Before I began studying in the Ateneo, my drives along C-5 were always greeted by a most curious of sights—that of a beautiful, modern school on a hill, surrounded by shacks and poorly-made huts. At night, this building was a beacon of light, shining brighter than any of the houses and huts adjacent to it.

There is but quiet symbolism in looking at this place. That building, the International School Manila (ISM), is where I am from. It’s the place I call my alma mater. It is also a place that can epitomize the many problems we are facing in the Philippines today.

This is not a slight to the place I grew up in; frankly, I am more than grateful to the school that served as my learning place for my last three years of high school. I will always cherish the friends and teachers that I had the pleasure of meeting there. My memories of the school will always remain in my heart, especially as my experiences there remain some of the highlights of my life today.

However, my experiences there were jarring for a student like myself, used to living in different countries that had a smaller divide between the rich and poor. In ISM, I witnessed how different life is for those at the very top of the social structure. For every positive memory I garnered were a myriad of negative images, punctuated by the hedonistic squandering of money by the scions of the political elite in the Philippines.

Sometimes, life in ISM could belong in a political cartoon. Jeane Napoles herself studied there. In fact, it was a school of Jeane Napoleses, armed and blessed with the right names and the right bank accounts. At lunchtime, one would see a table of over-sized personalities sitting together, a motley crew of students carrying last names that are famous—or infamous, for that matter. It is clear that most of these students are set, needing nothing else but the family name to live a fulfilling and prosperous life.

With the way the Philippines is going and with what I’ve experienced, it often makes me disheartened wondering if we will ever find the right path.

I’ve come to realize that my school can be construed as an excellent example of the great economic divide between the rich and the poor in the Philippines. While many struggle to buy food for the day, there are parents paying roughly half a million pesos for a year’s tuition.

This issue becomes especially important as the Philippine economy continues to grow. One often wonders if the perceived growth in the economy is actual, inclusive economic development. For all I know, this growth probably only benefits the rich, creating an even further gap with the poor. For all I know, the standard of living for the impoverished is only marginally improving, leaving little to no chance for them to escape poverty.

The thing is, there have to be ways to make sure that the vast divide between the rich and the poor is lessened. There has to be tangible evidence that the money garnered through the blood, sweat and tears of millions of Filipinos goes back to where it truly belongs: To the ones doing the work themselves. Only through this will the gap between the rich and the poor decrease.