Effects Of Poverty In The Philippines

The re-election of Marcos on 1969 became the start of the country’s “road to chaos.” On the last chapter, it is discussed that the situation of the country became worse because of many factors. These were:
1. Poverty of the Masses
2. Greed of Politicians
3. Criminality
4. The Communist Insurgency

Poverty of the Masses

No one can ever remove poverty in a country. In the Philippines, poverty increased during the Marcos era. An indicator of this was the change of poverty level after his administration. The external debt of the country increased by an annual average rate of 25% and this was from 1970 until 1981. It is given that the Philippines is rich in natural resources, however, according to Zaide,”the masses live in poverty.” Apart from that, he also mentioned that 10% of country’s wealth belongs to the rich oligarchs, while the latter, the 90% of our population are the poor, and most of these are consisting of factory workers, the landless peasants, and most importantly, the jobless people. In Mendoza’s article, the key factors that aggravated poverty and economic contraction were:

1. The state-run monopolies
2. Mismanagement of the exchange rates
3. Imprudent monetary policy
4. Mismanagement of debt
5. Rampant corruption and cronyism As the time goes by, “the gap between the rich and the poor widens,” because the rich gains more wealth which makes them richer and the poor becomes poorer, which promotes inequality.

Greed of Politicians

In connection with