Old money families run PI.....same as Mexico...not much difference...MacArthur srewed the pooch after WWII...he regretted it till the day he died.
You refer to old money--we saw that on our trip to the Philippines a decade ago.
Typical scenario: small town on Cebu---wealthy family with Chinese blood own a small manufacturing firm making bamboo furniture--all the workers are local Pilipinos treated pretty badly by the owners...lots of obsequious behavior toward the owner's family etc.
Quite discouraging.