Towards a Better Normal: A Study on Inequalities and the Lack of Human Development in the Philippines

It is almost cliché to say that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. But it is a socio-economic reality that cannot be ignored. In the Philippines, statistics show that the number of billionaires and the wealth they accumulate is constantly rising while more and more people are living in poverty.

This glaring, yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots prompted Oxfam Pilipinas to commission economics professor Joseph Lim of the Ateneo de Manila University to conduct a study that will take a hard look at existing inequalities in the Philippines and how they relate to the country’s development lag.