Philippines A Century Hence Pi10

Karen Kay G. Bautista
PI10 T-5R
E1

Philippines A Century Hence 2014-2114 Politics. Envisioning Philippines politically 100 years from now, I see disaster. After a century, the Philippine political situation will remain politically immature. Filipino leaders will become only desirous of political control and not because they are interested in the welfare of the mass of the people. Voters will continue to choose not based on who is competent and who is fit in leading the country, but on popular personalities, whether they’re popular actors, actresses, athletes or children of former famous politicians, who are incompetent and does not have a single knowledge of running the country and are only good at convincing people with flowery words. Unworthy politicians will continue to be elected because many Filipinos will vote in exchange for money, not for the progress and prosperity of our country. Political dynasties will continue to prevail and local elites will continue to exert considerable influence in our country. Just like it has always been, presidents in the future will get impeached and senators will be accused of plunder. Corruption in our country will definitely not be lessened. Thus the political and economic situation in the Philippines will continue to be chaotic and mismanaged. However, the country might have a chance to prosper if the government continues to implement reforms, particularly in fighting corruption; if people will stop electing based on popularity, for money, for uncertainty, for probability, for the best promise, and will stop not voting at all. Only then the political situation in the country can get better as a whole.

Population. According to the Philippine Statistic Authority, the Philippine population will swell by nearly 50M in 2045 even with the projected decline in the annual growth rate. Based on their estimation, our population is expected to reach 142 million. At this rate, by the year 2114, I expect the Philippine population to continuously undergo a period of consistent growth. The Philippine population will double, and might even jump to half as much as China’s current population which is about 1.357 billion. This will greatly affect the country. The government will not be able to finance growing population or provide work for them so informal sector becomes dominant and they will be forced to charge more taxes. There will be even more lack of money for services due to strain on government. Rapid population growth will emerge the expansion of human activity; this will in turn cause the destruction of forest and the loss of biological diversity which may lead to instability of ecological systems and reducing ability of the ecosystem to combat global warming. This will also lead to an even greater strain on resources like food, water, oil, and gas. Culture. The Philippines has always been and will continue to be a melting pot of different cultures. Foreign influences will continue to bring changes and alternations to our culture. Because of our vulnerability to outside influences, our actions in terms of cultural traits will be very much affected by our connections with the foreigners who come to our country. We have always easily picked up many of their cultural traits. This will greatly contribute to the deterioration of the indigenous Filipino culture. Sooner or later, this could lead to lack of patriotism or lack of awareness, appreciation, and love of the country. Also, much of the progress our nation will lack will be tied up with the lack of identity we have as a nation primarily because of our adaptation of a culture and a language that is not entirely ours. Economy. How I envision the country economically in a century is like how Dr. Miriam Defensor Santiago would say it - “The Philippines should remain a representative democracy, with a preferential option for the poor. In other words, there has to be a radical restructuring of the economy. This will include abolition of the culture of corruption. But I don’t think this is attainable because the rich will never allow radical change. The rich will support reform, as long as they remain rich and the rest of the country remains poor.”. The way I see it, Philippine economy may boost, and may even reach trillion economy by 2030, but influential families will continue to swallow much of the recently-created wealth, while poverty and underemployment figures will barely improve. There will be even greater gap between the rich and the poor – the rich will continue to be rich, and the poor will continue to be poor. The rich will continue enjoy significantly faster growth in incomes compared with people from lower income classes. In order to lessen the gap between the rich and poor in the future, the government will have to provide more opportunities for the poor to benefit from the country’s rapid growth. Education is also equally important to decrease the gap. Education. How I see it, 100 years from now, illiteracy will still be a major problem in the country. Illiteracy rate will continue to stagger, and there will be even more people who will lack basic reading and writing skills. There will be several factors that will contribute to the rising illiteracy rate, which will include increasing school fees and shortage of schools. Just like it has always been, the majority of the nation's rural, elementary school classrooms will only have one textbook for every four pupils, meaning that the children spend most evenings with

nothing to study. Some schools will have no textbooks at all, and teachers, lacking even blackboards and chalk, must instruct with their hands. Also, there will be a big disparity in educational achievements across social groups. For example, the socioeconomically disadvantaged students will have higher dropout rates. This is partly because of the continuously increasing population in the Philippines. There will be even greater strain on government’s fund for education. The only way the Philippines can extricate itself from these problems if the Philippine Constitution would mandate the government to allocate the highest proportion of its budget to education and if they could come up with a way of how to prevent the further dramatic increase in the country’s population. Education is important for a country to grow. Whether it is economically or socially, education plays a vital role in the growth of these two important factors. That’s why as early as now we should be able to come up with a way to lessen the problems regarding education in the Philippines. It’s a must that we work together as nation for the good of the country. It’s our obligation as Filipinos. “The youth is the hope of the nation.”, this has been repeated again and again since Jose Rizal first said it a century back. But, if we keep things just as they are, the Philippines could be in for another hundred years of stagnation.