PH Peso: Catch Me I’m Falling

October 6, 2022

The Philippine peso has been hitting record low after record low. This will be among the main drivers of accelerating domestic inflation which will burden Filipinos with rising prices of basic needs on top of their floundering incomes and earnings.

What Marcos Jr’s US trip was really for

October 5, 2022

The real success of Marcos Jr’s trip to the US was the rehabilitation of his family’s justifiably tarnished name and rebuilding foreign policy bridges that former Pres. Duterte burned. However, the trip did not really bring back anything beneficial for the people especially in terms of solving the country’s long-standing economic crisis.

Upper middle-income status: A smokescreen for underdevelopment

September 30, 2022

Does getting an upper middle-income designation really mean the Philippines and its people are achieving genuine development? Or is it just another label being hyped by the Marcos Jr administration to project economic success while hiding a troubled economy and the millions of Filipinos being left behind?

Invisible poverty, trivial solutions

August 22, 2022

The most fundamental cause of poverty is in how the overwhelming majority of Filipinos only have low value-added and low productivity work. This is not for lack of individual effort or capacity but because of the structure of the economy distorted by neoliberal policies.

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.