THE Philippines in 2025 had the lowest growth since 2011, excluding the pandemic years. Tourist arrivals were below target. Fisheries production maintained its overall downward trend. The learning deficiencies of Filipino kids are growing, and so are the mountains of garbage, especially plastics. These are among the depressing updates released by the government as January came to an end and we enter February — Love Month.
Earlier, Social Weather Station reported a 20.2 percent average hunger rate in 2025 — same rate as in 2024 — with self-rated poverty at 51 percent, down from the staggering 57 percent in 2024.
The hunger rate had been on a straight climb from 9.8 percent in September 2023 to a record-high 27.2 percent in March 2025, to settle at 20.1 percent in November 2025. The high rates of self-rated poverty and hunger arise from the cost of living outpacing income. And while minimum wages have been hiked substantially in recent years, many Filipinos are working in the informal sector, often as so-called self-employed. Formal sector wage increases may lead to higher purchasing power, but they also lead to higher prices.
The SWS numbers confirm what we see: That millions of Filipino families are struggling to make ends meet. The fact — because news it isn’t — that Filipino kids are falling further and further behind in learning proficiency is adding insult to injury. All the sacrifices to be able to send one’s kids to school, all the tax money paid, yet, the outcome is appalling.
I recall a friend telling me, desperation in her voice, about her high school-ready son who couldn’t write. The only consolation that the teacher could offer was that it was the case for most of the students in the class! Well, it seems to be the national norm. The World Bank in 2022 found that “91 percent of children in the Philippines at late primary age today are not proficient in reading” (Learning Poverty Brief, World Bank, June 2022). And the more recent Edcom 2 report: “National Achievement Test results show worrying declines in proficiency across key stages, with the proportion of ‘non-proficient students’ rising from 30 percent in Grade 3... to as high as 74 percent in Grade 12.... As much as 88 percent of students across all grade levels are not ‘grade-level ready’ in reading at the beginning of the school year.” One thing is what is being taught in the class; another is what the pupils actually learn.
Last year, we heard about teachers enrolling in and graduating from courses of dubious quality in order to obtain a graduate degree to qualify for promotion. Some colleges were found to be specializing in this type of business. They set up graduate degree programs tailor-made for teachers (and others) who wish to add a degree to their biodata as quickly and hassle-free as possible. How do we expect that teachers who take such shortcuts are capable of providing quality education to others?
Ni Luh Sri Junantari, manager of PlastikDetox campaign in Bali, in a comment at the recent International Zero Waste Feature Marathon, referred to Zero Waste as an action rather than merely a goal. I think that the same can be said for education. It is an action, a journey, not simply a goal for which we can show a diploma. We are too fixated with grades and honors rather than the actual learning and the process of learning.
Love Month. While Valentine’s Day is mainly about romantic love, we also celebrate other kinds of love, including love of family, love of children. Love is, after all, “the greatest”; it “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” Yet, despite our love for our children, what kind of future are we offering them? We have a serious education crisis, plastic pollution, near-depleted fishing grounds, and wastage of public funds due to corruption and inefficiencies. These crises are all self-inflicted. They weren’t brought about by others. On top of this, we have the ever more devastating impacts of climate change-induced extreme weather. We ought to be busy making our communities more climate resilient, eliminating vulnerabilities, and building new strengths. Yet, we fail to make sure that at least the majority of our kids will be able to read, write and do math. The thousands of honors and recognitions handed out at every end of the school year seem like a smokescreen, preventing us from seeing the true state of education.
For us to strive and not merely survive as a nation, as a community, as a family, we need the proverbial faith, hope and love. Faith in each other and that together we can overcome the multiple crises. Hope that tomorrow will be better than today. And love most of all, as this is what moves us to do what is right and good for others, even if this comes with no other reward than the knowledge that we did the right thing.
