Do you know that the Philippines competitiveness has steadily declined for the last 50 years since gaining independence? Vietnam has already overtaken us and if we will not get our acts, Bangladesh will overtake us in a year or two.

Do you know that Vietnam’s former (US) Naval Base has become a sprouting tourist destination? They are able to achieve it by adopting the Philippines Subic Blue Print. Today, this place is far better than our very own Subic.

According Malaysia’s former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammed, in one of the forum he was invited with business leaders in attendance had said: the key to the prosperity of the Philippines is for the government and business groups to ensure that the “poor” will enjoy the economic benefits.

I remember almost 10 years ago, in my labor relations class with (DOLE undersecretary) Josephus Jimenez, he mentioned that partly, the problem of the Philippines is 80-90% of the resources are controlled by only 10-20% of the population. The remaining 10-20% of the resources will have to be competed by the remaining 80-90% of the society.

Likewise, during PMAP’s 42nd Convention at Lahug, Cebu City last year. I remembered one of the resource person, a top banker, who said that if the elite segment of our society will act as “big brother” to the less fortunate ones, then the progress of this country will not be difficult.

It seems to me that the issue that I became aware of a decade ago is still the issue at present. New leaders have emerged but it seems we are in the state of denial that we failed to recognize the root of the problem: The great social divide and the unwillingness(?) of the powerful to empower the less fortunate ones.

Have we become a society that does not care anymore for the poor? Or is it because Filipinos are one of the happiest people in the world and proven to be resilient, therefore, is always taken advantage of?

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