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What They Don't Tell You
…and why we need these “inconvenient truths”
May 15-19, 2023

Reader, if you want to know the real state of the nation insofar as our development is concerned, all you have to do is read the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028.* Like its predecessors, it always starts with the base line – where the country is at the start of the Plan. It also, of course, tells us where the country wants to be at the end of the Marcos Jr. Administration, as well as how we are to get there.
But whether we like it or not, the document is a government one, and there is always that desire to gloss over the unpleasant parts, i.e., those that have to do with government failures, and present things in the best possible light. The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), is perhaps the government agency that is the least likely to be giving us this kind of snow job, but one can (at least I can) still tell when it is holding back, so as not to offend the bosses.
In any case, the PDP is about 460 pages long, and is not easy reading. I seriously doubt whether PBBM or, for that matter, any of the political leadership, have read it – and they will not be the first non-readers. Politicians generally think that they know-it-all already.
Furthermore, PBBM apparently has a sunny personality and has a marked preference for good news. So do all of us, actually, but that should not extend to ignoring unpleasant facts altogether, or we might be creating a beautiful bubble that might burst and leave us with egg all over our faces, pardon the mixed metaphors.
It is also made clear, though, that the success of the PDP requires not only the whole-of- government, but the whole-of-society as well. That means us, Reader. So if we are to really get into this, to do our thing for our country, so to speak, we must know exactly what we are up against, we must face some very unpleasant , inconvenient truths. I will deal with what I consider the most important of them, and I will use the four other members of the ASEAN-5 countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam) as comparators.
The FIRST INCONVENIENT TRUTH is that the Philippines has the lowest GDP per capita among the ASEAN-5. This means the Filipino people have less income than the people of either Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia or Vietnam.

But this was not always the case. Look at the situation in 1960 (at this time, Vietnam was at war with itself, and joined the ASEAN only in 1995)

I agree.. the no 1 factor for growth is government policies and institutions. If only people are wise voters this could not happen.
Hi Mareng Winnie, can you give a link for the source you based on from what you wrote:
I’d love to read Sachs’ work as well