There has never been a decade when the Philippine economy did not experience a crisis. By this time, Filipinos should have already been accustomed to crises, that any crisis in sight should not be cause for any concern. However, the nature and gravity of economic crises have changed lately and this merits more serious attention, as shown in Figure 1. In the 1970s, economic growth fluctuated within a narrow band, but growth was generally positive and relatively high by LDCs'1 standard. In the 1980s, however, economic growth fluctuated widely and became negative for two consecutive years. What worsened the situation was that growth appeared to have decelerated fast in the last two years, with a great possibility of going down further if no measures would be taken to reverse the trend.