Philippine E-Journals

 

In Philippine Institutions, John Carroll (1970) writes of the Filipinos' desire for a higher standard of living. Carroll sees it as more of unmet expectations from the country's basic institutions. It has been four decades since then and yet the country is still in a decrepit condition, with the number of poor families growing exponentially, from 4,146,663 in 2000 to 4,677,305 in 2006, accounting for 26.9 percent of the population.i With regard to the approach of the Catholic Church in dealing with the problem of social injustice, Robert Youngblood (1993) cites the Catholic Church's call for social action. During the martial law years, the Catholic Church has been active in its protestations against the dictatorship. Youngblood notes that the reaction of the bishops against the regime comes from the unacceptability of "authoritarianism as a vehicle for political order".