The Philippines in ASEAN: From first to sixth

When FM Sr. was president, the Philippines was number one in ASEAN. Today, it is number 6. Such an embarrassing performance. Since its founding on July 31, 1961, the Philippines has retrogressed down to the levels of Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. Among the original members Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, only our country is not in the top 5. What’s happening to our country? Well, politics and corruption devastated our economy and destroyed the culture and values of our people.

The Philippines has been dislodged by Vietnam, which isn’t even a founding member and whose economy was practically pulverized by the long and protracted Vietnam War. The current rankings in terms of the economy are: Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei, and Laos. If we don’t shape up and get our act together, we might even be dislodged by Myanmar and Cambodia. Thailand used to lag behind us with almost equal size and population 10 years ago. But it has achieved a giant leap despite its occasional political turmoil. But Thailand has even exceeded Singapore and may give Indonesia a run for its money.

In terms of GDP, here are the scores as of 2023: the whole ASEAN combined, $11,203,023 and a per capita income of $16,516. Indonesia, $4,398,729 GDP and per capita of $15,855; Thailand, GDP is $1,591,402 and per capita of $22,675; Singapore, GDP of $757,726 and a per capita of $133,894, the highest in ASEAN. Malaysia has a GDP of $1,230,823 and a per capita of $36,846. The Philippines has a GDP of $1,301,281, which is slightly bigger than Malaysia's but our per capita is only one-third of the Malaysia’s, a measly $11,420, because of our runaway population. We produce babies 10 times faster than we plant rice and corn. The problem with the Philippines is that Filipinos talk politics 80% of the time and the economy only 20%. The rest of ASEAN are not too fixated on politics. They focus on the economy.

We don’t have space for the GDP and per capita of Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. But we need to mention tiny Brunei is with GDP of only $33,387, which is just one-fourth of ours, but look at its per capita, a whopping $75,583 because its population is only 400,000 while ours is more than 111 million. Let us talk about population. Indonesia has the biggest with 277 million, followed by the Philippines with 111M, then Vietnam with 100M, Thailand with 70M, Myanmar with 54M, Malaysia with 33M. Malaysians are focused on the economy, not on making babies. Cambodia with 17M, Laos with 7M, Singapore with 6M, and Brunei with less than 400,000. The total ASEAN population is 684 million. Ten years ago, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand had almost the same population. What happened?

In 2021, the ranking was Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Brunei. In 2021, we were number three. Now we are number 6. My God. If we cannot turn the tide in our favor, we might end up competing for survival with Laos and Cambodia, Myanmar's trajectory is up, up, and away. Singapore is helping Myanmar. What is pulling us down? Here it is: Out of 180 countries, the Philippines is ranked 116 as of 2022. And in 2023 it is way down again. In 2022, the most corrupt countries are Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, North Korea, and Haiti. The most honest countries are Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherland, Germany, and Luxembourg.

From our ambition to become another tiger of Asia, we are becoming the sick and wounded cat in Asia Pacific. We are just good at delivering speeches and in politics. No one is really focusing on the economy. We cannot even produce enough rice for our people. We import everything including sugar and onions so that the corrupt cronies can steal millions. Our national debt is ?14 trillion and still counting. Now we are creating another milking cow, another white elephant, another Trojan horse, the so-called Maharlika sovereign wealth fund. What wealth?

The inflation rate is skyrocketing. The trade deficit is staggering. Population is exploding. Crimes, drugs, and corruption are going up. Unemployment is rising. And the politicians are not even worried. The ASEAN train is on full speed and we are being left behind. What is happening to our country, general?