How a scandal is hitting the Philippines’ star economy

THE Philippines’ economy has often struggled to get credit for its solid performance in the past decade.

- By Daniel Moss

Now, a massive corruption scandal is sapping growth at precisely the wrong time and making for an unhappy start to the year.

With Asia likely to find the going harder in 2026, Manila needs to find its footing quickly. As officials try to frame their message, terms like “goldilocks” and “sweet spot” ought to be banished. When the central bank chief uttered those words in August, the outlook was promising: inflation was receding, the expansion was ticking along, and interest rates were on the way down. Growth was headed for another respectable annual increase and poised to outperform Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and even China.

That narrative has been undermined by revelations that billions of dollars allocated to flood control projects had been misused, and in some instances, vanished.

Now, the task before the Philippines is to restore confidence — if policymakers and their political masters can. The scandal has sparked outrage across a nation highly vulnerable to deadly typhoons and flooding.