Reaction Paper

The PILs video and material discussed the problems that the Philippines is facing and
why they remain to be as if it is a cycle that never ends, they defined the meaning of human
developments, human security, economic growth and how does one know if it is benefiting the
majority or just a minority of whom are oligarchs. Now when summarized the materials and
videos all mention that the Philippines as a developing country have so much potential for
growth in the future, they pertained to 4 main problems; economic restructuring of the
Philippines, worsening inequality, threats to provision of global public goods/ human security
(food), building trust and social cohesion, to which they also gave the recommendations as to
what the Philippines should do to address its situation and alleviate poverty plaguing the country.

The PILs video from a perspective of a student is quite informative and unbiased as during the
discussion they pointed out the flaws in the system, e.g., the train law that was said to be
something that would benefit the poor, which at face value seemed did seem to, but when looked
into deeper, one would see that is was actually doing the opposite, it was actually enriching those
in the upper-class even more. The personal income tax was exempt for those with below Php
250,000 income per annum, while those who earned Php 8 million and above are subject to 15%-
30% tax (Philippines notes reduction in personal income tax rates from 2023 — orbitax tax news

& alerts, n.d.). Unfortunately, the government also did increase the VAT of common goods such
as food and petroleum products, most of which are owned by rich people who then increased the
price of the said products only for the poor people to suffer the consequences as they are no
longer able to buy the same amount of goods they did before. Though to remain unbiased, the
speakers did not shy away from pointing out good points that the government is making.

It opened my view of the problems the Philippines is facing, mainly the worsening inequality, I
realized that I was oblivious to the injustices that those in the poverty margin face each day under
the Philippine government. Joblessness and inflation remained high during the Duterte
administration though this may be partly due to the pandemic, the situation could have been
handled better (IBON foundation, 2022). Sadly, the current administration is not prioritizing the
alleviation of poverty in the country and should they ever do decide to help the poor then quoting
Sonny Africa from the PILs “we should not celebrate the government doing its job”.
 References

IBON Foundation. (2022). Duterte gov’t creates the most unemployment among all post-Marcos

admins. IBON Foundation. https://www.ibon.org/duterte-most-unemployment-post-

marcos/

Philippines notes reduction in personal income tax rates from 2023 — orbitax tax news & alerts.

(n.d.). Orbitax.com. https://orbitax.com/news/archive.php/Philippines-Notes-Reduction-

in-51665