Honest SONA, bigger solutions needed to address nation’s problems – IBON

July 25, 2025

The country needs bigger solutions, not the administration’s usual checklist of so-called accomplishments and overblown promises at this year’s SONA.

Half-million drop in manufacturing: Jobs crisis highlights urgency of Filipino industrialization – IBON

June 8, 2025

Despite government claims of job resilience, research group IBON said that the country’s jobs crisis persists with significant manufacturing losses and worsening quality of work. The year-on-year increase in unemployed and underemployed Filipinos, lack of decent work, and huge drop in manufacturing jobs underscore the urgent need for a serious national industrialization strategy to create […]

Marcos Jr admin oblivious, failing to arrest deteriorating people’s welfare — IBON

January 24, 2025

If the economy is so steady and employment so robust, why are more Filipinos unable to afford what they need and falling into poverty?

Mining incentives for our industrialization?

October 30, 2024

Incentives for mineral processing will support industrialization only if they prioritize Filipino firms over foreign ones and as part of a more comprehensive industrial policy.

Korea-PH free trade agreement: Even BINI does better

September 24, 2024

COMMENTARY

South Korea’s world class industries today were built on protectionist foundations – reason enough for the Philippine government and our economic managers to radically rethink the country’s obsolete free market globalization policies.

IBON Executive Director on the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028

January 30, 2023

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.

What can the next administration do to address the sorry state of Filipino workers?

May 1, 2022

What can the next administration do on the sorry state of Filipino workers? End ENDO, develop the countryside and build Filipino industries to generate sustainable jobs, and substantially raise wages.

EO 130: Much fuss about paltry gains

April 26, 2021

The Duterte government with its EO 130 continues to argue for the reckless exploitation of the country’s vast mineral wealth for other countries’ corporate gains and industrial benefits. This makes the projected gains from large-scale mining even paltrier than they already are. We are giving up the non-renewable resource, the Philippines’ huge potential to industrialize, for nothing.