Whenever you drive around Manila, the most important article to have close to you is not your license, your registration papers or insurance card. Don't ever drive without cash. This will get you out of any fix. We were able to displace Indonesia today as the most corrupt nation in the region. Somehow, I am not as bothered by this disturbing news because I am focusing on my campaign. It's as if I am finally doing something about it. Yesterday, I attended a gripe session with 200 of the urban poor. They fulminated for about 2 hours and I was given 5 minutes to react and I told them what I thought of their plight.

Whose fault is it if we continuously return these traditional politicians every election cycle because of their empty promises and bribe money? Is there any wonder why when we approach them after the elections they tell us in so many words and actions that they don't owe us anything because they had already purchased our votes? How many generations will it take for these vulnerable people to realize that their lives are only getting worse? We cannot expect these traditionals to change a system that enables them to build mansions, cultivate political connections and send their children to schools abroad. A system that will allow their progeny an outsize advantage to continue these dynasties.

Because I am a physician, many ask me about my thoughts regarding health issues. If I don't have much time, I tell them we don't spend near enough the proper amount of money that we need to be investing in healthcare. We allocate about 1% when it should be a minimum of 3% of the total budget. As a result, we don't have enough rural clinics and urgent care facilities which is the principal reason why most of the poor troop to hospital emergency rooms for disorders that could have been attended to in a clinic. The salaries we pay our doctors, nurses, medical technologists are inadequate and we barely offer the most basic medications to the teeming poor.

Comes down once again to money. Raise taxes, cut spending, restructure debt payment arrangements. We don't have too many options left. We need to abandon the mindset of treating "restructuring" as if it were some form of a sacred cow.

I am asked by a lot of people what I think of the Value Added Tax and I tell them that I think the VAT is a clear illustration of how our country deals with its problems. It takes the easy way out and simply taxes everyone even if we all know that the most affected are the families of the overseas Filipinos who produce the bulk of real production in our country today. The government refuses to admit that it is mortally afraid of these powerful banking institutions from whom it depends for loans to pay all those loans, some of which were transacted under immoral circumstances (like paying billions of dollars for a nuclear plant that was never used and which was the result of complicity between corrupt government officials and businessmen). The government is not addressing the root cause of corruption in the form of tax leaks and tax breaks that favor the wealthy and powerful but how can our leaders implement a corruption- free policy when they don't have any credibility? They freely make promises they don't keep and whenever they are caught doing dishonest deeds, they muddle the issue and stymie, by all the various means they have at their disposal, the pursuit of truth.

The last few days have been very busy and I expect the pace to pick-up even more. I am meeting a lot of people and I am seeing so many new facets in our society. And while there is widespread hopelessness and cynicism I feel that people want to participate again. I feel that they want to resume reading newspapers again. I have heard many a regret about not having voted for a while. Bringing these people back to caring about the future of our country is a solid first step towards taking our country back from the clutches of traditional politics.

Attended today a symposium of college students. My invitation had been an afterthought the night before the event for two candidates from the "Genuine Opposition" had confirmed their attendance. As I expected, the two did not show. I felt for the idealistic organizers of the event who still had no idea that when the stakes are high, it just does not pay to engage in retail politics. But when your mission is for the conversion of a corrupt system these are the meetings that matter and I had a wonderful time engaging people half my age for an hour and a half discussing my dreams and their dreams for our country.

We need to do something about the debt problem. More than 40% of the budget goes towards paying the interest on our numerous debts. We currently have a law that automatically appropriates money from whatever money the government makes through the collection of taxes, exports, overseas remittances, etc.

Because of the large share that ends up being eaten by interest payments, social services that had already been marginal have been cut back further. There are hardly any appreciable investments being made towards the maintenance and upgrade of infrastructure. Schoolteacher salaries have been stagnant. Government, which should be the prime engine that drives the economy, has acted with embarrassing impotence simply because it does not have the money to stimulate growth.

Remember that part of this debt continues to come from dubious deals that were made 30 years ago including a nuclear power plant that was built but never produced a single kilowatt of energy because in the indecent haste in which the deal was sealed and soon after the large payoff-bribes has been delivered, it was determined that the plant was astride a geographical fault. I remember the figure well: $300,000 a day was being paid by the Filipino people. An amount that could have built so many schoolrooms, that could have provided a glass of milk to millions of schoolchildren. Instead, one of the cronies responsible for the deal bought himself a castle and a title in Austria.

It is immoral to continue to pay interest on these odious loans. Our leaders need to show more courage when they negotiate with financial institutions that knew exactly the corrupt origins of some of these loans