We economists could use some of the same philosophical grounding of medical practitioners: "First, do no harm." We often justify our policy interventions to respond to "market failures" which include those that weaken competition and hamper collective action. But there is also such a thing as "government failure," and Harvard economist Dani Rodrik once quipped that just because there's a market failure, it doesn't necessarily follow that we need to compound it with a government failure. As experts who try to safeguard the economic health of countries, we economists have to make sure we don't end up creating even more distortions through failed government policies. This is how I see the conundrum faced by the Duterte administration's economic team (or more precisely, what's left of it) and its continued dalliance with TRAIN 2.