Economic liberalization as unilateral surrender
As the country and the rest of the world slowly transition into a new way of life, it is important to look into the potential consequences of such moves to change the Constitution. In fact, one need only to look at the things happening currently to know that changing salient provisions of the Constitution is not the most prudent thing to do.
Firstly, the economic provisions necessarily leave the Philippines and its citizens at a disadvantage. Removing the provisions on Filipino ownership will leave the country’s resources vulnerable, particularly with China taking interest in many of the Philippines’ assets. The United States might even be involved, and with escalating tensions between the US and China because of its trade war, then the Philippines might end up finding itself in the middle of two competing superpowers. By opening many essential services to foreign investors, we stand to lose. Coupled with federalism, there is a bigger tendency to further divide the already fragmented country.
Even before the pandemic, as a resource person to the Rodriguez Committee, I reiterated my long-standing opposition of allowing foreigners to own land and utilize our natural resources as a matter of social and environmental justice. That’s an absolute barrier we should keep in place if we do not want to exacerbate social conflict and insurgency. And for the rest of the economy, I have argued that we should wait until the global economic chaos we are seeing – where there is right-wing, nationalist, and populist pushback against globalization – settles. We must not unilaterally disarm by liberalizing our economy at a time of great global turmoil.
The advent of the pandemic has made economic liberalization even riskier. Without government support, many Filipino companies and businesses are headed to bankruptcy and collapse. It does not take rocket science to guess which people in our East Asia region are in the wings ready to buy at bargain prices and take over these enterprises and dominate our economy.
What makes it amazing is that La Vina is supposedly way intelligent than I am. If it's not just Benign0 that's showing economic cluelessness - we also have La Vina too. Just the statements of La Vina are really hard to digest even if I'm not an economist.
Economic reforms are not important in these times of pandemic? La Vina also goes as far as to say that economic liberalization will get the United States and China involved in the trade war. Does he really think that economic liberalization means doing more business with the US and China only? The Philippines can refuse Chinese investors as a precaution while they can accept investors from Hong Kong and Taiwan for a start. Why just the US when we've got Canada and European countries from the West. Does economic liberalization mean entering a trade war? Really, I wonder where did La Vina get his ideas? Maybe being too intelligent kills your common sense?
La Vina needs to understand that economic liberalization is NOT about land ownership for foreigners. Does the landlord sell his land to a tenant when he doesn't serve as a business partner to the tenant? Benign0 of Get Real Philippines and Rigoberto Tiglao both get it wrong. Tiglao thinks we must first develop before accepting foreign investments. Again, Tiglao really needs to study the history of Singapore thoroughly. Same with Benign0 as well. I may read through both their sites but man are they wrong about that! However, I wonder if it's okay for La Vina for the oligarchy to grab too much land and wantonly waste our natural resources. If it's so then he suffers from double-standard. His position as a former undersecretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) should see that he could set a limit to where all investors can use natural resources. Both foreigners and Filipinos are given dos and don'ts when it comes to natural resources. Examples that he could cite are responsible mining is allowed but not irresponsible mining or that no cutting of trees is allowed until it's lumber season.
Wait until the chaos subsides? Really? Companies are fleeing China and why not let them invest here? If the foreign companies are fleeing China then as Franklin "Oinky" Drilon would say, "Grab the chance DTI!" which makes sense. La Vina could've seen that there are trillions of pesos worth of debt due to the COVID-19 and he doesn't see the need for economic liberalization? I don't care if he doesn't like the current administration. What La Vina needs to do is to really see the need to open up the economy, let foreign investors invest in the Philippines, get them to hire Filipino locals, and their income will be taxed like every other investor whether local or foreign. The only difference is that foreign investors are treated as tenants - that means no land sale. They can rent all they want without a Filipino partner but they will need to find a Filipino tenant to establish their business.
He talks about "dominating the economy". How many times do I need to state that foreign investors are NOT foreign invaders? Either he doesn't get it or he's probably in league with the greedy oligarchs who spew out lies just to keep themselves in power. Full ownership of businesses doesn't mean the Philippines is sold. I wonder how does he propose to get money to pay back the PHP 8.6 Trillion pesos debt? National industrialization? The theory has been disproven by the current state of protectionist countries like North Korea and Venezuela. Just buy local products all the time never mind that imported goods are just as part of life as local products? He better think about that because his lack of priority might result in several opportunity losses.
Comments
Post a Comment