Duterte administration
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.
PH among worst performers in Southeast Asia
June 13, 2022
The government hypes the Duterte legacy but comparing growth, jobs, inflation, trade and debt figures with other Southeast Asian countries shows the Philippine economy as among the poorest performers. This is due not only to its poor COVID response, harsh lockdowns and refusal of economic stimulus but to pre-pandemic mispriorities.
1.3M jobs lost: Fall in number of employed bursts full recovery hype bubble
June 11, 2022
The incoming finance secretary claims that the economy is on its way to full recovery, but the over one million drop in employed persons in April 2022 proves otherwise.
Real wages fall as inflation spikes
June 9, 2022
Higher May inflation pushed the real value of wages to even lower levels and is making basic food and transport services even more unaffordable. Inflation far outpaces the outgoing Duterte administration’s wage hikes and wage earners are worse off now than six years ago.
Duterte Legacy?
June 1, 2022
The economy that the Duterte administration painted in its final report was a fantasy. It omitted important numbers that show how it wasn’t an economy that worked for ordinary Filipinos. Download the landscape version of the infographic here.
Rice tariffication led to lost incomes
May 30, 2022
In 2020, rice farmers’ net income per hectare decreased by 30.7% in the dry season, by 37.5% in the wet season, and by 35% on the average as compared to figures in 2018. This translated to substantially lower profitability ratio for the farmers.
Pressure point
May 30, 2022
The government’s trademark has been to obscure the truth, peddle its own version of reality, and go on ahead with its most-often carefully thought-out programs that make the local and foreign super-rich happy. The newly-proclaimed leaders of the land made it clear that they’re not changing that.
Global COVID-19 Vaccine Inequality
May 27, 2022
