Why is infrastructure generally terrible in the Philippines?

Rosh Meer

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Lives in Manila (2017–present) 7y

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Why is infrastructure generally terrible in the Philippines?

1. Private players - Almost everything is in the hands of private companies, which tried to squeeze as much as they could. Building extremely dense apartment and dwellings, despite having fairly large area in Luzon was probably the start of every mess. And it continues to happen with no regulation. The city needed a horizontal growth and in an attempt to ape the west, it went on in to increase vertically leading to the most densely populated city in the world. I haven't come across any government led housing scheme or society. Corruption in government was just another nail in the coffin. Housing became unaffordable for majority of the public who now travels 6 hours just to reach at work as they preferred to continue living in their hometown which are far flung.
2. Myopic Planning/urbanisation - Building major cities along one single highway was next in line to put everything in abyss. The whole of metro Manila (16 cities) is laid on the sides of one major highway EDSA. If one has to go to from A to E, he has to cross B, C ,D no matter what and no other way. Thanks to corruption and myopic view, government also approved building some of the biggest malls (in the world) along this one arterial road. Any major festival, or rush hour this highway is choked beyond imagination. Not only does the public suffers it burgeons to many other issues. And because of huge influx of people during working days , it's just another level of mess.
3. Poor public transport - Metro trains are outdated and unreliable. There are instances where they seem to get conked off in the middle of nowhere. Government was lenient on letting vehicles, which people would buy on loans and that added up to the enormous traffic. I know people who own 11 cars for 3 people due to the poorly planned Color coding scheme. Instead of solving an issue, it rather made it worse. Majority of space per person/vehicle on highways is occupied by the cars and SUV. It is said that , only 2% of the metro Manila population can afford cars and it is this 2% that occupies the 80% of the roads. Thanks to poor public transport which is limited to smoke belching and unsafe jeepney, private buses which ply like they are on a killing spree and metro which if decides to break down in middle of nowhere, nothing seems to fall in place nor appears to be in near future.
4. Mindset of People/Poor education/lack of employability. This holds very close to me. Something is really messed up with the social fabric here. Extreme divide between poor and rich. There is very little middle class here, which in my opinion adds most to the growth of a nation and its cities. There are no avenues for the poor to afford quality education, and they continue to be poor for next generations to come. No education loan facility and Also poor families pay least interest in providing the kids any quality education. Max I have seen is high school drop outs and highest they would reach is a low paying call center or a mall executive. The other side of spectrum, the rich who does afford quality education either leaves the country or like I said is miniscule (the 2%). And even more miniscule middle class. All these factors led to lack of skills and talent in the country, hence no company wanted to establish their base here. All the executive positions are held by expats .
5. “bahala na”, translated to, “just the way it is” is the motto and anthem of local population. Change comes from within and it won't happen unless people want it. This is the same population that ousted a President by the famous EDSA revolution, high time there is another revolution to bring massive overhaul to current policies and facilities.