Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
PHILIPPINE banks posted P309 billion in record profits last year, an extraordinarily good year for the banking industry that saw second-tier commercial banks report double-digit net incomes — in billions. In a milieu where income distribution is fairly distributed, and where prosperity is broadly shared, the jumbo profits of the banking system would not get a second notice. But here is the thing — there is no broadly shared prosperity, and the grotesque profits stand out like drunks in a churchyard.
According to the World Bank, the bottom 50 percent of Filipinos have to fight it out for 14 percent of the national income. The Top 1 percent vacuums up 17 percent, with much of that 17 percent scooped up by the Top 0.1 percent (there is inequality even among the richest of the rich). The remaining 49 percent of the population theoretically gets the balance, but it is safe to say that those in the Top 2 percent to the Top 11 percentile in the income distribution are the real gainers.
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