Economist and Professor Noel Leyco was spot-on when he called out the Philippine government over its recent tariff negotiations with the US. While our officials were claiming they got a tough deal to “protect our agricultural sector,” Leyco called it like it is ­— we got the short end of the stick because we’re seen as weak.

It’s a feeling when you’re at your local palengke, trying to haggle for those perfect mangoes. The vendor names a price that makes your eyebrows hit your hairline. You try to negotiate, but she just shrugs and starts talking to the next customer. So you wander off, pretending you don’t need those mangoes anyway... only to realize you promised your mother you’d bring some for dessert.

You slink back, and the vendor gives you that look — the one that says “I knew you’d be back” — and gives you the same ridiculous price. You pay, walking away with both mangoes and that sour taste of resentment.

Well, welcome to Philippine foreign policy.

That’s essentially what Leyco meant: showing up to a negotiation unprepared when everyone else brought their best practices; you don’t get to make the rules.

While we were busy playing the loyal ally card, countries like Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand secured zero-tariff deals for many of their products. Cambodia, a country with an economy smaller than Quezon City’s budget, got better terms than we did.

How does it feel watching your neighbors drive away in brand new cars while you’re stuck arguing with the tricycle driver over a P10 fare increase? We’re America’s oldest friend in the ASEAN region, but apparently there are no seniority discounts in global politics. Sentiment might get a photo op, but it doesn’t get you better terms.

Which brings us to our agricultural sector — the very thing the government claimed to be protecting. Frankly, it’s comparable to having a rusty, 50-year-old jeepney and trying to convince people it’s a Ferrari. We can’t even manage our onion supply without prices swinging like a pendulum, yet Cambodia is getting zero tariffs for its products?

We’re trying to protect an industry that needs transformation, not protection….like putting a fancy lock on a house with termite-infested walls while our neighbors are building concrete mansions.

What if we get our act together? What if instead of just being known for sending caregivers and seafarers abroad, we become the tech-driven agricultural hub of Southeast Asia? What if our mangoes aren’t just the sweetest, but the most technologically advanced? That’s a country you negotiate with differently. That’s a country that gets zero-tariff deals, not leftover scraps.

Leyco’s prescription nailed it. The medicine is bitter, but necessary. We need to stop dining out on colonial history and start building an economy that makes us indispensable. Forget the “remember when we were your colony?” nonsense. It’s time to get to “you need what we’ve got.”

The writing is on the wall. We’re being treated like the kid who gets seated at the plastic table during family reunions because the adults don’t think we can handle the precious dinnerware. We can complain about it, or we can finally grow up, put up our own table, and serve something so good everyone wants some of it.

There’s some good news, though. We’re Filipinos. We’ve built empires from nothing, survived countless crises, and can turn any situation into a celebration. If we can queue properly for fish balls and kwek-kwek and turn throwing water at each other into a festival, surely we can figure out how to make our economy something the world would actually need.

It starts with being honest about why we’re still haggling over mangoes when we could be selling the whole tree — and why Cambodia’s already doing it.

It seems Cambodia’s diplomacy is backed by a very tasty, very reliable mango. As they secured zero-tariff deals, their mango industry quietly thrived across every province. The Keo Romet variety is the overachiever of the fruit world — delicious and harvestable multiple times a year — a reminder that a nation’s strength often grows on trees, not just in meeting rooms.