to the pork barrel during the fund juggling session in the bicameral conference – in time for use in the 2025 election campaign.

This is because the Supreme Court is taking its usual sweet time ruling on an urgent petition filed by several groups including the Philippine Medical Association, plus persons including Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel, asking the SC to stop the transfer of P89.9 billion in “unused” funds of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and other government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) to the congressional pork barrel.

The petitions also challenge the constitutionality of the “rider” in the 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA), approved during the bicameral conference, which effectively amended all the individual laws creating each GOCC including PhilHealth and allowed lawmakers to get their claws on such funding for their pork projects.

The case is so low in the Supreme Court’s priorities; the tribunal set oral arguments in January, when the entire P89.9 billion would have already been released, thanks to a circular issued by VAT and vaping proponent Ralph Recto, who points to the GAA as the basis.

Economics and heightened trade are reportedly high on the agenda of President Yoon’s two-day visit. The Philippines should also seek tips from Korea on improving the administration of justice, but don’t get your hopes up; the broken judicial system is working perfectly for our political leadership.

We can content ourselves with seeing an efficient justice system at work – in K-dramas.