A Premise to Last: Call for Economic Reform and Job Creation
A Premise to Last: Call for Economic Reform and Job Creation February 12, 2026 Did you know that the ₱1.2 trillion spent on “flood control” projects from 2022 to 2025 would have been enough to change the Philippines’ destiny? Instead of short‑term projects, that capital could have built a massive industrial network capable of creating 8.4 million direct and indirect jobs. Imagine: we could have eliminated the 2.2 million jobless Filipinos on record—four times over. Why, then, is ayuda still the default answer? This essay takes that premise and runs it through an academic sieve, a satirical mirror, and an anecdotal microscope, asking rhetorical questions until the answers either blush or confess. --- Contextual Irony In the academy we are taught to distinguish between capital formation and consumption smoothing, between structural investment and stopgap relief. In the marketplace of public policy, however, these distinctions are often translated into campaign slogans and photo ops....