Top Rivalries of the Philippines – Part 5
0, July 31, 2009
11) Smart vs. Globe
Yet another business rivalry but it is definitely one that cannot be left off of this list. Smart and Globe are the leading cellular phone service providers in the country and while a couple of new players have come on board, there is no question that it has remained a two-horse race.
Smart is owned by Manny V. Pangilinan another great businessman that has his hands in almost every form of business there is in the country. Globe on the other hand, is owned by the Ayalas, a family of businessmen specializing in real estate and mall development. The two started roughly around the same time and so far, Smart communications has the edge when it comes to the number of subscribers. Globe is not far behind and seems to be the more prolific of the two groups when it comes to new technology.
I’m not very sure of this, but the two groups, the Ayalas and Mr. Pangilinan do not seem to be the cutthroat businessmen like the others and it would seem that theirs is a friendly competition more than anything.
12) The Visayans vs. the Tagalogs
Who are these? Basically, the Visayans are the ones who live in the Visayas Region or the middle island group of Visayas. The Tagalogs are basically from the northernmost island group of Luzon but technically, they are from the provinces that cover the southernmost part of that group, making them right beside the Visayans.
So what is the rivalry all about? The rivalry comes with language. Ost notably the Cebuanos, these peole generally do not like the choice of Tagalog being the National language. Technically, the National Language is Filipino not Tagalog, but the base language of Filipino is Tagalog with a few choice words from the other languages and dialects in the country but mostly only when there is no equivalent word in Tagalog.
The rivalry is mostly one-sided in the sense that the Tagalogs do not really care about it since they’re already favored anyway. The Visayans however, simply do not recognize Tagalog and would rather speak in English than use Filipino. For foreigners, there’s nothing to worry about. Communication does not break down totally because of this and the proponents of this rivalry are mostly the older people who feel slighted with what happened. The younger generation are far more accommodating when it comes to this issue.
0 Comments
