The political economy of halal certification regulation in the Philippines: religious-class fractions, local and global arenas, and state transformation

Brian U Doce

doi:10.60867/00000178

As the global halal economy continues to expand, many countries are increasingly confronting the policy challenges surrounding halal certification. While halal exportation operates within the neoliberal framework of free trade, its regulation is governed by fragmented regulatory arrangements engineered by rival networks of halal certification bodies (HCBs) which hamper seamless cross-border flows of halal-certified goods. Such arrangements have impacts on domestic regulation for HCBs. This thesis examines one case, the Philippines, where efforts to participate in the lucrative global halal market have been complicated by the existence of multiple and competing regulatory regimes governing HCBs. In one regulatory arrangement, state bodies accredit HCBs, while in another, HCBs pursue private self-regulation. This raises an important question: why do contradictory regulatory regimes for HCBs coexist within a single regulatory territory? I argue that this scenario is an outcome of sustained cross-class conflicts premised on who controls and who benefits from regulating halal certification, expressed through shifting sites of contestation across various institutions within the Philippine state and overseas. Building on this insight, the thesis develops an arena shifting framework grounded in a social relations perspective. Rather than treating arena shifting as simply a strategic calculation by rational actors, the framework shows that shifts in arenas of contestation reflect underlying changes in class relations among competing alliances of class fractions. As conflicts move across institutional arenas, these struggles institutionalise competing and often incoherent political projects, which, in turn, reshape state institutions through processes of fragmentation, decentralisation, and internationalisation, at local, national, and global scales. The argument is demonstrated through an analysis of the contested development of halal certification regulation in the Philippines shaped by episodes of trade liberalisation since 1994. Using a qualitative methodology based on a multiple case study design, the thesis traces how competing coalitions composed of Muslim and Christian class fractions relocate arenas of contestation across three institutional venues: Manila-based national state institutions, Mindanao-based local governments, and overseas global halal networks. Through the relocation of conflict in various arenas, coalitions form new alliances to challenge policies and governance decisions that favour rival regulatory arrangements. In addition, the repeated resort to arena shifting produced fragmented governance outcomes that legally permit the coexistence of public and private accreditation regimes for halal certification bodies. By linking these cxlass conflicts to transformations of the Philippine regulatory apparatus, this thesis contributes to the literature on Islam and neoliberalism by showing how historically evolving class-based struggles over religious certification, expressed through shifting institutional arenas of contestation, reshape the structure, and organisation of the state.

The political economy of halal certification regulation in the Philippines: religious-class fractions, local and global arenas, and state transformation

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