CEBU'S booming tourism industry and growing economy could reach far greater heights, but only if the Philippines breaks its cycle of underinvestment in infrastructure and rebuilds its manufacturing sector, according to veteran investment banker and corporate director Stephen CuUnjieng.
Speaking before business leaders in Cebu during the Investment and Entrepreneurship Summit, CuUnjieng warned that the country has spent decades reacting to shortages and bottlenecks instead of planning ahead, resulting in missed opportunities for investment, job creation and economic expansion.
“The biggest thing we do everywhere in the Philippines is nothing until it’s too late,” he said. “We wait for a shortage, we wait for a backlog, and only then do we act.”
Aviation infrastructure
For Cebu, one of the clearest examples is aviation infrastructure. While discussions often focus on airport terminals, CuUnjieng said the bigger challenge is runway capacity, which ultimately determines how many flights can serve a destination and how much tourism growth an airport can accommodate.
Citing recent remarks from Cebu Pacific executives, he said expanding runway capacity should be a priority if Cebu wants to strengthen its position as one of the country’s leading tourism gateways.
“Terminals are easy to build and refurbish. Runways are runways. You can only have so many takeoffs and landings per hour,” he said.
He compared the Philippines’ approach with regional aviation hubs such as Hong Kong and Singapore, where governments invest in airport expansion years before capacity becomes a problem. Those investments, he said, are viewed not simply as profit-generating assets but as economic catalysts that stimulate tourism, trade and logistics activity.
“Some things are more important than short-term profit. These infrastructures are about the development they spur,” he said.
Strong manufacturing base
Beyond tourism, CuUnjieng argued that the Philippines’ long-term growth challenge lies in its failure to build a strong manufacturing base. Despite having one of Southeast Asia’s largest populations, the country continues to rely heavily on remittances from overseas Filipino workers and the business process management (BPM) industry to drive economic activity.
That strategy, he said, is becoming increasingly unsustainable. “We cannot keep exporting 20 percent of the people who enter the workforce every year, and we cannot rely on BPMs alone,” he said.
Manufacturing, he noted, remains the foundation of economic development in nearly every country that has successfully transitioned to middle-income or high-income status. Unlike many service industries, manufacturing generates a powerful multiplier effect, creating jobs across supply chains, logistics, housing, transportation and support services.
“Every manufacturing job creates several more jobs in the economy,” CuUnjieng said. “That’s how countries industrialize and create broad-based prosperity.”
He pointed to the Philippines’ electricity consumption as a reflection of its industrial weakness. With a population of around 117 million, the country’s peak power demand stands at roughly 13,400 megawatts. Vietnam, which has a smaller population, records peak demand of about 57,000 MW, while Thailand’s reaches nearly 35,000 MW.
“Power usage is a proxy for industrialization,” CuUnjieng said. “When you see those gaps, you’re seeing the gap in manufacturing and economic activity.”
Industrial policy
To close that gap, he called for a more deliberate industrial policy focused on sectors where the Philippines has natural advantages, including agriculture, food processing, mining, renewable energy and resource-based manufacturing. He cited Indonesia’s decision to stop exporting raw nickel and instead require domestic processing, a move that attracted billions of dollars in investments and dramatically increased the value of the country’s mineral exports.
The Philippines, he said, could pursue a similar strategy by developing local industries that add value to its mineral and agricultural resources rather than exporting them in raw form.
“We have resources. The question is whether we continue exporting raw materials or create jobs and industries around them,” he said.
CuUnjieng also challenged the widely cited notion that the country’s growing population automatically translates into a demographic dividend.
Population growth
Population growth, he said, only becomes an economic advantage when accompanied by quality education, productive employment and rising worker productivity. “What matters is not just having more people. What matters is having people who are educated, skilled and productively employed,” he said.
For Cebu and the rest of the country, CuUnjieng said sustained prosperity will require a shift in mindset — from short-term fixes to long-term planning and continuous improvement.
“If we invest in the commanding heights of the economy — energy, food security, education and infrastructure — we can unlock much greater growth,” he said. “Improvement is not a one-time project. It has to become a constant state of life.”
