I was supposed to be on a study break. You know, reviewing Azure firewall rules, maybe poking around Wireshark like a good future cybersecurity engineer.
Instead… I went on YouTube.
Big mistake. Huge.
A video popped up: “Old Manila in the 1960s — A Glimpse of the Glory Days.”
Cue vintage cars, clean streets, people in barong casually walking down Escolta, neon signs, working trains.
I swear, for five minutes, I thought I accidentally clicked on a documentary about Singapore.
But no — that was us.
The Philippines.
Once poised to be Asia’s golden boy.
Now?
We import garlic from China. And blame each other on Facebook.
We had the sauce. Then we spilled it.
There was a time when:
- The peso had real value
- Manila had charm and public transport
- Filipinos were seen as the rising stars of Asia
Fast-forward to now:
- Our best minds are abroad
- Traffic is considered a personality trait
- And the only thing rising is the price of siling labuyo
Poverty is inherited — like chinelas na pinagmana
A lot of us didn’t start from zero.
We started from utang.
From homes patched with tarps.
From parents who didn’t finish school, because survival beat out graduation.
And guess what we do when we finally get a job?
We send money to family.
Because love.
And guilt.
And “ikaw na lang ang pag-asa namin.”
Corruption is the real family business
Billions for a road that leads nowhere.
Procurement “shortcuts” that somehow always involve the same 3 contractors.
Leaders who dance for votes and ghost accountability.
Meanwhile, public schools have:
- Leaking ceilings
- Three subjects sharing one book
- And teachers buying their own chalk in 2025.
Education is the dream — but also a gamble
Yes, school is the ladder out.
But sometimes that ladder is:
- Missing rungs
- In the middle of a flood
- And on fire
You finish your degree and end up saying “Welcome to Jollibee” with honors.
Not because you’re not smart — but because the system was never designed for you to win here.
Money doesn’t grow — it gets divided
You earn ₱20,000/month.
Take home ₱16,000.
Support 7 people.
Pay Meralco.
Budget for rice.
Cover Nanay’s maintenance meds.
Give a little pang-fiesta.
What’s left for savings?
Nothing.
And so the cycle continues.
And worst of all? We normalize it.
We treat struggle like tradition.
We meme poverty.
We laugh it off.
We say “Ganyan talaga sa Pinas” like it’s part of the national anthem.
We wear resilience like a badge, not realizing it’s also a shackle.
So where do we go from here?
We’re not broken. We’re just tired.
Tired of leaders with dynasties longer than local rice supply.
Tired of choosing between dreams and duty.
Tired of being told, “Magtiis ka muna.”
We need to:
- Demand better
- Vote better
- Stop glamorizing struggle
- Stop calling survival a success story
- And maybe start building systems that don’t run on favors and utang na loob
TL;DR:
Watched one nostalgic YouTube video, spiraled into national introspection.
Conclusion: We messed up. But maybe we can still fix it — if we stop pretending things are fine when they clearly aren’t.