DISKARTE: ADAPTABILITY & INGENUITY

5 July 2025

The Used-car Salesman 

Alex had always been fascinated with cars.  He used to help his father tinker with old vehicles for resale.  If ordinary people hated going to repair shops where they had to wait for hours, Alex thought it was fun, just like playing a sport he enjoyed.  He liked chatting with mechanics and looking for car parts in places like Bulacan and Cavite, known for allegedly stolen vehicles, where they were then cannibalised for their parts.  After all, he had been in this trade since he inherited it from his father 15 years ago.   

Quick to give pointers, Alex said he usually looked for an old car with a decent mileage and a running engine.  It helped that his wife worked in a large bank, particularly in a department which sold repossessed vehicles.  With an experienced eye, she could give him leads, and once he had seen the car, he could readily tell when it had been upgraded with expensive accessories, as these could be taken out and sold separately.  Conversely, he could tell when its original accessories had been removed before it was surrendered to the bank.  For example, he was able to negotiate a good deal on a Toyota Wigo by pointing out a missing knob here and a cabin light there, stripped off by the previous owner. His wife’s less experienced colleagues, who didn't know that these parts were cheap and easy to source, were easily persuaded to give a good discount. 

“You don’t have to fix every issue with the car,” he said, “but simply get it running, and address visible concerns, such as the mileage, some scratches and dents, or unusual noise and rattlings.  Most buyers are not knowledgeable about car mechanics, so appearance is everything.  Therefore, my sales policy is on an “as is, where is” basis.  Any problems found after the purchase are the buyer's responsibility.” 

Alex added, “Networks are an important thing in this business.  You don’t only want leads for potential buyers, but also a suki (repeat customer) for repair services at the best price.  I know a guy for engine checks, another for paints and dents, still another for the air-conditioners, a fourth for hand-to-find parts, and so on. 

“It’s the same for re-selling.  I don’t usually deal with middlemen but advertise directly.  I have a Facebook page where I post my vehicles for sale and where I have thousands of friends and followers:  I use social media a lot.  Then, I try to get as many repeat customers as possible by giving them good after-sales service.  Second-hand cars usually come with a lot of defects, so I help them identify what’s wrong (as though I didn’t know!), and then help them get the spare parts.  That’s another source of revenue for me.  

“I make good profit because I’m resourceful. We Filipinos are resourceful . . . we have diskarte (strategy).  We work smart.” 

The Habal-Habal Passenger

Lorna was a young office girl.  A university graduate, she earned Php35,000/month (USD600).  She used a motorcycle taxi or habal-habal* to commute to work every day:  it was fast as it could wiggle its way between cars, vans, and buses through heavy traffic.  Although she was often warned by her parents that the habal-habal was unsafe, she brushed off their concerns.  Most of her friends, she said, were doing the same thing. 

“It is simply the most practical thing to do if I were to reliably get to work on time.  Besides, the habal-habal app on my phone is easy to use.  Of course, I could walk—it would take me about 30 minutes--but I get sweaty by the time I reach the office.  You know naman it is often very hot and humid here, so the 50-Peso ride is very much worth it.  It is less expensive than Grab** or Uber before Uber stopped operations here.  Grab charges three times more, at about 150-Pesos per ride.  The buses or jeepneys, of course, are much less -- as little as 20-Pesos -- but you have a long wait, and they are so unreliable. And the MRT*** naman has limited routes while having long waiting lines.  When you get in, you can hardly move due to over-crowding.

"When it is hard to book my regular motorcycle taxi, I have to admit that I also use colorum drivers (those who drive without permits).  There are a number of them who ply around my area, stopping random people who might look like they’re looking for a ride.  Diskarte lang.

“I am not careless; I wear loose clothes and proper shoes.  I even sport a haircut that easily fits in the hairnet and helmet I am required to use.  I then look at the driver to make sure he’s ok, especially if he is colorum. Otherwise, I hear drivers and their motorcycles are carefully vetted by the dispatch company they are affiliated with, like Angkas,*** the company I often use. It requires proper documentation from its drivers, including their licenses and the registration papers for their machines.  It maintains the app, regulates the services of the drivers it provides, and gives these drivers pointers on road safety.  Moreover, it has an insurance policy for all the drivers.   

“I think it is only a question of time before the government gives habal-habal legal status, as it already does with Grab. Also, I hear Angkas, the company I often use, is willing to be regulated by the Land Transportation Board and promises to abide by the Board’s preconditions. I don’t know why the government’s approval hasn’t come yet.

“But I agree with my mother.  There are safer modes of transportation.  For example, you meet a lot of ego-trippers on the road. One time, as I was riding our motorcycle, a car overtook us, and we had to brake strongly as it immediately slowed down. This encouraged my driver to overtake it in turn, whereupon it sped up to position itself in front of us before slowing down again.  It was playing a game which wasn’t funny to my driver and me.

"I have decided that as soon as I get a raise, I will commute to work by Grab."

_________________

*Habal-habal is a motorcycle that seats two, which plies the streets of the Philippines.  Often unregulated and therefore technically illegal, it is nonetheless tolerated as a form of public transportation.

** Grab, like Uber, is a ride-hailing and delivery service common in Southeast Asia.  It provides on-demand transportation through its mobile app.

*** Since the interview, Angkas has passed regulatory requirements, but now, colorum or illegal motorcycle taxis have started to offer better rates.

COMMENTARY

The Philippine mass transit systems, such as the LRT (Light Rail Transit), MRT (Mass Rapid Transit), buses, jeepneys, and tricycles that regularly ply around Metro Manila have very limited routes and are few and far between.  Unfortunately, the situation in the provinces is even worse.  Due to this woefully inadequate public transportation system in the country, most Filipinos are compelled to seek alternative means of getting from one place to another.

Many own used and old cars, others use motorcycles as ersatz taxis. Ironically, these result in another unwieldy situation: horrendous traffic congestion and unsafe roads. These motorcycles cut across lanes and zigzag their way, coming from left and right of the cars in front.  But that’s another story. The tales above are about how Filipinos with meagre means, by simply using their ingenuity, could mitigate the effects of the government’s failure to provide basic public services in a country of over a hundred million people – use diskarte lang

Diskarte is a highly prized Filipino trait, distinguishing those who succeed from those who remain locked in an environment where resources and opportunities are scarce. Rather than simply enduring hardships, these enablers use diskarte to navigate their circumstances. It requires creative problem-solving, blending innate talent, industry knowledge, personal style, and practical skills that have been honed over time.  It requires an open mind and a willingness to experiment, using one’s own approaches. However, unlike the entrepreneurial mind, which is proactive, diskarte is reactive and adaptive, an innovative response to adversity. What these two mindsets have in common is an unusual sense of agency.

When Angkas was legalised, for example, some other motorcycle drivers reacted to the news by foreseeing that in due course, Angkas would have to raise its rates, if only to conform to the often byzantine regulations of the Land Transportation Office. With diskarte, other motorcycle drivers saw this as an opportunity to step into its shoes.  Without the need for permits, insurance, driver training programs, a dispatcher, or an app, these colorum drivers, who could be hailed from the streets or accessed through Facebook, would charge less. This, in turn, would be a boon to their rate-sensitive passengers. Sometimes, it is even the Angkas drivers themselves who drive colorum by not registering their rides in order to avoid giving a percentage of their earnings to the company.

An outcrop of diskarte is delihensiya (resourcefulness), which often has a negative connotation due to its implied underhanded tactics. However, to many Filipinos, underhandedness or even outright dishonesty, while perceived as morally wrong, does not carry the same moral weight as it does in the West.

In more individualistic countries, private property is sacrosanct.  The rules are strict and clearly defined, with very little tolerance for their infractions.  Not so in the Philippines: the country is extremely collectivistic and group-orientated.  By its very nature, collectivism has a weaker concept of private property.  Belongings are supposed to be shared by the group according to felt needs. It is therefore incumbent on those who have more to share with those who have less.  In return, those who have less have utang-na-loob (indebtedness) and should reciprocate through their loyalty to the benefactor. Loyalty is valued even more highly than honesty or fairness.  By contrast, in the more individualistic Western countries, where people believe they succeed through their own merits rather than simply by luck, this idea of loyalty does not carry the same moral weight.

One can argue that the Philippines is not alone in being collectivistic. Japan, for example, has a collectivistic culture. The one big difference is that the Philippines is moreover a poor country.  If one were to think of wealth as the size of one’s pie, our pie is small indeed. Due to a lack of resources and opportunities, we have evolved an outlook where our awareness is limited to the confines of our small pie, reinforcing the idea that we should share.

Consider the so-called “crab mentality.”  Observe crabs trapped in a basket:  as one struggles to get out, others pull it back down to where the rest are.  Similarly, the “crab mentality” is a mindset that involves sabotaging anyone who tries to move ahead and achieve something. Could this partly be the result of a perception by the rest of the group that once someone escapes from the confines of their small pie, they might forget those who remain behind? Forgetting to share breeds envy.

Again, compare this to richer and higher-achieving countries, where the achievement of one encourages others to compete and to likewise strive for success. Where opportunities abound, the size of their pie is perceived to be limitless, restricted only by their imagination and industry.  Any personal failures, therefore, are the result of individual weakness. Those who are desirous of similar success should pick themselves up and work their way.

In essence, diskarte and delihensiya are survival strategies used by people with limited opportunities in countries where institutions fail to meet their citizens’ basic needs.  What others may perceive as dishonesty or unfairness has mitigating factors.  In the Philippines, they include a collectivistic value system that does not emphasise private property rights, coupled with a lack of adequate legitimate resources to alleviate the destitution experienced by many.  Thus, when compromises are called for, the idea of dishonesty is a relatively small price to pay and can, in fact, be easily tolerated.

Therefore, before outsiders pass judgment on others, we should keep in mind that different circumstances and different cultures have their own norms for right and wrong.