The world’s super “bobos” (idiots)
By TONY LOPEZ
The Filipino child is one of the most malnourished, most stupid, and most incompetent children in the world.
Nine in ten Filipino kids cannot understand what they read (World Bank, 2025), and over 70% do not meet minimum proficiency in mathematics, placing the Philippines at the bottom globally in the PISA 2019 and 2024.
Now in its eighth year, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international assessment that measures 15-year-olds’ reading, mathematics, and science literacy. Filipino students routinely fail PISA, thanks to the government’s decrepit educational system which Secretary Sonny Angara is trying to rescue, with a record P1.3 trillion 2026 budget.
No demographic dividend
The mass stupidity of the Filipinos makes mincemeat of the World Bank’s theory of demographic dividend—a notion where a young population (our average age: 25) will propel a country’s economic progress.
“With more people in the labor force and fewer young people to support, a country can exploit the window of opportunity for rapid economic growth given prudent and timely policies and investments in health, education, governance, and the economy. The concept of a demographic dividend was introduced in the late 1990s to describe the interplay between changes in population age structure and fast economic growth in East Asia,” explains the bank.
That our kids are the super bobos of the world is the invariable conclusion one makes after reading the 634-page final report of the Second Philippine Education Commission (EdCom II), called “Turning Point: A Decade of Necessary Reform (2026-2035)”, a legislative tome presented to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. last Jan. 29, at the presidential palace.
Joining Marcos in receiving the report were Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sonny Angara, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Shirley Agrupis, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director General Kiko Benitez, Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, and Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Acting Secretary Rolando Toledo.
Proficiency collapse
The report uncovered a worrying “proficiency collapse” that worsens as students go thru the education ladder. From only 30% of students proficient at Grade 3, to just 1.36% by Grade 10, and only 0.47% by Grade 12. For every 100 kids who enroll in Grade 1, only half percent – not even one person—will be proficient by Grade 12—second year high school. Meaning, nearly all, I mean ALL, who enroll in Grade 1 will remain stupid and incompetent despite 12 years of schooling in government-run schools.
Severely compromised
Explains the EdCom II report: “The brain is most malleable in the earliest years of life, when inequality strikes first, deepest, and hardest (not my underscoring). Long before a child enters kindergarten, the foundations of learning are already laid. For millions of Filipino children, these foundations are severely compromised.”
In education and in computing, the rule is the same—GIGO—garbage in, garbage out. And GIGO easily translates into GAGO or BOBO, slang for silly or stupid.
One in every four Filipino children is stunted; 42 of every 100 are chronically malnourished.
The government, thru the Department of Social Welfare and Development, is able to help only 43 out of every 100 malnourished two to four-year-old Filipino kids.
That means 1.14 million out of two million malnourished children are practically abandoned, unfed. Since these 1.14 million are malnourished, they grow stunted, their brain undeveloped, and they will be stupid for life.
Being stupid for life, these kids become voters—loyal followers of politicians like Sara Duterte, Robin Padilla, Jinggoy Estrada, Bato dela Rosa, Joel Villanueva, Zaldy Co, Edwin Gardiola, and their ilk. Hey, these politicians will tell these hapless Filipinos—”blessed are the poor, for you shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.”
Not knowing the meaning of proper nourishment and education, they will breed equally malnourished and uneducated children.
Stupid voters vote for stupid politicians. Being stupid, politicians don’t know the difference between honesty and stealing. Thus, they become thieves. They serve in government for decades (they build a dynasty) doing nothing but steal—up to half of the national budget which is approaching P7 trillion. Imagine: Our politicians pocket P3.5 trillion a year of our money. Confront them and they will invoke due process. And hey, stupid people have no sense of rage—hindi marunong magalit sa korup.
And the 860,000 malnourished kids who are supposed to be fed by the government? “The effectiveness of interventions remains inconclusive,” sneers the EdCom II report. Why? The budget is only P25 per meal. Just what kind of nourishment can you buy for P25?
Among the EdCom II report’s major findings:
Access to early childhood education remains low and inequitable.
Participation rates for three-to-four-year-olds are at 21%, with poorer and rural LGUs least served. Over 4,600 barangays lack a Child Development Center (CDC), and only 14.2% of existing centers have been upgraded in the past 10 years, between 2013 and 2023. Meanwhile, alternative modalities (community and home- based options) are unavailable to children not living in central areas.
Only 48% of households with young children own educational toys while only 40% have children’s books.
With limited stimulation at home, children depend heavily on centers— yet resources there also fall short. Regional inequities in Child Development Centers are also stark: some LGUs invest robustly, while others operate on extremely thin budgets, aggravated by slow procurement and weak oversight. This leaves both homes and centers unequipped to provide the early stimulation children need to learn and thrive.
Most Filipino learners are not mastering foundational competencies—literacy and numeracy— leading to lifelong handicaps.
The Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment (CRLA) shows limited progress in literacy from Grades 1 to 3, with 48.76% of learners not reading at their respective grade levels at the end of SY 2024-2025.