A plausible new tact for the president

About two years ago, I raised, in this column, what to me was an alarming indicator. I then talked about the horrible fact that when I went to the mall to buy my toothbrush, there was none on the shelves which was produced in the Philippines. So, I got one made in China instead. Of course, the price was relatively cheap.

Curiosity aroused, I checked the other shelves and where the fluorescent lamps were displayed, I found out, too, that those on sale were manufactured in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. None was a Philippine-made product. To think that the inventor was a Filipino by the surname Flores, for which reason the invention is called fluorescent, it was both unthinkable and humiliating that sold in this country were fluorescents made abroad!

The toothpaste and light bulb, are but two of many products we use in our daily lives. In my youth, to recall, the brand Colgate stood for the toothpaste product. I would then go to my neighborhood store and say "Papalita ko og Colgate" and I meant to buy the toothpaste. On the other hand, Philips, the manufacturer, and light bulbs were interchangeable. My ignorance was tolerated. After all, those companies, while transnational, had their production operations here in our country. Naturally, Filipino manpower ran the engines of production and a significant percentage of needed materials, I suppose, supplied by Filipinos.

Government was not wanting in its support. To add meaning to a sustained government effort to enhance our productivity, then Philippine President Carlos P. Garcia, coined the nationalistic policy, "Filipino First". As I later understood it (I was in elementary when he sat as our president), Garcia had in mind to ask all of us Filipinos to buy products made in our land instead of purchasing those which were foreign produced. Garcia's idea was simple. It might not have been couched in economic jargon, but it was brilliant just the same. The beneficial effects were arguably obvious. If our present day economic historians had occasions to make comparisons, they would invariably say, "in those times, we ranked second only to Japan". I would not wish to insult you with an attempt at an amplification.

Then came globalization. Arguing that the world market was shrinking, globalization advocates like then Senator Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sought to dismantle our protectionist economic policies. Her language in the Senate deliberations was, being espoused by a foreign-trained economist in her, persuasive. The trade barriers our forefathers set up, like high tariff rates for imported items to protect our local protects from undue competition, had to be scaled down. We would, according to then Senator now President Arroyo, benefit tremendously when we would open up to foreign-made products. Not being schooled in economics, I could not follow her logic when she argued in the Senate halls to allow even consumer items to flood our market. Her articulation steam-rolled over the safety nets some conservative solons talked about.

Today, our industries suffer from the onslaught of cheap foreign products. We seem to be on the losing edge of an almost one-sided fight. Save for the company that produces Happee toothpaste, as an example, our business leaders have seen no way to avoid being devoured by foreign-based consumer producing companies.

Quite honestly, if only to rid our country of an administration that sponsored the globalization move in our country, I personally, albeit secretly, hoped the impeachment of Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would succeed. Mine was of a different characterization than the political nature of the proceedings, but, I thought it was an opportunity of a constitutional process that would mark the beginning of another, hopefully, different era.

Our distinguished legislators, in junking the impeachment complaints, have decided to prop up the president. By the democratic process called "the majority rules", Pres. Arroyo stays in power. Such action however, has not freed us from a worldwide gloomy economic specter. As the president gets a reprieve from political battering, she should take it not as an absolute imprimatur of her globalization policy. It behooves upon her to adopt policies that shall promote the ability of the men running our industries to compete. As of now, no other government, but that of Pres. Arroyo's can take care of our own people.