The Philippines is moving towards a new economic era in which more foreigners will work in the country. Foreigners can now fully own telecommunications, railway, and airline companies. They’re now allowed to have 100% ownership over small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are not on the foreign investments negative list. Finally, many of the leading contenders in this year’s elections are in favor of easing the 60%-40% foreign equity rule that’s mandated in the 1987 Constitution.
The influx of foreigners will bring more work opportunities for Filipinos. It will also intensify competition between local and foreign businesses. We Filipinos should reflect on our strengths and weaknesses to equip ourselves for this new economy. One of the most affordable ways that we Filipinos can develop better self-awareness is by watching realistic travel vlogs about the Philippines. So here are 3 YouTube channels that show how Filipinos are truly like!
Kyle Jennerman, a Canadian living in Davao Oriental, is the vlogger behind BecomingFilipino. His channel shows how it’s like to live in an idyllic Cateel seaside community.
If you want to know what it’s like to have Filipino friends, watch BecomingFilipino! You’ll truly feel the warmth and authenticity of Kyle’s relationships with the locals. That’s because we love making foreigners feel like they’re part of the family. And most Filipinos always find something to laugh about even when life is hard.
Kyle’s friends seem to be good cooks too, just like many Filipinos. But as you’ll see in his vlog, we need to learn better plating if we want our cuisine to become world-class.
This new YouTube channel’s content creator is Seungha Boo, an aerospace engineering graduate of Seoul National University. His vlog is unique because each video so far is like raw footage of his adventures in the Philippines.
The realism in Seungha’s vlog will make viewers root for this South Korean. Watch him as he struggles to get jeepney rides, haggles for cheap products, passes by roads where thieves might snatch his bag, and dodges hepatitis from street food…so that he can see the Philippines’ natural beauty in the midst of all that chaos.
Filipinos’ helpfulness also shines through in Seungha’s vlog. He easily approached them for assistance and they happily helped him get around. Moreover, one of his videos shows that our seafoods are relatively cheap. But they taste great! I got to eat at the seafood market where Seungha was, so I can attest that they’re fresh.
On the other hand, we Filipinos can help foreigners like Seungha more if we pay closer attention to safety, especially in tourist spots.
Because of his high risk tolerance, Seungha happily rode towards the Pagsanjan Falls as Filipinos, who weren’t wearing adequate safety gear, pulled his raft towards the rocks. Then Seungha went swimming in Donsol with a punctured snorkel. He wore it initially, then decided to forego it because water seeped into the snorkel the first time he went into the sea — right beside the whale sharks!
A company that conducts tours like those will get sued in developed countries.
Originally from Iceland, Finn Snow is now based in Cebu although he still visits a lot of places in the Philippines. Most of his videos feature many of our tourist spots. But he also shows what day-to-day living here is like, such as how the locals cook food and celebrate religious festivals. His videos about the Typhoon Odette aftermath show that Filipinos can still be very hospitable even if a tropical cyclone had just destroyed everything that they owned.
What I appreciate about Finn the most is that he took professional diving lessons to study our oceanic wildlife. His beautiful underwater shots and knowledge about our various sea creatures set him apart from other vloggers who feature the Philippines. I’ve never seen a Filipino diver do the same.
I wish we Filipinos would do that: master difficult skills then use them to maximize our natural resources. We especially need the Filipino youth to take up agriculture-related courses that will address our country’s food insecurity. Doing so will also promote better eating habits.
Moreover, we need skills that will help us preserve the environment. Filipino students should major in courses that will help us cultivate Katmon trees, build coconut crab sanctuaries, and protect our dugongs. If we won’t, foreigners might do it for us. That’s an excellent possibility, if they share many of our values, respect our laws, and enjoy our culture. But not all of them will do that. And you never know who our politicians might let into our borders for their own profit, or because they want to be woke.
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