Twin Plagues

How Duterte and Covid-19 Wrecked the Philippine Economy

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Twin Plagues: How Duterte and Covid-19 Wrecked the Philippine Economy chronicles the Philippine economy under Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency from 2016 to 2022, a period marked by authoritarian populism and the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on economic data, policy analysis, and contemporary reporting, the book argues that weak governance and institutional erosion had already undermined economic performance well before the pandemic. The pandemic then exposed and magnified these failures, culminating in the country’s worst postwar recession and the deepest economic contraction in Southeast Asia. The book challenges the persistent but misleading narrative that Duterte handled the economy well, offering an economic counterpoint to a literature that has largely emphasized the war on drugs, media repression, and foreign policy. Written in an accessible style, Twin Plagues is both an economic history and a cautionary tale about how authoritarian populism can rapidly corrode governance and inflict lasting damage on developing economies.