Last April 22, a Bangko Sentral official said that the Philippines will miss the first phase of the single market integration targeted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by 2015.

Yet, the Aquino administration is being confident that the country is ready with necessary measures come 2015.
Even if BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo is giving assurances that the ASEAN 2015 integration is optional, that doesn’t seem to be the case among government spin doctors.

There is this pervasive feeling that the country is being rushed to join into the planned economic community, not because we actually need to, but because of desperation.

It is a kind ofdesperation to keep up to a perceived notion that we have to match up to our neighbor countries, rather than minding what actually matters for the economy.

This talk of economic integration and the promises sold with it does not even ring a bell as far as the average Filipino worker is concerned. Juan Dela Cruz still sees the prices go up, and his earnings cannot match the cost of living here.
Most people view Bangko Sentral officials as more obsessed with keeping the status quo so that only big business can benefit, despite claims of having anti-poverty programs.

Some analysts would say that very little of the wealth gained from an improving economy is trickling down.
The man who has to toil in labor on a daily basis just to give his family enough food would tell us that it’s all meaningless talk.

The truth of the matter is that whether there is anything trickling down at all, almost nobody feels it.
It’s an extreme of having too much on one side and having nothing on the other end.

PNoy can keep assuring us with a tired script about an emerging economy, a fairy tale that sounds good to the ears, but brings no comfort to most of us who have to work day in and day out to get our daily bread.
Nobody believes it anymore, except for those few who choose to fool themselves.