No Mavericks Among Economic Top Guns

June 15, 2022

The next administration’s economic agenda will be fully presented at the state of the nation address in July. There are hardly any specifics yet. Still, the tidbits already emerging can be interpreted against the incoming economic team members’ individual track record and especially in the context of the long arc of neoliberal thinking that has defined Philippine policymaking over the last half century.

WHO should call the shots, but it hasn’t

May 18, 2022

FEATURES

The 75th World Health Assembly will be the third one under one of the world’s worst pandemics. What exactly will be the agenda when WHO action is stalling?

The scourge of price hikes

April 16, 2022

Prices keep rising, cash subsidies are limited, and real wages keep falling. The situation will not get better if the government does not acknowledge that the rampant jobs crisis and worsening poverty are huge problems that require big solutions.

Chronically ailing PH public health system under Duterte

April 7, 2022

FEATURES

Duterte has not taken significant measures that will strengthen the public health system and make health services accessible and equitable to the Filipino people.

10 things about the economy that the Duterte administration should admit

April 4, 2022

At its economic briefing, the Duterte government will likely hype growth, claim successful COVID response and play up so-called reforms. All this seeks to distract from how social and economic development has been set back by the administration even before the pandemic.

Scar-crossed Labors

January 17, 2022

We will likely hear claims of strong economic performance, early recovery, and returning to a path of rapid and inclusive growth. But labor force and poverty figures for 2021 already show how any claims like that will just be bluster or, worse, blind to the daily experience of millions of Filipinos.

Yearstarter: Seeking better normal in 2022

January 14, 2022

The administration that is exiting and the new one entering can take a more rational and humane approach to recovering and reforming the economy.

Yearender: Unrepentant economics in 2021

December 31, 2021

For the economic managers, managing the economy is really about making big business prosper most of all. It’s unfortunately not about doing everything to improve people’s lives or alleviate their distress.

Of fake democracy and open dictatorship

November 2, 2021

How do we vote then in 2022? We need champions of human rights and social justice, an economy governed by the people for their needs and their prosperity, equality, sovereignty, and freedom from the shackles of neoliberalism and foreign dictates and from the control of the few.