A far different reality happens in the Philippines characterized by disenfranchisement, environmental degradation, and deepening inequality.
By Mitch Teofilo
Bulatlat.com
**Based on the CSO Collective Statement of Philippine CSOs
NEW YORK – As the Philippines presented its fourth Voluntary National Review (VNR) at the 2025 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), its official narrative offered a polished account of resilience and reform, as framed by the “5Ps”: People, Prosperity, Planet, Peace, and Partnerships. The report highlighted advances in universal health care, gender equality, marine conservation, green jobs under the 2023 Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act, digital public services, and stakeholder collaboration.
However, a far different reality happens in the Philippines characterized by disenfranchisement, environmental degradation, and deepening inequality.
On People, despite commitments to health equity and gender rights, the Philippines faces dire conditions. IBON Foundation said that only one region meets World Health Organization (WHO) standards for health worker density, while nearly half of deaths in 2023 went unattended due to poor labor conditions and low wages[1][2]. Universal health care has accelerated the commercialization of public hospitals. Meanwhile, the SOGIESC Bill and the Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Bill remain stalled, eclipsed by soaring gender-based violence and unpaid care burdens.
On Prosperity, the average daily minimum wage sits at P475- less than half the P1,217 needed by a family of five[3][4]. Even the highest regional wages fall below poverty thresholds, driving 7.5 million families into involuntary hunger by March 2025[5][6]. The Philippines now ranks second-highest in unemployment in Southeast Asia[7][8], with agriculture and industry at historic lows. Trabaho Para sa Bayan sidesteps structural issues like job precarity, union busting, and exploitative labor migration. Who truly benefits from this so-called growth?
On Planet, environmental commitments appear overshadowed by rampant reclamation, large-scale mining, and fossil fuel expansion. Without a national industrialization plan grounded in ecological justice and Indigenous stewardship, climate resilience becomes a corporate banner, not a community-led imperative. Displacement of Indigenous Peoples, fisherfolks, and farmers from ancestral lands and coastal zones continues unchecked. Climate resilience cannot coexist with extractivism and coastal destruction. Indigenous stewardship of ecosystems remains excluded, despite its proven sustainability.
On Peace, it cannot be built on surveillance and repression. Under President Marcos Jr., Karapatan documented 819 political prisoners as of late 2024[9]. Red-tagging and shrinking civic spaces stem from laws like the establishment of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict ( NTF-ELCAC) and the Anti-Terrorism Act. From 2014 to 2024, Indigenous Peoples in the Bangsamoro region recorded at least 84 killings, many land-related[10][11][12]. Conflict persists where rights are denied and dissent is criminalized.
On Partnerships, despite claims of multistakeholder engagement, the SDG Stakeholders’ Chamber remains dominated by private and academic institutions. Community-led models and frontline voices are left outside policymaking gates. Public-private partnerships overshadow local solutions, and civil society’s role is reduced to tokenism. Without structural transformation, “collaboration” becomes camouflage for inequitable governance.
The Philippines’ SDG narrative cannot be measured by polished dashboards alone. It must reflect lived realities of hunger, displacement, and indignity experienced by millions. Progress is not statistics.Iit is justice, sovereignty, and survival. accountability, agency, and action. Indicators alone can track the pace but they can’t capture the pulse. If the SDGs are to embody the vision of “We, the Peoples,” then they must center the lived realities of those most impacted. That means amplifying rights-based governance, supporting community-led solutions, and led not by institutions alone, but by communities reclaiming development in their own image. (DAA)
Click here to access the 2025 Philippines Voluntary National Review (VNR) Report
[1] https://www.ibon.org/philippines-declining-health-worker-ratio/
[3] https://www.ibon.org/ph-minimum-wages-are-family-poverty-wages-ibon/
[4] https://cpdg.ph/national-living-wage-a-just-call-cpdg/
[5] https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2048156/sws-hunger-rate-at-27-2-highest-since-pandemic
[7] https://www.ibon.org/lfs-asean-2411/
[8] https://seasia.co/infographic/unemployment-rates-in-southeast-asia-2025
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