The Philippine economy lost over P2.7 trillion from the second quarter of 2025 to the second quarter of 2026 due to corruption and the increasing prices of goods and services in the country, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said Thursday.

In a public hearing of the Committee on Reinvigorate Investment and Sustainable Economic Growth chaired by Senator Risa Hontiveros, Gatchalian said based on their computation the Philippine economy lost P2.75 trillion due to "both actual losses and opportunity losses" since the second quarter of 2025.

"The actual losses are the slowdown in government construction, and the opportunity loss is because when there is corruption. Investors don't invest, so that is lost as well, so 2.7 trillion was lost from our economy," he said.

Gatchalian said before the Philippine economy is experiencing its slowest growth since 2017. He added that the country is second to last in terms of economic growth in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The economy grew 2,3 percent in the second quarter from 2.8 percent in the first quarter.

Highlighting vulnerabilities that should be avoided and mitigated, Gatchalian noted that the committee aims to look for a long term solution for the recovery of the Philippine economy.

The vulnerabilities Gatchalian mentioned include natural disasters, imported oil, corruption, politics and geopolitics.

Gatchalian said natural disasters should be mitigated by investing in resilient infrastructures and emphasized the importance of the removal or reduction of oil importation by shifting to the use of electricity.

He also mentioned the need to end or avoid corruption and political noise that affects investments as well as the geopolitical tension in the region that creates risk and vulnerabilities.

"The aim of the committee is to look for long term goals, long term solutions to make our economy resilient, so that even if these five (vulnerabilities) hit us, we will not be affected and it will not be hard for us to recover," he added. Robina Asido/PHS