‘Tuwid na daan’ towards crony capitalism

The Economist magazine’s article ranking the Philippines sixth in the crony index (up three notches from ninth place) confirms what many thinking Filipinos knew all along: that only a handful of politically connected businessmen are prospering from the so-called “economic gains” achieved by the Aquino administration.

This explains why the country’s still has one of the highest poverty rates among Asia’s emerging economies. Despite the alleged robust growth of the Philippine economy over the last few years, poverty incidence stood at 27.9 percent as of 2012, almost unchanged from 28.9 percent in 2009.