Focus on exports

Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII) president Cecilio Pedro hopes that government officials would focus on increasing the country’s self-sufficiency next year in the face of possible tariffs threats from the United States with the expected takeover of the government by president-elect Donald Trump.

In an interview, Pedro lamented the fact that even though the Philippines is basically an agriculture producing country and also manufactures some products, “we have somehow lost out to our neighbors and competitors...we have lost out so much, talo na tayo...”

Thus, at the very least, he said, “We should at least be self-sufficient and stop imports,”  pointing out that “we are now the biggest rice importer in the world, we are exporting so much sugar but now we are importing sugar. We are importing corn. We are even importing pork and chicken. Sana maging sufficient naman tayo...they (government) should focus on doing something to be self sufficient, self sufficiency first.”

As such, Pedro is urging the government to “sit down and let’s identify first what we need to be self-sufficient. And then the other side is what can we export?” He pointed out that in the past, the Philippines’ top export was coconut. Unfortunately now, he said, the Philippines is down to number three or four in the export of coconut products.

Pedro stressed the reality that “we are facing a new president in the US, Trump...who said put America first....everything else is No. 2...so he’s out to  enhance the competitiveness of America at the expense of the world...the first thing he will do is to impose tariffs on China or Mexico or Canada or any other country that would be exporting to the US... so it will hinder the growth economies of those countries...so that will also affect the world...in the big major countries, more so China. When China slows down, it will also affect us. China is our biggest trading partner.”

10=[-export to the US under a preferential trade regime. “We have to identify it. Pay attention to what we are good at and let’s focus on what we are good at. Let’s say they give us a preferential trade on a particular product, let’s focus on those products and assist the manufacturers or business and businessmen in those areas so we can export more.”

With the recent confirmation of Trade Secretary Ma. Cristina Aldeguer-Roque, Pedro is hopeful that the Trade department can work on identifying Philippine products that could be export winners.

Pedro is thankful that remittances from overseas Filipino workers continue to support the local economy.

“OFW remittances are good because they send so much money home.”

However, even remittances from US-based OFWs may face headwinds in the future if the proposal of US vice-president-elect JD Vance and US Rep. Kevin Hern to impose a 10 percent fee on remittances out of the US is enacted into law.

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) grew by 3.3 percent to $3.34 billion in September 2024 from the $3.23 billion registered in September 2023. The expansion in personal remittances was due to higher remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more and sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year.

Correspondingly, cumulative remittances in January-September 2024 increased by three percent to $28.07 billion from the $27.24 billion recorded in January-September 2023.

Of the personal remittances from OFs, cash remittances, which were coursed through banks, reached $3.01 billion in September 2024, higher by 3.3 percent than the $2.91 billion posted in September 2023. The growth in cash remittances in September 2024 was due to the growth in receipts from land- and sea-based workers.

Cash remittances rose by three percent to $25.23 billion in January-September 2024 from the $24.49 billion registered in January-September 2023.

Pedro noted that the US proposal to tax remittances, aside from being a tool supposedly to penalize illicit activities such as human and drug smuggling, is also intended to help the US raise revenues. “I’m not surprised because they also need money. They are also in a deficit.”

FFCCCII assistance

The Filipino-Chinese business community, however, Pedro said, continues to do its part in helping the country through its various outreach programs which include education through its barrio school classroom program, fire brigade program, medical outreach and typhoon relief assistance program through the Magkaibigan Foundation.

The FFCCCII, Pedro said, puts up 300 to 400 barrio school classrooms throughout the country every year. The umbrella organization is represented by almost 180 chambers of commerce scattered all over the country from Tawi-Tawi all the way up to Aparri.

“We build one-story classroom buildings. It’s a twin classroom, two classrooms with a CR at the back. We have plenty of far-flung communities. We built classrooms for them through the community chamber of commerce and with the cooperation of the local government... about 550,000 as of now... at a cost of P700,000 to P800,000 per unit,” he said.

Their second project is the volunteer fire brigade which now has 170 plus fire trucks scattered all over the country and more than 5,000 volunteers to fight fires. The firetrucks, Pedro said, depending on size, cost from P3 million to P5 million, second hand. A brand new firetruck can cost as much as P10 million. The pilot project was started in Manila and has spread out to other cities. They also get firetruck donations from Taiwan and China.

Their third project is a medical outreach program which every week sends out  teams to remote areas and urban poor communities to give medicines, medical treatments and dental services.

The fourth project is the Magkaibigan Foundation which helps typhoon and fire victims. Pedro revealed that for this year alone, the FFCCCII has spent up to P65 million to acquire rice as per the suggestion of Sen. Imee Marcos who said that victims need the rice more than canned goods which are the common donations.

“So we focus now more on rice. Because rice is the key. So we bought a lot of these five kilo rice which is distributed to the individual families.”