Aside from only a few super-rich families holding one half of total Filipino family income, there is a huge gap between how much majority of ordinary Filipino households earn monthly, and that of the country’s top earners. But government’s market-oriented policies tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, such as slapping more taxes on widely-consumed goods, increasing or imposing more user fees as in power, water and transportation, allowing contractual jobs that provide measly pay and deprive workers of benefits, and pegging wages at low levels. These further widen the gap between rich and poor. #Birdtalk2018 #SONA2018