This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Philippine Journal of Development. The first semester issue celebrates this milestone with articles on critical topics, such as financial inclusion, housing affordability, free trade agreements, and local governance. The first article examines financial inclusion in the Philippines using probit regressions on microdata from the World Bank’s 2021 Global Findex Database. It identifies positive correlations between financial inclusion and factors like education and income, with notable disparities in technology access. Barriers such as high costs and the lack of trust in financial institutions disproportionately affect lower-income Filipinos. The second article evaluates housing affordability using other methods than the traditional income benchmark, revealing constraints faced by Filipino households. It discusses the spatial challenges of socialized housing and the need for regulatory measures to manage property market speculation. The third article explores the impact of trade agreements through text-of-trade analysis, demonstrating how these agreements influence trade dynamics. The last article examines the evolution of the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG), highlighting its adaptive role in enhancing local governance standards amid evolving national priorities and policy shifts. The study proposes reforms to improve the SGLG’s effectiveness in promoting good governance.