Will thet always be a failure

While its ASEAN neighbors have improved its GDP per capita in leaps and bounds, the Philippines remains in the bottom barrel.

It is amusing that the Philippines tries to compare itself to Singapore. Where Singapore allows 100% foreign equity in domestically registered corporations, the Philippines has an anachronistic 60/40, which restricts foreign equity to 40%. The GDP per capita of Singapore is roughly $55,000 while the Philippines is at $2753 - 25 times higher than the Philippines. So whoever is pushing the line that the Philippines is like Singapore, I hope he can share what he has been smoking.

The outcome of such a policy is clear - Filipinos go to Singapore to work for a foreign firm. The Philippine government just taxes the remittances of OFWs. Quite ironic that the Philippines 60/40 was the driver for working overseas because of a dearth of local jobs, and now taxes remittances and extorts money from OFWs through the POEA, OWWA, NAIA, NBI, NSO, DFA, and BIR. That's a thief rubbing salt in a wound injury caused by the same thief.

Filipinos are hardworking and fast learners. But would that really matter when their choice of employers in the Philippines is limited to an oligarchy protected by a predatory state? The state dictates their wages. In contrast, free and open markets allow 100% foreign-owned firms to pay Filipino workers over ten times the state’s wage standards.

The question therefore is not about the Philippines being doomed to fail. Rather what would it take to get the Philippines out of failure.

More taxes and regulations have only made matters worse. More nationalism has only made matters worse. More intrusions on individual liberties have made matters worse.

Have Filipinos figured it out? No, they haven't. They remain stuck watching the distractions on Filipino owned TV and mass media. They remain stuck in schools that are indoctrination facilities to perpetuate the status quo. They continue to take part in the illusion of elections, oblivious to the reality that politicians are selected by the elite. Their children are being murdered by policemen whose paychecks are paid by them.