Philippine economy

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 […]

Great Cabinet Revamp is a dud

May 25, 2025

There’s no doubt that a revamp of government, governance and the Cabinet is overdue. But the Cabinet revamp can’t just be recycling combined with superficially new names or faces. It should mean new ideas for solving old problems and the political will to act on them.

IBON hits limited BBM Na! program

May 23, 2025

The BBM Na! program smacks of insincerity. It rations rice to poor households, scrimps on funding, and leaves out millions who also struggle to afford food. This is far from the sweeping effort needed to make Php20 rice a reality and is just a public relations gimmick dressed up as policy.

It is baffling how the Philippine government can so badly misread the US’s unambiguous “America First” statements and actions as signaling an interest in Philippine development.