The Philippines is actually quite a sad story. They have a vibrant culture. The legal language (the language all the laws are written in) is English and most people speak English. The people are smart and industrious. So what went wrong?
I blame government. The Philippines has never had a strong leader who lead them to any meaningful economic prosperity. They have suffered under one incompetent ruler after another resulting in endemic corruption and waste. The past leadership has squandered one opportunity after another to make substantive advancements.
The whole place is literally falling apart from mismanagement and neglect. The wealthy elected leadership literally fly to work in their government sponsored helicopter while the metro system falls apart. One ticket machine works next to 8 unusable ones. This results in the common man waiting 1 hour just to board a train. This disequity is endemic through the whole system. It also demoralizes the people and corrupts them as the moment they get any meaningful power they see that as their only chance in life to advance and do the exact thing they hated. Power turn good men into crooks.
These failures have led the country to near destruction. The leadership sees government as a way to enrich them selfs. The rulers lack any real vision for the people. Their words are empty words that sound good but equate to no real change.
For example the Philippines place a high tax on imported rice. Why? it’s a food staple and the wealthy politicians who hold vast tracks of rice land seek profits over the needs of the people. Medicine is heavily taxed as well. Again this benefits the government at the expense of the health of its people. Until there is meaningful political reform in the Philippines it will be a go nowhere country.
Hopefully the current president can enact meaningful reform in his tenure. Many Filipinos I know have a ray of hope with him. I hope he can deliver.
Remember that at one time Korea was a total disaster as well. The leadership of Korea aspired to reach parity with the comparatively well off Philippines. Of course not only did Korea reach the level of the Philippines they vastly surpassed it. Why? Good government that’s all.
China is rising fast, Korea is very wealthy. Japan is the top dog. Even Thailand has risen to be a manufacturing powerhouse. But the poor old Philippines? It just seems to get worse and worse there.
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