I am a believer in the private sector. I spent most of my working life in business and finance, and I have seen firsthand what entrepreneurship, innovation, capital, and free enterprise can accomplish.

But here is something we need to understand: We cannot simply leave the economic future of the Philippines to the private sector. Markets are powerful, but markets alone do not build nations.

Consider Vietnam.

According to World Bank data, Vietnam’s economy reached about US$514.7 billion in 2025, while the Philippine economy was about US$487.1 billion. Vietnam, whose economy was once considerably smaller than ours, has now overtaken us in nominal GDP.

This did not happen by accident. Vietnam made a deliberate decision to become a manufacturing and export powerhouse. Manufacturing accounted for roughly 24% of Vietnam’s GDP, compared with only around 16% in the Philippines. Vietnam’s merchandise exports have also grown to several times the level of Philippine merchandise exports.

Of course, Vietnam’s development model is not perfect, nor should we simply copy everything they have done. But there is an important lesson here:

Industrialization requires intention.

You cannot simply tell businessmen, “Go build factories.” Factories need reliable and competitively priced electricity. They need ports, roads, railways, logistics, industrial zones, skilled workers, engineers, technicians, financing, predictable regulations, technology, and access to global markets.

These are things individual companies cannot build by themselves. This is why infrastructure and industrial policy must work together.

The Philippines needs to decide where we can realistically compete over the next 20 or 30 years—advanced electronics and semiconductors, food processing and agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, energy technologies, shipbuilding and maritime industries, digital industries, and other sectors where we already have capabilities or strategic advantages.

Then government needs to align infrastructure, education, energy policy, investment incentives, development finance, research, trade policy, and even government procurement around developing those capabilities.

This does not mean government should replace the private sector. Government should not be the entrepreneur, but neither should government simply sit on the sidelines.

Government must create the environment, infrastructure, institutions, and long-term direction that allow productive enterprise to flourish.

The private sector provides entrepreneurship, capital, innovation, and execution. Government provides public goods, coordination, institutions, infrastructure, and strategic direction. We need both.

But for me, there is an even deeper issue. This is where Kingdom Economics comes in.

Kingdom Economics begins with a very simple but radical declaration:

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Not merely Lord of our Sunday worship. Not merely Lord of our private spiritual lives. Jesus is Lord over all creation.

“For by him all things were created… all things were created through him and for him.” — Colossians 1:16

That means business belongs to Him. Capital belongs to Him. Government belongs under His authority. Our natural resources belong to Him. Our talents, technology, industries, institutions, and opportunities ultimately belong to Him. Even our economy must ultimately answer to Him.

When we say Jesus is Lord, we are also saying that money is not lord, markets are not lord, corporations are not lord, government is not lord, and economic growth is certainly not lord. Christ is.

That changes the way we think about economics. The purpose of an economy cannot simply be to make GDP bigger. Neither can it merely be about maximizing shareholder value, attracting capital, increasing consumption, or producing wealth for those who already have it.

If Jesus is Lord, then economic activity must ultimately serve purposes consistent with His Kingdom.

So we must ask:

Does our economy create dignified and productive work? Does it allow Filipinos to develop the gifts God has given them? Does it enable fathers and mothers to provide for their families without feeling that leaving the country is their only path to opportunity Does it reward genuine enterprise rather than political connections and rent-seeking? Does it protect the vulnerable? Does it encourage generosity rather than greed? Does it steward creation responsibly? Does it produce goods and services that genuinely serve people? Does prosperity flow outward, or does it remain concentrated among a small number of families and corporations?

These are not merely economic questions. They are stewardship questions.

Because if Jesus is truly Lord, then everything we possess is entrusted to us and everything we build should ultimately be for His purposes.

This is also why industrial policy must never become an excuse for crony capitalism.

Government picking favored businessmen, protecting inefficient companies forever, or allowing political allies to capture industries is not Kingdom Economics. That is simply another form of greed.

A sound industrial policy should be about building the productive capacity of the entire nation—creating conditions where more Filipinos can work, create, innovate, manufacture, build businesses, and participate meaningfully in economic life.

We have spent many years building an economy heavily dependent on consumption, remittances, services, imports, and labor exports.

Perhaps it is time to ask a bigger question:

What can the Philippines actually build?

What can we manufacture? What can we invent? What can we export? What industries can we develop that will create meaningful jobs for generations? What can Filipinos contribute to the world?

Kingdom Economics should move us from simply asking, “How much can we earn?” to asking, “What have we been entrusted to build?”

Because God did not create human beings merely to consume. He created us in His image—to cultivate, create, develop, steward, and cause His creation to flourish.

Vietnam’s rise should therefore not make us bitter. It should make us learn. They have demonstrated what sustained policy, infrastructure investment, manufacturing, exports, and long-term planning can accomplish.

The Philippines has talented people, we have entrepreneurs, we have natural resources, we have a young population, we have a strategic location. What we have lacked for too long is consistency, coordination, infrastructure, and a long-term national economic vision.

Private enterprise is important, but nation-building is too important to outsource entirely to the private sector.

Government must govern well.
Business must create value.
Workers must be treated with dignity.
Institutions must serve the common good.
And all of us must become faithful stewards of whatever God has entrusted to us.

Ultimately, however, our hope is not in industrial policy. It is not in government. It is not in capitalism. It is not even in economic development.

Our ultimate hope is Jesus Christ.

But precisely because Jesus is Lord, we should care deeply about how economies are built, how businesses are run, how governments steward resources, how workers are treated, and whether the systems we create contribute to human flourishing.

The Kingdom of God reminds us that prosperity is never the ultimate goal. Faithful stewardship under the lordship of Jesus Christ is. And perhaps that is the kind of economic vision our nation desperately needs:

An economy that produces rather than merely consumes. An economy that creates rather than merely imports. An economy that provides dignified work rather than simply exports Filipino workers. An economy where enterprise flourishes but greed is restrained. An economy where government leads but does not dominate. An economy where wealth becomes a means of serving others rather than an end in itself. An economy built not around the lordship of money, but under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

That, to me, is Kingdom Economics.