This study presents a comprehensive process evaluation of the Department of Education's Alternative Learning System (ALS) in the Philippines, examining its effectiveness in providing second-chance education opportunities for out-of-school youth and adults (OSYAs). While the ALS plays a vital...

This paper presents metrics to estimate the size of political dynasties in the 15th Congress of the Republic of the Philippines and analyze the relationship between political dynasty and socio-economic outcomes. Results show that political dynasties comprise 70 percent of jurisdiction-based...

The Philippines’ social protection system is anchored on the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). Under the management of the Department of Social and Welfare Development (DSWD), the 4Ps covered over 3 million families and about 7.5 million children for a period of 64 months (February...

Build, Build, Build (BBB) is the ambitious P8- to P9-trillion infrastructure development program of the current Duterte administration, pledged to usher in a “golden age of infrastructure.” This paper aims to independently assess critical governance dimensions of BBB, focusing on the...

Poverty reduction programs are known as an effective instrument to produce electoral rewards. As such, they are generally politically appealing. But not all programs are the same from the perspective of a politician — some are more supportable than others. This article identifies the features...

The Philippines is home to about 4 million Filipino families who live below the poverty line, and to about 17 million families who live above it. Nearly half of all poor families do not meet their food needs. Despite the Philippines' fast economic growth in recent years — growing over six...

In public policy literature, white elephant projects are described as large-scale investment ventures which do not only crowd-out funds from smaller-scale investment opportunities, but also lead to negative social returns. This case study briefly sketches recent literature and information on...

This paper develops a unique dataset of Supreme Court land dispute cases in the Philippines spanning 2002 to 2016. The sample includes 1,409 cases with complete information on the estimated land value (through zonal value estimation), land size, land location, litigation time, and win rate...

No other food is more central to Filipinos' diets than rice, yet no food poses a greater burden on poor and near-poor Filipinos' budgets. According to the 2015 Family Income and Expenditure Survey, the poorest 20% of households' rice expenditures alone accounted for more than 19% of their total...

Since the beginning of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, significant changes have been made to the Philippines' foreign policy regime. Ties with the Peoples' Republic of China have strengthened, while traditional allies like the USA and European Union have been antagonized. On a...