Youth bear brunt of weak job creation—ILO report By Mary Jade Jadormio
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NEWS » A5
IMPEACHMENT TRIAL Supervising Auditor Xylene May del Campo of the Commission on Audit (COA) Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office answers questions from defense lawyer Atty. Kristine Ferrer during the cross-examination on the 15th day of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday, August 12, 2026. The cross-examination focused on COA’s findings related to the disbursement and utilization of confidential and intelligence funds. Story in A5. ROY DOMINGO/SPPA POOL
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OUNG people are increasingly being left behind in the global labor market as job creation fails to keep pace with new entrants, widening the unemployment gap between youth and older workers, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). Global unemployment among people aged 15 to 24 rose to 12.4 percent in 2025 from 12.3 percent in 2023, while the rate among workers aged 25 and older declined to 3.6 percent from 3.7 percent during the same period. The diverging trends pushed
the youth-to-adult unemployment ratio to 3.4 in 2025, underscoring what the ILO described as growing difficulties for economies to absorb young people entering the labor market. In its report Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026: Back to the future, ILO said the shortlived improvement in youth employment following the Covid-19 pandemic has stalled amid slowing economic growth, weaker job creation, geopolitical tensions and rapid technological change. Youth unemployment increased in eight of the world’s 11 subregions between 2023 and 2025, with the steepest increases record-
ed in Northern Africa, Northern America and Northern, Southern and Western Europe. The number of unemployed youth reached 67 million worldwide in 2025 after the global youth unemployment rate had fallen to its lowest level in more than two decades in 2023.
More youth outside work, school
BEYOND unemployment, ILO flagged a renewed increase in the number of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET). The global NEET rate climbed to 20 percent in 2025 from 19.7 percent in 2023, equivalent to
257 million young people and an increase of about 9 million in two years. The organization warned that the increase is particularly concerning because young people in NEET status are outside both the labor market and education system and are generally more difficult to draw back into employment or schooling than unemployed youth who remain actively engaged in job searches. Young women continue to bear a disproportionate share of the problem, accounting for more than two-thirds of young people in NEET status globally in 2025. See “Job,” A2
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Thursday, August 13, 2026 Vol. 21 No. 303
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By Reine Juvierre S. Alberto
HE Marcos Jr. administration cut infrastructure spending to P1.272 trillion this year and plans only a modest increase in 2027, tempering a key source of economic stimulus in its bid to weed out corruption as the country tries to regain growth momentum. According to the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing for 2027, the infrastructure program, including subsidies, equity and transfers to local government units, was reduced to P1.272 trillion this year from P1.558 trillion. The infrastructure program is equivalent to 4.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). For 2027, the government intends to spend P1.340 trillion for infrastructure, or 4 percent of GDP, higher by 5.35 percent than this year’s target. The government is lowering its target to reflect what it can realistically spend in an “attempt to clean its own ranks,” said Leonardo A. Lanzona, economist at Ateneo de Manila University, to the BusinessMirror. “This isn’t a discretionary countercyclical choice—it’s a passive contraction forced by the flood control scandal fallout,” Lanzona said. Infrastructure spending has been contracting since the second half of 2025, when the flood-control corruption scandal erupted and resulted in stricter billing valida-
tion of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) projects. “The lower infrastructure spending this year likely reflects slower spending in the first half of 2026, particularly the absorptive capacity constraints of major agencies such as DPWH, as well as the need to redirect some fiscal resources toward one-off subsidies to cushion the impact of the oil shock,” Domini S.D. Velasquez, chief economist at Chinabank, told the BusinessMirror. Infrastructure spending, albeit smaller as a share of GDP, shows fiscal constraints and the need to allocate resources to investments in the economy’s productive capacity, particularly education and health, Velasquez said. This comes at a bad time for economic growth since government construction was already a drag on second-quarter economic growth, while private investment and domestic demand have also remained weak, Lanzona said. “The fiscal lever meant to substitute for private investment See “Growth,” A2
DOST EYES MORE GOVT-FUNDED R&D FROM LABS TO INDUSTRY By Bless Aubrey Ogerio
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IPOLOG CITY—The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) plans to focus its 2027 efforts on moving more government-funded research from laboratories into commercial applications, Science Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. said. According to Solidum, the agency typically allots around P7 billion to P8 billion for research and development (R&D), which he estimated at 20 percent to 25 percent of its roughly P32-billion budget.
“I think some of the organizations would have an increased budget,” Solidum told reporters on the sidelines of the DOST Regional Science, Technology and Innovation Week in Region 9. The science chief could not immediately provide the proposed 2027 budget figure, but said it was expected to be slightly lower than the previous year’s allocation. For 2027, Solidum said DOST intends to maintain its existing programs while increasing efforts to commercialize technologies developed through R&D and expand the application of science, See “R&D,” A2
PARTING THE SEA An estimated 418.4 metric tons of waste and debris collected and hauled was collected from the Redemptorist Water Channel at Parañaque City between August 10 and 12, 2026 as of 3pm Wednesday. The clearing operation was a collaboration of the city government of Parañaque City, Department of Public Works and Highways and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority. The “sea of garbage” found in several parts of the metropolis, blamed for worsening the floods, has sparked a debate on the implementation of the solid waste law. NONIE REYES
Diokno on ’27 budget: Too tight, too many red flags By Andrea E. San Juan
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FORMER budget and finance chief of the Philippines warned that the proposed budget for next year will be “exceptionally tight” amid the sharp slowdown in economic growth and the rising cost of borrowing which leaves little room for waste, delay and weak execution. At a briefing on Wednesday, Benjamin E. Diokno, who also served as a governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and currently sits as a member of the Monetary Board, laid out his views on the 2027 National Expenditure Program submitted by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Diokno described the proposed budget for next year as “not having enough elbow room” as it faces pressure from the weak economic growth momentum. As such, the former budget chief said the budget “must be carefully crafted with programs and projects prioritized according to their readiness.” “Dapat handang-handa na ang implementation of the project, economic impact, and contribution to long-term growth,” the former economic manager of the country who wore several hats across four Philippine presidencies pointed out. Among others, Diokno seemed appalled at what he called extremely optimistic revenue assumptions set by the government. “Number 1, the revenue as-
sumptions seem too optimistic. Because if you have slower growth of the economy, it means lower revenues. But here, the revenues will even increase, and that’s impossible,” he pointed out, speaking partly n Filipino. Based on the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing for 2027 released on Tuesday, revenues to be collected by the government are seen to reach P5.205 trillion amid expectations of a recovery in economic growth. Next year’s revenue goal is equivalent to 15.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and is higher by 8.28 percent than this year’s reduced target of P4.807 trillion.
Tax cuts
SECOND, Diokno questioned the
tax cuts announced by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) last month. “He announced several tax cuts during the Sona including the reduction in personal income taxes,” but the president did not mention offsetting revenue measures that would need to be passed, he noted. So, he added, that’s not a credible scenario. Diokno said the privatization proceeds or funds from assets sold by the government are projected to rise by 166.1 percent—an assumption that, he said, “appears unlikely in a slow moving economy.” “Because if an economy is barely advancing, it’s hard to sell assets,” the former finance and budget See “Diokno,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 61.1040 n JAPAN 0.3837 n UK 82.5821 n HK 7.7878 n CHINA 9.0570 n SINGAPORE 47.7524 n AUSTRALIA 43.1272 n EU 70.5385 n KOREA 0.0433 n SAUDI ARABIA 16.2740 Source: BSP (August 12, 2026)