09/06/2025
WE ARE NOT POOR. WE ARE PLUNDERED.
The worst trick corruption ever pulled was convincing us this is just how life is.
When the roads flood after a light rain, when public hospitals are overcrowded and underfunded, when children walk kilometers just to get to school, we’re told these are just “part of life.” But poverty alone doesn’t explain the rot. Our problems aren’t because we’re a poor country, but because we’re poorly governed.
These aren’t everyday problems. They are the symptoms of a nation held hostage by bad governance.
You can be resource-rich and still be poor if the wealth is siphoned by a few. You can have brilliant minds and still stagnate if merit is replaced by political patronage. You can build infrastructure, but it will crumble if corruption eats through its foundation like termites through wood.
At some point during the martial law years, a statement began to circulate and was later widely attributed to Imelda Marcos, although it remains unverified. “The Philippines,” she allegedly said, “is a rich country pretending to be poor.” Whether or not she actually uttered those words, the phrase rings with uncomfortable truth. We are rich in minerals, talent, biodiversity, and culture. Yet year after year, we crawl through the same problems. Not because we lack, but because we mismanage, misuse, and too often, plunder what we have.
Other nations with fewer natural resources have done more with less. Why? Because they put systems before shortcuts. They reward competence over connections. They build for the long term instead of pocketing the short-term gain.
But here, a public official can buy a luxury car from a salary that cannot even afford the down payment. Here, laws are bent depending on who's in power and who you know. Here, impunity walks free, while honesty is punished with red tape or even retaliation.
We’ve been trained to lower our expectations. To make excuses. To laugh off what should make us angry. But the truth is, we’re not behind because we lack talent or potential. We’re behind because we tolerate broken systems. We elect the same names, accept the same lies, and settle for the same sorry results.
This is not to say that change is impossible. It is to say that change will not come from denying the real cause of our problems. It will not come from labeling them as ordinary, expected, or inevitable. It will come from naming the problem for what it is, and refusing to let it stay that way.
So stop calling them everyday problems, as if we were destined to live with them. Call them what they truly are. Corruption problems. Governance problems. Problems we can fix if we stop normalizing them.
Because we are not a people meant to live with brokenness. We are a people who deserve better systems, better leaders, and better lives.
