For a very long time, that has been the case.
There is nothing in sight to change that. The upcoming elections will be the same. Traditional politicians will win. If not, movie stars.
There is, however, one glimmer of hope. Not the kind though like winning in jueteng or the lottery. You have to work your butt off. And it has been there all along.
Our economic backwardness is the key. The positive side of that is anybody, just anybody, can be a micro or small business operator. There are just so many things that need to be produced to become one’s stocks-in-trade. Thus, many of our countrymen with a modicum of enterprising spirit and common sense have found the small business niches that respectively fit them. Now, about 90 percent of Filipinos are employed by small businesses.
There are now innumerable short courses or seminars offered by government to enable people to come up with such businesses. This is an admission of its inability to spur development of big businesses offering high paying jobs. In short, it is a dismal failure in job creation. So, people have to rely on themselves individually.
While there are some notable success stories of government supported small ventures, most of them are dismal failures.
The main reason was top government officials who conceptualized these were just theoreticians. The kind who are averse to getting their hands dirty. Who only had theoretical knowledge about running a supermarket, yet intended beneficiaries have yet to learn how to run a sari-sari store. Or even a “fishbol” or banana cue stand.
Such reality, goes all the way to the top of government.
The result? A wide disconnect between government plans and reality. It has always been the case. So is our poverty.**