Welcome Pres. Obama, we need more investments & trade, not just
arms & alms
I'm inspired by the
people I meet in my travels--hearing their stories, seeing the hardships they
overcome, their fundamental optimism and decency…They make me want to work to
make the world a little bit better. --- Barack Obama
Welcome
to the intellectually brilliant, eloquent and well-intentioned U.S. President
Barack Obama to Asia’s most fun-loving country the Philippines . I urge Obama to please
prioritize promoting more American investments, trade and tourism here, not
just rosy speeches and effusive photo-ops, not just free U.S. military
access to our archipelago, not just aid, not just more sales of military
weapons.
It is sad that
not many of our politicians realize that the true bulwark of national security and
the best foundation for our democracy is a vibrant, self-reliant and
globally-competitive Philippine economy, not just more new warplanes or ships.
President
Obama’s desire for a strategic pivot (or “rebalance”, as the White House has
seemingly renamed it after supposed panic and complaints from close allies in
the Middle East and Europe) to Asia should hopefully be more vigorous
economically, not just on the diplomatic, military and political aspects.
Help nudge our leaders to push economic
democracy
I hope pro-poor
President Obama can nudge our political leaders to push more decisive
socio-economic reforms such as a Theodore Roosevelt-style anti-trust law and Senator
Grace Poe’s Freedom of Information (FOI) bill. How can our economy be truly
dynamic if it is agriculturally semi-feudal and industrially oligopolistic?
Also, on April
22---Earth Day, ecological champion Senator Loren Legarda and director
Brillante Mendoza launched a riveting documentary on the destruction of the
priceless marine biodiversity in our many coastal areas where millions of the
rural poor live. I urge Obama to give technological and financial aid to our
environmental projects, especially since logging, mining and other huge
extraction of our natural resources grew under U.S. colonial rule and mostly by
the multinationals.
Despite the
gitzy malls and many new condominiums in our cities, we in Philippine society still
have a long way to go economically. True, we’re politically an American-style
constitutional democracy, but not yet an economic democracy.
In fact, it was
a tragedy that U.S.
colonizers had failed to implement agrarian reform and end feudalism in the Philippines the same way they did in postwar Japan under
General Douglas MacArthur. I recall reading that MacArthur once even said that
if he were a Filipino, he’d most likely have been a Huk rebel in the 1950s.
True, we’ve
enjoyed investment-grade ratings upgrades and high economic growth rates, but
the benefits have not yet trickled down fast enough. The small and medium-scale
enterprises (SMEs) are still not yet very energized. I hope the civil
libertarian Obama can nudge our leaders to push inclusive economic growth and
help make the Philippines
a true economic democracy with a broad-based middle-class.
Image above of USA and Philippine flags sourced from finestflags.com
Before at the
residence of then U.S. Ambassador Kristie Kenney, I told her that in our ethnic
Chinese family’s over two centuries here in the Philippines---including the
Spanish colonial era, the brief interlude of Japanese military occupation and
the post-war decades of independence---family elders say that the half-century
American colonial period witnessed the rise of the Philippines into Asia’s
second richest and most developed economy. Can the U.S. again more vigorously support
the Philippine economy with preferential import tariffs, more investments and
tourism?
This
need for stronger U.S.
economic engagement with Asia should hopefully
be uppermost in the agenda and priorities of Obama during his trip. We in the Philippines have received the least amount of
economic aid, investments and trade from the U.S.
compared to the three Asian countries Obama is visiting such as America’s
former World War II foe Japan, South Korea and even Malaysia which used to be
led by harsh U.S. critic ex-Prime Minister Mahathir.
More USA
investments & trade with ex-foe Vietnam
than ally Philippines
Even Vietnam,
another war foe which even dealt the United States its first ever military
defeat in history, has in recent years amazingly received more American investments,
aid, trade and tourists than we here in the Philippines despite our “special
relations”, our being the only former U.S. colony in Asia, our being staunchest
U.S. ally since World War II, our fluency in American-style English as well as
our having better U.S.-style legal and accounting systems here.
According to the
U.S. Embassy in Manila : “The United States is among the Philippines ’ top trading partners, and it
traditionally has been the Philippines ’
largest foreign investor… The stock of U.S.
foreign direct investment in the Philippines exceeded $5 billion.”
In January this
year, a firm identified with America ’s
prominent Rockefeller family announced a massive new investment in Vietnam . Rose
Rock Group, a Rockefeller family-backed alternative investment management firm,
said it shall help develop a $2.5 billion residential and hotel project in on
the south-central coast of Vietnam .
This Vung Ro Bay
development shall cover 200,000 square meters (2.15 million square feet) and to
be developed with Vung Ro Petroleum Co. This huge undertaking will include 350
marina berths, hotels of over 760 rooms, 4,300 residential apartments, 100
townhouses and retail shops.
On
bilateral trade, the U.S. Embassy in Manila
said: “The Philippines was
the United States ’
33rd largest export market in 2012 and its 35th largest supplier. Goods exports
totalled $8.1 billion; goods imports totalled $9.6 billion.” Two-way trade
between theU.S. and the Philippines
totalled US$17.6 billion. In comparison, bilateral trade volume between former
enemies U.S. and Vietnam
in the same year 2012 totalled US$ 24.890 billion dollars.
President
Barack Obama, let us substantially expand bilateral economic relations between
the Philippines and the U.S. and help
in our war against poverty.
