Proton "National Automobile Enterprise" is owned by the Malaysian government. There's no way the Philippine government can even remotely imagine that. Hyundai however, had tie-ups with bigger bros such as Ford in the late 60's and Mitsubishi in the 80's onwards. If we did what Hyundai did, we'd end up making cars for the MNCs with their brand on it, being sold to us at jacked-up prices. If someone wanted to rebadge it as an all-Filipino car, we'd still have to pay royalties to the MNCs who provided the technology.

Imagine the Toyota Innova that I drive. Its parts came from everywhere, it's assembled in Laguna by Filipino folk, sold in the PhDM. But it's still a Toyota. Talk about alienation.

I dream of building a small multi-purpose engine, but I don't expect my own car company to follow. The Filipino can make one, but that's pretty much it. Bahala na lang...