Accessibility is a precondition for persons with disabilities to participate fully and equally in society. This study, part of the Wheels of Justice project, examines the perceptions and experiences of persons with disabilities in Valenzuela City in relation to accessibility. Surveys were conducted with 102 persons with disabilities, and 7 participated in 2 focus group discussions, exploring their experiences across 3 core domains: public spaces, transportation, and information and communication services. The study evaluates these domains using a novel approach that incorporates the accessibility dimensions of usability, safety, and affordability. The results showed that significant accessibility challenges remain despite existing legal mandates. Women reported higher usability scores across various domains; however, safety perceptions were more complex, with women feeling safer in individual transport modes and men in public transportation. Affordability concerns can push respondents to choose less safe and usable options, increasing the likelihood of injuries. Public infrastructure, including toilets and sidewalks, was frequently cited as inaccessible, exacerbating social isolation. Enhancing accessibility is crucial for advancing an inclusive society where persons with disabilities can fully exercise their rights and participate equally.
This study examined the utilization of free trade agreements (FTAs) in the Philippines. Using a transaction-level data on Philippine imports, we calculated various indicators to measure preference utilization for the period 2018–2020. We found that FTAs have been substantially utilized on imports from most FTA partners. However, imports from Japan, South Korea, and Singapore exhibited relatively lower utilization rates. We also documented cases of firms using FTA schemes for non-dutiable goods and dutiable goods with zero preference margin. To determine the factors affecting preference utilization in Philippine imports, we performed an econometric analysis using both transaction- and firm-level data. Consistent with the literature, the preference margin, import value, and firm experience in FTA use were found to positively influence the extent of preference utilization at the transaction level. The firm-level regressions also indicate that total import value was the key driver of FTA utilization among Philippine manufacturing firms, while labor productivity, age, and foreign linkages emerged as potential determinants. The findings of our study suggest the need for initiatives that would ensure the usefulness and relevance of FTAs, monitor and evaluate the pressing challenges in firm utilization, and enhance the dissemination of information on MFN and FTA schemes. Developments in trade and establishment data are also crucial for conducting long-term assessments of preference utilization.
The fishery sector consistently ranks among the poorest sectors in the Philippines, putting pressure on the government to address these economic challenges. One of the big-ticket projects implemented by the Philippine government is the Fisheries, Coastal Resources, and Livelihood (FishCORAL) Project, in partnership with the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and executed by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) in several regions of the Philippines. The project’s components include coastal resources management, livelihood development, and project management and coordination. Its primary aim was to increase household income through livelihood support and reduce poverty in economically challenged communities. This evaluation study investigates the impact of the fisheries coastal livelihood development (FCLD) component, specifically in the Eastern Visayas region (Region VIII). This component provided capacity development training on various fishery-based livelihood enterprises and funding for the establishment and installation of infrastructure support facilities and equipment. Analyses of the study reveal that the FCLD project did not significantly increase the income and wealth of beneficiary fishing households. Several implementation challenges, project design gaps, and systemic shocks encountered during the project’s implementation were identified as potential contributing factors to these outcomes. Hence, addressing these issues for future projects across the region's coastal communities is urged.
To gain insights into the employment prospects of Senior High School (SHS) graduates, Orbeta et al. (2019) gathered perspectives through interviews with graduating SHS students and human resource managers. Building on these insights, the present study advances the discussion by analyzing the actual labor market performance of SHS graduates. Entry into the labor market is considered one of the possible exits for SHS graduates. Given that the first batch of SHS students graduated in April 2018, this study utilizes eight rounds of the Labor Force Survey conducted from July 2018 to April 2020. It compares the labor market outcomes of SHS graduates (Grade 12) with those of their peers—Grade 10 and second-year college completers. To improve comparability, it uses a multivalued treatment effect estimation method (i.e., Inverse Probability Weighting with Regression Adjustment), with educational attainment as the treatment variable and individual and household characteristics as the propensity score and regression adjustment variables. The findings reaffirm those of the earlier study: Only a small proportion (just over 20%) of SHS graduates enter the labor force, while the majority (over 70%) continue their education. The estimations also find mixed results, with SHS graduates sometimes performing better and sometimes poorer than their peers in terms of labor market outcomes. These results suggest the need to recognize and reexamine the employment and entrepreneurial objective of the SHS program, given the expressed and realized propensity of SHS graduates to pursue further education rather than enter the labor market. This also underscores the importance of continually assessing and validating the effectiveness of the work preparation component of the SHS curriculum. Furthermore, continued engagement with employers through information sharing and demonstrations of SHS graduates’ skills is essential to help define an appropriate niche for them in the labor market. Finally, this study calls for sustained monitoring and the generation of empirical evidence to deepen the understanding of the role SHS graduates play in the labor market.
The first semester issue of the Philippine Journal of Development for 2025 features a diverse set of articles that explore key development concerns in the Philippines, including the fishery sector, free trade agreements, persons with disabilities, and senior high school graduates. The first article evaluates the impact of the Fisheries, Coastal Resources, and Livelihood Project—implemented by the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources—on the income and wealth of fishing households in Eastern Visayas. The second article investigates the factors influencing the utilization of free trade agreements (FTAs) in the country, emphasizing the need for initiatives to address firm-level challenges and improve data collection for long-term performance assessments. The third article, part of the Wheels of Justice project, examines the lived experiences of persons with disabilities in Valenzuela City on their access to public infrastructure, transportation, and information and communications services. Rounding out the volume, an article analyzes the labor market outcomes of senior high school (SHS) graduates and highlights the importance of reassessing the SHS program’s employment and entrepreneurship objectives.
The Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) is pivotal in assessing Philippine local governance. However, concerns over its effectiveness arise from evolving criteria and declining passing rates since its inception. This paper employs an abductive research approach to investigate the SGLG’s “policy layering,” where new goals are integrated alongside existing ones. It examines nearly a decade of SGLG policy evolution amid national priority shifts, policy changes, and evolving performance metrics. Key learning assumptions—learning over time and compliance-based learning—are explored, highlighting associated challenges. While initially not a comprehensive performance management tool, the SGLG adapts iteratively to meet higher governance standards. This paper recommends addressing resource challenges for LGUs, strategically timing SGLG updates, and decentralizing evaluation processes to enhance problem-solving and innovation for nonpassing LGUs, bolstering its role in advancing local governance nationwide.
The Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) program plays a crucial role in addressing the root causes of conflict and fostering sustainable peace in the Philippines, particularly in conflict-affected and conflict-vulnerable areas. This study evaluates PAMANA’s impact in the Davao Region, focusing on barangays along conflict lines. Using data on insurgency incidence and program investments, the study employs an advanced difference-in-differences (DID) approach to account for PAMANA’s staggered implementation across barangays. Results reveal a significant short-term increase in insurgency incidence in PAMANA areas, indicating that development interventions may provoke resistance from insurgency groups. Long-term trends suggest a general reduction in insurgency beyond the study period, but this cannot be definitively linked to PAMANA without further analysis. The findings highlight the complex dynamics of development interventions in conflict settings. These results underscore the importance of adaptive implementation strategies and provide valuable insights for policymakers designing peacebuilding efforts in regions affected by protracted conflict.
This paper examines financial inclusion in the Philippines, benchmarking it against other developing Asian economies using the latest supply-side and demand-side data. It uses probit regressions on Philippine microdata from the World Bank’s 2021 Global Findex Database, providing a comparative analysis with the country’s regional peers. The study finds the Philippines leading in creating an enabling environment but shows mixed performance in financial outreach and uptake and lagging outcomes in account ownership and usage. Probit regressions reveal positive associations between financial inclusion and individual characteristics like education, income, and employment, and a nonlinear relationship with age. The study uncovers a smaller gender gap in formal account ownership and use and emerging disparities in financial technology access across education and income levels, particularly mobile money. Barriers such as high cost, distance, and lack of trust in financial institutions significantly hinder lower-income households, with Filipinos more affected by these barriers than their Association of Southeast Asian Nations counterparts.
This study uses simulation techniques to estimate the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on poverty rates and middle-class transitions in the Philippines, addressing data gaps during the pandemic’s early stages. Using data from the 2018 Family Income and Expenditure Survey, the authors modeled various income reduction scenarios to project changes in poverty levels and socioeconomic class distribution. The findings indicate that a 5-percent income contraction could raise poverty rates by 2.4 percentage points, pushing an estimated 2.6 million Filipinos into poverty. However, the Social Amelioration Program could mitigate this increase, limiting it to 1.3 million additional poor. The study also explores the implications for the country’s AmBisyon Natin 2040 goals and highlights policy priorities for an inclusive recovery. While based on pre-pandemic data and hypothetical scenarios, the study offers valuable insights into the pandemic’s possible impacts and underscores the importance of targeted policy responses.
This paper measures Philippine hospitals’ management practices and service capability based on their structural inputs. The authors collected a wide range of data on hospital management and service delivery of selected public and private health facilities using a validated online profiling questionnaire. They identified the challenges and limitations that hospitals commonly encounter, particularly in governance and administration and service capacity. The authors recommend systematically collecting healthcare quality indicators and providing incentives and grants to enable the collection, measurement, and submission of data from health facilities.
The Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), the first bilateral FTA that the Philippines entered into, aims to facilitate and promote free transborder flow of goods, services, capital, and people between the two countries. This paper explores the use of synthetic control method to understand the effects of JPEPA on Philippine exports. The results reveal that the Philippines benefited from the JPEPA as determined by the difference in the actual exports and the counterfactual exports.
China’s "One Belt, One Road" (OBOR) initiative aims to foster connectivity and cooperation among 65 nations. Together, these countries account for about 60 percent of the world’s total population and 30 percent of the world’s gross domestic product. OBOR, also called the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road", has two main channels that will then connect each other to Europe. These are the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt (One Belt), which connects Xi’an, China, to Rotterdam, Netherlands, and the sea-based Maritime Silk Road (One Road), which connects Venice, Italy, to Fuzhou, China, through the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean. For countries that have officially signed to participate in OBOR and are located on these channels, the proposed priority areas for cooperation include infrastructure development and connectivity, policy dialogues, unimpeded trade, financial support, and people-to-people exchanges. Using a vector autoregression model, this paper estimates the likely effects of OBOR on Philippine trade and investments.
The Philippines has recently introduced two distinct but related large-scale social protection programs that, first, provide conditional cash transfers to poor households, and, second, automatically enroll them into the government's social health insurance program. This paper assesses the joint impact of these two programs on the healthcare demand for children. It finds encouraging impacts on the demand for healthcare services. However, it also documents possible implementation failures, as well as potential indication of healthcare service differentiation based on quality. Both these concerns may undermine the expected outcomes of the country's social protection programs.
This study attempts to generate an estimate of import smuggling using Philippine data on import trade. Through the development of microeconomic model, it tries to explain the level of smuggling activity in terms of factors impinging on the trader’s decision to engage in smuggling.
As the Philippines participates in negotiations for new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs), it is crucial for the country to have a critical assessment of its readiness to meet the obligations set out therein. Among others, the legal and policy implications of particular new-generation FTA provisions must be carefully examined. This paper provides a study of the legal and policy implications of the intellectual property (IP) provisions of these new-generation FTAs through an analysis of the relevant IP provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. It also reviews the IP treaties and conventions ratified by the Philippines, the current IP laws and related laws enacted to implement these treaties, as well as the legal framework within which IP rights are protected and enforced, to assess their convergence with TPP obligations, draw out the gaps, and identify policy and regulatory changes and administrative actions that may be required for the Philippines to achieve readiness to join the TPP or similar FTAs.
While the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has seen some rough sailing with the United States' withdrawal, it remains the acknowledged state of the art for current economic cooperation agreements, and it stands out as the first of its kind as a megaregional agreement. This article reviews and analyzes investor protection clauses of the original TPP in the context of Philippine policy concerns and the attempt of the TPP's provisions to both enhance and balance investor protection with good governance in the areas of environment and labor regulations.
This paper assesses the alignment of the Philippine Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA) with respect to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement, and examines the policy reforms in government procurement that the country may have to implement if it accedes to the TPP. It takes stock of the legal gaps between the current public procurement law of the country--Republic Act 9184 or the GPRA--and the obligations of TPP parties in Chapter 15 of the agreement covering government procurement (GP-TPP). The key consideration to be made by the Philippines is to determine whether joining the TPP and acceding to a party's obligations in GP-TPP would accrue net positive benefits to the country as a whole. Taking note of the need to implement compensating measures to minimize adjustment costs of local firms currently enjoying preference, the paper argues that opening up the procurement market to foreign suppliers belonging to TPP countries would confer net benefits to the Philippine government and Filipinos in general.
Conventional wisdom suggests that oil price increases have a negative effect on the output of oil-importing countries. This is grounded on the experience of the United States between the 1940s and the late 1980s, where recessions were generally preceded by oil price increases. This paper evaluates the impact of oil price shocks on the Philippines--a developing country and a net oil-importing economy. Following Kilian's (2008) structural decomposition of real oil price change, we find indications that the 2008-2009 and 2014-2015 oil price drops may have lowered the Philippine economy's output growth, potentially due to the economy's reliance on remittances from abroad and the export market.
