Prospects are good for 2025 to be a finer year for Filipinos owing to the further initiatives and reforms that President Marcos has come up with to broaden social protection for underprivileged families and tune up the economy to spawn investments and create more jobs, according to National Unity Party (NUP) president LRay Villafuerte.
“Such pro-people and pro-economy initiatives and reforms leading to a finer year for Filipinos this 2025 will let the President edge closer to his promise of better lives for all on his watch on the strength of his vision of a prosperous and peaceful Bagong Pilipinas where no Filipino will be left behind,” said Villafuerte, a congressman and former three-term governor of Camarines Sur.
For starters, he said, “there are larger funds and more programs on social protection in the year ahead for underprivileged and marginalized sectors such as the poorest among poor households, senior citizens, solo parents, PWDs (persons with disabilities), the jobless and underemployed to help them cope with the ever rising cost of living.”
“The President has also carried out other initiatives and signed laws to further tune up the domestic economy and make it more conducive to investments from the private sector, which, in turn, will spell a lot more jobs and livelihood opportunities for our people this 2025 onwards,” Villafuerte said.
For Villafuerte, Filipino consumers can look forward to cheaper quality rice this 2025 as a result of several initiatives by the President and backed by the 19th Congress.
These include the President’s issuance of Executive Order (EO) No. 62 that slashed import tariffs on the staple from 35% to just 15% and his enactment of Republic Act (RA) No. 12078, or “Agricultural Tariffication Act (ATA), which amended RA 11203, or the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) of 2019, by, among others, restoring certain government powers to intervene in the market in times of emergencies such as supply shortfalls or extraordinary spikes in retail prices.
“Our economic managers themselves see a brighter 2025 with their projected jump in foreign investments amid the more competitive and generous incentive package awaiting REEs (registered export enterprises) and DMEs (high-value domestic market enterprises) with investment capital of P15 billion or more or export sales of a minimum of $100 million annually.”
A co-author of both RA 11203 and RA 12078, Villafuerte said the amendatory ATA law extended by six more years and increased the annual outlay for the RTL-established Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) for intervention programs for farmers from the original P10 billion to P30 billion beginning this 2025.
Such is likely to bump up the income of palay growers who account for a majority of poor Filipinos and boost this crop’s harvests that will subsequently level up supply and slash rice prices in the local market.
In support of the President’s goal to pull down rice prices, he said that Speaker Martin Romualdez last year created a five-panel Murang Pagkain super committee (Quinta Comm) to pry into the unusually high cost of the staple despite the half-year effectivity of EO 62 and come up with measures to check hoarding and profiteering by unscrupulous traders.
These initiatives are expected to ensure that cheaper imports lead in 2025 to a per-kilo price drop to below P40 for well-milled or quality rice from the 2024 range of P50 to P60 a kilo.
He noted that the government started selling well-milled rice last December at P40 a kilo under its Rice-for-All (RFA) program, but only in selected outlets such as rail stations and certain Metro Manila markets, but plans to expand RFA 40 this 2025 by selling it in more Kadiwa ng Pangulo stores across the country.
“Making the staple more affordable for Filipinos, which is an overriding goal of the President, is crucial to fighting inflation—and improving the economy—because a lion’s share of the income of most households goes to their expenses on food, especially rice,” he said.
On the business front, he said that international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) Global Ratings, Moody’s Analytics and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus 3-Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) expect the Philippine economy to be one of the fastest-growing economies in the region from 2025 onwards, in light of the pro-investment policies of the Marcos administration.
Villafuerte noted that the pro-business reforms undertaken in 2024 by the President to improve the economy and create more jobs are topped by RA 12066 or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE-MORE) Act, which seeks to further boost investor confidence by, among others, reducing the corporate income tax (CIT) from 25% to 20%, and granting more generous incentives and tax breaks to registered business enterprises (RBEs).
With the now globally competitive CIT rates and broader incentives for businesses under RA 12066, this measure will enhance support for enterprises and entice foreign investors to set up shop in the Philippines, said Villafuerte, a co-author of this law and an exporter-entrepreneur before joining electoral politics in 2004.
Villafuerte said that, “Our economic managers themselves see a brighter 2025 with their projected jump in foreign investments amid the more competitive and generous incentive package awaiting REEs (registered export enterprises) and DMEs (high-value domestic market enterprises) with investment capital of P15 billion or more or export sales of a minimum of $100 million annually.”
“Bigger FDIs (foreign direct investments) bodes well,” he said, “as such capital from foreign and local investors means more long-term businesses and more jobs and livelihood opportunities, which, in turn, means higher incomes and better living standards for Filipinos.”
Villafuerte said that the high satisfaction and trust ratings enjoyed by the President in the tracking polls of highly credible pollsters like the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Pulse Asia Research Inc. indicate that most Filipinos are aware of, and appreciate, the pro-people initiatives of Mr. Marcos.
According to the third-quarter SWS survey, 37% of adult Filipinos believe their quality of life has improved in the last 12 months.
As for the ayuda or financial aid programs for marginalized sectors, Villafuerte said that better economic relief is in store for senior citizens, for example, with sufficient funding under the 2025 national budget for their higher monthly pension of P1,000 under RA 11982 or the “Expanded Centenarians Act,” and the P10,000 cash gifts for the elderly when they turn 80, 85, 90 and 95, under RA 11982 or the “Expanded Centenarians Act.”
Such P10,000 cash gifts for seniors are in addition to the P100,000 that they are entitled to under RA 10868 or the “Centenarian Act” when they turn 100 years of age, said Villafuerte, a lead author of both RA 10868 and RA 11982.
Also, Filipino consumer confidence has improved in 2024’s third quarter on expectations of higher household income, said Villafuerte in citing the latest Consumer Expectations Survey (BES) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The most recent BSP CES revealed that consumer sentiment—as measured by the overall confidence index (CI)—has improved from minus 54.4% at the height of the pandemic in 2020 to the current minus 15.6%, he said.
As pointed out by the BSP, although the CES CI has been in negative territory since the onset of the pandemic a half-decade ago, consumers from all income groups—low-, middle- and high-income—were “less pessimistic” this time around because they expect “higher and additional sources of income; more working family members; and more available jobs and permanent employment.”
Villafuerte said that steadily improving consumer confidence is a good economic sign for the country as household or domestic consumption is our main growth engine, accounting for two-thirds of our economy.
“Against all odds, the Philippine economy has become one of Asia’s outperformers owing to the bold and decisive reforms and initiatives that President Marcos has pursued to boost investor confidence and keep our country on its post-pandemic upward trajectory,” Villafuerte said.
“It is thus my wish that our country remains on its post-Covid high and sustainable growth path in the second half of the Marcos presidency as this alone will enable our people reap the fruits of the President’s vision of a Bagong Pilipinas where no Filipino will be left behind in the national quest for peace and prosperity,” he said.
“My second wish is for our people to support the programs and projects of the President that are aligned with his Bagong Pilipinas vision of better lives for all Filipinos,” he added.
He said that our economic managers are bullish about our country possibly achieving the coveted status of an upper middle-income economy as early as 2025—from its current position as a lower middle-income one—based on the World Bank’s classification of a gross national income (GNI) of $1,136 to $4,465 for lower middle-income economies and $4,466 to $13,845 for upper middle-income economies.
According to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the Philippines’ GNI per capita could rise to upper middle-income status from its current $3,950, which has placed it in the bracket of Vietnam ($4,010 GNI per capita); Laos ($2,360); Cambodia ($1,700); and Myanmar ($1,210).
In contrast, the Philippines is trailing other Southeast Asian neighbors that are on the upper-middle income list—Malaysia ($11,780); Thailand ($7,230); and Indonesia ($4,580).
This optimism was in part induced by prospects for a rosier economic situation and more foreign investments after S&P Global Ratings upgraded its credit rating outlook to “positive” for the Philippines, with the possibility of its outlook rising to an “A” sovereign rating over the next 24 months.
As noted by Speaker Martin Romualdez, he said, this credit rating outlook upgrade by S&P Global Ratings underlines the effective governance of President Marcos following his administration’s commitment to economic stability and growth despite challenges besetting the nation.
In its World Economic Outlook (WEO), the IMF sees the Philippines as one of the fastest-growing economies of Southeast Asia through 2029 with a growth rate of 6.1% in 2025, which is next to Vietnam’s 6.1%; and higher than Cambodia’s 5.8%, Indonesia’s 5.1%, Malaysia’s 4.4%, Laos’ 3.5%, Timor Leste’s 3.1%), Thailand’s 3%, Brunei’s 2.5%, Singapore’s 2.5% and Myanmar’s 1.1%.
The World Bank raised its 2025 growth forecast for the Philippines to 6.1%, from its previous 5.9% projection, as 2024’s print showed, it said, that the growth momentum had been sustained.
Like the IMF, the AMRO predicted the Philippines to be the second fastest-growing economy in the region.
In its October update, the AMRO kept its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for the Philippines at 6.3% in 2025, which is just behind Vietnam’s 6.2%, and ahead of Cambodia’s 5.6%, Indonesia’s 5.1%, China’s 5%, Malaysia’s 4.7%, Laos’ 4.5%, Brunei Darussalam’s 4%, Hong Kong’s 3.3%, Thailand’s 2.8%, South Korea’s 2.5%, Singapore’s 2.4%, Myanmar’s 1.8% and Japan’s 0.5%.
