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This is to express my appreciation to Sandeep Kanjilal for his letter “The missing piece in Philippine devt.” (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 4/22/08) An Indian, he gave us Filipinos useful and friendly advice without being supercilious or condescending. But there is one missing piece that he failed to mention.

When you travel to places in progressive countries abroad, and you go up the top floors of the skyscrapers where the chief offices of the major corporations and businesses are located, and you ask for the owner or the boss, you will find that the owner/boss is generally a native of that country. In London he is an Englishman, in New York an American, in Hong Kong a Chinese, in Korea a Korean, in Japan a Japanese, in Kuala Lumpur, India or China he is Malaysian, Indian or Chinese. It is the same with their billionaires.

If you do the same in Makati City and Pasig City, where the primary financial centers of our country are located, you will find that the owner/boss is a foreigner: an American, British, Japanese, Chinese, Korean; or descendants of non-natives like Spanish and American “mestizos,” offspring from our colonial past. Of the 10 richest “Filipinos” listed by Forbes Magazine (Oct. 18, 2007), two are Spaniards, seven are Chinese or Chinese-Filipinos, and only one (Senate President Manny Villar) is visibly an ethnic Filipino. While there are no Americans or British on the list of Filipino individual billionaires, they dominate the top Philippine corporations that hold by far the biggest financial assets of our country. A survey of our biggest landholdings, especially those held by families and corporations, would show that the owners are also mostly foreigners or heirs of foreigners.

In short, ethnic Filipinos or descendants of the original inhabitants and owners of these islands no longer own them. As Cassius told Brutus in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in that we are underlings.”

MANUEL F. ALMARIO, spokesman, Movement for Truth in History (MOTH), via email

• Change
• Natural
• Was Cebu’s praying prelate quoted out of context?
• Identities
• Task force on street kids to have guidance, rehab center
• Red Cross offers tracing service to find missing loved ones
• Why the youth choose to be silent and indifferent
• Honesty
• The next war

• Real numbers in Con-ass
• Charter amendment leads to ‘conquest by money’