the church has too much cultural and political power, but more importantly the religious fanaticism in the Philippines means that people are less open-minded and less eager to try new things broadly. in the same way that ties have certain taboos that keep them conservative, Catholicism serves that function in the philippines. Southeast Asians broadly seem to fixate on a particular idea and allow it to limit how far they can expand. the Vietnamese are an obvious exception which is why their economic growth is so good and is likely to continue to explode. if I wasn't tied to Thailand so much and wanted to move someplace where economic opportunity was abundant, and I wanted to stay in southeast asia, I'd go to vietnam. and it's because they have no ideology, no monarch, no religion, no communism anymore. they are free of the constraints bad ideologies put on people