Ep. 131: Philippine Election Results

Welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at outsourcing to the Philippines. This is episode 131, Philippines election results update. I just got back from cycling across Europe for a month. I took my family, we went to Paris, we rode our bikes to Germany and Switzerland and Austria and it was amazing. So over the next, over the next podcast episodes or so, I'm going to, I'm going to talk about, I'll talk some about the bike trip and talk about the other things on the podcast. So the first thing, when we got there, I thought we were making a scene. Like we had, there's seven of us, we're all walking in a line and we have these five really big suitcases that are bikes. And I had bought two other e bikes for my kids in Paris and the five of us brought our own bikes, the five bigger people. And it was kind of interesting. Like people were looking at us because there's seven of us in a line walking through the airport and pulling these really big suitcases behind us. And I thought, oh, wow, we're really making a scene. I was not prepared for the scene that we would make when we started riding our bike. So this is what we call a kit. This is the kit that we wore, the cycling uniform, basically, it's not a uniform, but it's what we wore while we were cycling. And when you put seven people wearing this, it's bright and it stands out. And you got seven people wearing this in a row on bikes. We had, we had people stopping and staring. We had people taking pictures. It was really interesting. So if you're watching on YouTube, you get to see that, the kit, if you're just listening to the podcast, you can't see it. Sorry. But it was, it was really kind of funny. I didn't realize the effect that wearing something and having seven people wearing it would have on, on people watching us. So to the elections. Newly elected President Marcos Jr. Has had a lot of attention put on him. Here's, here's the update that I have. So the elections happened. Duterte has been the president of the Philippines for the last four or six years. I don't know. And he has, he's had a lot of attention because he's really done some things that, like humanitarian wise, weren't great. He really cracked down hard on drugs and drug dealing and put people in jail and just wasn't super nice about things. Marcos, Marcos Jr. Who is the son of Ferdinand Marcos, who was, I want to say A dictator. But anyway, you can read the history about Marcos. Marcos Jr. Has won the election, and he's not the president yet. He won't be the actual president until he's inaugurated June 30. But there's a lot of excitement on one side and there's a lot of real, like, fear on the other side. And it's not super different from politics in the US except that Marcos Jr comes from a family that has a history of. There's a history. There's a history there. And Marcos Jr. Has also been a governor, I believe, and has people liked him, and that's probably why they elected him again. Outgoing President Duterte sent a press release saying that government services would continue like normal, which is really good. So the question is, is this going to affect the way that we outsource? And right now it seems like it's business as usual. And frankly, I don't see it affecting the way that we outsource. And my team in the Philippines doesn't see it either. Here's why. Filipinos have a way of getting it done. They have a way of just making it work with what they're given. When they're not dealt a very good hand, they still make it work. We also don't know Marcos Jr. Might really dive into the outsourcing sector and might improve it. So I don't think there's a whole lot to worry about from our side. What they're going through is different. And on my team, I have people that voted for Marcos and I have people that voted with Robredo, I think, is the name. And some people are scared and some people are excited. And it's kind of interesting. You might want to ask your ofs who they voted for and how they feel about the election results. It might be a really good conversation starter to see what's going on in their life and they might really like it.