ya know…. Hate to bring this up but this goes both ways. Filipino males get away with it because the women well, allow it. The culture teaches men to get away with it and brainwashes the women to just accept it or be tolerant. How many beated wives do you see come back to the men who hit them a few hours earlier?
It’s stupid and so dumb. He promises and she, in her ignorance, agrees!
I guess you can say that’s the Christlike attitude… to turn the other cheek for a second black eye…

I believe so too… Implementation of the law depends on the system designed to implement it. So our problem is not more of the people not wanting to follow rules, but the leaders not properly implementing them.

i may not always agree with what u think, but i just like how you put ur thoughts together =) it makes sense..

oh cmon guys, its that way in many many places.

in NYC, people cheat on the subway, graffitti all over the place, leave their trash in the wrong places, dogs pooh and owners dont collect them, etc.

in NYC tho, they spend millions to clean up. they can afford it.

@ Filipino Culture:

Interesting analysis of Pinoy driving behavior and the general “culture of impunity.” They both stem from a lack of effective external controls. Drivers here learn to drive like lunatics because there’s no sufficiently numerous traffic police. Compare that to when my previously ‘pasaway’ uncle migrated to the US and had to change his behavior QUICKLY or else risk tickets from the more mobile and (seemingly at least) numerous traffic cops. It inevitably boils down to a chicken or egg question–is it the culture or is it external factors that help produce a certain behavior.

I might beg to differ a bit as far as what I’ve so far observed here regarding police presence. In Australia, you could go about your routine (commuting to an from work, etc.) for days without spotting a single police officer. The Philippines by comparison is a police state.

And yet, the difference between the way Australians comply to The Law and how it is in the Philippines is stark.

The key, I believe, lies in the way the system is designed. If it is designed, operated, and constantly refined to work for its users, then its users see a clear stake in working with said system as well. But if there is a pwede-na-yan and bahala-na approach inherent to how a system was designed and rolled out, it will constantly fail to achieve productive engagement with its users.

When a system is designed to work well and its users sufficiently engaged, enforcement comes in at just 20% of the effort involved in keeping the thing working. In the Philippines the rule seems to be the reverse: A system’s working is accounted for by 80% effort spent on enforcement and 20% on the nature of its systemic design.

Exactly. That was what I really wanted to convey here — that from the highest profile government official to the average schmoe on the street, whether it involves big things or the petty, there is an ingrained ethic of acting with impunity and a lack of consideration or courtesy for others. Which kinda highlights the hypocrisy of all this indignation being levied against a thug like Singson. It begs the question of why such a thug is in a position of influence in government to begin with, more so one that involves a sensitive field as national security. Again the thing of how one’s government merely reflects its constituents, or echoing Huseng Batute’s more blunt take: we “deserve each other”.

And as much as driving habits and smacking women around are examples, you might as well consider all the little impunities and complete lack of a sense of boundaries people here have – peeing in any convenient spot, dropping trash wherever, stepping in front of three or four people at the corner store, crossing the street when and where they please, blaring karaoke at 3 in the morning, etc. etc. The impunity is so ingrained, and from a such an early age, that it is actually pretty remarkable that people are able to assimilate as well as they do.

Filipinos driving in Subic behave because of the American-ness of the system they are complying to. That is actually an observation about Pinoys all over the world. We are great assimilators and quite easily blend into the woodwork. But together and among ourselves we descend into petty bickering and one upmanship.

It seems we are at our worst when working together and at our best working for foreign authorities.

However, the practice is more widespread in the Philippines. Where other cultures have kept on reducing the opportunities for impunity, the Philippines condones the culture of impunity. If Chavit did what he did in the US, he’ll be in jail.

Exactly. It’s not like “lords” don’t have their nightly indiscretions as well, given the 4Gs – guns, goons, golds, and GROs.