Why is the Philippines still Poor? | The Hard Truth

Summary

This video script explores the contrasting economic fates of Singapore and the Philippines, both with rich potential but divergent outcomes. It delves into historical context, comparing currency value fluctuations and GDP per capita, highlighting Singapore's high GDP and meritocratic system. The Philippines' challenges are attributed to bad governance, corruption, and political dynasties. The script emphasizes the importance of education in combating these issues and the potential for the Philippines to become a wealthy nation with good governance.

Takeaways

• 🌏 Southeast Asia consists of 11 countries with a wide range of economic statuses, from the very rich like Singapore to the relatively poor like the Philippines.
• 💰 Singapore is considered one of the richest countries in the world, while the Philippines, despite its potential, remains economically behind.
• 📉 Historically, the Philippine peso was almost equal in value to the US dollar, but its value has significantly decreased over time.
• 💼 The GDP per capita is a key indicator of a country's wealth, and Singapore has the highest GDP per capita in Asia, whereas the Philippines has a much lower figure.
• 🌳 Both Singapore and the Philippines have economies that rely on natural resources and have been shaped by their geography and colonial history.
• 👤 Good governance, low corruption rates, and a meritocratic system have been crucial to Singapore's economic success.
• 🚨 Corruption, bad governance, and political dynasties have been significant obstacles to the Philippines' economic progress.
• 🏛️ The Philippines has struggled with rampant corruption, ranking 115th least corrupt out of 180 countries in 2023.
• 🗳️ The Filipino electorate often votes for celebrities or members of political dynasties, rather than candidates with strong educational backgrounds and clean records.
• 🏫 Education is highlighted as a critical factor for the Philippines to overcome poverty, but the country's education system is considered weak, with many children lacking access to schooling.
• 🔑 Prioritizing education and electing capable leaders are seen as the keys for the Philippines to potentially become one of the richest countries in Asia.

Q & A

How many countries are in the Southeast Asia region according to the script?

The script mentions that the Southeast Asia region consists of 11 countries.

Which country is considered one of the richest in the world within the Southeast Asia region?

Singapore is considered one of the richest countries in the world and is part of the Southeast Asia region.

What was the historical exchange rate of the Philippine peso to the US dollar around 60 years ago?

Around 60 years ago, the exchange rate of the Philippine peso to the US dollar was approximately 2 to 1.

How does the script describe the current situation of the Philippine peso against the US dollar?

The script states that the current exchange rate is around 56 Philippine pesos to 1 US dollar, indicating a devaluation of the peso.

What is the GDP per capita of Singapore, and what does it signify?

Singapore has the highest GDP per capita in Asia, which is around $91,000. This signifies the average economic output per person in the country.

What is the GDP per capita of the Philippines compared to Singapore and its neighboring countries?

The GDP per capita of the Philippines is around $4,799, which is significantly lower than Singapore's and also lower than its neighboring countries like Indonesia and Thailand.

What are the two main factors attributed to Singapore's success according to the script?

The script attributes Singapore's success to its meritocratic system and effective measures against corruption, particularly through the establishment of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).

How does the script describe the impact of political dynasties on the Philippines' development?

The script suggests that political dynasties have a negative impact on the Philippines' development by perpetuating corruption and poor governance, leading to the country's continued poverty.

What role does the script suggest education plays in the development of a country?

The script emphasizes that education is crucial for the development of a country, as it helps to raise the standard of selecting government officials and makes the population less susceptible to corruption.

How does the script compare the education system in the Philippines to global standards?

The script indicates that the Philippines has a weak education system, ranking 77th out of 81 countries in global assessments and performing worse than the global average in math, reading comprehension, and science.

What is the script's final recommendation for the Philippines to overcome its challenges?

The script recommends that the Philippines should prioritize education and good governance to overcome its challenges and potentially become one of the richest countries in Southeast Asia.

Outlines

00:00

🌏 Southeast Asia's Economic Contrasts

The first paragraph introduces the Southeast Asia region, highlighting the stark economic contrasts within its 11 countries. It points out Singapore as one of the world's richest nations and contrasts it with the Philippines, which is considered poor despite its historical potential for wealth. The script delves into the historical value of the Philippine peso, its decline during the Marcos regime, and the current state of the country's economy compared to Singapore's. The GDP per capita is used as a measure to illustrate the economic disparity, with Singapore boasting the highest in Asia at around $91,000, while the Philippines has a significantly lower figure of approximately $4,799. The paragraph sets the stage for a deeper exploration of the reasons behind these economic differences.

05:00

🏛 Colonial Legacies and Governance in Singapore and the Philippines

The second paragraph examines the post-colonial trajectories of Singapore and the Philippines, emphasizing the impact of governance and leadership on their respective developments. It notes that both countries started from similar poverty levels but diverged due to different governance approaches. Singapore's success is attributed to strong leadership under Lee Kuan Yew, who established institutions to combat corruption and implemented a meritocratic system for public service. Conversely, the Philippines has struggled with corruption, political dynasties, and a lack of meritocracy in its political system. The paragraph also touches on the influence of celebrity candidates and the tendency of Filipino voters to elect unworthy public servants, contributing to the country's ongoing economic challenges.

10:01

📚 The Role of Education and Corruption in the Philippines' Economic Stagnation

The third paragraph focuses on the role of education and corruption in the Philippines' persistent poverty. It discusses the prevalence of political dynasties and the concentration of wealth among these ruling families, suggesting that this contributes to the nation's economic difficulties. The paragraph argues that with good governance and minimal corruption, the Philippines could become a wealthy country, given its natural resources and other advantages. However, it points out the country's weak education system, ranking poorly in global assessments and having a significant percentage of children without access to education. This lack of education is seen as a factor in the continued election of corrupt politicians, perpetuating a cycle of poverty. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the importance of education in breaking this cycle and the potential for the Philippines to become a prosperous nation in Southeast Asia.

Keywords

💡Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of 11 countries known for their diverse cultures and economies. In the video, it serves as the geographical context for comparing the economic situations of Singapore and the Philippines. The script contrasts the region's wealthiest nation, Singapore, with the Philippines, which despite its potential, remains comparatively less developed.

💡GDP per capita

GDP per capita stands for Gross Domestic Product per capita and is an economic measure that divides a country's total economic output by its population size. It is used as an indicator of a country's standard of living. The video emphasizes Singapore's high GDP per capita of around $91,000, which reflects its wealth, in contrast to the Philippines' significantly lower GDP per capita of approximately $4,799.

💡Colonialism

Colonialism refers to the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. Both Singapore and the Philippines experienced colonial rule, which the video suggests has had lasting impacts on their development. However, the outcomes post-independence have been starkly different, with Singapore thriving and the Philippines struggling.

💡Corruption

Corruption is the dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery or embezzlement. The script highlights corruption as a significant factor contributing to the Philippines' economic challenges, noting the country's high ranking on the corruption index and the impact of corrupt practices on governance and development.

💡Meritocracy

Meritocracy is a system where individuals are selected for positions based on their abilities and qualifications rather than factors such as social class or wealth. The video credits Singapore's success partly to its meritocratic system, which ensures that only the most capable individuals hold public office, contrasting with the situation in the Philippines.

💡Political dynasties

Political dynasties are families that dominate politics over generations, often leading to a concentration of power and wealth. The script discusses the prevalence of political dynasties in the Philippines, suggesting that they contribute to the country's persistent poverty by perpetuating corruption and limiting opportunities for capable leaders.

💡Currency value

Currency value refers to the worth of a country's money in comparison to other currencies. The video script uses the historical value of the Philippine peso against the US dollar to illustrate the economic decline of the Philippines, noting how the peso's devaluation reflects the country's economic struggles.

💡Education system

The education system encompasses the structure and administration of schools and educational programs in a country. The script points out that the Philippines has a weak education system, ranking poorly in global assessments and having a significant percentage of children without access to education, which is linked to the country's inability to break the cycle of poverty.

💡Natural resources

Natural resources are materials and energy sources found in nature that can be used for economic gain. The video mentions the abundance of natural resources in the Philippines, which theoretically positions the country for wealth but has not translated into economic prosperity due to poor governance and corruption.

💡Tourist destinations

Tourist destinations are locations that attract visitors for travel, leisure, and recreation. The script suggests that the Philippines has potential wealth from its tourist destinations, but this potential is not fully realized due to the country's ongoing economic and governance issues.

💡English proficiency

English proficiency refers to the ability to use the English language effectively. The video notes that the Philippines has many citizens who can speak English, which is an advantage for global communication and business. However, despite this linguistic asset, the country still faces significant economic challenges.

Highlights

Southeast Asia is a diverse region with countries ranging from the wealthiest like Singapore to those struggling with poverty like the Philippines.

Historically, the Philippines was richer than Singapore but has since fallen behind due to various factors.

The Philippine peso once held significant value against the US dollar but has since lost its strength.

Singapore boasts the highest GDP per capita in Asia, while the Philippines has a significantly lower GDP per capita.

GDP per capita is a measure of a country's wealth, calculated by dividing the total GDP by the population.

Singapore's success is attributed to its strong economy and small population.

The Philippines, despite its natural resources and geographic advantages, remains impoverished.

Both Singapore and the Philippines suffered from colonialism, but their post-independence paths diverged.

Good governance, low corruption, and a meritocratic system are credited with Singapore's prosperity.

The Philippines has struggled with corruption, bad governance, and political dynasties.

Singapore's Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau has been effective in curbing corruption.

The Philippines ranks 115th least corrupt nation out of 180, indicating rampant corruption.

Meritocracy in Singapore ensures that only those with excellent backgrounds can become public servants.

In the Philippines, anyone can run for government positions, regardless of their qualifications.

The majority of Filipinos tend to vote for celebrities or members of political dynasties rather than the most capable candidates.

Political dynasties in the Philippines have been a significant factor in the country's persistent poverty.

The Philippines has abundant opportunities for wealth but lacks good governance to capitalize on them.

Improving the education system is key to raising the standards of selecting government officials in the Philippines.

The Philippines ranks poorly in global assessments, indicating a weak education system.

A significant portion of Filipino children lack access to education, making them vulnerable to political manipulation.

Rich countries prioritize education, and the Philippines should follow suit to improve its governance.

Transcripts

this is the southeast Asia region this

Asian region consists of 11 countries

here you can find a country that is

considered one of the richest in the

world and that is

Singapore but in this same region you

can also find countries that are below

the poverty line and still labeled as

poor countries and one of these poor

countries is the Philippines a long time

ago the Philippines was richer than

Singapore though it was still poor way

back then this country had the potential

to to be one of the richest and believe

me when I say that the Philippines

should be as Rich a country as Singapore

today but what happened why does the

Philippines remain poor what are the

real reasons why this nation cannot

overcome poverty why is Singapore Rich

compared to the Philippines if they had

the same potential to begin

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with

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well for us to understand this topic

better let's first have a little

flashback of Philippine

history you know there was a time when

the Philippine pzo was almost equal to

the US dollar as of today1 us do is

equivalent to 55 to 56 Philippine pesos

but did you know that almost 60 years

ago around the presidency of diado

macapagal the exchange rate of peso to

dollar was 2 to one It means that two

Philippine Pesos were equal to $1 us but

how does it matter though well you see

the US dollar is the world currency

meaning this currency is the standard

when you want to get the true value of

every currency in the world so if your

currency is nearly equal to the US

dollar it only means that it is almost

as valuable as the US dollar itself and

that was the Philippine peso way back

then but that was shortlived during the

Marcos regime its value sank from two

pesos to 3.7 pesos against the dollar

and since then the value of the peso has

never recovered to its original value so

today it reached 56 pisos per dollar the

Philippine currency gradually losing its

value against the US dollar is a clear

indication that this country is not

progressing the way to measure a

country's wealth is by its GDP per

capita the higher the GDP per capita the

Richer the country and Singapore is the

richest country not only in Southeast

Asia but in the whole of Asia for having

the highest GDP per capita which is

around

$91,000 but wait what is GDP well it is

the gross domestic product or the total

cost for all the products and services

that a country spent for a whole year

and when we say GDP per capita we are

talking about per person meaning the

total amount of a country's GDP was

divided by the total population of that

specific country so in other words in

Singapore on average every person living

there spends

$91,000 every year of course I'm not

saying that every Singaporean actually

spends that kind of money every year

most of them do not but some of them

actually spend way more than that so on

average the GDP per capita of Singapore

is so high and if we think about it the

reasons that they have that high GDP per

capita are that they have the best

economy and at the same time they have a

small population impressive right but

what about the Philippines well the GDP

per capita of this country is only

around

$4,799

1,000 okay I guess Singapore is too much

to use as a compar compon so let's

compare the Philippines to its

neighboring countries Indonesia has

$551 GDP per capita while Thailand has

$7,750 GDP per capita these three

countries are all almost the same their

economy relies on their natural

resources their geographies are almost

the same since they all have the same

access to the ocean but why is the

Philippines left behind why is it that

even with the abundance of natural

natural resources the Philippines still

po after so many years now to help us

understand more about the situation in

the Philippines let's again compare it

to Singapore the Philippines and

Singapore are both victims of

colonialism both countries suffered a

lot from Colonial rule Singapore has

been colonized by the British Empire for

many years on the other hand the

Philippines has also been colonized by

different nations or Empires there is no

denying that even after these countries

became independent they could hardly

recover from the damage and losses of

colonization meaning both Singapore and

the Philippines started from the lowest

poverty line both countries strive to

progress and of course both countries

want to progress but the problem is that

they got different results why though

well the quick answer is the bad

governance corruption and political

dynasties that have dominated the

Philippines for many years you see right

after they gained independence Singapore

got its own leader which was from their

own people and that was Lee Quan Yu the

Philippines also got their own president

after Independence and that was Manuel

roas by the way Emilio aginaldo was the

first president of the Philippines but

Manuel roas was the first president

after the Philippines became independent

anyway from the very beginning Singapore

was fortunate to have its first genuine

leader to serve its people and Nation

well of course I'm not saying that

Manuel roas was not not a good leader

but he and other presidents of the

Philippines failed to accomplish as much

as Lewan Yu had accomplished and I'm

talking about destroying the corruption

the first thing that Lewan Yu did was to

make sure that there would be no

corruption in his administration he

definitely made sure that every public

servant of the country from the lowest

to the highest position was not corrupt

but then again the corruption rate was

not zero in Singapore during his term

but it was very low not only in the Asia

but in all countries in the world what

he did was he founded the cpib or the

Corrupt Practices investigation Bureau

and the sole purpose of this agency is

to fight corruption and it was really

effective they combed corruption not

only in the public sector but in the

private sector as well on the contrary

the corruption rate in the Philippines

keeps surging as a matter of fact in

2023 the Philippines ranked as the 115th

least corrupt Nation out of 180

countries meaning this country is one of

those countries where corruption is

rampant the second key to Singapore's

success is its meritocratic system this

system was also established during the

lequan Yu Administration the idea of

this system is simple yet very effective

they will only select leaders or

government officials based on their

merits you cannot run for the candidacy

as a government official if your

background is not excellent only those

people with a good educational

background and a clean life record can

become the public servants of Singapore

but again in the Philippines anyone can

run from the lowest to the highest

position in their government well it was

just quite normal though for a

democratic country right anyone can have

the right to become the leader of the

country but that is the main issue here

because the Philippines has no

meritocratic system anyone can run for a

spot in the government even those people

who do not finish their education can

run even if you don't have credibility

you can run even if you already have a

record of corruption you can still run

well it is not actually a problem if you

think about it as long as the Filipinos

do not vote for them and only vote for

those candidates who are actually

capable then it is not a problem if they

run but that is another main route of

the Philippines poverty because the

majority of Filipinos keep voting for

unworth worthy public servants all right

so what are you saying that we're wrong

or everybody's wrong I'm not saying that

the Philippines never had good leaders

and public servants because they

actually did and I am not saying that

all Filipinos don't know how to identify

worthy candidates but sadly the majority

are not you see based on the historical

election data in the Philippines the

candidate who is a well-known celebrity

has the highest success rate in winning

the election because the majority of

people in this country keep voting for

candidates who are famous instead of

those who are actually deserving because

of their excellent educational

background in other words the majority

of people are obsessed with putting

celebrities in office but that's not the

worst the worst thing is that they keep

voting for the same person or the same

family to become their public officials

yes I am talking about the political

dynasties that have been happening in

the Philippines for

centuries if you're going to review the

history of the Philippines you will

notice that many powerful families have

already been elected to office

Generation by generation from the

president down to barangay officials

political Dynasty is noticeable in this

country you will be surprised if I tell

you that in some parts or provinces of

the Philippines only one clan has been

governing the land for

decades but what if I told you that that

was not the longest political Dynasty

ever recorded in this country well in

lonan

Philippines there is a political clan

that is believed to have had the longest

political Dynasty for over a

century oh that was too many years of

service right this clan should already

have made their own kingdom speaking of

Kingdoms these Clans in every political

Dynasty are already insanely rich people

in the Philippines so it is not

surprising that if you rank the richest

people in this nation most of them are

from the political Dynasty I think you

already have a clear understand

understanding of why the Philippines has

been poor until now believe me if this

nation has good governance with a zero

to low rate of corruption it will become

one of the richest countries not only in

Asia but in the world every opportunity

for wealth exists in the Philippines

from the abundance of Natural Resources

to access to the ocean to a lot of

tourist destinations there are many

skilled Filipinos not only in this

country but all over the world and this

country also has many citizens who can

speak English this country almost has

the key to becoming a first world

country except for good governance but

having good governance will remain a

dream if the people in this country keep

electing corrupt and unworthy

politicians and in order to achieve that

every Filipino should become aware of

who is really deserving to serve the

country and the key well it is education

you see this country is still considered

to have a weak education system because

Filipino students are still among the

world's weakest in math reading

comprehension and science according to

the global assessment with the country

ranking 77th out of 81 countries and

Performing worse than the global average

in all categories but not only that in

the Philippines nearly 20% of Filipino

children are not attending school or do

not have access to school and that is

one of the big reasons why the majority

of Filipinos can be easily fooled by the

propaganda of corrupt corupt politicians

and political

dynasties and if all Filipinos have

access to a good education they will

soon realize that their Nation actually

needs good leaders and they will raise

their standard in selecting government

officials well this matter is not only

happening in the Philippines corruption

and bad governance are also happening in

all poor countries around the world but

one thing you can notice in every rich

country is that they prioritize the

education of the Next Generation

over anything else and if the

Philippines do that as well perhaps

someday this country will become one of

the rich countries in Southeast Asia