The combined wealth of the 50 richest Filipino families, placed at $65.8 billion, is  roughly one fourth of the 2012 GDP, which was  at $267 billion. As these families control every money making machine, from banks to  the ultra  profitable utilities, the combined wealth-to- GDP share will further increase in the years to come.

The stats on the immense riches of the top 50 families, and the support of hard metrics as evidence on the juiciest chunks they own in this sad sack of a country, often precedes or comes after, other revelations on poverty and deprivation. Perhaps to magnify that immense wealth exists amid so much inequity. Lawyer Antonio Oposa, arguing for a radical overhaul of the conventional wisdom and bankrupt transport policies, revealed one such fact: more than 80 percent of Filipinos are commuters and don’t own private vehicles.

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