[Talk of Sen. Nene Pimentel at the Symposium on Globalization, Claret High School, Quezon City, February 18, 2002]
Thank you for inviting me to speak before you, this morning.
I will try to discuss globalization with you today from a politician’s point of view.
Leveling economic field
I understand that globalization is supposedly a means by which the so-called economic playing field is leveled all over the world. The idea is to enable businesses in the developing world, like the Philippines and Indonesia, to compete freely with businesses in the developed world like the US and Germany, for example.
One major way of doing that is by removing customs duties and tariff barriers, in short, taxes, for goods that we buy from other countries and for the goods that we sell to other countries.
By doing so, globalization will supposedly bring about the development of the world in a more effective and just manner.
The problem is that that is not what we see is happening today.
Suffocating influx of foreign goods
What is happening is that the developed world is literally dumping their excess goods into the markets of the developing world so that instead of being developed, we are being conditioned to accept our dependency for what we eat, for what we wear, for what we need, indeed, for what we think upon the developed world.
As a result, one local industry, the textile industry, of our country is practically gone. So many bales of textile and clothing are exported to our country that there is no more money to be made by our local textile manufacturers. The imported textile and clothing are cheaper than what our local textile manufacturers can produce.
The shoe industry is also dying. I remember some years back the Marikina shoe entrepreneurs were doing rather well in the manufacture and sale of locally made shoes. There are just too many foreign made shoes that are available in our stores for the local shoe industry to survive
Even our locally made patis suffers from the abundant supply of patis manufactured from Thailand.
Cheap imported apples also give our locally grown fruit like mangoes a run for their value in our local markets.
I have chosen to cite examples that are more easily understandable.
Developed world’s greater capacity
The reason why more goods from the developed world are traded globally than those that come from the developing world is that the developed world, being more industrialized, has a greater capacity to manufacture goods for export to the developing world than what the latter can produce for export to the former.
In other words, the developed world having controlled manufacturing of goods for so long continues to produce more goods and export them to the developing world than the developing world can even dream of. With technology also under the control of the developed world, its capacity to produce things more cheaply and bring them more easily to the markets of the developing world is greatly expanded.
It is true that under globalization, the developing world is supposed to have the same right to produce and export their goods to the developed world. The reality, however, is that it simply cannot and does not have the capacity to manufacture and export goods in the same volume and at the same price as the goods that the developed world produces and exports to it.
Dumping ground
Thus, the developing world of which our country is a part would continue to be a favorite dumping ground of the products of the developed world under the regime of globalization.
There simply cannot be a level playing field between giants and pygmies. Not in the physical sense. Not in the economic sense.
What, then, can we do?
I think that pulling out of our participation in the World Trade Organization is no longer feasible.
Increase production
Economists suggest that we should be more productive. Produce the things that we need so that we need not import foreign products. Maybe that is the way to go. But that is, probably, easier said than done. And it will surely take a long time.
Or invite foreign investors so that they locally produce the things we need and make them available to us more cheaply than if we were simply to import the same or similar goods. Maybe that is another way to go. If only we can improve the law and order situation then we can probably entice foreign and even local business to invest or expand their activities in the country.
One other way is to complain against the entry of so much foreign goods into our country that clearly pose unfair competition to our local manufacturing and agricultural sectors to the appropriate committee of the World Trade Organization.
As things now stand, however, I am not too sure that we can get an early or expeditious remedy for our plight.
Excess labor
There is one suggestion that I would like to bring to this discussion for you to think about.
We are a nation of young people, many of whom are already qualified to work although there is no work to be found in the country. Every year, about 800,000 young people graduate into the ranks of the employable. Our unemployment rate was 8% about three years ago. Because of the economic slowdown, it probably is now between 10%-11%.
We can turn that problem into an asset. In other words if we have one asset that is in excess of our requirements it is labor. We have lots of skilled labor. Labor that we can export to the developed world.
I am suggesting that our government should do everything to get our excess labor, even excess skilled labor, accepted by the developed world as a quid pro quo, as the basis for the continued free entry of the goods that they are flooding our country with.
The developed world, as mentioned earlier, is literally suffocating our local markets with their exports.
We cannot match the volume of the exports of the developed world with exports of our own to their countries simply because our manufacturing capacity is well below theirs.
But there is something that we have an oversupply of and that is labor and which the developed world is now lacking or will soon lack because its population is growing old. And because they have been practicing population control for some time now, they cannot rapidly fill up the gap from their available labor resource.
Let us fill the gap
I think we can and should step in to fill that gap. We should tell the developed world, go ahead and send your goods to our markets but allow us to send you our labor.
This is not exactly a one-sided selfish proposal from us, a developing country, to them, the developed world. The reason is that if the developed world, like the US, Canada, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, the UK, and Japan for example, would employ our excess workers in their factories, being Filipinos, without doubt, these workers would send money home to their families. Their families would, then, not only have money to buy the food, clothing and shelter needed by them but they would in all likelihood buy foreign products that abound here in our country.
We can, therefore, tell them that, yes, let us continue with the arrangements of the World Trade Organization that there should be an unhampered movement of goods from one country to another or more realistically from the developed world to the developing world. In other words, we may assure WTO members that there would be free trading of their products here in our country.
Free goods, free labor
But if that should be so, let us also demand that the free entry of our excess labor to the developed world be assured. The fair exchange should be their goods for our labor. In that way, we level the economic playing field more evenly.
That probably would be the more direct and more expedient way of addressing the imbalance in the economic development of our country under the regime of free trade as sanctioned by the WTO policies of globalization.
Current issue
To inject a more current issue into our discussion, perhaps, we may ask why are American soldiers in Basilan and Zamboanga?
They are there to help train our soldiers, upgrade their weaponry, and their intelligence gathering capabilities.
They are not there to fight the Abu Sayyaf. Our soldiers will do the fighting against the Abu Sayyaf.
That is the viewpoint of our government.
What is the viewpoint of the Americans?
I would suppose that officially that is also their viewpoint. They are here to help train our soldiers, upgrade their weaponry and their intelligence gathering capabilities based on their perspective that they must make the world safe for democracy against terrorists.
Room for civility
The rationale is good. But in pursuing that objective, we must not lose sight of the fact that if we are to maintain our respectability as a people and as a nation, we should always remind our friends from abroad that there is room for civility in our dealings with one another.
That is why I objected to that photograph published in major Manila newspapers of two American soldiers in civilian clothes brandishing their high powered guns in front of a bank in Zamboanga City all because they were withdrawing some dollars from the bank.
Just so you will understand my position on the matter, let me say that I am in favor of the deployment of American troops in Basilan, Sulu and Zamboanga as part of the Balikatan exercises.
But there are certain rules that apply to the Balikatan exercises both to our own soldiers and to the American soldiers. Our soldiers are not allowed to bring and display their firearms in civilian centers. Neither should American soldiers be allowed to do so.
That is why I said the American soldiers and their officers should apologize. And I am happy to hear that they did.
World safe for business
But to go back to the idea that the American soldiers are in Basilan, Sulu and Zamboanga as a part of the over-all American strategy to make the world safe for democracy, I think that there is an unannounced deeper rationale for it all. And that is to ensure that in the end, the world is made safe not only for democracy but for business. World business of which the US, of course, is the prime mover.
Is that good or bad for us? I suppose much of how globalization will affect us depends on the way we respond to the challenges that we face now and in the future.
More dangerous angle
While our attention is focused on our fighting against the inflow of so many goods from the developed world flooding our country, I understand that in the name of globalization, our culture is simultaneously under attack from a more insidious, a more sinister, a more dangerous, direction. That is from the angle of the management of the mind.
The Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities has sounded an alarm that the foreign schools are now swarming all over the nation and they are being given favored treatment over the locals by our education authorities in violation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution. I think we should put our foot down and tell the operators of the foreign schools to submit to the requirements of the Constitution and our laws.
It is important that they do so because if there is one effective way of influencing, conditioning or even shaping the minds of people, it is through education.
The Kapisanan ng mga Broadcasters ng Pilipinas (KBP) should perhaps follow suit and shout from the rooftops that a major portion of our airtime over TV and Radio is being taken over by programming wholly inputted by foreign media.
Clear signs
Finally, our professional organizations should perhaps also protest against the influx of expatriate professionals into our service industries, such as banking and finance, auditing and business consulting, advertising, engineering and architectural firms, and our hospitality industries, such as tourism and hotel management services, just to name a few.
I think that the signs are clear. In the name of globalization, the dominant developed world would gobble up the passive developing world, us included, and co-opt it and convert it into its image and likeness.
The trend is there for all to see. It is up to us to respond as best we can, probably by defending our core values of family, national pride, democracy and belief in the Almighty.
I will stop here and if there is an open forum, I hope I can answer your questions adequately.
Thank you for listening.