I read the whole thing so I think I deserve to respond to this. I am one of the many Filipinos who decided to leave the country because of the traffic and daily commute horrors of living in Metro Manila. This was almost a decade ago. I can only imagine how much worse it is right now for every Juan. I agree with the basic premise here that if people people find good paying jobs outside of Metro Manila, they will stay in those areas and might even entice people to move out of Metro Manila because of it. But for people to say that having a strong technology hub north and south of Metro Manila to make this happen is a bit of a stretch. If you just look at how many technology jobs there are in Metro Manila which is honestly centered around the Makati, Ortigas, Taguig, Mandaluyong areas then you end up with a small percentage of people that fit that criteria. Small enough that I don’t think it would affect the overall traffic situation. Of course the plan posits that tech jobs in Metro Manila is on the rise so I agree that doing nothing at this point will just make this situation worse. The real question is what kind of technology jobs can actually be moved out of Metro Manila to improve the traffic situation? The BPO industry tried this strategy but failed because all the infrastructure for those jobs we’re inside the city. The high paid, skilled software engineering jobs are all situated in the city because they are part of global companies that require the stability of the infrastructure and location for them to even consider investing in a team there.

During my decade long self imposed exile I’ve listed 3 things that I told myself would be required to improve the Philippine economy:

1. Better internet access for every Juan
2. Improved public transportation for every Juan
3. Easier access to financial instruments for every Juan

Note that the crucial requirement here is that is for every Juan. If only the top 10% gets any of these then it would not create a better economy. I will not rant or opine about the complexities of the economic system in the Philippines as I do not know enough to do so. What I do know from the experience of starting software based startups there was that these 3 things have to improve for the environment of tech startups to flourish. Slow internet access is the bane of most development teams in the Philippines. These fast corporate internet speeds can only be possible within Metro Manila right now. This causes tech companies to open said businesses in Metro Manila. The third requirement is necessary for said businesses to start up and for their potential customers to have the ability to transact with them.

There is good news though. There is a pool of talented software engineers in the Philippines. I spent a decade of my professional career working there and have met and worked with people that have the skills and aptitude that is rare across the globe. I know this because I have been lucky enough to run multiple software development teams across the world and can tell you personally that Filipino software engineers have multiple advantages regardless of where they are geographically. They are stubborn yet reasonable. They are hardworking yet fun outside of work settings. They have a good grasp of the English language even though they think they are bad at it. They come from good schools that create very talented software developers. They are technically and analytically strong at software development because culturally they chose this career instead of being forced into it. Those all sound like soft reasons and very difficult to quantify but I know personally that this is why Filipino software engineers thrive no matter where they are on the planet. We just need to figure out how to keep them in the Philippines so that we can boost the tech industry innovation locally instead of being spread far and wide across the globe.

I will make a mental note to revisit this post and write more about my thoughts and feelings about this topic. I personally still have dreams of doing another tech startup in the Philippines in the near future. I will not be doing it for nationalistic reasons though. I will be doing it because I know there is real potential in that industry for this country if we can just find a way to get around the infrastructure problems it currently has. As they say: “The Filipino is worth changing for”.