Philippines is a home of abundant natural resources.

However, with its abundance Philippines is a

developing country. Why is that so? This is because the country itself is being drowned with various
social and economic problems such as poverty, graft and corruption, injustice and marginalization. In
relation to the article “Philippine Underdevelopment and Dependency Theory”, Philippines remains to
be stagnant and unprogressive because of the so-called Dependency theory. Philippines therefore has
been struggling to keep up with the global market. Moreover, an existence of dependence on
international trade, in which transnational or multinational corporations continue to penetrate and
control our economy. As for the 1 st instance of dependency that may explain Philippine
underdevelopment is that our local elite becomes subordinated to international capita, fulfilling a
basically comprador and supervisory role, and raking in huge profits from being simply the bridgehead
or extension of neo-colonialism in our country. In addition, devotion to the country’s elites precisely
allows the mechanism of disabling conditions to prevail that prevents from progressing. Most of the
elites in the country became highly influential in terms of power and economic status such that they are
the supervisors for the transnational conglomerates. In this case, the elites have the privileged and easy
access rather than those who are in the lowest classes. Elites especially those are business owners
gradually have more advantages in this arena. Inclined with it, the 2nd instance which posited hat while
the local collaborating elites share in the gains of this dependent development, the peasants and the
workers are permanently marginalized by the entire process. Unfortunately, the peasants and workers
are the ones who bear the brunt of the consequences, since they are deprived and marginalized. As a
result, this dependent or unequal development flattens the global corporate as well as their local
partners who are members of the minority or privileged class. However, the country’s poorest classes
become further destitute. Because of such disparities in development, the chasm between the rich and
the poor is growing day by day. I do believe that the first people who would be directly affected by such
problems are those from the lowest class. Aside from that, Philippines has an increasing international
debt believing that it would help in addressing various problems in the country. But, our country’s
growing debt and the poor living conditions of the majority show no signs of change nor progression. It
would take time for our country to pay these debts wherein fact we are facing numerous issues that
would certainly falls to getting financial assistance. The incompetency of the government can lead us to
greater downfalls.

Obviously, this explanation is still relevant to explain contemporary Philippine underdevelopment.

Dependency theory which means that “traces the roots of backwardness and underdevelopment to a
country’s increasing integration into the vicious circuit of foreign capital, technology and markets”.
Unsurprisingly, Philippines is still way too far from the 1st world countries as there was no movement
for development. We are still facing the problems of economy even if it occurred in the past because it’s
continuous and it’s prevailing. Such instances are not new to us as it is still recognizable even in the
present times. Every single day, the number of cases is increasing such as in poverty as it remains to be
one of the mortal enemies of the state. Even nowadays, graft and corruption are present and
unstoppable. Population mismanagement which would be hard to allocate one’s state of living. Low
minimum wages and a lot of jobless people are suffering from survival in order to suffice their daily
needs. There’s a huge gap between the rich and the poor. However, both can have similarities when it
comes to the services or situations that they might face such as traffic, slow internet connection and
many to mention. Individuals experience denied access to healthcare, education, employment, etc. In
this case, it is noticeable that Philippines is left behind from the progress and development that were
made by the 1st world countries. Therefore, these factors contribute to the cause why Philippines has
been unable to progress at all. This will always reflect to what kind of government we have and to what
kind of system and living we are dealing to. Rich in natural resources is what stands out Philippines from
other country but when incomes to economic status, the country fails, and this is observable in the
reality of our economy today. If we continue to depend from other countries for us to be lift from
economic crises, I strongly believe that this kind of mannerism will become our culture. As a culture, it
becomes our identity. In other words, we would be recognized by the other states by being a third world
country who choose to join forces and hanging on to other states in order to provide solution to our
problem face by our country.