‘Manila complex’

Imperial Manila is a term associated with the concentration of political and economic power in the nation’s capital. It is also used to describe the seeming arrogance and superiority complex of not a few Tagalog-speaking Filipinos.

I have personal encounters with this “Manila complex” in my initial forays in Manila while doing some follow-ups for certain projects and promotions related to my profession. One media executive raised her eyebrows after I introduced myself as an Ilonggo. Another media executive gave me a cold shoulder upon learning that I was a probinsyano, my delicious biscocho pasalubong notwithstanding.

Our national political landscape has been dominated by Manila-based political figures. The Senate, for one, has become the cornucopia of celebrities and media personalities mostly Manila-grown.

Because Manila is the nerve center of almost everything that affects our nation, only a few probinsyanos have so far made it to the top political echelons. But even the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago and the retired, as of now, former Senator Franklin Drilon were able to hurdle their provincial origins simply because they studied and graduated in the country’s premier law school, UP Diliman, which campus sits at the National Capital Region, particularly in Quezon City.

We in the provinces look with wonderment, nay envious eyes, at all the opportunities that abound in the capital city. Try combing the organizational staffing of various departments in the cabinet and you will see the dominance of the Manilans. They occupy almost all important and juicy posts in the national government.

Because of this Manila complex, it is no surprise that when Tagalogs get deployed in the countryside, in Iloilo for example, they can unconsciously bring with them this syndrome. A case in point is MORE, the power company bankrolled by the billions of Enrique K. Razon.

We do not begrudge its top management for bringing with it so-called highly qualified or top-caliber executives with a lot to show on their CVs. We admire their background and salute their educational attainments – they probably coming from top universities the best money can buy.

A stranger, MORE was first introduced as a unique brand in Iloilo City. Its advertising campaign underpinned by the soft-spoken and amiable MORE President Roel Castro. But since MORE took over the electricity distribution business from PECO, some of its top executives may be unconsciously undoing the friendly, nay unassuming façade that Mr. Castro painstakingly built for MORE before the Ilonggo powers-that-be and the community press. Some of its Tagalog-speaking bosses, perhaps due to human frailty, have displayed unprovoked arrogance in their dealings with young Ilonggos they must have thought as nothing but upstart pushovers, not knowing that some of these baby-faced Ilonggos they were dealing with come from respectable families who in their own right don’t have to beg for contracts or projects to keep both ends meet.

Doing or making business has full of risks. One can win or lose a project or prospect. Thus, these kids don’t mind the feeling that a prospective client may or might have other predetermined suppliers or contractors. A private corporation having favored suppliers is not a strange phenomenon.

Respect, however, should not be intentionally lost in the process, especially in the introduction stage of any business negotiations or personal endeavor.

Perhaps, these MORE executives ought to remind themselves of GMRC (Are good manners and right conduct not taught in Manila schools?) in their business, nay professional conduct.

Quite the opposite of MORE big boss Mr. Castro who, like these executives under him, also speaks Tagalog. As I have said, he is soft-spoken, sincere without a tinge of arrogance. Mapakumbaba.

Oh, I forgot, Mr. Castro is not from Manila despite his fluent Tagalog. He is actually from Zamboanga. That’s why.

Panay Electric Company served Iloilo for how long? Nearly a century! It could have survived MORE and EKR’s billions if it did not fall victim to its own arrogance.