Whitewashed poverty

It’s true, we have to be gracious hosts and put our best foot forward.

I’m not sure though if whitewashing poverty around the ASEAN summit venues constitutes putting our best foot forward.

Delegates to the summit are surely aware of the economic conditions in the Philippines. Several are among our biggest aid donors. As for the business delegations, since we’re inviting them to invest, wouldn’t it be better for them to see which areas need their money and expertise?

Concealing with white boards and reproductions of our top artists’ paintings the slum communities and the shanties under bridges inevitably invites comparisons to similar moves during the first Marcos administration.

When international VIPs came visiting during the dictatorship, curbs and walls were painted with cheap white kalburo or limewash that began fading as soon as the VIPs were gone. The literal whitewashing of poverty for this year’s ASEAN meet should make Imeldific proud of Marcos 2.0.

Let’s hope those attending today’s summit will see more than those temporary walls, because our country does have a lot to offer to the world, even within Metro Manila.

*      *      *

Our hosting of the leaders’ summit and plus-one meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is reminding us of the dismaying fact that we continue to slide behind our ASEAN neighbors in many development indicators.

For a long time now, we’ve been trailing the four other founding ASEAN member states in economic performance – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Newer ASEAN member Vietnam has also sprinted ahead of us economically.

Today the Philippine economy is still larger in size and output than Cambodia and Laos. But with our GDP growth sputtering, Cambodia may also outpace us soon in terms of economic indicators.

Last year, we had the same GDP growth of 4.4 percent as Laos. For the first three quarters of 2026, Laos’ GDP growth averaged 4.8 percent while ours stood at 2.5 percent.

Thailand pulled away from us economically after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Our currencies used to be almost the same in valuation. Today the Thai baht is trading at almost double the Philippine peso.

A banker pointed out that a weaker peso can actually be good news for our exports, manufacturing and tourism, tempering the high cost of travel to the Philippines compared to most of our ASEAN neighbors.

Unfortunately, exports, manufacturing and tourism are not driving our economy. Our biggest export is our human resource. For the first nine months of 2026, services registered the best performance, rising by 3.7 percent, while industry was flat at 0.003 percent. Agriculture, forestry and fishing contracted by 4.8 percent.

Our neighbors, with robust manufacturing and tourism sectors, are weathering the crisis arising from the Middle East conflict and other external headwinds better than us. With our tepid economic growth and high inflation, we’re just twisting in the wind.

We have rich natural resources and we’re not lacking in human capabilities. But our country has stagnated from bad governance.

People enter politics in our country with two main objectives: not to serve the people or make the nation a better place, but to enrich themselves ASAP, by hook or by crook (by crook is so much more profitable), and then to get elected again so they can enrich themselves some more.

The goal of the political elite is to stay in power forever, so they can loot with impunity, with their base maintained through tax-funded patronage, a system of dependence and deliberate undereducation.

Budget watchdogs have pointed out that our annual outlay is eaten up by debt servicing, personnel expenditures (including hefty pensions of select groups), unconditional dole-outs or ayuda and the black hole of corrupt deals.

Retired uniformed personnel and judges and justices get more in monthly pensions than the salaries paid to public school teachers and government health workers.

Because many appointments in government are driven by patronage and connections rather than merit, the bloated bureaucracy has not translated into better services. The mediocre qualifications in fact have done the opposite, creating inefficiency and graft-inspired red tape.

*      *      *

A country’s hosting of an international gathering says a lot about the quality of governance.

People wondered why classes were suspended and non-working days had to be declared for three days even in Metro Manila areas far from the ASEAN venues.

I can only guess that the organizers hoped the five-day break would encourage people to go on vacation outside Manila, leading to empty streets similar to what we see during Holy Week. This will mean no traffic for the ASEAN delegates, and diminished protests by students and other groups.

Hundreds of flights have been canceled or rescheduled. Travel plans are finalized and many flights are booked along with hotel accommodations weeks or even months in advance. Instead of attracting visitors, such flight disruptions will drive them away.

Certain lanes along major thoroughfares were closed as early as Thursday last week, causing horrendous traffic. Wasn’t that overkill?

When tiny Singapore holds the revolving ASEAN chair and hosts the summit and other international gatherings, it’s still business as usual throughout the city-state, with only the areas around the venues secured. And flights at its world-famous Changi International Airport are not disrupted.

We have laws and ordinances on zoning and against informal settlements, so government officials who are so concerned about beautification should have cleared Metro Manila of slums ages ago.

The law mandates barangay officials to work with police in stopping illegal settlements. But many barangay officials are the top landlords in slums. And local government and barangay officials actually encourage squatting to broaden their voting support.

Political fortunes and family wealth have been built on that impoverished, undereducated mass voting base. Such wealth is often undeclared, unexplained and concealed.

We have hidden wealth, and now we’re hiding poverty.