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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Philippine Protectionism and Filipinos’ Culture of Timidity

The Enrile-Belmonte Initiative to remove the restrictive economic provisions of the 1987 has finally gained some traction. BS Aquino Aquino was supposedly surprised about this move by Enrile and Belmonte then dropped the line that “if ain’t broke don’t fix it”.

Well, BS Aquino… the economy is BROKE, people are BROKE. Sovereign debt credit ratings are totally irrelevant when Juan dela Cruz is jobless, hungry, and broke. Historic PSE indexes are useless when out of the $331B FDI that went to Asia, only $2B went to the Philippines – while Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore – despite noting a decline in their FDI – had figures that were easily three to five times more than the Philippines.

The biggest difference between charter change then and now is that this time around, there is no Ramos, Estrada, or Arroyo who the yellow media can pillory for scheming to extend their single terms. Thus, the yellow media can no longer use the argument that charter change is for the purpose of removing term limits of the incumbent President aka BS Aquino.

Timid

  1. lacking in self-assurance, courage, or bravery; easily alarmed; timorous; shy.
  2. characterized by or indicating fear: a timid approach to a problem.

The debate therefore has shifted to economics, competition, liberalization – where it should be. The “progressive” (euphemism for socialists and commies) bloc such as Monsod, Hontiveros, and the entire array of leftist organizations such as BAYAN, LFS, CEGP, MIGRANTE cannot say Aquino wants to extend his term limits. Thus they are now left with the tired arguments of protectionists that push the buttons of Filipinos timidity.

Protectionism relies on timid people. People who think that it’s not their role to decide how their life turns out – but government should determine how their life turns out. These are people who are afraid to make decisions – and be responsible for these decisions. They would rather have government make the decision so that they have a scapegoat if things blow up. Such is life, you win some, you lose some – the decision on how your life turns out is yours to make – not government. When the decision on how you should run your life is given to government – you could wind up with Cuba or North Korea – or something really close to it – like… the Philippines?

When Pinoys are unable to send their children to good schools – they believe government should provide “free education” instead of working harder and smarter so they have the resources to afford good education.

The ownership restriction on mass media and advertising was justified as a means of preventing foreign media ownership from controlling the way we think. And the alternative was what exactly? We locked in on local media ownership controlling the way Pinoys think. No wonder Pinoys wind up with the tired and old sleazy noontime shows of ABS-CBN – and its tacky telenovelas.

Why should Philippine lawmakers be scared of foreign media? Are they scared that foreign media will expose their BS? Isn’t that supposed to be the right thing to do? Media ought to be free – and people should be left to make the choice for themselves whether they want to watch local or foreign as they see fit. The “protection” is not really about shielding Filipinos from foreign influences – the protection revolves around protecting the advertising revenues of the local media and advertising firms at the expense of Filipino viewers and advertisers. Local media should be BOLD and INNOVATIVE in its programming instead of the usual fare. If those options are not there, then Filipinos should have other choices – to include foreign media.

The same behavior is seen among congressmen from agricultural provinces. For instance the Filipino agricultural companies are afraid of competition and use the ruse “food security” to scare the timid. Take rice for instance, a policy “protecting” Filipino farmers does not mean anything to Filipino farmers when Pinoy rice traders keep the farm gate prices low. In contrast, foreign companies can provide Filipino farmers a better deal for their rice. The congressmen will then use the ruse that this will increase the price of rice. Well, there’s such a thing as rice importation. But no, government has restricted importation as well to “protect” the rice farmer when in fact the government is protecting the margins of rice traders.

For the most part, Pinoy businesses are unable to figure out (or not willing to find out) how to compete against foreign companies and learn how to improve processes, invest in technology and peopel, fine tune and optimize organizational resources in the pursuit of excellence – they believe government should shield them from competition.

It takes two to tango. Businesses can only work on the fear as long as Filipinos remain TIMID. and as long as Filipinos remain timid, they will remain hostage to the whims and capriciousness of vested interests in government – and his life will not be under his own control.

Economic freedom is absolutely essential to progress in the economy: the freedom for producers and consumers to attempt goals as they see fit; the freedom for anyone to fund the business ventures they desire; the freedom for people to take personal risks in their choices; the freedom for groups to create an unhampered marketplace for the greatest benefit. These are all simply parts of economic and personal liberty, something that is in extremely short supply in the Philippines.

The upcoming discussion on charter change, particularly on economic liberalization will display how far the Filipinos are from overcoming the culture of timidity.

Without boldness, innovation will be scarce. Without innovation, growth will be absent. Without growth, there will be no prosperity.

The question is – are Filipinos ready to be bold – or will they perpetually remain as timid as mice in the company of rats and fat cats.


About the Author

BongV

has written 393 stories on this site.

BongV is the webmaster of Antipinoy.com.


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