Once again, the Philippines finds itself unprepared in the midst of supply chain shocks rippling from the war waged against Iran by the United States and Israel. A foolish dependence on imported fuel and the remittances from workers in the Middle East, as well as spiralling foreign exchange rates now work in confluence to put a squeeze on Filipinos’ financial security.
Meanwhile, “thought leaders” of the major political camps quibble over a who’s who on the what’s what of accountability over the latest “crisis” hitting the country on account of these external events. The Marcostards, Dutertards, and the woke Yellowtard-Communist Axis drawing from the traditional wisdom they apply to their tired rhetoric all assert that the other fucked it all up and that their respective camps would have, of course, done it all right. Amidst the din of this vacuous chatter, all gloss over the fact that the Philippines’ fragile economy — with its thin capital base and weak value proposition to global markets — was decades in the making spanning multiple presidencies and dynastic eras.
With no firm capitalised landing, the Philippine economy has long been at risk of catastrophic collapse. A key example is public transport in its major metropolises. A dependence on private enterprise (jeepneys, tricycles, and privately held bus lines) as pillar of public mobility, the Philippine government has limited ability to keep commerical activity humming in times like these. With upward pressure on fuel prices comes degraded private services and labour unrest. Those world renowned “jeepney strikes” sparked by communist-infested labour “unions” are surely just around the corner.
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And that’s just one example. Even more fundamental flaws are at the heart of the Philippines’ weakness. Most of these are to do with what makes its economy tick (or, rather, rattle along).
Overall, the Philippines is a big Ponzi scheme with people’s fortunes propped up by money flowing in from raw material and labour exports and, within the Philippines’ consumption-driven economy, money sloshing around from one oligarch’s bank account to another. What exactly does the Philippines produce? Not much beyond warm bodies, shrill ballads, cringy movies, and big air-conditioned “public” spaces. To be fair, the last one is probably the only “product” not under threat from artificial intelligence. Then again, if AI replaces call centre and business process outsourcing bodies, there wouldn’t be much people sloshing money around those either.
The fact is, the world is changing from the uber-connected “markets” US-sponsored globalisation promised to one characterised by a fragmented order where every country and economic bloc will need to hold its own not just to survive but to compete and thrive. To do that, economies need to source sustainably (and less at a cost of risky dependence) and, more importantly, produce.
Is the Philippines up to that challenge to compete in an uncertain world? That remains to be seen. For now there is little promise seeing that Filipinos’ foremost “thought leaders” cannot think further ahead than the next election and are so deficited of imagination to identify a set of good leadership candidates in a nation of 120 million.
- The Philippines reels from yet another global “crisis” - March 15, 2026
- According to “international law” attacking Iran is only justified if they posed an “instant” and “overwhelming” threat - March 2, 2026
- Philippines in list of countries considered havens for “Islamist terrorist ideologies” - February 17, 2026