The Duterte administration's public launch of its Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022 on June 2 somewhat coincidentally happened the day after the supposed June 1 end of the 5th round of the peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). The cancellation of talks by the government is unfortunate because discussions on a comprehensive agreement on social and economic reforms (CASER) were meant to take up most of this round. This would have been an opportunity for new thinking on the part of the government to replace the failed neoliberalism of old.