How can philippines become a better country?

The Philippines acquired a huge national debt because of the Marcos regime borrowing from the world bank and the funneling of the monies to personal accounts. During the early 1980's the Philippines was widely viewed as a potential economic world player. Then when Marcos fell and all the misappropriation of funds was realized, the Philippines economy crumbled. Every Philippine president since then has been faced with the daunting task of paying off the debt acquired by Marcos without the benefit of that debt being originally invested in the economy. In 2000, foreign debt interest payments alone account for 20% of the Philippines national budget.

Paying down debt, as an individual or a nation, requires either an increase of income (revenues) or a decrease in expenditures. For the Philippines, either are bitter pills to swallow. Increasing revenues requires taxing an already poor electorate. Decreasing expenditures means the poorest of the poor get left with no safety net. Doing either also means there is little left over for government investment in infrastructure, which is key to developing a strong economy.

The bright side, if you can call it that, is the Philippine GDP for the 1st qtr grew at its strongest rate in 17 years. The debt is being paid down. Foreigner investment (not loans) is starting to pick up from Japan, China, New Zealand and Australia. The Philippines has a very intelligent and economically savy president. But there is no quick fix to a situation that was years in the making, short of debt forgiveness from the World Bank, which is very unlikely. One can also not ignore the corruption that exists in the government. Although one can argue it has been lessened, it is still an epidemic, especially in the election process. The Filipino electorate must learn to use it's voting power instead of participating in soft government overthrows when things are not going well.

But to blame a particular politician, to say it was because the US closed military bases there (which was actually much of the reason US President Carter pushed so hard for the World Bank loans and why Reagan was so oblivious to Marcos activities) or to blame it on the Filipino work ethic are not valid points. They only show the lack of understanding of the facts and the finger pointing that results from those who choose to ignore facts and look for the easy way out.

IT IS ALREADY A 'BETTER COUNTRY' before - especially in 1950's -1970's but when 1980's came - Philippines started to sink.....

A better question to ask is how did the Philippines end up like this in the first place there are alot of reasons but as far as my opinion goes I think 2 pivotal things that made the Philippines the way it is now.

Number 1 - The occupation by the Japanese in WW2, In 1940 Manila was considered the Pearl of the Orient where people from all over the world worked and lived and it was a time where the Philippines was doing well for itself until the Japanese invaded in 1941 wich in result has halted their progress as an Independant nation upto this very day and the devestation that followed the retaking of the country devestated its ability forever to regain stability for itself.

Number 2 - American Infulence, Even though the Americans are the ones who drove the Japanese out of the country they in part took control of the country from then on. Yes they have put alot of money into making the Philippines better but on the other hand guess where all those nice things that Western Foreigners enjoy so much are being made by someone who earns less than 10 dollars a day, The Philippines. Alot of well know Brands such as Marlboro,Colgate etc have many production sites in the Philippines where they pay the workers peanuts and all the profit goes to overseas owners.

So to sum it all up the Philippines even though it does obviously have alot of political,social and economical problems its probably one of the very few countries that has been through so much crap yet the people themselves in my opinion are the reason of the many good things you find there.

So before anybody just blames a certain lot of people like the "squatters,bums and low lives" of the Philippines think hard and give it a thought on how they ended up that way.

Go the Philippines go you good thing.

Peace!

There are all kinds of reasons why things are the way they are. But another reason I want to bring to light is that the poverty can be a force of habit. For example there are many Filipinos who learned to be so frugal with their money. Partly because many grew up with no or little money. And there is nothing wrong with being frugal with your cash. But what you see here and there are some Filipinos who became rich but they are afraid to spend their money. They buy new homes but never spend the money for the maintenance. So the paint gets faded and things start looking run down so a building that is only 3 years old which is a solid building made of cement starts looking like it's already a 50 year old building that is already run down even though it's not an old run down building. It is a brand new building. Other businesses and organizations in the Philippines do the same thing as well. Outdoor paint I noticed doesn't last long in the Philippines. I might be because of rough weather plus it's a poor quality generic brand but I really don't know for sure because I never looked into it. But you will see some new buildings that are less than a year old and the paint is already starting to peel and fade.

You even have some rich Filipinos living in those little bamboo huts but they have a lot of money in the bank and they even receive remittances from family who are over seas workers. Some Rich Filipinos are professional squatters. They are living on government land with other squatters and they build beautiful modern cement houses that are worth 6 million pesos. You can bet they are not paying their fair share of property taxes.

I think the capital of every country is where the inspiration for the rest of that country comes from. And manila, being a slum in most places is no inspiration.

Manila was the Paris of South East Asia at one point. But those days are long forgotten. Manila in my opinion is a lost hope in every respect.

I think the best thing this government could do would be to shift the capital to another city and start from zero. No squatters, no Jeepnies, no air polluting tricycles.

Build up a clean capital and start of a new attitude.

I think people of the Philippines are guilty of complacency. They allow their corrupt government to run the country anyway it wants. There is no system of check and balance in place for the gov.

But if I was in the government I would probably become corrupt also. Politicians are just normal people. They are just a little richer. Anything they are guilty of, the rest of us are also guilty of. It’s easier to point the finger at them though! It makes us feel like we have done our part and are just victims of a loosing battle. But that's rubbish! We all try to get away with little things if we can, don't we? How many of us have paid for a certificate to pass something? Or a driver's license? Etc. How many of us heard of someone doing that and just thought it was normal, or even funny? That might be funny, but the politicians are the ones laughing. They're the ones doing the same things, on a larger scale and with more dividends. To them we are all just petty thieves and that gives them a perfect right to steal from all of us.

We the people of the Philippines are responsible for everything happening in the Philippines today. Good and bad!

I think also the problem should be solved with long term plans.

First, Philippines is a small country with few natural resources. We do not need an 80+ million population. Population control should be part of the system and one or two child limit should be stressed.

Second, we should promote the beauty of our country. Tourism can be a very lucrative source of income for any nation. That would be specially so for the Philippines.

In my mind, if Philippines has one potential savior, that would be the tourism industry. But people also need to be educated about that. We need to learn how to keep our country appealing to the tourists, and how to make them enjoy our country and make sure that they tell others and come back themselves too.

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Our economy is actually growing, but those figures are of less value to many especially to those people ignorant in economics. Only few people appreciate that growth as it is not yet felt by many (of course it won't immediately be manifested). It is not true that the Philippines has never recovered. We are actually, generally, richer than what the previous generations have ever become. We have access to technological innovations that make life and work more efficient. A lot more people have access to education, and there is massive availability of information that aid in the productivity of man. I hope the people will have more faith in our country. People have the right to doubt the government, but I hope they won't be too pessimistic about it.

I think the main problem (besides the government and rich minority) is that most of the "brains" go abroad to get better paying jobs. People who study certain fields end up in okaypaying callcenters utilizing only English and minimal brainwork usually in customer service. Also Filipinos love American products and don't really "buy pinoy" further hurting the local economy. It can become better with a change of government to utilize taxes better and restructring the investment strategy to make sure Koreans don't buy up areas.

My two cents on this question is, not many Filipinos love the country enough. This is actually a chicken-egg situation. Was animosity developed because of dirty politics or did our apathy gave the politicians the opportunity to practice dirty politics.

Right now, I really think it's rooted to the lack of love Filipinos have for the country. I personally love my country and I strive hard to abide by its laws even though it pains me to see outright corruption.

If only Filipinos will develop nationalistic love and pride, we can surely rebuild our country. Sadly, most Pinoys have a "me (and my family) first" attitude that is actually pulling our morale and economy down. IF we love this country, it will be easy for us to follow and impose laws. If we love this country, we will not litter and practice good governance. If we love this country, then we will always act in a way that will benefit this fair country.

I hope the Filipino people will soon develop this love.

Here's an answer you might understand - The Philippines should stop corruption and clean up the government. The Philippines should stop focusing on sports events like boxing or billiards and should support scientific inventions by Filipinos. the Philippines should promote Filipino inventions and science rather than useless boxing and billiards matches. take a look at REALITY. the USA became a great country, why can't we? it's because of useful American contributions to mankind.. Why don't we focus on promoting ourselves of being intelligent & civilized race rather than focusing on useless sports?

i think discipline (on the individual level) is the magic word towards the solution to all our ills and problems. sadly, we don't have the national discipline to make things happen for us. in times of plenty, we overspend whimsically; in times of drought, we borrow frantically. when will we ever learn?

i believe that once discipline has been instilled in the hearts and minds of individual cititzens, then collective discipline is achieved. this in turn leads to better citizenry, better government, better economy.....ultimately, better philippines.