THE PHILIPPINES is blessed with great mineral wealth. It has an abundance of nickel, copper, gold, cobalt, chromite, iron ore, manganese, zinc, lead, mercury, and even rare earth elements.
It also has vast resources of renewable energy — wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass — yet it depends on burning coal, the most hazardous fuel in the world.
It has a highly educated, culturally diverse, talented and intelligent population, and yet there is wealth disparity.
Out of the country’s population of 117 million gifted, kind and generous Filipinos, approximately 14 million families (51 percent) considered themselves poor in 2025. Of this figure, approximately 5.5 to 6 million families said they experienced involuntary hunger — that is, near starvation — at least once in the previous three months.
Within that group, 1.2 million families (about 4.5 percent) said they experienced severe hunger, which means they go hungry often or always.
This great nation has one of the highest levels of wealth inequality because out of 117 million Filipinos, there are 12 to 15 dollar billionaires and over 12,000 dollar millionaires, according to 2025–2026 reports.
Less than 1 percent of the population owns and controls roughly 45 to 50 percent of the nation’s wealth.
There are historical, political and educational reasons for this. For one, families control the political system.
Transparency International’s recently released Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which measures the level of corruption, sadly shows that the Philippines dropped to 120th place out of 182 countries.
Rich families perpetuate their dynastic rule through patronage, promoting a false perception of giving security, vote buying, media manipulation, false narratives of their generosity, popularism, and blatant propaganda.
Monopolizing power at all levels, they can manipulate the electoral system in their favor, since accountability is weak. Most investigations of corruption end without anyone punished. These dynastic politicians make laws to protect themselves, increase their wealth, and negate opposition.
Poverty and corruption spread downward to all sectors of society. Poverty grows due to the serious lack of industrialization and dependency on remittances from 2.7 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), mostly in Asia, including the Middle East. In 2024, OFWs sent home P262.20 billion in remittances.
But our economy still struggles with rising prices of oil — the highest in all of Asia — which were hiked by oil companies and compliant officials. Poverty persists because of low-paying jobs and a weak manufacturing sector.
This is where the heart of the problem lies: lack of well-paying jobs creates poverty and hunger, and many in the middle class are living in debt.
The ruling elite justify poverty, saying “life is as good as it’s going to get,” so there are low expectations and low political awareness, and little or no activism to change the situation. This gives people low self-esteem and a “bahala na” attitude to life to tolerate corruption and endure poverty. (To be continued)/PN
