Why Phl lags in the ASEAN

It started with Maphilindo or Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia in the late fifties, then the SEATO or the South East Asia Treaty Organization in the sixties. It then metamorphosed into ASEAN. Today, it represents about 700 million people with a combined GDP PPP of 8.5 trillion US dollars and a work force of about 600 million. Transformed into an ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, this is a big force to reckon with that can give the EU a run for its money.

The ASEAN, established by the original five in 1967, namely Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines, was intended to balance the growing communist influence in Southeast Asia. After the Cold War, five more nations joined, namely: Vietnam, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. It is a region of virgin forests and a strong manpower source that supplies the Middle East, Europe and the Americas with huge volumes of raw materials and human capital. It is now a very important player in the global economy, especially with oil deposits in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei and prospects of oil in the south China sea. It is important that we examine how the Philippines fare in intra-ASEAN comparative economic index.

In terms of population, Indonesia is on top with 267 million people, followed by the Philippines 110 M, (second) and Vietnam, 97 M, Thailand 68 M. Myanmar has 54 M, Malaysia 33 M and Cambodia 16.5 M, Laos, 7.5 M, Singapore 5.7M and the smallest which is Brunei with only 400,000 smaller than one barangay in Quezon City. In terms of GDP. In terms of GDP PPP in millions, the biggest economy is, of course, Indonesia with 3.3 trillion US dollars, followed by Thailand, 1.3 trillion; Vietnam, 1.1 trillion; and the Philippines, 0.935 trillion (fourth). Malaysia has 0.9 trillion; Singapore, Myanmar, .275 trillion; Cambodia, 74 million; Laos, 60 million; and Brunei, 27 million.

The Philippines is doing very badly in GDP per capita, finishing number 7 among 10 ASEAN economies, beaten by tiny countries like Brunei and Singapore and even left behind by Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, and almost beaten by such poor country as Laos. What's wrong with us? Well, we produce a lot of babies, more babies than rice and bananas. Baby-making is the Philippines' number one cottage industry. We have a shrinking economy and a booming population. We know very well that per capita income equals GDP divided by total population. If we produce more babies but do not increase our productivity, we may end up beaten by Myanmar Laos and Cambodia.

Look, Singapore, with a population smaller than the province of Cebu, and which is ASEAN's number 9 in GDP is number one in per capita with a whopping 95,603 US dollars, four times bigger than the income of many Filipinos working in Europe or in USA and 8 times more than the per capita in the Philippines. The other per capita incomes in ASEAN are: Brunei, 61,816 US dollars, followed by Malaysia, 27,787, Thailand, 18,673, Indonesia (despite its big population of 267 million) has a per capita of 12,345, and Vietnam with 10,755.

The Philippines becomes the laughing stock with 8,574. How can our country be beaten by Vietnam who was devastated by the Vietnam war for more than ten years? They also have a big population of 97 million. But while they produce many babies, they also doubled their production of goods and services. Laos almost caught up with us with a per capita of 8,221, followed by Myanmar, 5,179 and Cambodia, 4,441.

In 1961, the Philippines was richer than all of these countries. We were second to Japan in the whole Asia, even doing better than China and India, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore. Today, we are down after decades of corruption, bad government and population explosion. Our leaders did not lead us well, and our people have fallen behind in terms of competence, commitment and conscientiousness. We have become the sick old man in Asia, and no matter how the politicians try to embellish our image, we are a very poor country with too many people to feed, to educate and to protect from COVID and starvation.

What is happening to our country, General?