Rising debt, limited power infrastructure, and legislative populism - BusinessWorld Online
Writing political commentary in this column is something that I avoid because it is not my focus of regular research, but the recent drama and political coup at the Philippines Senate made me come up with this piece for my column.And I support the observation of many other columnists that what is happening at the Senate is disgusting.
Two sets of data here show that the current breed of legislators at the Senate (and also at the House of Representatives) are just elections-oriented and are interested in subsidies-expanding populism, and not taxpayers-sensitive and industrialization-oriented.1.
Our rising Debt/GDP ratio since 2020 lockdown.New subsidies and freebies are created or expanded without cutting or abolishing existing subsidies that do not work in reducing poverty.
Politicians, both national and local, spout and promise new subsidies and freebies during the campaign period without regard for the overall fiscal condition that is worsening.Our Debt/GDP ratio of 65% in 2005 (the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administration) went down to 48% in 2010, and down further to 40% in 2015 (the Benigno Aquino III administration), sinking to 37% in 2019 (during the first half of Rodrigo Duterte’s administration).
It then quickly jumped to 52% in 2020 during the horrible COVID lockdown (also during Duterte’s term), and further increased to 59% in 2025 under President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s administration.In contrast, Vietnam showed fiscal discipline and even reduced its Debt/GDP ratio in 2025 (see Table 1).
2.Most legislators are too focused on reducing power prices via political optics when the bigger problem is limited power infrastructure, limited supply and transmission while power demand keeps rising.
In 2024, the Philippines’ total power generation was only 130 terawatt-hours (TWh) compared with Malaysia, which has a smaller population, which produced 214 TWh; Vietnam’s 304 TWh; and South Korea’s 625 TWh.Environmental ...