AT least credit the country for its consistency.

That is, consistent in being at the bottom of nearly all human development rankings.

While overall economic indicators are rosy, the country has the worst case of social inequity –having the widest gap between the rich and the poor in Southeast Asia.   

Such inequitable and non-inclusive growth is feared to trigger social unrest and political instability

A recent study by a local think tank revealed that the Philippines has the highest income inequality rate among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

A virtual indictment of failed socio-economic policies, the study, conducted by the Stratbase Research Institute, showed that the country registered a Gini coefficient of 44 percent last year, higher than Thailand’s 42.5 percent, Indonesia’ s 39.4 percent, Malaysia’s 37.9 percent, and Vietnam’s 37.8 percent.

“Gini coefficient” is the most common measure of income inequality developed by Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini.

Stratbase president Victor Andres Manhit said the result of the study showed that the gap between the rich and the poor in the country is more pronounced than in the other countries in Southeast Asia.

Manhit said that the present government should address this huge disparity of income because this would breed “social tension and even political instability”.

If not addressed, Stratbase said, this wide chasm could cause “the polarization of society and the creation of social tensions that would eventually undermine the process of growth and development”.

It said that inequality and marginalization can worsen without proper policies in place.

“The elected leadership must firmly hold the line against vested interests and political machinery that are poised to advance their position to the grave detriment of the majority,” Stratbase was quoted by a major broadsheet as saying.

Studies conducted by multilateral lenders such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Program, National Statistics Office, and National Statistical Coordination Board also showed grave income inequality in the Philippines.

In a study, the ADB said that the vast inequality in the Philippines is not only in income but also in land distribution, welfare and human development.

The study showed that the richest 10 percent of Filipino families were “raking in more than a third of the country’s total income”.

The WB report also showed that the richest 20 percent of the population in the Philippines “outspent” the poorest 20 percent by more than eight times.

“This huge disparity in expenditures can cause problems such as the lack of legitimacy, the weakening of social cohesion and the outbreak of social strife. [It can] exacerbate the existing differences and conflict between the poor and the non-poor,” the WB report said.