Thirty years ago in 1976, the Philippine Dictator Ferdinand Marcos was fiddling like Nero on the walls of Rome - hosting IMF meetings, Miss Universe Beauty contests and "Thrilla in Manila" at the Araneta. He promised a New Society. America prided the country as Asia's showcase of democracy.

Thirty years ago in 1976, Vietnam was just shattered into a country of chaos after the Americans and Vietcongs fought a war that neither won nor lost. Only Vietnam suffered; she decided to turn from communism to democracy.

Three decades later today, the Philippines' growth rate exceeds only that of Bangladesh in Asia; Vietnam shows an 8.4% growth rate, the second highest in Asia next to China and beating Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea and even powerful India.

Vietnam has a booming textile industry in a population of 87 million Vietnamese which is almost that of the Philippines - while our textile industry is in the obituary pages, despite the fact that Filipinos love to wear clothes.

Vietnam, a small country now consumes more cement than France, her colonizer for ages which means the construction industry is booming like crazy. The Philippine banking system had just discovered - at least the three enlightened banks - that to spur the housing boom, it must give 25 year term mortgages, despite the banking industry's bloated, inefficient liquidity.

Thirty years after being a democracy, Vietnam is now the darling new tiger of Asia while the Philippines is still debating whether to shift from presidential to parliamentary - to be manned largely by the same people - oligarchs and dynasty members - who were responsible in not making the presidential system work, in the first place.

The pace of export growth of Vietnam to the USA exceeds that of China while our export growth is dominated by garments and electronics - which are heavily dependent on imported raw materials.

International investors like Intel and Nike are sinking in billions of dollars into Vietnam while the Vietnamese who learned English, got entrepreneurial experience and technical skills abroad - fly home like conquering marauders and get their jobs in dollar values. The Philippines has the real Diaspora - 10 million Filipinos escaping this jobless country - while another one million of OFWs was added to the list this year 2006 alone.

Accountants, HR managers and other professionals in Vietnam are now getting 30 to 50% hike in pay due to scarcity of skilled labor while thousands of Filipinos flock at the Department of Foreign Affairs to get employed: teachers as maids and doctors as nurses. Twenty five percent of the seafaring crew of the commercial ships in the world is manned by Filipino seamen.

An artificial burst of activity at the Philippine stock market-buoyed by the so-called hot money - that disappears as fast as it appears - is headlined as an "achievement" by the tale spinners. Little do we realize that the Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi stock markets doubled in value in just one year alone. That means if you invested P1-Million in Vietnamese stocks last year - on average-that is worth P2-Million in 12 months-today-while you just meditate on your favorite mantras - doing nothing.

Up to 2006, the Philippines who rivaled Japan before World War II in economic terms, some 25-30% of Filipinos still live below the poverty line of US1-dollar a day subsistence (P50/day). From 51% of people below poverty line in 1990, Vietnam has reduced that to an astonishing 8% in just 16 years.

What in James Bond's name is happening to our country? We depend on Nature to spare us from typhoons to make our agriculture sector grow. NEDA Director Neri himself says there is no political will in making certain sectors undergo the much needed reform, let's start with power. We have politicized our economic policy-making much too much.

We depend on international crude oil price to contain our inflation and lean on OFWs to bolster our international reserves (now at US$22-Billion). In Manila, people rejoice that the Congress had - finally - passed a budget, almost a year stale and that-Government had - finally, too - solved the deficit problem. In other nations, deficit-taming and speedy budget approvals are a given.

There is still adventurism in the military - and how in Daniel Craig's (007) name can the country not solve this longest insurgency war in Southeast Asia which has eaten so much of the military's budget?

The president's legitimacy is being questioned and there is just too much politics - from the barber shop to Congress to Malacañang. And so much talk - and writing, mea culpa - than live action to solve the nation's ills.

We have all forgotten why God gave us two ears and two hands and just one tongue. We were meant to listen more, then act than talk like parrots in a lover's quarrel.

We have an associate Ken (not his real name) who used to be chief accountant for a local firm that skinned crabs and sent the meat in packs to the world from our seas.

Today, he is chief financial officer for a Vietnamese firm - highly regarded and handsomely paid as he could even afford to visit Manila monthly (on his pay) as if he was just journeying from Manila to Davao.

His Vietnamese employer-firm is asking him to prepare the papers of his family so they can relocate and the kids study in Hanoi.

He is our living proof today that something is awfully amiss in our country. Ken, the good-natured, educated and thorough thinking professional has no takers in his own land for the skills he has in great abundance.

Rather he has found it in war-ravaged Vietnam, a country given up for lost like a patient in the ICU many years ago - one who may recuperate after the wounds of the war - but will never be the same again. Where did we go wrong?