A short podcast episode (Ep.126) by John Jonas reacting to the (May 2022) Philippine general election, reporting that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appeared to be winning with ~90% of votes counted and discussing potential implications for outsourcing relationships. The episode provides historical context on Marcos Sr., cites audience/reader messages from an OFS worried about job security, and advises employers to reassure Filipino contractors that employment decisions won't be based on political changes.
Chapters
Welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at outsourcing to the Philippines. This is episode 126, results of the Philippines General Election. So the Philippines just concluded its elections and it looks like Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Is going to win the election. They haven't counted all the ballots. As of recording this, they're about 90% counted. And it looks like his margin so far is big enough that he's not going to be able to be defeated. It does look like there's some shenanigans that went on, but. But this is going to be really hard to overturn in the Philippines. So anyway, they have a new president and it's a really controversial election for them. Emotions are really high because there's so much history with this family. Some people are really happy about it and some are really, really bummed. So if you don't know the history, this is worth reading about. If you just search Ferdinand Marcos, find the Wikipedia page I will link to. And it's worth reading the summary of him. It's pretty damning, as when he was a president, he was the 10th president of the Philippines. He was president for like 21 years, through three elections. His popularity was really high, and then it really tanked. He ends up fleeing the country. He stole like $10 billion from the bank of the Philippines. I mean, it's. It's really ugly. And now his son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Is to win this election. Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Was like brutal and killed his opponents. And I mean, this is. It was. Go read. Go read the Wikipedia page. It's worth reading, especially if you're willing to listen to this. Go read the page. So is this a good or a bad thing for the Philippines? We don't know yet. It's too soon to tell. We don't know if Marcos Jr. Will make things better or worse. We don't know if he'll continue what his father did. But one of the concerns is, is this going to affect me working with my ofs? Probably, probably not. I can't say no for sure. But Filipinos somehow always find a way to make things work for themselves. Really, they just want to work and provide for their families. They just want a job. And so should this affect you and your work with them? No. However, there's more at play here, so. And that includes anxiety for your ofs. Let me just tell you this. Here's what happened. So I wrote this newsletter about this, about the election. I scheduled it to go out and then I went and checked my email and I had an email from Greg who said he had just had a conversation with his ofs and he sent me the conversation. Here's what it says. So his OFS says to him, hello, sir, to be honest, I'm actually very anxious. Election results here are very disappointing and really depressing. I've been seeing foreign clients backing out on local artists because of politics, and it scares me. Hee hee. I hope our political situation won't affect our employment because I really sure that whatever's happening here won't affect the quality of work I deliver. I mean, that's pretty compelling. Like he's super anxious about losing his job, which your ofs may be anxious about losing their jobs too, because of the current elections. Greg responds to him. That's really unfortunate to hear about foreign clients backing out on employees because of politics. Shame on the clients. I want to assure you there's no negative sentiment with me or anyone on our team about working with you. We are working with people in a couple countries and their regional politics are bound to change. In the US, ours changes drastically every four years, which is true. There's no reason for me or our company to let go of an employee because of political changes. You represent yourself in this company. Your politicians do not, and you represent yourself very well. So well done, Greg. Thank you very much. If you have OFS working for you, it's probably worth saying to them, hey, I'm aware of the election results. I don't know how you feel about it, but your employment is not changing because of it.
