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By Lorraine Elizabeth Tan
(Editor’s note: Tan, a
13-year-old student of St. Jude Catholic School in Manila, won third
prize in Category A—for contestants aged 12 to 15—of the 2007
National Essay-Writing Competition of The Manila Times and The
Manila Times College. Contestants were asked, “What would it take
for the Philippines to be a developed country?” The essays of the
first and second place winners were published on Sunday and Monday,
respectively.)
What would it take for the
Philippines to be a developed country? In my opinion, it would
take the Philippines a lot of time and effort to be a developed
country. To make it work, we need to provide employment for every
productive citizen and a good system of education for our young
generation. We also need to improve our infrastructure and the peace
and order situation of the country. We must instill in our minds a
sense of discipline, integrity, and most importantly, love for our
country.
If our government can prioritize
the creation or improvement of better public schools and offer more
scholarships to very promising children, education can produce more
skilled and productive citizens. It will advance the development of
the country. It will not happen instantly, but it most certainly
will.
Employment guarantees that a
family will have a sufficient income for its basic needs. In the
Philippines, either there are no sufficient jobs but lots of
jobseekers or there are job opportunities and yet few jobseekers.
That is why our government must continue to attract investors to set
up businesses here in the Philippines and at the same time look
after the well-being of our workforce.
Even our own congressman from
Parañaque, Rep. Roilo Golez, said we need to go back to the basic,
which is discipline. He pointed out that even within the House of
Representatives, sessions are always replete with absentees. He has
initiated an exercise to encourage his fellow lawmakers to exert
more effort to attend House sessions so that new laws and policy
resolutions can be passed in the shortest time.
We need to vote for candidates
with integrity. If the taxes collected by the government are used
for the development of our country rather than going to the pockets
of corrupt officials, our country will progress faster. Tax money
can be used for extending credit to people to start a business,
build a home, get access to health care and acquire education.
The Philippines faces a big
challenge in delivering its products to other places mainly because
it is an archipelago. If provided with proper transportation
infrastructure, such as bridges, ports and highways, it would have a
more efficient system of transaction among its provinces and with
other countries. For people living in rural areas, the lack of
community infrastructure makes the effects of poverty more severe.
This infrastructure-related inadequacy contributes to the
Philippines’ low global competitiveness.
We need to have genuine peace and
order. Hand in hand with the need for prosperity is the need to
strengthen our institutions of government to ensure that all
Filipinos civil rights and social justice. We must eliminate
corruption, stop political violence and build a strong system of
justice that people can trust. We will strengthen the rights of
victims, including more money for law enforcement. We will impose
tougher penalties for human rights violators. We must all band
together as a people and as public servants to stop this violence
once and for all. So, if our country is peaceful and orderly it will
attract more foreign tourists. Large number of tourists will further
improve our economy.
The Philippines is more of an
agricultural producer rather than an industrial one. It should also
start focusing on manufacturing like its neighbor countries so that
it can become a developed country as we hope it to be. Currently,
the Philippines is more focused on sending its OFWs abroad rather
than providing jobs to its own citizens to serve its industries and
business corporations.
We must also be more concerned
with our country’s cleanliness. It is like seeing the sun shining
brightly up in the sky, but hearing no birds chirping to brighten up
our day.
Finally, respect. We need to
respect our country. Our leaders too must learn to respect our
country. We must not pin all our hopes on them because each one of
us needs to do his part. We need to eliminate our defects and change
for the better.
All of the above will help our
country and ourselves, the next generation and the generation after
that, and so on and so forth. We should take these
responsibilities as a promise to the next generation and just pass
them on, just like starting a new family tradition. So why not start
with a better one for our future.
We need to improve these things
because we want the Philippines to be a developed country. If we
can’t trust the government to do its task, at least we can do our
part – which is to pay the right amount of tax, vote for officials
with integrity, and have discipline, respect and faith. If we have
people looking up to us we should influence them in doing the right
thing. We should stop thinking that we can’t do anything. We
can start by improving our own little corner and make the
Philippines a better country.
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