PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday said his administration’s ultimate measure of success will be whether every Filipino family has at least one member who finishes college or technical vocational education before the end of his term in 2028.
In his recent BBM Podcast, President Marcos acknowledged that his administration’s first years were spent making “funda-mental” changes to government systems and improving the country’s investment profile, noting that such structural shifts take time.
“Six years go very quickly,” President Marcos said, recalling that his term began while the country was still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Government is like a tanker, it takes 12 kilometers before it can turn. That’s why I keep saying, ‘Bilisan na ninyo.’ If we don’t do this now, we might never be able to,” he added.
Pressed to name one priority project he wants to complete before leaving office, Marcos pointed to education.
“In my SONA, I said every Filipino family should have a college graduate or a TESDA graduate,” he said.
“If we can do that, that’s success,” he added.
President Marcos stressed that education and skills training are central to sustaining the gains of infrastructure and economic reforms. Without a well trained and well educated workforce, he said, Filipinos would struggle to compete in the global labor mar-ket.
“Our greatest resource is our people,” he said. “Talk to foreigners and ask what they think of Filipinos, they think highly of us. We should not waste that,” the president added.
He added that while physical development projects remain important, “the most important is human development,” and that education will ultimately be the gauge of his administration’s legacy.
As of mid 2025, the Philippines has seen notable gains in infrastructure under the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program, but concerns persist about access to quality education, especially in rural areas where resources and TESDA training centers are limited. Ex-panding scholarship opportunities and enhancing digital learning platforms have become urgent priorities for policymakers.
President Marcos’s emphasis on education echoes calls from economists and labor groups who warn that without a skilled work-force, the Philippines may lag behind in attracting higher value industries. By setting this benchmark—at least one graduate per family—his administration is signaling a shift toward inclusive human capital development as a legacy metric.
