The monopoly bourgeoisie in the major capitalist powers has failed to resolve the crisis of overproduction despite decades of neoliberal restructuring, financialization, and militarization.
Even without a war and an oil shock, and even in times when oil prices are relatively low or declining, the Filipino people are still being oppressed and exploited by local pump price profiteering, and global monopoly and speculative pricing due to oil deregulation.
Jeepney drivers and Filipino consumers do not have to be at the mercy of oil companies. The oil industry does not have to be deregulated. Oil prices can be controlled. The government does not have to be useless.
Unlike many Asian countries, the Philippines has long dropped, in the name of deregulation, key policy tools, such as state-controlled strategic oil reserves, regulated pricing schemes, and price stabilization mechanisms, which could protect Filipino consumers during global shocks.
By accommodating multiple US military facilities and weapons platforms, the Philippines exposes itself to becoming a potential target in conflicts involving the US.
By aligning our minerals sector with US supply chain needs amid competition with China, the Philippines risks subordinating national resource policy to a foreign industrial and security strategy.
The most obvious irony is that the flood control projects are his initiatives under the Build Better More infrastructure program, and that some of the public officials involved in the corruption behind the defective projects are the same ones who are applauding the President enthusiastically in the plenary hall.
In 2024, the Marcos Jr administration implemented economic policies that favor big businesses and foreign investors while keeping wages at miserable levels.
The deal forged in Baku is an appalling development for the climate and planet, especially for the agri-food systems and all the vulnerable and marginalized social sectors that rely on it for their life and livelihood.
In his second SONA, Marcos Jr. sang the same old tune on his supposed economic achievements and platforms that have never truly benefited the ordinary folk. By ARNOLD PADILLA Bulatlat.com MANILA – "Dumating na po ang Bagong Pilipinas," (The New Philippines has...
The people rising for climate justice necessitates the struggle to dismantle corporate monopoly control over land and resources and give humanity a fighting chance to survive and reverse the climate crisis.
Over the past five years, at least two people from rural communities have been killed weekly in the struggles against land grabs, based on estimates by the Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific (PANAP). More than eight are arrested and detained weekly, and more than two are harassed or assaulted.
Marcos Jr.'s priority is to ensure that the neoliberal policies that his predecessor President Rodrigo Duterte passed are maximized to create the most favorable environment for big businesses, including foreign capital. To become an investment destination, the administration will provide massive tax breaks to corporations through the CREATE Law and provide foreign companies more profit-making opportunities with the amended laws on public services and foreign investments.
The Ukraine conflict is compounding in a multitude of ways the already upward and alarming trajectory of overall food prices.
According to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), there is "no physical shortage" of oil. So, what is happening then? As in the case of major oil price volatilities this century, excessive speculation in the oil derivatives markets is pushing up prices, not the disruptions in oil's actual or physical trading.
A 20-passenger jeepney usually has a full tank capacity of 60 liters, which means that the driver is spending ?1,107 ($21.83) more to fill up his tank. That is equivalent to about 29 kilos of rice - or two weeks’ worth of the regular consumption of a five- to six-member household.
Overpriced gasoline and diesel, for instance, gave oil firms an estimated P38.47 billion (US$757.13 million) in additional income, of which P4.62 billion ($90.93 million) went to the government as value-added tax (VAT).
The Duterte regime may spin the narratives on the economy all they want. But all indicators show that the country is in a much worse shape today than when it took over in 2016.
Data show that the policies and programs of Duterte continued and inflamed the structural crisis of our economy. To be sure, the pandemic made it more acute. But make no mistake - Duterte’s economic legacy is far worse than the pandemic.
More than half of Filipino households said that if they lose all of their income sources, their resources to cover daily needs could only last up to two weeks.
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