This broke my heart.

The Philippines is the only place I've ever *consistently* gotten the wrong change, and ***in my favor!!!*** For example, I pay 500 pesos for a 227-peso meal and get back over 300 pesos in change. It's not a one-off, and it's not just at sari-sari stores — it's pretty common. Outside the Philippines it's happened to me exactly once, in a small town in Mexico, and I know for sure that person couldn't read or write. Filipinos are really bad at mental math. In developed countries (even developing ones), most kids by around age ten can do multiplication tables, addition and subtraction, and basic division in their heads. But in the Philippines I keep seeing grown adults who can *not* do that at all. They immediately pull out a phone calculator, and even then they sometimes mix up the change. I don't know why I'm explaining all this. But to my eyes, society puts too little emphasis even on basic education, and barely considers it important to compete head-on with the best. The cultural pressure to be the best at math that's common in Vietnam, Korea, China and so on doesn't seem to exist in the Philippines. Honestly it's primarily the parents' fault, and from what I hear about Philippine public education, that's a total mess too. There's no way in this world my kids will grow up unable to do basic math in their heads. That's just... the basics... the foundation... and without it... what can you do in this life besides drive a pedicab? It's bitter.

Adults' general laziness is also a big part of it. They cancel school for what seem like non-reasons. Sometimes it's necessary because of typhoons or natural disasters, but there are way too many school cancellations. On top of that, there are too many holidays. The Philippines has about 33% more official holidays than the Southeast Asian median. There are no facilities or investment suited to education, and, like everything else, there's no path or expectation at any point of becoming excellent or accomplishing anything. People just scrape by on the bare minimum in suffocating heat and infrastructure that doesn't really work.

The Philippines will never be able to compete like other Asian countries in producing things useful to the world. It doesn't have that kind of intelligence. It'll never build companies like Samsung, Sony, or Toyota. The best it can do is become a great tourist destination like Thailand, but even with some of the best natural scenery in the world, it can't even do that. I really have to take my hat off to Filipino women. Without them, who would come to the Philippines? The women who work abroad as nurses and send money home, the women who attract men from all over the world, are what's holding the Philippines up.

It's really a pity the Philippines is in this situation. I'm a foreigner and I've lived here quite a long time. Filipinos are smart, but if certain abilities aren't developed from a young age, it's hard to achieve anything. The development of a country comes through education — that's not an opinion, it's a law. First of all, educational facilities aren't developed, and there are no centers to educate people consistently. Even when CHED or DepEd have some budget, it ends up in the deans' pockets. And let's not forget who was heading DepEd a few months ago. Education is one of the biggest budgets, so it's easy to guess how many hands are in that pie. I hope things change and young Filipinos get the education they deserve, and if that happens they'll become as strong as Japan. They also speak English, so getting educated abroad is much easier too. Good luck to this wonderful country. If you fix education, it will lead Southeast Asia.