Why Filipinos are generally poor?

 There are several reasons why many Filipinos are poor. One of the main reasons is the lack of access to quality education and job opportunities. The Philippine education system is underfunded and overcrowded, which makes it difficult for many students to receive a proper education. Additionally, the lack of job opportunities in the country means that many Filipinos are unable to find work that pays a decent wage.

Another reason for poverty in the Philippines is the high level of inequality in the country. Despite the country’s economic growth in recent years, the benefits have not been evenly distributed, and the gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow. This inequality means that many Filipinos are unable to access the resources and opportunities that would allow them to improve their economic situation.

Furthermore, the Philippines is also vulnerable to natural disasters, such as typhoons and earthquakes, which can devastate communities and push people into poverty. The country’s inadequate infrastructure and lack of disaster preparedness also exacerbates the impact of these disasters, making it difficult for people to recover and rebuild their lives.

In order to address poverty in the Philippines, it is important for the government to implement policies that address the underlying causes of poverty, such as investing in education and job opportunities, reducing inequality, and improving disaster preparedness and response. It will also require a commitment from all sectors of society, including businesses, civil society organizations, and individuals, to work together to create a more inclusive and equitable society.

Pag-alala sa EDSA People Power, Ikatlong Dekada

Ika- 25 ng Pebrero, 1986, tatlong dekada na ang nakararaan nang magtipon-tipon ang maraming Pilipino sa Epifaño de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) upang patalsikin ang noo’y naghaharing diktador, pangulong Ferdinand Marcos na nakilala bilang EDSA People Power Revolution. Sa pangyayaring ito, nangibabaw ang kulay dilaw sa bawat lansangan ng kapuluang nagkakaisa upang wakasan ang diktadoryang naghasik ng karahasan, pangaabuso, at paglalapastangan lalo na sa mga taong lumalaban sa kanyang pamunuan.

Photo by www.inquirer.net

 Ang mga bagay na ito ang ating parating nariring sa bawat telebisyon at radio tuwing sasapit ang anibersaryo ng EDSA People Power. Sa detalyeng ito ang patuloy na tumatatak sa isip ng sambayanang Pilipino lalo na sa mga bagong henerasyon. May mga bagay na hindi nabibigyang pansin tulad ng “ano nga ba ang mga layunin ng pag-aalsa?” Marami ang magsasabi, “para patalsikin sa pwesto si Marcos”. Ngunit, ito nga lang ba ang tunay na hangarin ng rebolusyon o mas may malalim pa itong mga hangarin?

Sa mga nag-aaral ng kasaysayan, kasama sa mga hangarin ng rebolusyon ay mapaalis ang mga “TRAPO” (traditional politicians) sa pwesto, mapaunlad ang ekonomiya ng bansa, maghari muli ang demokrasya, at matigil ang kaguluhan sa bansa. Ang EDSA People Power ay hindi lamang nangyari para patalsikin ang diktador ng bansa, kundi upang baguhin mismo ang bansa.

Hindi natin maikakaila na tunay ngang nabalot ng kaguluhan ang bayan natin nang pamasailalim tayo sa Batas Militar nang siyam na taon sa pamumuno ni dating Pangulong Marcos. Naghatid ito ng takot sa bawat isa, at libo-libong tao ang nakulong, naparusahan at napatay nang walang kongkretong dahilan. Hindi ito maitatanggi, dahil ito ang tunay na nangyari.

Tatlong dekada na ang nakalilipas, balikan natin ang mga pangako ng rebolusyon, ilan nga ba rito ang naisakatuparan? Ikaw na ang bahalang sumagot.

Underdevelopment in the Philippines

by B.P. Familara (2013)

We live in a country that is struggling to rise from the ashes of poverty. A country that was exploited by the whites for the last four hundred years and undergone a series of wars. We were educated far beyond what is needed for development. Spaniards tough us to be afraid of the friars, memorize prayers, and live with the gospels of the saints. Americans, indeed help us to uplift the kind of life we have today. They introduced public education system that was patterned to them. They make sure that the Filipinos are educated according to their will. The downside of this is that, they miseducate us. They let us forget who we are and forcibly change our customs.

Americans flooded our country by their products and spare no one in making their local business to grow. We became a country of buyers wherein we buy more that we produce. Our economy used to be very dependent to the economy of America, but this path slowly fades nowadays.

On the past centuries, the pillars of economy and socio-political have collapsed that makes the gap between rich and poor wider. The rich becomes richer while the poor becomes poorer.  If we illustrate, we could draw a triangle divided into three. The upper is the rich  /BILL PATRICK FAMILAR (c) /people, the middle is the working class, and the bottoms are the urban and rural poor. The unequal distribution of wealth in our country affects great to the development of our economy. The amount of assets that our economy produces is not enough to follow the level of sophistication of the technology that is being used by the mainstream. The result of this is that our locally made product cannot compete to the world market due to the durability and price differences, imported good often cheaper than homegrown / locally produced goods, that often resulting to bankruptcy of local businesses.

This event creates a vicious circle or what other may say, poverty trap. We study hard, but when we graduate there are lesser opportunities on the field that can be found in our country. It is for the reason that we have a mismatch labor force in our society. We produce more scholastic graduates like accountants, engineers, nurses, and ITs but what our country really needs are the skilled labor force that can easily fit in to the needs of in the country and overseas.

History and Underdevelopment

 By B.P. Familara (2013)

After World War 2, most of the countries in Asia, America and European countries were destroyed. Far East Asia and the Pacific territories were greatly affected as the bombing persist decades long. Major cities were bombed like Hiroshima, Pearl Harbor and Manila. Korea and Vietnam were in great tension when the spread of communism spreads and civil wars broke in. This was the darkest time in eastern and south eastern part of Asia.

Before the war, there were only few countries developed faster in terms of economy; Japan who leads in Asian industrialization, China who leads in wide range trade across Asia, Europe and Americas and Philippines that has a strong tight to its central government, the United States.

Philippines used to be one of the most powerful countries in Asia next to Japan. Korea was stocked on a very traditional country as well as Vietnam and Thailand. After the mass destruction of the main cities and the collapsed of the economic foundation resulted by the aftermath of the war, each countries had a hard time to re-establish it. Series of trials of different economic ideals and theories were tried. Some, closed its doors to the world and some let it opened so many foreign direct investments would come to aid the large scarce of the resource, the funds.

During Marcos time, The Philippines was one of the leading countries that can cope up and re-established its economic foundations. With the help of his wife, got very strong ties to the Arab countries that main product is oil. He successfully invited many foreign investors and the economy float.

Fifty years have passed; this was altered when series of unhealthy government and weak governance took over the country. The Philippines was left behind from its neighboring country. China, South Korea and Japan are now the largest manufacturers of electronic devices that is being used around the world. Thailand and Vietnam surpasses Philippines in terms of Economic advancement which are still stocked on agricultural economy.

There are many factors to consider why this event happened. First, the culture, does the history of the country affects the attitudes of the people? My answer is yes. It is because for almost 400 years, the Philippines were under many colonizers like Spain, Britain, Japan and America. We were taught to be workers and the idealism of pwede na yan were e inculcated to our mind that hinders perseverance in terms of development.

Understanding Poverty

by B.P. Familara

[A family living under the bridge of CAVITEX]

Poverty is an economic status of being poor. There are many factors why poverty exists. According to C. Wright Mills, an American sociologist, poverty has two main reasons why it exists these are the personal troubles and public issues. Personal troubles are the issues of every individual why they can’t find a job. Some are not qualified to the job they’re applying in, some are over qualified to have that job, but most often it is about the attitude of the person applying a job or their attitude towards work. For example, if the town has population of 200 and 180 of it is employed and only 20 are not. It is an issue that the government cannot do about because there are a lot of opportunities but these 20 unemployed might having a hard time in finding a job. In contrast to this, if 180 are unemployed and only 20 are employed this is what we called Public issue. This is a manifestation that the social structure of a society has been collapsed. There are many work forces but here are less job opportunities combined with some personal troubles.

Poverty in our country is a product of the two realities, the economic underdevelopment and the reality of inequality. The unequal distribution of wealth in our country affects great to the development of our economy. The rich becomes richer while the poor becomes poorer. The amount of assets that our economy produces is not enough to follow the level of sophistication of the technology that is being used by the mainstream. The result of this is that our locally made product cannot compete to the world market due to the durability and price differences, imported good often cheaper than homegrown / locally produced goods, that often resulting to bankruptcy of local businesses.

After world war two, Philippines are next to Japan in terms of economic development but the faith of our country is not that good as Japan.  The question lies on my mind how come we did not develop like Japan? Somehow, it lies on foreign relationship with the US. American put their Military bases that hindered us to explore our full potential. Our preferential agreement in the US market for Philippine sugar, for example, shielded the favored Filipino farmers from urgency of competition and modernization. Comparing the value of Peso to American dollars usually makes us blind to the real situation and to think an illusion of prosperity, prosperity that in reality we can’t even feel. We have not paid attention in the modernization of our agriculture industry and we did not even build more modern infrastructure. Our public education system before was farther good than the private educational institutions. However, we let it to be deteriorated. Nowadays, we choose to educate our children in private schools rather than in the public, thinking that they will be trained well in on that institution.

On the time of the presidency of Marcos, problems during his governance took over his efforts in economic development. He loaned billions of peso for the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, but the money was misused and the world economy entered into recession that resulted to our government cannot pay it. His modernization project also failed because it is untenable. Despite the fact that late President Marcos did wrong, we should honor him for his efforts to rebuild and develop our country, though it was not successful.

Our bad experiences during Marcos about modernization make us blind for the reality that we need a development. We became paranoid, our democratic rights and freedom. During the presidency of the first lady president, Cory Aquino, series of coups‘d’état hindered our economic development and frightens foreign investors to invest to our country.   This coup makes our economy frost while our population is growing fast. Thus, it results to social imbalance and the collapsed of our social structure.

The dilemma nowadays is that the growing economy cannot actually feel by the poor, but only by the few elites that actually controls it. Yes, after the first decade of the 21th century, and according to the news reports, our economy have grown and we are now 3^rd next to Thailand and China which is the 1^st in Asia’s fast growing economy.

The solution to those problem is to the government should provide and meet the basic needs of our society. By rebuilding social trust, the fight for corruption is one of the best example, and re-establishing the social structure of opportunities. Re-establishing it absolutely will produce more job opportunities, but it is still depending on the cooperation and participation of the people to this move.

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This article is based on the article published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer,on July 15, 2000 with the same title