EVERY Filipino knew we have the potential. We say it proudly. We have our beautiful islands, our vast natural resources, our hardworking people and our world-class professionals. We talk about how Filipinos succeed wherever they go. We flatter ourselves we are good to go. So what gives?
And yet, after generations of promise, we still find ourselves asking: Why are we not further ahead? Why does other countries – like tiny Singapore – succeed while we continue to bite the dust?
Let’s go back to the 1960s. The Philippines had many things Singapore could only dream of— vast land, abundant natural resources, good universities, English-speaking professionals, a sizeable economy and a large pool of talented people.
Singapore became independent in 1965. It had little land, virtually no natural resources. They buy everything they need, from water to toothpicks, and Singapore had a tiny domestic market.
Yet today, Singapore is the envy of much of Asia and the world.
What happened? Perhaps the simplest answer is Singapore had common sense — applied consistently and without excuses.
Singapore understood early that if it had little, it could not afford to waste anything. It had to educate its people, attract investments, keep government efficient, enforce laws, control corruption and plan beyond the next election.
The Philippines had much more. We have minerals, fertile land, beautiful seas, a large population. We produce doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers, seafarers and IT professionals who are welcomed around the world.
But there is something painfully ironic about this. We export our best human capital while we fail to create systems at home that can fully use it.
And then there is discipline. Filipinos are hardworking. We see this wherever Filipinos work, especially abroad. The problem is not that Filipinos cannot be disciplined. The problem is that we have not consistently translated individual discipline into institutional discipline.
Rules are oftentimes bent. Projects are acceptably delayed. Government procedures become unnecessarily complicated. Political connections matter more than competence. And corruption continues to drain public resources, not on a per project basis, but by decades and decades of failed governance.
Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index placed Singapore third globally, while the Philippines ranked 120th. Mongolia ranked 124th. That is not a measure of the worth of our people—but it should make us stop, think and shiver.
In almost all areas of our national life we Filipinos eat corruption from breakfast, lunch and dinner. Corruption is an all-weather dynamo that hovers around us till we drowned again in the flood. We are proud of our resilience to survive the floods as the cycle repeats again and again.
Corruption destroys our roads before it is even planned and built. Corruption diverts resources so our hospitals have many world-class equipment that does not arrive. And good public service only becomes imaginary as it is vastly inefficient in reality.
Our political system is a core area where common sense must matter. We have elections, political competition and democratic institutions. But elections alone do not guarantee good government. Recycled politicians always get a second chance – and serving – of their corrupt practices.
Here’s the proof: Do people we voted benefit the common people? Or does it only benefit the corrupt dynasties? Is public money protected? Are our leaders building for the next generation—or merely for the next election?
Singapore started with very little and made the most of it. The Philippines started with so much more being far ahead and ended up wasting most of it.
But our greatest loss would be something even bigger: wasting the enormous potential of a nation that already had so much going for it.
Perhaps what we need is not another grand promise. Not another grand vision. Not another political transition that leads us only to another recycled and circular corruption of another era.
Perhaps, like Singapore, we simply need a no-nonsense common sense. So help us God./PN
