UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL INEQUALITIES

Underdevelopment in the Global South is a direct legacy of colonialism, and it is reinforced

by the belief that poor countries can be lifted out of poverty by enabling Western nations to bring
wealth and technology. This widespread circle is what keeps the Philippines in a state of
underdevelopment and repression (Lim, 2008). Dependency theory departs from the essential
principles of imperialism theory and attributes the origins of underdevelopment and economic
decline to our country's growing interdependence into the vicious circle of foreign money,
technology, and markets (David, 1980). This explains the circumstances in the Philippines while
examining the link of domination and dependency between advanced capitalist countries and
poor countries.
Dependency Theory, also known as Teora de la Dependencia, has gained popularity in
many developing countries during the last few decades. In the economic sense, what we have
today is not a nation with an integrated internal market (San Juan, 2016). The social realities that
we now face in the country include the growing and unstoppable dominance of transnational
corporations over our national economy, the impossibility of repaying our international debt, the
increasing pauperization of the rural masses, and the total degradation of our marginalized urban
poor, to name a few. There is therefore a need to create a fully self-directing economy, and we
must communicate this important knowledge in every possible forum.
The Philippines' economy is dependent on changes in the global capitalist system. As a
result of its integration into global capitalism, the Philippines relies on a few agricultural and
mineral exports, as well as labor-intensive sweatshops, to earn foreign cash. Factors that worsen
developing countries' reliance on industrialized countries include: (1) urbanization, along with an
insufficient increase in agricultural food output, necessitating more food imports. Imports of basic
food products (wheat, rice, etc.); (2) an increase in administrative expenditure out of proportion
with the capabilities of the local economy; (3) a change in income distribution structures, with
'Europeanization' of the privileged strata's way of life and consumer habits (demonstration
effects); and (4) insufficient industrial development and disequilibrium in industrial structures
(excessive predominance of consumer-goods industries). The interaction of these pressures
makes developing countries reliant on external aid, which tends to become permanent (San Juan,
2016).
As a result, the Philippines stays impoverished or underdeveloped since imports remain
high while the government fails to grow the domestic market through industrialization, especially
when remittances from residents working abroad supply enough funds to keep the national
economy afloat. To remain competitive in the global economy, the Philippines must keep pace
with its neighbors in the region in terms of keeping wages low and productivity high. This has
resulted in widespread exploitation of the Philippines' working poor (Rivera, 2021). In addition to
exploitative salaries, laborers confront hazardous working conditions as a result of low safety
regulations. Local authorities enforce labor laws laxly and frequently turn a blind eye to workplace
breaches by plant owners.

Tracking the outlines of 'the society' is crucial today because it is commonly accepted that
'the society' is undergoing profound transformations as a result of the encroaching impact of
globalization and neoliberalism. This transformation implies that a population and its dangers are
progressively administered and managed through the development of free subjects, productive
citizens, and active communities (Seki, 2015). We are here to examine how the contemporary
government of poverty attempts to realize social inclusion through the nurturing of desires, habits,
and dispositions that are conducive to a 'investment in human capital' by focusing on conditional
cash transfers as a poverty-alleviation program in the Philippines.
Because of pressure from the US-led International Monetary Fund/World Bank on the
then-ruling Marcos administration, neoliberal economic philosophy dominated the Philippine
economy in the 1970s, and our country's quality of living deteriorated at a far faster rate. As a
result, the vast majority of our people are now living in abject poverty, while a tiny fraction of
traditional Spanish creole and Chinese families enjoy unfathomable wealth and power. Because
of pressure from the US-led International Monetary Fund/World Bank on the then-ruling Marcos
administration, neoliberal economic philosophy dominated the Philippine economy in the 1970s,
and our country's quality of living deteriorated at a far faster rate. As a result, the vast majority of
our people are now living in abject poverty, while a tiny fraction of traditional Spanish creole and
Chinese families enjoy unfathomable wealth and power.
The neoliberal economic model prioritizes growth over development and numbers over
individuals. Neoliberalism means unlimited liberalization or opening of domestic markets to
foreign products, privatization of government operations, and deregulation or elimination of any
restriction/condition on massive economic enterprise (Flores, 2014). Humanity, according to
neoliberals, is either a commodity or a consumer, and society is nothing more than a gigantic
market space. The cost to the people of the Philippines has been enormous. The dictatorship
lasted fourteen years, but it was only the beginning. Neoliberalism resulted in a social scenario in
which around 75 percent of the population lived below the poverty line in the early 1990s, and
while this has been significantly reduced since then, it is unknown by how much (Scipes, n.d.).