Deep Dive with Richard Heydarian
Aug 20, 2026 · 14 min · 8 segments
A special Pilipinas 360 explainer.
Richard HeydarianHostNo entities detected.
Now, habang pinag-usapan natin itong big picture how the Philippines can become more economically dynamic, we also have to remind ourselves that you cannot be an economical dynamic country if you don't have strong domestic institutions, in particular the rule of law.
Especially when it comes to foreign direct investments, hindi ito yung hot money inflow lang na stock markets, labas pasok, hindi.
Uh, 'pag sinasabi natin foreign direct investments, ang pinag-usapan natin dito is billions of dollars over decades potentially, right? And we don't know for sure what exactly is gonna be built under PAC silica, for instance, but if we're gonna bring sensitive issues like, I don't know, data centers with implications for national security or semiconductor production with implication for national security, well, you wanna make sure na meron tayong rule of law.
Dahil kung wala tayong rule of law sa ating bansa, baka kung sino maging presidente, baka kung anong batas ang mapasa mamaya, next thing you know, mga investors they wanna pull out or next thing you know, no new investment is coming in or next thing you know, no one starts to invest to begin with.
You can look at the rule of law index, for instance, to look at the rankings of countries.
In fact, the Philippines is doing very bad, uh, on so many dimensions of rule of law, but we can improve.
I mean, general rule of law is about predictable and uniform application of law.
Ibig sabihin, predictable siya, hindi yung papalit-palit yung interpretation ng batas depend on wh- who we're talking about.
And yes, uniform, meaning kahit ikaw presidente, kahit ikaw isang malakas na tao, the law should apply to you equally, right? That's one of the most conventional, and I would say narrow understanding of the rule of law.
Now, bakit ko pinag-usapan 'yan? Because you cannot understand yung issue ng corruption and fighting corruption and fighting for good governance sa ating bansa if we don't have a proper understanding of the importance of the rule of law.
Rule of law is important to bring investments, but the rule of law is also important for having a healthy democracy and society.
Now, habang pinag-usapan natin itong big picture how the Philippines can become more economically dynamic, we also have to remind ourselves that you cannot be an economical dynamic country if you don't have strong domestic institutions, in particular the rule of law.
Especially when it comes to foreign direct investments, hindi ito yung hot money inflow lang na stock markets, labas pasok, hindi.
Uh, 'pag sinasabi natin foreign direct investments, ang pinag-usapan natin dito is billions of dollars over decades potentially, right? And we don't know for sure what exactly is gonna be built under PAC silica, for instance, but if we're gonna bring sensitive issues like, I don't know, data centers with implications for national security or semiconductor production with implication for national security, well, you wanna make sure na meron tayong rule of law.
Dahil kung wala tayong rule of law sa ating bansa, baka kung sino maging presidente, baka kung anong batas ang mapasa mamaya, next thing you know, mga investors they wanna pull out or next thing you know, no new investment is coming in or next thing you know, no one starts to invest to begin with.
You can look at the rule of law index, for instance, to look at the rankings of countries.
In fact, the Philippines is doing very bad, uh, on so many dimensions of rule of law, but we can improve.
I mean, general rule of law is about predictable and uniform application of law.
Ibig sabihin, predictable siya, hindi yung papalit-palit yung interpretation ng batas depend on wh- who we're talking about.
And yes, uniform, meaning kahit ikaw presidente, kahit ikaw isang malakas na tao, the law should apply to you equally, right? That's one of the most conventional, and I would say narrow understanding of the rule of law.
Now, bakit ko pinag-usapan 'yan? Because you cannot understand yung issue ng corruption and fighting corruption and fighting for good governance sa ating bansa if we don't have a proper understanding of the importance of the rule of law.
Rule of law is important to bring investments, but the rule of law is also important for having a healthy democracy and society.
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