Philippines: Wealthiest Grew Richer Under Arroyo
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The gap between the unimaginable wealth of the country’s richest families and the poorest households highlights the yawning income inequalities that further widened under the Arroyo administration, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation.
The richest 20% of the population account for 53% of the income pie while the bottom 20% get only 4.63.
The poorest 30% of the country’s families, some 4.9 million, had a combined income of P177 billion, according to the 2003 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES). This was half of the total net worth of the Philippines’ richest: Jaime Zobel and his family, Lucio Tan and Henry Sy. According to Forbes magazine, as of Feb. 2007 the three had a total net worth of $7.5 billion or P360 billion (at P48:$1).
From 1985, the share of the poorest 60% of the population of the population fell by 1.8 percentage points while the richest 20% were able to increase their share by another 1.2 percentage points.
“This is a vivid example of the skewed income distribution prevailing in the country, which has worsened since 1985,” said IBON executive editor Rosario Bella Guzman. She added that the income of the richest 10% of the country’s households is 21 times that of the poorest 10 percent.
Guzman said the reason for such inequality was the not the failure of so-called economic growth to ‘trickle down’ to the poor, but the monopoly of ownership of the country’s productive assets, such as land and capital, in the hands of a relative few families. This denies the poor the ability to improve their lot even as the rich continue to get richer.
This is illustrated by looking at the country’s poorest sectors– marginal peasants, small fisherfolk, the urban poor– who all suffer from extreme marginalization and exclusion from economic resources and the common goods.
Unless there is more equitable access to economic assets, the poverty situation in the country will not improve, and indeed, can only get worse, Guzman said. (end)
IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.
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IBON Foundation, Inc., IBON Center 114 Timog Ave., Quezon City, Philippines
Tel. (632) 927-7060 * Fax (632) 929-2496 * E-mail: media@ibon.org * www.ibon.org
Reference: Ms Rosario Bella Guzman (IBON executive editor)
April 12, 2007
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Davao firms to issue warning on closures, retrenchments
April 12th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
i think that president gloria macapagal arroya should have not run for president! she is a fucking bitch!
April 13th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Wow, that’s a very constructive comment. The only reason the Philippines is still like the way it is is because the economy’s still not “opening” up enough. We need more fdi’s coming in the country. Hence, the trickle-down theory.
April 14th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
That problem with Pilipinos is this palusot and crab mentality.Everyone for himself attitude.They all say they love their country but all is showing is they love to steal from the country and to hell the rest of his country men.But whose to blame but the people themselves ,putting people in congress and senate that do not deserve to be there.
Philippines is hopeless,no matter who runs the country.