Philippines is a country that has been beset with economic problems since time immemorial. An expert in borrowing schemes, ours is a mounting of debts and soaring prices of goods coupled with poor developmental strategies to cope up with widening deficits.

Today’s fuelling of massive investment opportunities are supposed to signal a shift in upward direction our financial status yet we remain immersed in burdens that seriously need some reexamining of the many facets in the society.

In the economy per se, our exports have always been targeted as boosting elements but the classic argument of low-valued products such as raw materials have always remained a hindrance to further development. It is not the quantity of exports we have but the quality needs to be globally competitive to attract markets.

Speaking about markets, we have persistently worshipped America as dumping ground for our exports thinking that this mechanism expands even more our contacts. But protective policies that are in place have already made us uncertain. We need to diversify our markets if we really want to accelerate growth. Asian economies are already in the forefront of global competitiveness and thus, we should concentrate in creating market alternatives. For instance, in the textile industry I still see in my travels items such as clothes that are made in the Philippines because of our labor advantage. It is time to debunk this theory of labor intensity. Our capital requirements need to be enhanced so that production levels are at par with world standards without having to siphon off our local skills. Not that labor should be minimized because we cannot afford to fuel unemployment even more, but we should take advantage of our abundance of skilled workers and use it to expand capital formations.

Speaking about labor, our nurses have become an instant boom in the exporting world but the United States is already closing doors to them. They have learned that the same breed of professionals can be trained domestically with better benefits than our own kind. The irony of it is that our schools still believe we can tap the demand for nurses in the States so they continue to produce prospective unemployed professionals. It is the same thing with computer courses. It’s a malady to see proliferating computer schools. They are like a contagious disease that affects everyone. This is a myopic viewpoint that needs scrutiny.

One thing that promises to stay in our life is the burgeoning inflation rate. When you have been away for so long and suddenly you find yourself in a grocery store, you cannot help but be shocked by the skyrocketing prices of commodities. Lately, my brother told me that a sack of rice is about 1200 pesos which is about 25 dollars. Twenty-five dollars is relatively cheap if you earn Uncle Sam’s big bucks but if you are a lowly-paid government worker in the Philippines, it is catastrophic. Because prime commodities such as rice go up, the ripple effect is massive so that other industries are also jacking up their prices. It is multiplier syndrome that takes place in here. When they feel the downswing, income goes down and the economy is in shambles.

Time and time again our economic policy makers have devised schemes to repress this economic fever yet the question continues to haunt us: How do they translate to economic development?

In my studies at UP, the subject of economic development was everyday lingo because then, we were embarking on a journey of market competitiveness. Also, foreign investments in the country were at a rising rate signaling a promising growth and alleviation.

But what happened? Where was the foul play? My conscience tells me: corruption from the highest level down to the lowliest Filipino. Indeed, it is very sad to think that our educated leaders are the culprits. That’s why I urge a reexamining and emphasis in our values. We need to rectify our human traits because there is a chance to recovery when our attitudes toward goals are revisited. I don’t think we really need extremely intelligent leaders to alleviate us all. We need passionate people with emotional intelligence.

Not only our leaders, but any ordinary citizen holds responsibility as well. Corruption starts at an early stage in life that needs to be rectified as early as possible to prevent further infliction. When parents teach their children the wisdom of life, they need to condition the mind the importance of those things. How? Simply by reprimanding them for any wrongdoing. It is tolerance that gives a child to continue doing bad things because they are not being told otherwise, in the strictest sense.

Let me dwell more on the subject of corruption. The recent ranking of the Philippines as the second most corrupt country in Asia proves only that ours is an incurable case. Senator Miriam Santiago even asserts we should be no.1 That’s what we are so proud of, our inherent bad taste in life. Whenever this subject comes up, a series of rhetorical yielding contaminates the media but still the practice continues. It is time we focus on actions, punish the culprits, lock them up for years. In other words, we need to severely inflict pain on the propagators of corruption, let them be exposed in the media so they can embrace the worst form of humiliation. They don’t deserve a second chance to life. I even urge a death penalty in such case so we can totally clean up our system. It is a cycle that keeps on repeating because we are lenient and tolerant. Death to corrupt officials will only alleviate us.

Our country is one of the most religious nations in the world but why does corruption thrive so well?

I think our religious teachings don’t mean anything in the real world. In this case, a more active, responsive role of the church must be in effect. Trainings to prospective leaders must be heightened with emphasis on values. They can all create an ambience of change.