In comparison to the campesinos, if you go online, some of the Filipina match making websites ask Filipinas to list their annual income. Most are honest and put zero to 100,000 pesos a year.
At the current US dollar to peso exchange rate, a 100,000 pesos comes out to about $220 a month and it's very doubtful that many of them are any where near the top of the zero to 100,000 peso a year income range. Millions squeak by on the equivlent of less than a dollar a day
There are a small number of very, very rich families that own and control about everything there, and millions and millions of very poor people.
From April 2009:
The World Bank believes having a daily income of $2 to $10 is middle class. With this definition, then the entire Filipino nation is middle class.
The Filipino annual per capita income, in terms the Gross National Product (GNP), is $2,060.60. Divide this amount by 365, per capita income is $5.64 per day, more than twice the WB’s minimum $2 daily income to be considered middle class—people who are neither poor nor rich but somewhere in between.
(that figure of $2060.60 'averages' in the few families that are fabulously rich's income with the 90 million plus poor people's income)
From answers.com:
The average high-school graduate can make around 2000 - 4000 pesos a month (equivalent to $50 - $100 at 40:1 exchange rate)
A college graduate can make around 6000 - 8000 pesos a month (equivalent to $150 - $200 at 40:1 exchange rate)
Some companies providing services for international clients such as call centers can make around 12,000 - 16,000 pesos a month (equivalent to $300 - $400 at 40:1 exchange rate)
I have heard that over 30 million Filipinos make less than a dollar a day.
For a lot of Americans, those numbers, even on the higher end, wouldn't cover our cable TV, internet and phone bills....
