Development must return to politics

We have become accustomed to discussing politics largely through the lens of governance. We ask whether public officials are honest. We ask whether government is transparent and accountable.

While these are necessary questions, they are not sufficient. Politics must also confront the question of development.

The need to return development to the center of Philippine politics is not difficult to understand. Despite periods of respectable economic growth, the country continues to struggle with long-standing structural challenges.

Agriculture remains characterized by low productivity and persistent rural poverty. Manufacturing has never attained the dynamism needed to absorb labor at scale. The economy has generated significant employment in services, but much of it remains concentrated in relatively low-value activities. A large informal sector continues to absorb workers unable to access more productive and secure opportunities.

Millions of Filipinos still seek employment abroad because the domestic economy cannot generate enough high-quality jobs. Economic growth has been accompanied by rising consumption, but not necessarily by a corresponding expansion of productive capabilities. Meanwhile, new challenges, from climate change and the energy transition to artificial intelligence and digital transformation, are reshaping the global economy and raising new questions about the country’s future direction.

Candidates routinely promise growth, jobs, investments, low prices of commodities, and poverty eradication. But there is little scrutiny of the “how”; what developmental pathways do they offer to actually produce these outcomes.

Development involves choices.

What industries and capabilities should we prioritize? How should we position ourselves amid technological change? How should we govern our natural resources, including the critical minerals, increasingly sought by the industries of the future?

What role should the government play? What role should markets play?

How do we generate not merely more jobs, but better jobs? How do we create opportunities that allow Filipinos to build prosperous lives at home and make working abroad a genuine choice rather than an economic necessity? How should the gains and costs of transformation be distributed?

These questions about development remain at the margins of political debate. Yet they are no less political and deserve a place in our national conversation, and ultimately in how we evaluate those who seek public office.

Development has become something of an orphan in Philippine politics because it is corruption scandals that make headlines, and it is failures in accountability that gets people angry. In contrast, development challenges unfold over years and decades. Its successes emerge gradually. It requires sustained attention to issues that are complex and sometimes difficult to communicate.

In the process, we have narrowed our understanding of governance itself. In political discourse, good governance has been reduced to questions of honesty, transparency, accountability, and corruption. But governance is also about whether institutions can plan effectively, coordinate action, build capabilities, and deliver development outcomes. A government may be clean and honest, yet still be a bad government if it does not know how to address the country’s developmental challenges.

The coming elections present an opportunity to broaden the conversation to include the question of development. One hopes that more voices will step forward to help lead that discussion. Not only politicians, but labor and farmer leaders, environmental advocates, economists, entrepreneurs, technologists, and public intellectuals.

In this regard, it is unsurprising that some have begun looking beyond traditional political circles and mentioning new names such as economist Cielo Magno. Her appeal lies not only in her willingness to confront issues of corruption and accountability, but also in her grasp of economic governance and the interplay of planning, institutions, and markets to achieve development outcomes. Whether or not she eventually seeks public office, what such suggestions reveal is a desire for voices that can speak about governance not just in the sense of corruption and accountability but also in the sense of economic transformation, productive capability, and the long-term future of the Philippine economy.

The 2028 elections should not only ask who can restore decency and accountability in governance. It should also ask what kind of economy we want to advance and who can lead that transformation. Development must return to politics, not because it is separate from good governance, but because it is one of its ultimate tests.

Nepomuceno Malaluan is Co-Founder, Trustee and Industrial Policy Team member of Action for Economic Reforms (AER) and Co-Convenor of the Right to Know Right Now Coalition (R2KRN).