Filipino people are hard workers with strong family values who have a tradition of making many sacrifices for family members. It is not unusual for a family with few means to choose one child whom they want to send to college and then siblings and parents sacrifice themselves for that one person to “make it”.
As David C. Maness mentioned in his answer there are 20 ruling families. The Philippines is basically a kleptocracy. This two-class system is one of the biggest challenges the Philippines has before them. This and the self-worth deficit of many of the people outside of the ruling class. Allow me to elaborate:
Many Filipinos are not going to like what I am about to say. But I say this with the greatest respect and I say it because I care. Too many people in the Philippines accept their station in life and look up to wealthy people as though they are better. There is this unhealthy worship of the wealthy with lighter skin (half-Chinese celebs, half-white or all-white ex-pats) and I find it absolutely repulsive.
While there are many Filipinos who work extremely hard to better themselves and further their careers, there are also too many Filipinos who also work hard, but accept their station in life and don’t think they are good enough. They will work as a maid in Manila and send money back to the family, but they will never see themselves as more than a maid. Sadly, most wealthy Filipinos will treat these people like animals. It is not unusual for these workers to not have a bed and to simply sleep on a concrete floor. It is not unusual for them to have nothing to eat except table scraps. Some wealthy Filipinos have the mentality of slave owners.
Too many Filipinos watch this guy Willie Revillame on TV. Filipinos are very emotional and they have big hearts. I have seen grown men, very strong men, watch this fraud Willie Revillame with a tear in their eye. Willie Revillame is a billionaire who made his money exploiting the poor. People think he is generous and he is giving his own money to these people. He intentionally makes everything very dramatic. Once a young girl was on the show crying because she quit her job to be there. She said that she knew God was going to answer her prayers and she would win money. She had to because she had no job to go back to and she needed money for her sick Nanay and for food and clothing for her baby. She spun a wheel, didn’t win a thing and Willie ignored her so that he could go on to create a new dramatic scene with the next loser. That should have been a learning moment for the audience.
The Philippines is one of the most wasteful countries I have ever seen because there is so much talent going to waste. There are so many hard-working and bright people who are underemployed. Filipinos have a strength of the mind like no other culture I have seen. They can endure any hardship and keep surviving. But they do not thrive. This is partly the fault of a poorly administered government and partly the fault of the people who accept their station in life. They accept it because they don’t believe they are worthwhile. If you took an American child and plopped them into some provincial elementary school in the Philippines the teachers would think that child is a silly dreamer who needs to be more humble and they would drive the will to be great right out of that child.
I don’t want to sound mean, but Filipinos need to put down the skin whitener, be proud of what and who they are, and show the world what they are really made of.
To finally answer the question, I don’t think the Philippines is doomed to fail.
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