Generally, if a group of armed soldiers suddenly occupied a prominent hotel and threaten that they wanted to overthrow the president and form their own government, it would surely cause national panic and outbreak political crisis.

However, it seems a common occurrence for Filipinos.

It is said that on Thursday (29 Nov), when Philippine troops burst into a luxury hotel in Makati financial district of Manila, it did not cause any disturbance or panic among those in the hotel.

For those in the hotel, what they were doing at the moment was more important and they did not bother the troops that were criticising the government and seeking a coup to overthrow their president.

The fact proved that their “calm” response was actually correct. Without friendly support, these renegade troops surrendered and everything went back to normal shortly.

This was definitely not an ordinary phenomenon for a country. Coup (mutiny) conspiracies occurred frequently that made the public got used to it and do not bother about it any more. Because past experience tells them that the coup would not be a success and even if it does, it would not necessarily bring any changes.

They would still have to suffer in life while looking helplessly at the government officers that carving up the national wealth. Besides, they might be kidnapped or killed at any time.

The main problem here is that Filipinos feel hopeless for their countries. Both “people's power” that shocked the world have left them nothing but a worse country and harder times.

Filipinos used to joke that they have “3G” for the democracy of Philippines: guns, gold and goons. We could imagine their despair. Some of them even said that during the Marcos era, only he was corrupted. But after they obtained the freedom of democracy, all politician were corrupted.

40 years ago, before the open door of China and the takeoff of Singapore’s economy, the World Bank saw Phillippines as another Japan in which Philippines had the potential to develop its economy.

However, after the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos by people's power, Philippines did not turn out to be another Japan. Instead, its economy went into a mess and its development stagnated. Until today, it is not able to be a self-driven industry, but its foreign debt ran up, making the country becomes poorer and poorer.

Nowadays, Philippines is well-known for its labour exports. One Filipino out of ten would leave the country to work overseas. The state's coffers depend on the wages sent back by them.

The main reason for the failure of Philippines is corruption. Politicians only care for their own interests and do not care about national development, not to mention the lives and death of the people.

Recently, people warned Taiwan to be careful of being influenced by Philippines as they found Taiwan has been backsliding and its competitiveness was declining and more importantly, its people began to show impotence regarding its corrupt regime.

In fact, it was not only Taiwan, but all the developing countries should constantly remind themselves not to go the way of the Philippines.

Although many countries are not like Philippines that fully applies Western-style democracy, it is still better to eliminate bad habits similar to the Philippines regime's to avoid ending up like Philippines. (By CHUA SZE CHIH/ Sin Chew Daily)