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The nation lost an outstanding public servant last week. Susan “Toots” Ople, champion of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), Migrant Workers Secretary, protector of workers’ rights and friend to us all, passed away to join the Lord and her father, Ka Blas Ople, in heaven. It was a sad day because Toots had so much more to give in terms of public service. In many of our conversations, she had passionately outlined her plans to help the plight of Filipino migrant workers and more importantly, reduce the country’s dependence of labor export.

We laud the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for prioritizing infrastructure development to make up for the sluggish public spending that led to lower-than-expected gross domestic product growth in the second quarter.

The country received some sobering economic news last week. During the first quarter of the current year, the Philippines was able to sustain its economic recovery and expansion with a GDP growth of 6.4 percent, a growth rate that actually exceeded forecasts. But the second quarter data took the wind out of that recovery trajectory when the economy grew by 4.3 percent, the slowest since the first quarter of 2021 when the economy contracted 3.8 percent.