THE FILIPINO MIND: foreign investments

Showing posts with label foreign investments. Show all posts

Monday, August 25, 2008

THE MYTHS WE LIVE BY (1965) - Senator Lorenzo Tanada

Young people...... Do not be old before your time, dare to blaze new paths and take your countrymen with you to those heights of freedom and independence which our generation dreamt of but failed to reach. - Senator Tanada

"There is not a nationalistic movement here that has not received its share of witch-hunting diatribes. The danger is that if these attempts to regain full independence are equated with communism and branded as subversive, the right of protest and dissent essential to this movement may be imperiled or curtailed.- Lorenzo Tanada

***********************************************************

PLEASE DONATE CORE SUBJECT BOOKS TO OUR HOMELAND (i.e. your hometown public schools, Alma Mater, etc.). Those books that you and/or your children do not need or want; or buy books from your local library during its cheap Book Sales. Also, cargo/door-to-door shipment is best. It is a small sacrifice. [clean up your closets or garage - donate books.THANKS!]

***********************************************************

" Fear history, for it respects no secrets" - Gregoria de Jesus (widow of Andres Bonifacio)

The following previous posts and the RECTO READER are essential about us native, Malay Filipinos and are therefore always presented in each new post. Click each to open/read

OUR FILIPINO CULTURE:

OUR PHILIPPINE ECONOMY and MILITARY: (Post-WW2 Agreements)

THE RECTO READER (Book) is presented in several postings. Click each to open/read:

NOTE: Recto's cited cases, examples or issues were of his time, of course; but realities in our homeland in the present and the foreseeable future are/expectedly much, much worse. Though I am tempted to update them with current issues, it's best to leave them as they are since Recto's paradigms about our much deepened national predicament still ring relevant, valid and true. In short, Recto saw the forest and never got lost in the trees.- Bert

******************************************

[The following excerpts came from a Commencement Address delivered by the late Senator Lorenzo Tanada at the Lyceum of the Philippines on May 7, 1965. Senator Tanada is a sincere nationalist whose battles, before and after the death of the great Sen. Claro M. Recto, show his uncompromising patriotism. he fought on the floor of the Senate and outside of it to preserve the sanctity of the Constitution and the patrimony of the people which some Filipinos with a bent mind wanted sold for a few pieces of silver to foreigners - Teodoro A. Agoncillo]

The Myths We Live By (1965)
- Senator Lorenzo Tanada
THE FOLKLORE OF COLONIALISM

We have been living by illusions for such a long time that we seem not to have noticed the changing realities of our time. We belong to neither the advanced capitalist countries nor socialist camps. Our thinking and behavior, however, belie our real status - that we are a developing nation.

Our habit of self-delusion has been a principal cause of our miseries. Many countries like our own have heroically resisted the excursions of metropolitan powers.Some have succeeded, while others are still fighting the pernicious hold of foreign interests. This determined struggle on their part has earned for them the respect of the nations of the world.

Because we have refused to recognize our real status, we have not only resisted, we have even abetted foreign economic domination. We have been deluded into thinking that this is the correct road, because we are so anxious to establish affinity with an advanced power and because we believe any other road is unwise.

We have been on this road for such a long time, yet we have not progressed. from this mistaken orientation have sprung all the myths that imprison us. We have lived on rhetoric and ignored reality. We pride ourselves so much on being the most westernized country in Asia that we actually sometimes tend to look down upon our fellow Asians.

We have professed to have some links with our brother Asians but we tend to look condescendingly on them because they do not speak English the way we do and have not adopted western ways. This is the first of the myths we live by.

The Myth of the "Free World."

We like to believe that we belong to the free world and we find it difficult to accept that the political life of a nation can be different from ours and still not be evil: that a people's economic, political and cultural life is determined by its own needs and that one cannot just impose a particular way of life upon a nation, for each nation has its own peculiarities.

A nation that does not have the same form of government and philosophy as ours is not necessarily undemocratic. Democracy admits a diversity of forms, it can be diverse as the number of nation-states.

We have relinquished the sovereign initiative that belongs to an independent state by following America too closely. We rely almost entirely on western, especially American experts for opinion and judgment and we have not developed our own powers of assessment.

We are enamored of enchanting phrases like "free world," "free enterprise," etc. and we are easily swayed by stirring calls to the defense and protection of "freedom and democracy."

Do we read the news and comments of other countries, even those which are generally considered as part of the free world but which think independently of the United States? Very few of us do.

Instead we are content to allow only the experts of American news agencies to fill the columns of our papers with their own not disinterested view of world events; we are satisfied to see our young people get their intellectual nourishment almost exclusively from American comics and magazines, American TV programs and movies from Hollywood.

We have not been discriminating at all in our choice of intellectual fare. Consequently, we have not learned to be original.

The Myth of Identity of Interests.

In the field of foreign relations, we have always proceeded on the assumption that America's interests are automatically ours and vice-versa. we have followed her foreign policy closely and sometimes we have even outdone her.

In Asia, our stock is low because we are regarded by our neighbors as America's obedient satellite.

We are thus viewed with suspicion by fellow Asians. In international conferences, we have always identified with the American position. We have not recognized the communist countries not because we have studied this question ourselves and decided it would be bad for us but because, we believed that by recognition we would be hurting America's cause, even if America itself has diplomatic, economic and cultural relations with most of them.

Thus we find our diplomatic maneuverability severely limited. We can not trade with these countries, while many of the developing nations of Asia and Africa have found it profitable to do so.

Ever since the restoration of our independence, we have ignored the existence of the Soviet union. The policy of non-recognition has grown out of a suspicion of communist intentions, out of a desire to please America and not out of any serious analysis of the objective situation.

Hence, we have failed to develop our own experts on Soviet Union. We have refused to seriously consider the position of the Soviet union in world events, even after her amazing accomplishments in the realm of science and space.

From the inception of our independent life, Liberal and Nacionalista administrations have been guided by the myth of identity of interests into actions and policies that later proved detrimental to our country.

We have subordinated even domestic policy to the demands of foreign policy based on this myth that our interests are identical to those of the United States. But a cardinal principle of independent existence is that the foreign policy of a state should merely be a reflection of its domestic policy.

Domestic policy is paramount and foreign policy is subordinate, or ought to be, to that policy. domestic policy is based on our own needs and aspirations, not the needs, let alone aspirations, of our allies. Foreign policy must hence be a distinctly Filipino response to the world as we see it and not as others with their own biases and interests see it.

Because it is only under an atmosphere of reduced tensions that we can carry on the building of our nation, the national interest would seem to require a foreign policy based on peaceful coexistence with all nations. But our foreign policy has in fact been just a bit more warlike than that as witness the proposal to send combat engineers to Vietnam.

The Myth of American Benevolence

This is the myth of special relations. For so many years we have been acting as if we were special favorites of America. we feel especially privileged because we have "special relations" with America and America has a special place for us in her heart. Yet, this is not so; I even wonder if it has been so. let us remind ourselves of the bitter start of the American intrusion into our shores.

Even then of course, words of great emotional appeal were used to disguise the truth. America had a "manifest destiny" to "civilize" us and teach us the ways of freedom and democracy. Later developments suggest that this was not so, that America had ambitions to, in Asia, still has them, and that the Philippines was conquered by her to serve her own interests, certainly not those of our country.

Similarly, America's attitude towards Philippine independence followed the dictates of her own self-interest. her recognition of our independence became possible only as a result of the confluence of forces in America and these included the dairy industries, the sugar interests, American labor, etc., which wanted to deprive us of our preferred position in the American market because we were competing with their own interests.

Self-interest beyond everything also dictated American withdrawal from the Philippines during the last war. The so-called "special relations" were weighted in her favor. When she returned after the war and gave us back the independence we had won from Spain and which she took from us by force and guile, what did "special relations" mean for us? parity? Laurel-Langley [agreement], and bases agreement imposing extraterritorial rights for her.

Parity was imposed in exchange for war damage payments. Free trade was moreover guaranteed for a definite period. What did those signify? The perpetuation of our colonial-type economy and the stifling relations with America are being invoked to give Americans more rights than Filipinos themselves in the case of retail trade nationalizations and to demand the continuation of rights acquired under parity after 1974.

Under parity, we have alienated huge tracts of our national patrimony to American corporations. Under parity, we have imported billions of pesos worth of duty-free American goods and exported to the united States less than a third in value of our export commodities. the influx of American goods prevented industrialization.

Professor George Taylor has observed: " it has to be admitted that the U.S. set up for its citizens monopolistic advantages. Through the American Chamber of Commerce and through the American Embassy, the Americans can bring pressure to bear on a weak government and in some instances, this pressure may well make it more difficult for that government to carry out its own reform."

The Myth of Foreign Investments

I hold no brief against foreign investments as long as those investments are reasonably controlled and made to serve our national interests. No Filipino who genuinely loves his country can be for foreign investments that would ultimately hand over the control of our economic life to foreigners. Loans are therefore to be preferred to direct investments for in the former case we remain in control of our resources and there is less danger of foreign influence on our policies.

We should be on guard against a policy on foreign investments that has no well-defined safeguards. the urgent nee for vigilance in this respect becomes obvious when we observe what has been happening here. foreign investors have entered fields that can be run and in many cases have already been pioneered by Filipinos.

There have been far too many cases of foreigners with superior resources edging out Filipinos who have long been in business. On the other hand, many foreign investors have merely set up industries that process already finished goods in order to circumvent our tariff laws. Some unwholesome results are:an excessive production of consumption goods, gasoline companies thriving happily in a country that has not utilized our pharmacological preparations because they prefer to import their own preparations into the country.

More often than not, too, our banks provide these foreign investors with the capital they need. And then the latter remit their profits without limit thus drawing out of the country the fruit of resources and human energies that could otherwise be utilized for further development and investment.

Thus the president of a huge American farm implement manufacturing company (USI) has actually boasted that "for every dollar that we have sent out of the United States for any purpose in the past five years we have brought back $4.67."

The Institute of Economic Studies and Social Action of the Araneta University has made a check of the financial statement of the local subsidiary of this firm and discovered that insofar at least as its Philippine subsidiary is concerned the boast was no idle one but a simple statement of fact. the domestic subsidiary was moreover a heavy borrower from the local banking system besides being a heavy remitter of earnings.

This is by no means an isolated case. The Araneta University study on the borrowing and remittances of aliens and foreign companies reveals that at almost every phase and level of the economy, from petroleum to advertising, foreign business is behaving more or less in the same manner as the company I have cited as an example.

This means that in effect we are not importing capital through these so-called foreign investments but actually exporting it for the profits derived from our own resources are remitted abroad by our own banks.

According to former NEC Chairman Henares, $19,000,000 came in as foreign investments and over $200,000,000 were remitted as profit. he has further revealed that excluding Chinese investments, foreign investments constituted only 2% of total investments and yet these 2% were able to remit millions of dollars, an ironic case of the poor subsidizing the rich.

Yet the loss of dollars, the siphoning out of our resources is only one part of the harm our foreign investments policy does to our people. just as pernicious is the fact that by opening credit facilities to foreigners we have starved our own businesses of capital which alone can give them a fighting chance to survive competition from the giant companies of America.

According to the Araneta Institute of Economic Studies, P1.3 billions in credit were made available to aliens in 1964. How many Filipino businesses could have been established or expanded if this tremendous sum had not gone to alien borrowers!

Moreover, with this capital in Filipino hands, there would not be any problem later on of foreign remittances. Instead, profits would be reinvested or at least spent right here resulting in continued economic benefit for the Filipino people.

Because we appear and are so eager for foreign investments, strategic industries in the filed of communications, chemicals, rubber and petroleum have fallen into the hands of foreign companies. What would happen to us if these companies were to refuse to cooperate with us during periods of emergency?

Would the United States for example allow a foreign to monopolize her communications facilities such as the telephone? Never, but the Philippines does and justifies the action on the plea that we must not scare away foreign capital.

When the term foreign investment is brought up, the public envision an avalanche of dollars which will transform this country into a paradise on earth. For this, they may seem willing to revise our laws, compromise our independence, barter our national dignity. But if foreign companies only take advantage of our credit facilities, borrow capital from Filipino banks whose funds are composed of the savings of Filipinos and then remit their profits, thus siphoning out our wealth, have we really gained much?

If these savings can be harnessed instead, if we could get foreign loans without strings, and at low interests as India has from Russia, if we were at the same time willing to make some sacrifice by reducing the consumption of imported goods, we could attain significant economic progress. This will hardly happen, however, as long as we cling to the myth of untold benefits from foreign investments.

As long as our leaders continue to believe that we can not progress without foreign investments, we shall always be subject to the heavy imposition of foreign investors, we shall never put up adequate safeguards for Filipino businessmen and ultimately for our people.

In the fight for economic freedom, the Filipino entrepreneur has begun to make his voice heard. Many entrepreneurs have come to realize that their own economic status is tied up with the demands of progressive groups from freedom form foreign economic dictation and control.

As a class, they must realize that they have a choice to make --either to adapt themselves to the demands of foreign interests and thus be regarded by the people as accomplices in their exploitation, or to resist the easy way and insist on remaining their own masters. If we have chosen the capitalist way of development, then let it be Filipino capitalism.

But our entrepreneurs must also realize the masses can no longer tolerate further exploitation. They must therefore see their development in the light of a new approach where all sectors under joint leadership attain an economy of abundance without the present mal-distribution of goods which has resulted in poverty for the many.

If our entrepreneurs are really sincere in their nationalistic aspirations, then they should act an example of austerity. Our middle class professionals and intellectuals should do likewise and help to do away with present consumption habits which have been causing tremendous drainage of our foreign reserves.

The people can not for long continue to suffer poverty and hunger. A time will come when they will move to help themselves and unless the entrepreneurs and the intellectuals are with them they may succumb to the leadership of other forces.

The Myth of Free Enterprise

The road to progress cannot be clear unless we shed another myth that dominates the thinking of our planners; that economic growth automatically means development and that development inevitably results in "democratizing" wealth through its equitable distribution. Surely each administration can show facts and figures attesting to the growth of the national product.

But growth does not mean development. Nor does it mean that the poor will get a fuller meal or better homes or more adequate clothing or greater opportunity for education. When we talk of growth we should also talk of equitable distribution of the wealth of the land so that those who have been living for centuries under conditions of poverty will get their just rewards, so that those who work the land will not forever suffer from rural penury.

Tied up with the myth is the belief that democracy is synonymous with free enterprise. Complete free enterprise is not good for developing countries. Government in these countries have to have some say in directing the development of their economies.; otherwise domestic businesses could not compete in equal terms with foreign giants.

Government direction for nationalistic purposes does not diminish our democracy for after all an essential goal of democracy is freedom from want.

Thus we can not simply proceed with industrialization without revising our agricultural structure. Our entrepreneurs must realize that nationalism is not only for the benefit of a few Filipinos.

Nationalism does not merely mean more profits for the few. Independence under democracy must have a meaning for all sectors of the population, not just one.

To the masses it should mean higher standard of living, to the laborers, an assurance of employment at reasonable wages, to professionals, the attainment of proficiency in their respective lines of endeavor, to artists and intellectuals, the realization of creative talents.

Once freed of the myths that imprison our minds, we shall clearly see that it involves challenging many concepts and ideas, institutions and people and all the beneficiaries of the status quo.

The Tasks Ahead

But we must also bear in mind that this struggle is intimately tied up with the question of civil liberties. We can keep up the effort only while we have these liberties and there will surely be attempts to suppress this weapon of the people on the part of those who stand to lose privileged positions.

Even now, our demands against unequal treatment of employees in foreign firms, our demonstrations against abuses in the bases and our military participation in the war in Vietnam have been labeled as red. There is not a nationalistic movement here that has not received its share of witch-hunting diatribes.

The danger is that if these attempts to regain full independence are equated with communism and branded as subversive, the right of protest and dissent essential to this movement may be imperiled or curtailed.

Nationalism at this stage of our history, because of the myths I have alluded to, is essentially a movement of protest. there is in effect a wave of protest now seeping the world, a protest against inequality, a protest of the desperate poor against the deeply entrenched rich nations of the world.

We belong to this movement because whether we like it or not, we are poor, we are a developing nation. It must seem strange therefore to the rest of the world why in this legitimate cry for international social justice, we have not only joined our voice but far too often than not seem to speak out for the status quo, for the rich nations.

Sooner or later, however, we shall have to confront this contradiction, have to come to a confrontation even with the United States in some area of our national life because the United States is now very much present in most phases of our life.

We shall question the privileges she enjoys but which adversely affect our economy. We may and shall support her in all endeavors where there is mutuality of advantage, but in dealing with her we shall constantly bear in mind our own welfare.

Towards other countries who aspire like us for an independent existence, we must show sympathy and understanding, even should they follow forms of government different from our own. Not all countries can have the same government as ours. people are different. Their methods of governing themselves will inevitably be differ.

In any case it is of the essence of democracy that there be diversity. it is also of essence of democracy that we tolerate ideas and practices even though they may not be the same as ours. each people has its own needs and idiosyncrasies. They can not be expected to be or act in every aspect like ourselves. There are many political philosophies and systems.

As true democrats we must respect them. we may try to challenge the practical validity of these systems by example, but never by force of arms. Co-existence -this is the international reflection of democracy. We must not think that a people have adopted other means to achieve progress, they are not free.

Freedom is a many-faceted goal and every nation works towards it in its own way. Even the United States is still in the process of attaining greater freedom by solving her civil rights problem --the protection of her minorities. But in the developing nations, the first concern of people is livelihood and food.

The substance of democracy in these nations right now is economic freedom., freedom from want. The other freedoms will follow therefrom. We are enjoying civil liberties because of a tradition which America helped to establish but we are still a long way from attaining freedom from want. Other nations are attacking the problem the other way around. And I am sure that the "democratizing" forces can work more easily after they have won their economic freedom.

Our task then today is to escape the captivity in which we have imprisoned ourselves. The weight of centuries of colonialism has made us lethargic. Let us therefore re-examine our position. let us think for ourselves. We are not only building a nation; we are also reconstructing a people who for a long time have lived in a kind of fool's paradise.

Let us confront real problems, not what are presented to us as problems. Let us solve them as we see fit for ourselves and not as others want us to solve them according to their own pattern of thought. Let us discard the old myths and attune ourselves to reality.

This is the essence of independence. This is the substance of democracy. The magnitude of the task before us may stagger the imagination of my own generation. But it should be a challenge to you.

Young people do not by nature cling to the past; they embrace the future. They can see further, they can work harder, they should achieve more. Do not be old before your time, dare to blaze new paths and take your countrymen with you to those heights of freedom and independence which our generation dreamt of but failed to reach.

Source: Extracted from the book "HISTORY OF THE FILIPINO PEOPLE"
- Teodoro A. Agoncillo & Oscar A. Alfonso, Malaya Books (revised edition, 1967)

"No people can be both ignorant and free." - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

“The true Filipino is a decolonized Filipino.” – Prof. Renato Constantino (1919-1999)

NOTES ABOUT THIS WEBLOG:

THE FILIPINO MIND blog contains 531 published postings you can view, as of October 25, 2012. Go to the sidebar to search Past & Related Postings, click LABEL [number in parenthesis = total of related postings]; or use the GOOGLE SEARCH at the sidebar using key words [labels, or tags] for topics of interest to you. OR click a bottom label or tag to open related topics.

The postings are oftentimes long and a few readers have claimed being "burnt out." My apologies. As the selected topics are not for entertainment but to stimulate deep thought (see MISSION Statement) and hopefully to rock the boat of complacency (re MISSION).

(1) Bold/Underlined words are HTML links. Click to see linked posts or articles.

(2) Scroll down to end of post to read or enter Comments. Any comment sent to my personal email will be posted here.

ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WILL BE IGNORED.

(3).Visit my other website SCRIBD/TheFilipinoMind; or type it on GOOGLE Search.View/Free Download pdf versions of: postings, eBooks, articles (120 and growing). Or another way to access, go to the sidebar of the THE FILIPINO MIND website and click on SCRIBD. PLEASE Share!

Statistics for my associated website:SCRIBD/theFilipinoMind :

119 FREE AND DOWNLOADABLE documents

148,510 reads

2,750 downloads

(4). Some postings and other relevant events are now featured in Google+, BMD_Facebook, BMD_Twitter and BMD_Google Buzz.

(5) Translate to your own language. Go to the sidebar and Click on GOOGLE TRANSLATOR (56 languages - copy and paste sentences, paragraphs and whole articles, Google translates a whole posting in seconds, including to Filipino!!).

(6). From suggestions by readers, I have added some contemporary music to provide a break. Check out bottom of posting to play Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Sting, Chris Botti, Josh Groban, etc.

(7) Songs on Filipino nationalism: please reflect on the lyrics (messages) as well as the beautiful renditions. Other Filipino Music links at blog sidebar. Click each to play.:

(8) Forwarding the postings to relatives and friends, ESPECIALLY in the homeland, is greatly appreciated. Use emails, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, etc. below. THANKS!!

Bert M. Drona

FILIPINO NATIONALISM -is the bottom line;sine-qua-non for the common good of the native (Malay/Indio)Filipino majority. Nationalism must precede any plan/action in dealing with globalization. EDUCATION- being educated is beyond just being schooled towards a profession or practical vocation; we need the Humanities/liberal arts to develop/apply CRITICAL ANALYSIS/THINKING to understand, identify, plan, act & safeguard the needed fundamental and/or systemic changes towards economic/political progress, social justice, and social transformation. GOVERNMENT - its raison d'etre is to lead/serve the native majority, foster nationalism via its institutions, ensure the masses are critically literate to have real democracy. FREEDOM & DISSENT - free thought is necessarily aggressive and critical; we protect the freedom to discover truth; we encourage dissent, not for sentimental reasons, but because we cannot live without it. PATRIOTISM is NOT: " My country, right or wrong;" but " if right, to be kept right; if wrong, to be set right!" RELIGION/BELIEFS: No Deus ex Machina. No established religion. Humanism/Existentialism.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

THE RECTO READER: Economic Nationalism, Part 2A of 6

"Let us not ask for miracles...let us not ask that he who comes as an outsider to make his fortune and go away afterwards should interest himself in the welfare of the country. What matters to him the gratitude or the curses of a people whom he does not know, in a country where he has no associations, where he has no affections? Fame to be sweet must resound in the ears of those we love, in the atmosphere of our home or of the land that will guard our ashes; we wish that fame should hover over our tomb to warm its breath the chill of death, so that we may not be completely reduced to nothingness, that something of us may survive. Naught of this can we offer those who come to watch over our destinies."..- filosofo Tasio to Ibarra (NOLI ME TANGERE.), quoted in Hernando J. Abaya's THE UNTOLD PHILIPPINE STORY, 1967

"A certain kind of progress and material development can be achieved by economic activity that is not nationalistic in orientation but it can not solve any of the major social, economic and cultural problems of that large community which we call a nation." - Claro M. Recto

***********************************************************

" Fear history, for it respects no secrets" - Gregoria de Jesus (widow of Andres Bonifacio)

Of 533 previous posts, the following selected posts and the RECTO READER are essential about us native, Malay Filipinos and are therefore always presented in each new post. Click each to open/read

OUR FILIPINO CULTURE:

OUR PHILIPPINE ECONOMY and MILITARY: (Post-WW2 Agreements)

THE RECTO READER (Book) is presented in several postings. Click each to open/read:

******************************************

Hi All,

In Part 1(A&B), Recto defined and clarified for us what Filipino Nationalism is and what it is not.

In Part 2, Recto elucidated the need for economic independence: the "what, why, how, where and when" of economic independence characterized by a nationalistic outlook and drive for industrialization.

He reminded us that economic independence propelled by nationalism is the sine qua non for political independence, domestically and internationally.

Unfortunately for us native Filipinos, economic independence never materialized as all our so-called national leadership -- all traitorous to the native Filipino majority-- have continued to pursue an economic policy, which has been and is destructive to the common good, as practically dictated by America via the IMF-WB/WTO Agreements.

- Bert

*************************************

THE RECTO READER (1965): PART 2 - ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE
- Selected and Edited by Prof. Renato Constantino

For our country today, industrialization and nationalism are twin goals. Indeed, they are two sides of the same coin. Nationalism cannot be realized and brought to full flowering without a thorough-going industrialization of our economy by the Filipinos themselves. And you can not have an industrialized Philippine economy controlled and managed by Filipinos without the propulsive force of a deep and abiding spirit of nationalism. (1)

Economic Nationalism

The propulsive force that will take us to our economic goal is nationalism. We achieved political independence, or the restoration of our sovereignty as a people, by asserting consciously, fearlessly, and unceasingly, our aspiration to become a free and independent nation, until the foreign sovereign power, America, finally agreed to the restoration of our independent political status. In other words, we asserted the prerogatives of our nationalism.

Today we are politically, but we are far from free economically. A nation that has been a colony for a long time cannot and does not, on the day of its political independence, achieve simultaneously its economic independence.

But we have had ample time to be well past the first stages of transformation, and we would be so now were it not for the stubborn insistence of past administrations to cling to the old system.

That transformation can still be worked out by the people themselves, under the guidance and inspiration of their leaders, through the stimulus of wise and farsighted policies, perhaps with calculated sacrifices, and perhaps also with the advice and suggestions of disinterested foreign friends.

It is people, through their leaders, who must achieve economic freedom, or the change from a colonial pattern of economy into an independent one. Only economic nationalism will enable us to achieve basic and lasting solutions to our problems of mass poverty, unemployment, underproduction, perennial trade imbalance, and misery and backwardness in the midst of rich natural resources and abundant manpower.(2)

My program of industrialization is a logical outgrowth of my stand on Philippine nationalism. Nationalism in the economic field is the control of the resources of a country by its own people to insure its utilization primarily for their own interest and enjoyment.

Its political expression is independence and sovereignty, the desire to be treated with respect by all nations, and to decide, without bowing to outside pressure, the most advantageous course of action for a country vis-a-vis these powers.

The political aspect of nationalism becomes a dynamic mobilizing force which insures the realization of the economic objectives. In turn, the economic objectives lend practical reality to the fight for sovereignty.

What does economic nationalism mean for us Filipinos? Economic nationalism means the control of the resources of the Philippines so that they may be utilized primarily in the interest of the Filipinos. What course does this economic self-interest indicate for the Philippines at the present time? I have demonstrated by means of facts and figures that a raw-material exporting nation, that is, an agricultural nation, is always dependent on a manufacturing nation.

In any relation between the two, the industrial nation is the gainer, the agricultural nation, the loser.This is implicit in the fact that we export our raw material cheaply, because we can not use them as such; and we import the finished products at high prices, because we need them in our daily lives. Clearly under this setup, we are not in control of our natural resources for our best interest.

But if we industrialize, we shall no longer be at the mercy of manufacturing nations, and, in more and more instances, as we thoroughly industrialize, our own people shall become the beneficiaries of the values added to the raw materials by the manufacturing process. There is no question, therefore, that economic self-interest demands that we industrialize.(3)

The simple meaning that may be given to economic nationalism is a nation's aspiration, desire, and willingness to improve its material and cultural conditions through its own talents, resources, and sustained labor, and for the benefit of the whole national community.

Its mainspring is a strong sense of togetherness of the people in a common desire to progress, to improve livelihood, to achieve worthy and noble things, to enhance the good name, even the glory, of the national community, of the country which is the homeland, of the flag that symbolizes country,nation and the nation's history and ideals.

Without that dominant and ever-present will to achieve the enhanced well-being of the large community, rather than merely one's own selfish interest, any economic effort or activity, however large or impressive, is not nationalistic in character.

A certain kind of progress and material development can be achieved by economic activity that is not nationalistic in orientation but it can not solve any of the major social, economic and cultural problems of that large community which we call a nation.(4)

Why Filipino Ownership is Necessary

Now you may ask, why the insistence on Filipino ownership or control of such variegated industries? The answer is: unless it were so, it would be impossible to place the benefits to be derived from these industries within the means of enjoyment of the largest majority of the Filipinos. We must remember that if industries of such variety and scope were actually existing, they would be creating enormous amount of wealth annually.

If the wealth created were to remain in the Philippines and be reinvested again and again in other productive enterprises which would create, in turn, new wealth, then all that wealth could sustain an ever-spreading and rising standard of living.

But if the industries were alien or foreign-owned, then much of the wealth created would have to leave the country, what remains would never be enough to cope with the ever-increasing needs of an expanding Filipino population --and this is precisely the circumstance in which we have found ourselves through many decades-- the few rich would merely continue becoming richer, and most of them would be aliens and foreigners, and an ever-increasing number of the poor would be getting poorer. It is a similar circumstance, we may note, which brought about the Fidel Castro revolution in Cuba not long ago.(5)

To expect non-Filipinos engaged in large-scale enterprises in our country to have a nationalistic orientation in their economic activities is, as they say in Indonesia, like expecting lizards to grow feathers. We have no choice; it has to be Filipinos themselves, through the nationalistic aspiration of their economic endeavors, who must bring about a truly industrialized Philippines.(6)

Alien Control of our Economy

Our economy is heavily dominated by aliens. They have, per capita, more income than our own people. This is so because capital, which here is to a large extent foreign, begets profits, whereas salaries and wages, which constitute the share of the people in a colonial economy, are never high enough to allow their recipients much beyond their needs for daily living; consequently, there is almost nothing left for savings. If therefore, we mean to develop an economy that will bring welfare to our people, we must reverse this trend.(7)

As late as 1951, raw material sources and channels of distribution were in alien hands, according to F. Rodriguez, erstwhile chairman of our National Economic Council. Other officials at that time revealed that 80% of our retail trade was alien-controlled; that 78% of our foreign trade was in the hands of aliens; that sugar, and trade in rice, copra, tobacco and lumber was also alien-controlled; that 68% of our foreign exchange was bought by aliens.

There is urgent need for study and adoption of measures calculated to eliminate this alien stranglehold on our economy. Will our friends and advisers help us succeed in this great endeavor? Will they assist us in the study and adoption of the needed measures? Can we expect this kind of assistance from them? They, too, have their economic welfare to think of and protect. That is in the nature of things.

We will have to depend, therefore, on our own resources, on our own ingenuity, on our own judgment which, right or wrong, shall at least be guided by the consideration that the national interest is supreme and that the common patrimony must always be defended and safeguarded with all the care, awareness, dedication and vigilance to which every Filipino must be regarded as having pledged his honor from the cradle to the grave.(8)

The Cause of Our Poverty

Why is the Filipino worker poor under the present feudalistic regime? Although underproduction, unemployment and poverty are the three principal problems of the working class, the truth is that these are only the natural consequence of the two dominant facts in our economic system:

that we are predominantly an agricultural country, and
that we have a colonial economy characterized by foreign denomination in many important areas.

In wartime, the workingmen suffer most at the hands of foreign invaders. In peace time, it is still the workingmen who suffer from the alien control of our economy. This is true because of the very nature of foreign denomination, whether in peace or in war.

Foreigners who go to any country for conquest, or to set up businesses, do not do so to serve the interest of their host-nation. They go because they are attracted by abundant natural resources and cheap labor, both of which guarantee higher and easier profits than in their home country.

If this were not the case, no foreigner would leave his country to seek his fortune elsewhere; no foreigner would fight to conquer another people without expectations of profit or a better life than he has at home.

A country dominated by foreigners enriches the foreigners, a few of the nationals, but seldom its workingmen. Our country therefore is poor, its workingmen are poor, and many thousands are jobless, mainly because we have had an alien dominated economy and political life for more than four centuries now.

If Filipinos had been independent from foreign domination in these four centuries, with the tremendous natural resources in their homeland, they would surely have found better ways of developing their economic assets to achieve a high standard of living and prosperity for all elements of the population, including the class of workingmen.

The workingmen of the Philippines are poor for still other reasons besides alien control of our economy.Throughout the more than four decades of American regime, the emphasis of our educational system was on the training of our people in democratic principles and in public administration. This emphasis was well-placed, for the high literacy of our people and their better understanding of the workings of the democratic processes have been beneficial results of that policy.

But commendable as that educational orientation was, it left a gaping void in the integrated education of the Filipinos.The educational system fired our people's desire for political liberty, but it purposely neglected to develop economic nationalism among the citizens, and instead insidiously inculcated in them ideas of economic dependence on America.

The literacy of our people, their awareness of the high standards of living of the West, so temptingly shown in movies, televisions, books, magazines, and other forms of advertisement, merely made the Filipinos more vulnerable and readily susceptible to the sales appeal of promoters of American trade and commerce.

The Filipinos, ill-prepared to develop their country economically in order to attain a standard of living comparable to the West, were nevertheless thoroughly conditioned to become avid and insatiable consumers of Western finished products, from canned milk to flashy cars and televisions sets.

Thus developed the preponderance in our national economy of a merchant class composed mostly of aliens, leaving the native producer class to shift for itself as best it could in an economy that is thoroughly colonial in nature.

To meet the needs of the merchants, especially import tycoons, there must be a continuous supply of foreign exchange. The native producers were thus encouraged to concentrate production on a few export products, mainly raw materials, that earn a foreign exchange with which to pay for ever-increasing imports of foreign goods, from lipstick to automobiles.

Importation and distribution of foreign goods, however, create few opportunities for mass employment; and the production of raw materials for exports requires less manpower than the processing of those raw materials into finished goods. (10)

We must have the courage to face the true problems of our nation so that we may succeed in raising the standard of living of our millions of poor and unemployed. We must have the honesty of mind to tell them the truth, as Rizal in his time had to do, so that they may free themselves from their empty illusions, so that their minds may be awakened to the real solutions to their difficulties.

We must have the integrity of patriotism to tell our people that they are poor because of economy is unbalanced, and therefore, unable to give them the opportunities to use in their interest the tremendous potentialities of the country's natural resources.

We should have the courage to tell our masses and make them understand that our economy as a whole is poor and underdeveloped because it is colonial in pattern, and that all the hand-shaking and back-patting of the men they elect to office will not improve their lot if these leaders are not nationalistic enough to change the character of our economy.(11)

The Need for Economic Planning

Economic planning is, therefore, a "must" for us. For without such planning, either the greedy few will despoil the nation of its resources or those resources will remain unexploited to the detriment of national interest.

Ours is an underdeveloped country and has been so for centuries. While our economy has stagnated, our population has increased. Mass poverty and mass unemployment have been the inevitable results. It cannot be doubted that if we let things continue drifting, we will soon prey to communism, for the decisive battle against this enemy shall be fought not on the legal and parliamentary stage, as some people want us to believe, but on the economic.

And this planning should be the government's special concern. Some will call this socialism. Be it so. But it has been our sad experience that private Filipino entrepreneurs, without government initiative and intervention in the form of incentives or aid, have not been able to take advantage of opportunities for increasing the national wealth that would provide employment and bring welfare and economic security for all the people.

Only a bold leadership and decisive action by the government can produce the break-through that will set us moving away from the present poverty and national unemployment.(12)

The Colonial Pattern of our Economy

There is, of course, an economic policy in the Philippines, but it is not one made by Filipinos nor is it intended for the welfare of Filipinos. it was conceived and formulated by others and introduced and implemented here for purposes other than the nation's interest.This economic policy has for its objectives:

to keep the Philippines the agricultural country that it always has been;
to attract to the Philippines foreign investments.

For the realization of these objectives, appropriate measures have been devised:

economic aid, to be dispensed through officers and economic advisers who are alert to the above objectives;
advisory assistance in all sectors of activity, both public, including practically all government offices and agencies, and private, including labor and peasant organizations, and in all fields --political, economic, military, social, and cultural;
military protection, or more accurately, token military protection, through a so-called alliance loose in terms and terminable in one year's notice, and a lease of bases for 99 years with no provision for its earlier termination; and
parity rights for the Americans with respect to all business activities and public utilities and the exploitation of the country's natural resources.(13)

*************************************

An economic policy must respond to basic economic problems, those arising from the economic realities in the nation, among which the following are the most important:

the kind of economy that the nation must have, and
the proper approach to the question of foreign investments and financing.

We have not settled these basic issues.(14)

References:
1. Nationalism and Industrialization, July 30, 1957
2. The Role of labor in our Economic Emancipation, September 8, 1957.
3. Nationalism and Industrialization, July 30, 1957
4. Industrialization and Economic Nationalism, October 3, 1959.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. A Realistic Economic Policy for the Philippines, September 26, 1956.
8. Our Raw-Material-Export Economy, June 26, 1957.
9. The Role of labor in our Economic Emancipation, September 8, 1957.
10.Ibid.
11. Filipinism and the Coming Elections, August 10, 1957.
12. A Realistic Economic Policy for the Philippines, September 26, 1956.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.

....TO BE CONTINUED...Economic Nationalism Means Industrialization, Part 2B of 6

"This, his message, valid as it was in his lifetime, is even more timely now. For there are still those among us, devoid of sufficient faith in our potentialities, who would in their attitude and thinking, in effect reject the gospel of national dignity, national pride, and the national responsibility of self-reliance. The words of Claro M. Recto may, it is fervently hoped, occasion a change of mind and of heart." - Justice Jesus G. Barrera.

*************************

NOTES ABOUT THIS WEBLOG:

THE FILIPINO MIND blog contains 533 published postings you can view, as of December 20, 2012. Go to the sidebar to search Past & Related Postings, click LABEL [number in parenthesis = total of related postings]; or use the GOOGLE SEARCH at the sidebar using key words [labels, or tags] for topics of interest to you. OR click a bottom label or tag to open related topics.

(1) Bold/Underlined words are HTML links. Click to see linked posts or articles.

(2) Scroll down to end of post to read or enter Comments. Any comment sent to my personal email will be posted here.

ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WILL BE IGNORED.

Statistics for my associated website:SCRIBD/theFilipinoMind :

119 FREE AND DOWNLOADABLE documents

148,510 reads

2,750 downloads

(4). Some postings and other relevant events are now featured in Google+, BMD_Facebook, BMD_Twitter and BMD_Google Buzz.

(6). From suggestions by readers, I have added some contemporary music to provide a break. Check out bottom of posting to play Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Sting, Chris Botti, Josh Groban, etc.

(7) Songs on Filipino nationalism: please reflect on the lyrics (messages) as well as the beautiful renditions. Other Filipino Music links at blog sidebar. Click each to play.:

(8) Forwarding the postings to relatives and friends, ESPECIALLY in the homeland, is greatly appreciated. Use emails, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, etc. below. THANKS!!

Bert M. Drona

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )