Yes yes, we all know that the Philippines is one of the poorest  in Asia, along with being a corrupt one, but have you ever lived there? The most populated area is Manila, the capital, and just there alone is a population of over 1,660,714, locate Philippines on a map and look at how small it is.

   Just going for a ride in you car in the city of Makati and you can already see signs of poverty and pollution. The sky is usually a smogy grey color, though it can also be a clear looking blue. The streets are often crowded with traffic, Jeepneys and Taxi's filled with people bringing them to and fro. Along the streets, street peddlers selling their wares, even young children selling strings of sampaguitas, the national flower to the passing cars just to get money. A majority of people live on less than $1 here. Go into certain areas of the city and you see shanties, squatter area's, or the poor peoples homes. They are often hazardly  built, made of pieces of aluminum, wood, plastic, and fabric. These peoples homes are often destroyed in the many typhoons that come seasonly.  And of course, lets not forget about the Pasig River, a biologically dead river that stretches for 25 km. The Pasig river's color is a completly clouded grey, there are little piles of trash rising out of it, and some pieces of vegetation growing out of its waters. People live on its banks, they even bathe and swim in it, fish have not been known to swim there since the 50's. 

There is also the famous Smokey Mountain 1 and 2, both are huge landfills that are/were occupied by people. Smokey Mountain has gotten its name because during times of heat, the mountain would rot at such a high temperature that it would sometimes light on fire and give of gases. Smokey Mountain 1 was officially closed on 1995, but it is still standing. Smokey mountain 2 is also still standing and still being used by trash scavengers. Families, who have lived in Smokey Mountain for years now live in Smokey Mountain 2, there are even several generation families of trash scavengers.

 Poverty and Pollution in the Philippines has been a very large issue both locally and globally, it will take some time before all damage caused can be erased from this country.