Why Is the Philippines A Poor Country?
(Part 13 of the “In Defense of the Filipino” series)
THE usual answers to this question are because allegedly we Filipinos are indolent, thieves, corrupt, undisciplined, crab-minded, divided, and more. Let us have the real answers.
Nation’s Debts. The main reason is because a large portion of our national budget goes to paying our foreign and domestic debts, instead of using it to build more roads, highways, bridges, schools, hospitals, housing units, railroads, irrigation, cable lines, and other public works; to raise the salaries and benefits of our public school teachers, policemen, soldiers, and government employees; and to fund more development and poverty-alleviation programs.
For every peso that the Filipino taxpayer pays to the government, a big part of it (about a third) only goes to our creditors.
An example is our national budget in 1986. It was P250 billion, and 70 per cent of that went to our creditors, while the more than 50 million Filipinos then had to fight for the remaining 30 per cent.
More and more Filipinos are deprived of social services because a large portion of our national budget is just enjoyed by our few creditors. This is only very unjust and unthinkable.
Even if the alleged US$2.4 billion annual public corruption in the country is not stolen, this money will not still be enough to fight poverty. But if we suspend paying our debts for at least two years, we will have a huge amount to solve more than half of our country’s problems.
The saddening fact with our debts is that our government has to borrow more to be able to pay old debts, and thus the more we pay, the more we get indebted.
Former President Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies—the people who plunged us all into these massive debts—must be held accountable for this appalling crime.
When Marcos took over the presidency in late 1965, the country’s foreign debts stood at only US$465 million. When he was swept from power in early 1986, those debts had reached US$26 billion—a 26,000 per cent increase! Today, the debts amount to more than US$50 billion already.
Marcos’ successors had to and will borrow vast amounts to pay those debts that he accumulated. It has now become a never-ending cycle, and only a miraculous turn of events can help and save us from being buried forever in it.
Population mismanagement. This is the next major cause. Many people keep building families and producing children even if they are unprepared and have no money.
Through massive population management programs, the people should be informed that before building families, they first must have stable livelihoods, and savings for health care, children’s education, and emergencies, and that they should produce children only according to their financial means.
Other articles by Jon E. Royeca
- Defend the Filipino - January 19, 2010
- Wrong Perceptions of Americans - January 19, 2010
- Gossips are everywhere - January 19, 2010
- Copycats? - January 19, 2010
- Colonial Mentality - January 19, 2010
- The Real ‘Filipino Time’ - January 19, 2010
- On Our Sense of History - January 19, 2010
- Crab Mentality Is Universal - January 19, 2010
- It’s Not Lack of Discipline - January 19, 2010
- All Nations Have Graft and Corruption - January 19, 2010
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6 Responses to “Why Is the Philippines A Poor Country?”
if i’m going to compare philippines of today to twenty years ago, i would say we didn’t get poorer as a whole.
Comment made on February 13th, 2010 at 8:55 pmif i’m going to compare it to usa … well we are poor.
philippine population will make a businessman salivate
that’s enormous consumer potential. i could imagine if i can make 1 cent from every person for one year. i won’t be working next year.
if you’re filipino i love you … you always do best whatever your heart desire…lol you know what i mean.
WHAT do you mean by double time.?
Doesn’t it suppose to explain the laziness of the filipinos? it’s not the number of the entrepreneurs that should be doubled, it’s the effort, the willingness, so thus their diligence that should be doubled. Isnt it?. No person will ever improve by just comparing to himself, unless he takes the dare to compare it with the ‘better’ person. Filipinos!, compare yourselves with others. no countrymen sleeps as much as you do, no countrymen talks and eats during work as much as you do. think about it.
Furthermore, with the one of the lowest wages in the world, isn’t it strange that no manufacutring business has developed in the land as expected? no more to say on the service business. Think about it. why.
Stop. Please stop reading the ‘old’ textbook and decorate ourselves, filipinos, as ‘hostable’, ‘friendly’, ‘caregiving’. Just try it once, to step out of that silly textbook and ask a foreigner what they think about us. hah… Immigration? aiport? taxis? malls? shops? just try it. Promise you won’t punch him on the face.
Then you will know, why philippines also failed in devleoping their toursim business.
Get real. Being positive on a matter is not always good. That is sometimes just an excuse.
Comment made on May 10th, 2010 at 10:30 pmIf that’s how you look at Filipinos, fine. I can’t force you to believe that we work and strive hard.
Many of us take whatever jobs we can, and so in almost every nation on earth, you will find Filipinos working as bottom-wipers, street cleaners, garbage collectors, etc.
There is no need to tell the world about being friendly, hospitable, and others. All races possess those traits.
Comment made on May 19th, 2010 at 12:17 pmThe Philippines is poor because of an ever-meddling Catholic church, that has time and again been opposing artificial birth control and the reproductive health bill. The biggest problem is overpopulation, with most of society uneducated and below the poverty line. It’s not about meager wages, we need to keep labor cost down in order to be competitive, besides our cost of living is low with respect to Malaysia or Singapore. I also disagree with your statements on capitalists and entrepreneurs. Filipinos are inherently lazy and subservient, that is why few choose the entrepreneural path. It is easier to be employed than to start your own business, and Filipinos always choose the easier way out. That’s laziness in action. More entreprenuers are needed to create jobs, but the Catholic church should first shut up and allow the government to implement population control.
Comment made on July 20th, 2010 at 2:37 pmIt’s our foreign and domestic debts that make us poor. Population mismanagement is next only.
If the government and other concerned groups and individuals will only inform the people when it comes to founding families, our problems of poverty will be lessened.
Filipinos are not lazy. When the first foreigners arrived in our shores, what they saw were trading Filipinos.
These days, we have capitalism icons like San Miguel, Shoe Mart, Bench, Jolibee, PLDT, Smart, Natasha/Nathaniel, etc. These are Philippine-based industries.
According to the IMF-WB ranking in 1989, out of the 182 countries, from the biggest to the smallest national economies, the Philippines was ranked 48th.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)
One meaning of this ranking is that there are countries poorer than the Philippines. Are those poorer countries also lazy?
ON INDOLENCE
Indolent. That Filipinos are indolent is one of the anti-Filipino remarks that the Spaniards triumphantly created.
It was the Filipinos who plowed the lands, while the Spanish landlords came only during harvest time to collect unlawful taxes from them. It was Filipinos who built forts, government buildings, churches, roads, highways, bridges, schools, galleons, and other public works. The Spanish authorities, friars, and lay citizens were only watching and forcing them to work. They would:
“… employ the Indio in building houses and large vessels, grinding rice, cutting wood, and carrying it all to their houses to Manila and then pay them little or nothing for their labor” (Antonio A. Morga, “Reports of Conditions in the Philippine Islands,” Emma Blair and James Robertson, The Philippine Islands 1491-1898, Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1903-1909, Vol. X, p. 96).
It was also the Filipinos who cooked for and fanned their Spanish masters, while the latter were having siesta (after-lunch nap), merienda (snack), or lamierda (promenade). It was they who slaved as muchachos y muchachas (servants), while their masters had all the luxurious life styles. It was they who worked for their masters, yet their masters still called them indolent.
Rizal argued that the indio would really be idle because of harsh climates, disasters, pests, lack of support and incentives from the government, and the unfair sharing of income—he tilled the land but most of his harvests went to his Spanish landlord (Political and Historical Writings, Centennial Edition, Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1964, pp. 227-265).
In the Noli, Rizal depicted how the Spaniards reviled Filipinos for being indolent. The domineering Spanish friar Father Damaso glorified the anti-Filipino Spanish bashing that “you can find no other indolent in the world like the indio” (offset printing of the first edition published in Berlin, Germany, in 1887, Centennial Edition, Manila: Comisión Nacional del Centenario de José Rizal, 1961, p. 6).
That the Filipino was indolent was a common verbal abuse during the Spanish colonial days. Because it was a daily expression, it became institutionalized in the Filipino consciousness. It became part of the Filipino in thinking and believing about himself.
From this verbal abuse arose the Juan Tamad (John the Indolent) myth, where the Filipino is likened to an indolent and useless person. The Spaniards were so successful in portraying Juan Tamad as the very character of the Filipino, for until now, many people still believe that the Filipino is really very lazy and useless, despite his industry and perseverance.
http://emanila.com/philippines/2010/01/19/anti-filipino-remarks-colonial-legacies/
Comment made on July 31st, 2010 at 12:25 pm@ Joma
That IMF-WB ranking was in 2009, not 1989. Sorry.
A Filipino carpenter, if he works in the Philippines, earns only about P200 per working day. That amount is not enough to give his family enough food, clothing, and other basic needs, as well as to pay for their monthly housing amortization/rent, electricity, transportation, schooling, and other expenses.
But if the same Filipino carpenter works abroad, as a carpenter also, say in North America, Europe, or the Middle East, he earns ten times bigger (or more) than what he earns in the Philippines.
Thus, today a big number of the clients of private housing units in the Philippines are OFWs or former OFWs. And many of those who can send their children to better schools are also OFWs or former OFWs.
Comment made on July 31st, 2010 at 8:18 pmLeave a Comment