(Know yourself and know your enemy, then in a hundred battles you shall have a hundred victories.– Sun Tzu, Chinese strategist, 2,500 years ago)

(When you fear a foe, fear crushes your strength; and this weakness gives strength to your opponents.– William Shakespeare)

Why do we bury our heads in the sand like ostriches, fear or doubt that the Philippine economy has the potentials to become No. 1 in ASEAN? Why is it that our society has been so overwhelmed by this age-old culture of pessimism – caused by 333 years of psychological bludgeoning by Spanish colonizers, that we drown in talks on how to survive instead of winning?

Why is it that most of the goods in Divisoria and our malls are imports? When shall we vow to produce more and aggressively export to the world? Why is it that our eloquent politicians are only blabbering loudly on headline-grabbing issues like log ban, but few are raising the alarm bells at the closures of so many major factories and the conversion of numerous warehouses into badminton courts?

Why wallow in self-pity, fatalism, trying to just plug the holes of our government budget deficit, how to prevent international credit ratings downgrade, how to solicit more international aid for typhoon victims? Why awaken the whole society, plan and act boldly to make the Philippine economy self-reliant, investor-friendly and globally-competitive? In competitive sports, isn’t aggressive offense the best defense strategy? Shouldn’t we help the Philippine economy be more efficient, wipe out mass poverty and be a Manny Pacquiao slugging it out against the best economies of the west and Asia? Instead of just targetting 10 percent, 20 percent or 30 percent yearly tourism growth, why not aim high and vow to vanquish our neighbor Thailand as ASEAN’s No. 1 tourist destination?

Instead of pessimistically worrying about the rise of new global power China, SGV Group founder Washington SyCip, JG Summit Holdings founder John Gokongwei Jr. and shipping tycoon Endika Aboitiz recently told the Philippine STAR that we should learn to embrace this wave of the future, make preparations to cash in, learn Mandarin and ensure that the Philippine economy profits from close trade/investments ties. Why do we allow India to corner the lion’s share of US outsourcing billions, why not leverage our being America’s only former colony and boost our English-language education nationwide in order to become the world’s No. 1 outsourcing power?