Bailing Out the Philippine Economy

[emanzano]

The only thing that can happen to save us from ourselves is a Fidel Castro style revolution.

I'd like to throw in my hat with ghosthunter on this.

I've been a long-time admirer of Castro, not for his communist beliefs, but for his integrity.

Castro came from a well-to-do, landed family. When he implemented land reform in Cuba, one of the first plots of land he distributed to the people were his own mother's land. Her mother never spoke to him again even until her death. Now that's the kind of leader we need.

Personally, I opted not to stay in the US because i couldnt stand being treated like a second-class citizen. But I, for one, have given up on this country. I just believe in taking care of my own. I'll clean up my own backyard, to hell with everyone else's. It's not a point of view for everyone, but it works for me.

But if there ever came a filipino with Castro's integrity, i may consider picking up arms to follow him. It'd be nice to kill a corrupt politician or two.

Re: the debt-servicing.... let's look on the bright side. The more we pay for debt-servicing, the less the politicians have to pocket.

[kinyo]

in pagan lores, they say we will witness a new revealing age in 2150 A.D. uy that's less than 150 years na lang.

ay ... nabago na pala schedule nito ... akala ko sa 2012 na eh

[uls]

hehe

he's talking about age of aquarius

ngayon kasi nasa age of pisces tayo

sa year 2150 daw umpisa ng age of aquarius

[jpdm]

[SIZE=4]Industrialization as key to development [/SIZE]

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:29:00 07/15/2009


None of the presidential candidates for the 2010 elections has mentioned industrialization as a plank of his or her program of government. This is tragic.

No country in the world has become prosperous without industrialization. Under an agricultural economy, our people will be condemned to perpetual poverty. This is the lesson of history.


“In Europe and North America, countries had gone through a process, lasting in some cases more than a century, in which most workers had left agriculture (and rural areas) and become industrial … This structural change was seen as the key element in rising incomes and national power.” (“The End of the Third World: Newly Industrializing Countries and the Decline of Ideology” by Nigel Harris.)


In his book “The Reign of Greed,” Dr. Jose Rizal, through the main protagonist, Don Simoun, gave a trenchant piece of advice on how the Philippines could prosper. During a party thrown by a wealthy Chinese, a group of merchants who had been complaining just how bad business was, asked Simoun, a well-traveled gentleman, for his opinion on how the Philippines could prosper. “My opinion?” Simoun huffed. “Study how other nations prosper, and then do as they do.” (Translation by Charles E. Derbyshire.)


Rizal, who had been to Europe, the United States and Japan, knew that these countries were “advanced” precisely because they were industrialized. Japan, a latecomer, rose to the ranks of the advanced countries by studying how Europe and the United States prospered, and by copying them. The newly industrialized countries (NICs) like South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and China all followed the Japanese path.


The constitution of the La Liga Filipina which Rizal founded, provided that “The introduction of machines and industries, new or necessary in the country, shall be favored.” This policy was followed by the Commonwealth government under President Quezon, and implemented by Quirino, Magsaysay and Garcia, until it was scrapped by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s father, President Diosdado Macapagal, in favor of free trade, liberalization and privatization, dictated by the Washington Consensus and the IMF-World Bank.


Under the theoretical model devised by these Western institutions, our country fell to the bottom of the heap.

Under the regime of industrialization, exchange controls and protectionism adopted by the industrial countries in similar stages of development, the Philippines advanced second only to Japan in economic growth in Asia.

We should learn to measure development by the results.


—MANUEL F. ALMARIO,
spokesman,
Movement for Truth In History (Rizal’s MOTH),
mfalmario*yahoo.com

Indeed.

[donbuggy]

Again we read about how the Philippines was "second only to Japan in economic growth in Asia".

What was it like in the 60's? Here is an excerpt from an article by William Esposo:

[SIZE=3]High Ground : Life in the golden, momentous 1960s[/SIZE]

First posted 01:43am (Mla time) July 11, 2005
By William Esposo
INQ7.net

In the early 1960s, the Philippine peso stood at less than P4 to the US$, the clear mark of an economy that was second only to Japan in Asia. The minimum wage was P4 a day and Filipinos lived a decent life on that daily wage. The price of gasoline was in centavos, as low as P0.15 for a liter of high octane during the early 1960s. Jeepney and bus fares were a mere P0.10 as was the price of a Coca Cola. The Volkswagen sold for less than P6,000 when it was first introduced and its advertising bragged that it can get you to Baguio and back to Manila on less than P3.50 peso worth of gas.

A company vice president made P2,500 a month average salary, a supervisory position would make P500 a month while rank and file employee’s salaries ranged from P180 to P350 a month. A good sized middle class home cost as little as P30,000 while rent for a first class two-bedroom apartment with carport cost as low as P120 a month. Middle class families felt secure with insurance coverage of no more than P150,000 for death or disability of the breadwinner.

The first-run theatres cost P1.00 for a movie and a family of four can have a hearty snack at Fairmont (noted for their Mocha ice cream) for just under P5 after the movie. It was the golden age of the panciterias in Manila – To Ho Antigua, San Jacinto, Rice Bowl, Far Eastern, China, Smart, Moderna, Ilang Ilang (the oldest), National, Marquina, Moonlit Terrace, Aroma, Wah Nam, to name the more popular ones – and an 8-course dinner for ten people will cost under P20. A pint of Magnolia ice cream, then packed in cartons, cost P1. A reserved section seat at the NCAA basketball games would cost P3.

In sports, it was the last of the best years of the Philippines. We dominated basketball in Asia until 1967. Flash Elorde fought his best championship fights in the 1960s and his title fight with Harold Gomes – when he won the World Jr. Lightweight boxing title in what was the opening feature of the new world-class Araneta Coliseum – was a sellout SRO affair. Up to the early 1960s, we were also a dominant force in Asian soccer. Filipina Mona Solaiman was the track sensation of the Asian Games. Dodjie Laurel won the Macau Grand Prix.

Filipinos set the tone in Asia for style and glamour. All over Asia, Filipinos were the celebrated travelers. Pitoy Moreno’s fashion shows and the Bayanihan Dance Troupe were the expressions of Filipino style and flair all over Asia where they were in great demand. Our neighbors in Asean envied us and sent their children here to study in our colleges and universities. When Filipinos left to work abroad, it was more likely to be a manager and not as rank and file and blue collar workers like the millions we export today.

In the 1960s, we had a theatre tradition going. Several groups like the Manila Theatre Guild, which performed in the old Army-Navy Club in Luneta, Repertory Philippines, which performed in the Insular Life Theatre in Makati, staged plays with regularity. Schools like the Ateneo, St. Paul’s, San Sebastian College, UST, UP maintained an annual play production. We even had our Broadway counterpart which catered to the general public’s theatre taste along the Rizal Avenue – these are the Old Manila Opera House and the Clover Theatre.

The Philippine senate of the 1960s was so respectable and esteemed that it made you want to be a senator. It would have been the dream of any lad then to be in the league of such luminaries as Recto, Tanada, Diokno, Rodrigo, Aquino, Tolentino, Pelaez, Manahan and company. Clowns belonged to the circus or the movies and none of them ever dared venture to seek comradeship with those senate greats of yore.

Should the post-1980s generation watch the movies that were shot in the 1960s, they will notice that the dwellings of poor people then were nowhere as pitiful as the lean-tos and hovels that now proliferate our urban landscape. The houses of people portrayed as poor in the movies of the 1960s would constitute the dwellings of our class D households today. In the 1960s we had respectable maralitas (under-privileged), quite unlike the pitiful impoverished millions we have today that are the result of social inequities akin to the misery depicted in the literary masterpiece “The Man with the Hoe.”

The 1960s was no less a period of transition in the Philippines. It marked the last of our good ole days and ushered in the era of trials and tribulations that the regime of Ferdinand Marcos started. While the 1960s brought a new renaissance to the Western world, for the Philippines the advent of the Marcos regime in 1965 brought us to the dark ages.

Up to now, Filipinos are waiting for the light and the hero who will ignite it.

[jpdm]

This is to boost our badly battered exports (to date declined by 24%).

Business Mirror
August 14, 2009


[SIZE=3]Exporters Urged to Come Up With Different Price Structures For their Products [/SIZE]



ASIDE from introducing new products and designs, experts advised Filipino exporters that one best way to get around the crisis is to also come up with different price structures for their goods.


Through this, Del Bibat, project leader of the Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines, said the clients of exporters will have an easier time offering their products to buyers by using different cost alternatives.


“Exporters must also offer a pricing structure that gives buyers alternatives so that they, in turn, can offer their customers alternatives,” Bibat said.
Bibat said the effect of the global economic crisis is now easing, as shown by the increase in the new orders for manufactured goods in April and May.
The National Retail Federation has also declared that the “worst is behind us.”


With this, Bibat encouraged local manufacturers to take creative measures and closely study their market strategies.

[jpdm]

This will help our country fight the global recession

[SIZE=3]Remittances Continue to Grow Despite Crisis[/SIZE]

Remittances continued to post a modest increase in the first six months, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Monday.

Steady remittances have allowed the Philippines to escape a recession so far this year, and enabled the country to build up its dollar cache amid a global financial crisis.

Moody’s Investors Service earlier raised the country’s credit score a notch on the resilience of these dollar inflows despite weak foreign investments and slumping exports.

Manila Times
by Maricel E. Burgonio
August 18, 2009

[jpdm]

This amount is definitely big!

Remittances hit $8.5 billion in first 6 months

By Iris C. Gonzales
(The Philippine Star)
Updated August 18, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Millions of Filipinos working overseas sent home a record high $1.5 billion in June, up 3.3 percent from last year, allaying fears that remittances will dry up amid the global slowdown.


The June data brought total remittances for the first half of the year to $8.5 billion, up 2.9 percent from a year ago, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.The June figure raises hopes remittances for the full year could top the previous record of $16.4 billion set in 2008.

[CVT]

This will help our country fight the global recession

It will bro. However, it 'encourages' our government to remain oblivious to the cries of our numerous countrymen to attract/create and retain jobs here in the Philippines....

8505:bat:

[uls]

the following is from Nouriel Roubini's Global EconoMonitor (Aug. 5, 2009)

here's what the analysts at RGE have to say about the Philippines

Are There Bright Spots Amid the Global Recession?
http://www.rgemonitor.com/roubini-mo...obal_recession

The Philippines' stalwart consumers saved the economy from the recessions that plagued its more export-dependent neighbors. Remittances proved surprisingly resilient despite the global economic slowdown as Filipino laborers, especially professional or skilled workers, continued to find strong demand overseas. This was partly due to the government's diligence in forging new hiring agreements with several countries. Unperturbed remittance growth shielded domestic demand from high unemployment rates at home, which is obscured by the country’s very loose definition of employment. In the meantime, however, dependence on external demand for Filipino labor denotes a lack of progress in developing the local economy. Apart from land grabs by Persian Gulf countries, the Philippines has attracted little foreign investment of the kind needed to create jobs and lift Filipinos out of the poverty that afflicts a third of the country’s 90 million people.