On Cha-cha being urgent in a ‘globalizing’ world

March 20, 2024

IBON Executive Director on Pres. Marcos Jr’s meeting with US Pres. Biden

May 2, 2023

IBON Executive Director on Pres. Marcos Jr’s meeting with US Pres. Biden

The world’s converging crises: How did we get here?

October 20, 2022

The world economy is faced with converging crises – high debt levels, food and fuel inflation, weakening currencies, and a climate emergency that makes the planet’s very future uncertain. It’s a perfect storm for everyone, but it is having a disproportionate impact on poor countries and their poor populations.

IBON Executive Director on the RCEP trade agreement

November 18, 2020

Neoliberalism and our multiple crises in the COVID era: Dare to struggle, dare to win

November 1, 2020

Features | We may survive the pandemic, but we are headed towards even greater downward pressure on wages and working conditions amid greater repression of organized labor. We are headed towards increasing compulsion of capitalists to seek rapid growth at all costs, including environmental and social costs.

Global Trouble, Local Bubble

January 26, 2019

by Sonny Africa The Philippine economy is slowing amid a global economy in a new period of uncertainty, unpredictability and volatility. The country’s economic policymaking however remains stuck in an imaginary world of efficient free markets, beneficial globalization and humane capitalism. A clearer view of where the world is today compels new economics more than […]

2018 Yearender: Are You High? The Economy Isn’t

December 31, 2018

by Sonny Africa Executive Director, IBON Foundation The Duterte administration’s economic managers made some odd statements as the year wound up. Economic planning secretary Ernesto Pernia said “the Philippine economy became stronger and even more resilient than ever”. Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez III insisted on “the soundness of the Duterte administration’s economic development strategy”. Bangko […]

Contractualization: A Neoliberal Policy (Excerpt from IBON Facts & Figures)

April 26, 2018

The exploitative practice of labor contracting is a continuing legacy of the country’s feudal and colonial history. It dates back from the cabo system – a labor arrangement that proliferated during Spanish colonialism. Cabos acted as labor negotiators and suppliers to companies and project or contract-based (pakyao) jobs. The system was commonly practiced in small-time […]

From stalled WTO to a new world order

December 18, 2017

Trade deals were stalled mainly due to large developed countries’ differences at the recently concluded World Trade Organization (WTO) 11th ministerial conference (MC-11) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The bigger powers especially the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) pushed their own development agendas and set aside that of the lesser economies, while accusing the […]