What are the problems facing the Philippines?

1. Corruption in the government. The people are charged with taxes but we end
up having inefficient implementation of road and traffic rules, lack of a flood
control system, and "road constructions" (They destroy some roads then
immediately "fix" it, as a tactic for kickback). Even if, let's say, we have a good
president, it would still be difficult for him to implement good governance
practices nationwide because the rest of the politicians would not support
something that has nothing in it for them. This problem is passed from generation
to generation, more so considering the fact that the strongest politicians form
dynasties. The problems in the government, collectively, is the primary reason for
the rest of the problems.
2. Poverty. How did the Philippines collapse from being the second most
progressive country in Southeast Asia (vying behind Japan) to a third-world
country amassing billions of debt in the course of a couple of decades? It is also
sad to see that the rich and the poor exist side by side (For example, when I was
studying at De La Salle University, I can see the neighboring slums from the 4th
floor; when I worked at IBM in Eastwood, the poor residential areas are just a
stone's throw away; Makati City also has this problem)
3. Inefficiency in processes, particularly when government is involved (e.g., the
story here). Because of this, bribery is a common shortcut to avoiding the hassles
of unnecessary waiting. To be fair, some of these problems are now easily exposed
through social media.
4. Education system. What's wrong with the education system of the Philippines?
5. Confusing cultural identity as a nation. Nowadays, it is more difficult to
define the stereotypical "Filipino", considering that our culture has been a
combination of asian and western cultures. Can we say that the Philippines has no
culture and identity of its own because it was colonized by different countries?
What do sociologists say about this? As you go up the social ladder, more western
values are prioritized even if they may conflict with the traditional "Asian" values.
This can cause significant cultural conflicts between the rich and the poor.
6. Brain drain and lack of local opportunities to promising graduates. For
decades, the Philippines has always had large populations of migrant workers
abroad. From a purely economic perspective, working elsewhere will always be
more financially rewarding. In fact, many doctors go back to school to study BS
Nursing, hoping to work abroad in a lower level. In addition, with the advent of the
call centers that can pay higher than some local managerial positions, many
 college graduates (even the board passers in nursing, accountancy, and
engineering) choose to take a dead-end path. Other business processes are
outsourced here, particularly software, but they may not be as promising as the
ones in Silicon Valley (e.g., software enhancements/maintenance instead of
building a new and exciting product from scratch).

I won’t explain anymore on points already discussed by others. In case of clarifications, feel
free to comment on this answer. I may or may not add to this answer. You won’t see poverty
as a problem in this list because poverty is an effect, not a cause, at least in my opinion.

 Political corruption - cronyism, necropolitics, narcopolitics, political dynasties

 Lack of agricultural reform and national industrialization - without
these we will not attain food security and would not be able to establish proper
heavy industries
 Rise of neoliberalism in a non-competent economy - Oversaturation of
foreign goods in the market resulting in local industries dying. Becoming a part of
an assembly line of products without actually producing industrial goods for our
own benefit. Privatization of social services. Monopolies are allowed to exist even
though it is illegal.
 Lack of separation of Church and State - The Church maintains influence on
the state
 Unemployment and Housing - Lack of affordable housing in job hotspots; lack
of job hotspots in rural areas resulting in Rural to Urban migration thus causing
overpopulation in cities
 Lack of reliable infrastructure - interrupting transportation, logistics and
commerce
 Red tape in the government - part of corruption but this also affects legal
branches of the government too
 Lack of reliable, affordable, and quality social services - Healthcare
remains expensive, public schools are overcapacity and the quality of education
leaves much to be wanted, mass transport remains shitty
 Politics remains to be a popularity game - this is an issue of voters that do
not feel a personal responsibility towards the nation and the System which allows
mediocre politicians who do the bare minimum to continually run for public office
 Lack of regard on the usage of natural resources - the mining industry
remains extractive, we do not have the necessary industries to process them and
 they are exported to be processed by other countries to become products that will
then be sold to us.

Overpopulation with domino effect

As per the latest statistics, we are now 106 million plus and counting. Such sheer number of
people means we have more mouths to feed, therefore our meager resources are stretched
thin and it severely affects the government's ability to provide housing, work, healthcare,
food, and education. 

The poor quality of life forces people from poor families to go overseas, exposing them to
abuse and constant wars.

The biggest problem? Massive Poverty resulting from Massive Unemployment, which
results from anti-business policies that prevent Foreign Investors from coming in (which
also make it hard for local entrepreneurs to find foreigners with money to invest in their
ventures -- say one where there are 10 different investors, with the local guy having the most
number of shares, but the rest are foreigners with money, but none of them has majority),
which is a result of the Constitution being anti-foreign investor, stipulating that foreign
investors can only own 40% in a Philippine-registered company.

A huge percentage of out-of-school youth have access to television and radio, and if the
media would have it in their hearts to act on this fact, then they should stop producing
stupid TV shows and focus on educating the nation instead.

We need school to educate our children, whether it be math or rape culture or biology or
sexism. However, knowing that school isn't anymore something accessible to everyone, why
not utilize all available resources as an alternative?

Why not invest more in shows that teach about health, science, politics, religion(s), culture,
international news and current affairs, instead of cheesy, corny, improbable, overly
dramatic, unnecessary shows which only serve to further narrow our already narrow minds?

Instead of catering to songs by actors who can't even sing, with lyrics like "I'm missing you/
and it's making me blue./ I'm missing you/ I'm a thousand miles away from you", why not
support independent music artists who share new ideas and sentiments that oftentimes
reflect a revolutionized way of thinking?

Let's focus more on low-budget indie films with more artistic value and class than on teeny
booper shows which fatten the purses of a select few but undernourish the Filipino brain.
I'm not saying we should stop these shows and songs but there is already a surplus in the
market. We don't need more; we've been disrupting the balance for far too long.