The World Bank has upgraded the Philippines to an upper-middle-income country, but the classification means little to many Filipinos grappling with rising cost of living, mounting debt and stagnant wages.
Manila resident Ann Michelle Federez-Abato, 35, said her entire salary went towards her parents’ mortgage, while she and her two-year-old daughter subsisted on a monthly remittance of 20,000 pesos (US$325) sent home by her husband, who works as a production officer at a factory abroad.
Much of…
