Although South Korea and Philippines had similar pasts, the Philippine economy still became behind South Korea’s at some point in time or in particular – between the early 70’s and late 80’s. The question is what had caused this sudden change in the economy of both countries considering the fact that the leaders of these countries during these times were both outstanding students who also had significant experiences as public servants or leaders. Based on the graph by Gapminder (www.gapminder.org) regarding the relationship of income per person and life expectancy at birth of different countries, South Korea, in its early 1970’s, left Philippines in the said graph during its mid 1980’s. The most probable solution to examine the difference between the two countries during these times was to know how Former Presidents Park Chung Hee (South Korea) and Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines) ruled their own country or how efficient were they as leaders?
During the term of these two Presidents, they, having an authoritarian form of government, both declared martial law during their term but what matters most is what was their purpose for doing such controversial proclamation as leaders of their country? Under President Park of South Korea, his declaration of Martial Law was for a good reason – for the betterment of South Korea’s economy. During his first few years as president, most of his plans for South Korea were challenged by politicians who have opposed him since he was voted as president. As a result, he then declared Martial Law in order to have the sole authority of taking control of the country’s activites. Until he was assassinated in 1979, he truly made a remarkable improvement in South Korea’s economy such as having the fastest industrial growth (particularly in the international trade) in the whole world.
On the other hand, President Marcos of the Philippines declared Martial Law for the purpose of “vanishing” his political enemies because of his fear that these individuals might convince Pres. Marcos’ supporters of how inefficient and corrupt Pres. Marcos was as a leader. In fact, it was during these times that Marcos borrowed huge amounts of money from multinational banks and organizations for some unknown reasons which had caused our country’s economy to suffer severely until now. Although Pres. Marcos had provided some improvements in our economy, it will still not compensate for the damages that his greediness had done to our beloved country.
The evident difference in the wealth of the Philippines and South Korea can be partly, if not wholly, attributed to the way its leaders run their country. President Park, obviously a person dedicated to development, sentenced all politicians who were proven guilty of corruption to death. Which proves that he is truly an ideal leader of any country whom had caused South Korea’s economy to improve rapidly in exchange for the potential money or properties that he could have gathered during his presidential term.
