By Elfren S. Cruz, BREAKTHROUGH column, The Philippine Star

(This article was originally published by The Philippine Star on November 20, 2025. View the original article.)  

I have written several columns in the past about the severe income inequality existing in the world today. This has been the single biggest cause of the rise of populism whose ideology centers on blaming the elite for all the economic problems existing in the world.

People have often asked for the source of my statistics and I usually cite Oxfam as the primary source.

In 2014, Oxfam claimed that the 85 richest people in the world have as much wealth as the poorest half of the world. In 2016, Oxfam claimed 62 people had as much wealth as the poorest half of the world, which was about 3.6 billion people at that time. In 2020, Oxfam again said that the world’s 2,153 billionaires collectively have more wealth than 4.6 billion people. For this report, Oxfam cited two sources, which were Credit Suisse and Global Wealth Databook for aggregate wealth data. The organization used the Forbes Billionaire List to estimate the total wealth of the world’s billionaires.

In January 2025, Oxfam published a new report called “Takers, not Makers: The Unjust Poverty and Unearned Wealth of Colonial Inheritance.” According to this report, in 2024, billionaire wealth grew by $2 trillion, which was three times faster than in the previous year. They also estimated that around 60 percent of billionaire wealth comes from unearnedsources, namely inheritance, monopolistic power or crony connections.

A major change in Oxfam reporting in 2025 is not just how much wealth is concentrated but also how it is obtained. A large share is taken and not earned through market competition alone.

The Oxfam Reports on the Philippines are of special interest to me. They incorporate other reports like the World Bank report in 2023 which states that 15.5 percent of Filipinos live below the official national poverty line. In absolute numbers, that is about 17.5 million people. Of these, 4.8 million people or 4.3 percent of the population could not even afford a basic food basket. According to the same report, the top one percent earners in the country captured 17 percent of the national income, while the bottom 50 percent only shared 14 percent. The result is that in the Philippines, inequality is slightly improving but the very high-income earners still hold a disproportionately massive share of income.

In terms of regional disparities in the country, the highest disparities were recorded in Eastern Visayas, CARAGA and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

According to a 2022 World Bank report, the key structural barriers to reducing inequality included unequal access to education, especially tertiary education, and unequal returns to education which disproportionately benefit richer households. The same report highlights that the Philippines is vulnerable to climatic shocks like typhoons and natural disasters which disproportionately affect poorer households and could undermine poverty reduction.

Food price inflation also remained a major risk. For example, rice inflation was very high in early 2024, which affected poorer households much more than the upper class. Other key constraints to poverty reduction were unequal opportunities in areas such as education and working in more productive sectors.

There are some basic reasons why income inequality in the Philippines is higher than that of our neighbors. There is a strong link between family background and educational attainment. Tertiary education is inaccessible for many and skills mismatch limit mobility.

Geographical disparities create inequality. There is a massive gap between NCR versus rural Mindanao. Urban incomes are three to five times higher than in rural areas.

In terms of labor market structure, there is a very large informal sector in the country. Low quality jobs still absorb millions of workers and wage jobs are still relatively scarce outside urban centers.

The good news, however, is that the Philippines has one of the fastest recent declines in inequality among ASEAN countries.

Oxfam began in Oxford, United Kingdom during WWII as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. After the war, they broadened the work to address global poverty and hunger more broadly. During the ‘60s and ‘70s, Oxfam began tackling deeper structural issues like land rights, rural development and supporting local partners in poorer countries. Instead of just sending aid, it was now shifting towards empowerment.

By the ‘90s, Oxfam affiliates had started in many countries like the UK, US, Australia and Canada. In order to avoid duplicating efforts and to wield more global influence, it formalized the network as Oxfam Internal. It is now a confederation of 21 autonomous Oxfams under one umbrella. It is now a hybrid: part humanitarian responder, part development NGO and part loud political advocate.

It is known worldwide for its emergency response to natural crises like earthquakes, typhoons and refugee crisis. It also engages in long-term poverty and climate work. And the annual “billionaires vs. the bottom half” inequality report.

Oxfam’s presence in the country dates back to the late 1980s, initially through local partners rather than a local office. The big push came after major disasters like the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption, which pulled it deeper into humanitarian response work.

It eventually opened a country office in Manila and now operates as part of Oxfam Pilipinas under the Oxfam International Confederation.

Oxfam started as a famine relief operation and is now a global development international organization.