The middle class are heroes

Last week Filipinos celebrated the death anniversary of hero Ninoy Aquino for his role in the restoration of democracy in the Philippines. Today, we celebrate National Heroes Day to honor all the heroes in the Philippine history who contributed to the freedom and liberties we enjoy from foreign and domestic tyrants/oppressors. While Filipinos are yet far from the ideal/optimum political, social, and economic freedom, it has progressed in all these areas, and all of our proclaimed heroes have done their share.

There are many unsung and unknown heroes who heeded/supported the call of our named heroes, and they are those who followed them to the battlefields, the ramparts, in the demonstration areas, in jails, and even sacrificed their lives. These are the lower-rank officials, soldiers, supporters that fought against the Spaniards, Americans, Japanese, and Filipino tyrants. Majority of them were/are from the middle class with limited support from the upper and the lower classes. The middle class Filipinos were/are the unsung unheralded heroes in all the armed and unarmed political struggles for freedom and liberty in the Philippines.

The socio-economic structure and profile of the country defines the political involvement of the people. Totalitarian governments don’t want a large middle class, but prefer a ruling elite and poor masses. A growing informed middle class is hard to satisfy and govern, while the upper class are easily co-opted with privileges, and the lower class are easy to oppress. The hard work and heavy lifting to make governments accountable and responsible is the job of the middle class. Democracies thrive and succeed when there is a large middle class.

In a country with a growing economy, autocratic or democratic, the middle class grows accordingly. This leads to better education, better access to information, social awareness, and more demands from the government. Ideally, a country should have a 10% upper class, 10% lower class, and 80% middle class. This makes for a stable society with a responsible government and respect for human rights. This is the situation in some Nordic countries, western European countries, and in some way Japan and Singapore.

The Philippines as a lower middle-income country, has a poverty level of 25%, a 10% upper class, and a 65% middle class, (adjusted for purchasing power parity). This is validated by poverty and hunger surveys, the election results, and the 70% consumption component of the Philippines GDP. The Philippines 6% annual GDP growth, which is boosted by the OFW remittances and the BPO earnings, have raised the middle class percentage to 65%, making it the main driver of private consumption of the GDP/economy. The rich don’t really consume much and the poor lack purchasing capability. This makes the middle class the real economic power in the country who are courted/brainwashed by producers of all goods and services.

The next step is to make the Filipino middle class use this economic strength/influence for social and political action. It already happened in the 1986 EDSA People Power revolution and subsequent mass demonstrations, when the middle class articulated the grievances, provided human, food supplies, transport, and other logistical resources that toppled leaders and the government. The election of reformist candidates in the last election, and the current socio-political pressures against government corruption, are emerging proof of middle class clout.

The demonstrated power of the middle class will continue to increase as more Filipinos reach monthly per capita income of $1,000 or $5,000 in family income in a growing economy. Education and functional literacy will improve, aided by information technology and social media penetration, which will raise social and political activism of the middle class. If the EDSA revolution happened when there were no cellphones, text messaging, Viber, Messenger, Tiktok, Whatsapp, YouTube, and the whole social media universe, these new information technologies will exponentially increase middle class power and heroism for social good.