While the Marcos regime refuses to give the people even the slightest relief by removing the VAT and other burdensome taxes, it is rushing to grant incentives and tax breaks- the privilege of not paying taxes- to large foreign corporations.

One of the regime’s schemes is the 2026 Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP), an investment “roadmap” outlined by the Board of Investments (BOI) in January. It was signed by Ferdinand Marcos Jr on May 21 and made public on June 3. This roadmap identifies investment areas where foreign investors will be exempt from paying taxes for 14 to 17 years.

The SIPP is nothing more than a further surrender of sovereignty and the sale of cheap Filipino labor to foreigners. It covers investment areas that had already been yielded to foreign control. These were expanded under the Duterte regime through to the Marcos regime, which allowed and facilitated 100% foreign ownership in strategic sectors such as telecommunications, air transport, local banking, and renewable energy (RE).

Industry for imperialist war

The SIPP further incentivizes the operations of companies entering semi-processing of critical minerals and other “services related to defense activities.” It includes a special category for so-called “frontier technologies” such as artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, nuclear energy, and advanced research and development. These subsectors are what US imperialism is currently pushing under the Luzon Economic Corridor and the Pax Silica Initiative. Companies entering these sectors will enjoy the longest and most generous tax-free periods and other incentives.

Contrary to what the regime insists on, the SIPP is far from being a catalyst for economic development. In Philippine history, foreign direct investment has never led to industrialization. Under neoliberal policies in recent decades, manufacturing has been in continuous decline. In fact, its share of the overall economy (GDP) has been steadily shrinking— from 20–25% in the 1950s to just 2.5% in 2025, the lowest in over 70 years.

Nothing will change this downward trajectory of the local economy. The SIPP is designed for the “global supply chain,” not for building a genuine national industry. It will only further tie the country down as a supplier of cheap raw materials and subjugated labor for semi-processing of imported goods for re-export.

Hollow promises of jobs

The regime boasts that the SIPP will create millions of jobs, with 420,000 supposedly in the RE sector alone. It also claims that one million jobs will be created in the Luzon Economic Corridor.

The reality will be the opposite. Right now, peasant and indigenous communities are being displaced left and right, their land seized for solar and onshore windfarm projects. Thousands of fishermen will lose their fishing grounds to make way for the giant turbines of offshore windfarms. The destruction of livelihoods is not only immediate but long-lasting, given the damage caused by massive RE projects on land and at sea.

Furthermore, the jobs supposedly created in “advanced manufacturing” and “mindfacturing” represent not development but further exploitation of labor. Foreign companies will simply absorb the talent and skills of Filipinos for their own use in the economy and military.

Meanwhile, oppressive and exploitative policies will persist in the enclaves where foreign capital is concentrated. Despite high productivity rates in enterprises within these zones, most workers are paid only minimum wages. Nearly all of them are contractual with minimal benefits. Even regular workers have no defense against sudden factory closures and the transfer of company operations abroad.