Basic public education is still largely the responsibility of the central government, delivered through the Department of Education (DepEd), notwithstanding the devolution of many basic services to local government units (LGUs). However, LGUs do provide supplementary funding support to public...

Poverty incidence among population rose from 24.9 percent in 2003 to 26.4 percent in 2006 and then inched up further to 26.5 percent in 2009. Although this aggregate poverty rate shows only a few percentage points change from 2003 to 2009, this does not mean there are no movements in and out of...

The Philippines has often been cited as the global model in managing international labor migration. Despite the complexity of our management infrastructure, however, some gaps still remain. This paper reviews the Philippine legal and administrative framework governing the recruitment,...

This paper examines the relationship among poverty, economic growth, and inequality by decomposing poverty changes at subnational levels. The results were examined against the performances of the different economic sectors in the regions to understand the relationships while accounting for the...

The 2011 and 2012 fiscal program appears to score high in terms of contributing to the speed of fiscal consolidation despite limited gains in revenue generation. This came about largely because of fairly serious underspending during the first nine months of 2011. The slow utilization of spending...

This paper reviews the Philippine international labor migration management infrastructure using Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) framework. Thirty years of government experience in managing high-volume labor migration has resulted to a network of institutions and policies dedicated to promote...

Local road investments work for growth and poverty reduction in local areas. The paper highlights the importance of investing in local roads and directs attention to the critical role of local government units (LGUs) in improving the local road network. Raising additional monies to fund local...

Highly unequal access to health services and the large share of household out-of-pocket spending in total health expenditures underscore the importance of attaining universal health coverage. This study evaluates the major challenges involved in moving toward universal coverage of the Philippine...

The Global Financial Crisis of 2007 was one of the worst crises that hit the world economy since the Depression era. For the next two years, the crisis created waves of economic contraction that affected developed and developing economies. The Philippines was not spared from this crisis. As an...

This paper tries to characterize the current situation in the Philippines with respect to the goal of the Aquino administration to be food secure and self-sufficient in rice by 2016. Specifically, it aims to address the question: "Should the government continue its efforts in increasing rice...