For the past week now, we have been in the middle of an “ongoing area maintenance” that has disrupted internet services at home. It struck us Monday of the week of June 22, and a due diligence phone call to the customer service hotline of our four-letter-acronym phone and internet services provider informed me, through a pleasant-sounding disembodied voice, that services were to be restored by June 24, 6 p.m.

Up until the morning of June 25, no such restoration of services occurred.

A follow-up phone call resulted in an updated detail, which put the restoration of services to June 27, 11 p.m. Needless to say, the phone bill has been paid. Current balance, as the computer-generated voice confirmed, is “zero”.

At one point, I had wanted to talk to an actual customer service representative. My attempts were thwarted twice by the very same customer service hotline. First, when the voice prompt said that I could press the number three for other concerns. Press the number three I did and I was told that the number I pressed was not valid. Second, when I had finally gotten through that and was supposedly going to be connected to an actual human on the other end of the line, the voice prompt returned with its scripted line about when the services were supposedly going to be restored. As of writing (July 2), the internet connection in our home has not been restored.

This experience, which has resulted in the decision to switch providers, served as a poignant reminder as to why “shortcut culture” persists in the Philippines—even stronger than the still missing internet connection at home.

Filipinos, from all walks of life, prefer to take the easier way out of things. Instead of legitimately going through the process of getting a driver’s license, for example, there are Pinoys who choose to take the “fixer route”. Some who have the connections even go as far as asking help from those in power to secure certain services. Government contracts are no exemption, as these can be awarded to those who have the necessary connections—an “open secret” that the still on-going flood control issue has made even more open.

From getting a job to even getting your first car, it pays to be connected, to have a “shortcut” to getting what you want (and even what you need). Watch videos about first-time job seekers in the Philippines and, chances are, there are parts that explain why this private company only hires people from a certain university.

I believe that there is a process to everything. It is one of life’s greatest yet simplest lessons. However, if going through the right process becomes unnecessarily taxing, or perhaps even purposefully tedious, then it should not come as a surprise that almost everyone opts for the “easy way out.” After all, if those who have the means to do so can get away with it, why should it not be the same for those who are on the periphery of society?

But that is just the thing, isn’t it? This should not be the case. I often wonder why Filipinos cannot seem to have the best when it comes to public services—and, as in the case of our internet problem at home, even the best when it comes to paid, private ones. A trip abroad is sufficient to make you feel that there is so much more that the Philippines, both as a country and as a society, can and should have: from efficient public transport to effective services.

So why don’t we have them yet?

It is easy to blame those who are supposed to be running things, those who are tasked with making services more efficient and effective. But it takes two to tango. You have often heard it said that we get what we tolerate, and what we tolerate we deserve. At the end of the day, in both the private and public spheres, it becomes a matter of having options. In the case of internet providers, thankfully, there are now more and maybe better choices out there than the four-letter-acronym provider. This makes seeking an improvement not at all that difficult.

Sadly, the same cannot yet be said of public services. There is not always a better option—until, say, the next elections. And while there have been efforts to improve the system, the “old ways” persist. Change, after all, is a process.

But perhaps it is time for Filipinos to want more and to realize that we deserve better.