What is therefore the Filipino First Policy?
THE “FILPINO FIRST” POLICYThe ”Filipino First” policy of this administration received a resounding popular indorsement in the last election. Politically we became independent since 1946, but economically we are still semi-colonial. This is especially true in our foreign trade. This policy is therefore designed to regain economic independence. It is a national effort to the end that Filipinos obtain major and dominant participation in their own national economy. This we will achieve with malice towards none and with fairness to all. We will accomplish this with full understanding of our international obligations towards our friends of the Free World. We will carry this out within the framework of our special relations with the United States to whose citizens we granted until 1974, by Constitutional provision, equal rights as Filipinos in the exploitation of our natural resources and public utilities, and to whom we also granted trading parity rights under the Laurel-Langley Agreement. Under this policy we will welcome friendly and understanding foreign capital willing to collaborate with us in the exploitation of our vast natural resources preferably on joint venture basis.It is my hope that legislations under this orientation will be enacted this year.
However, I dare to say that the "Filipino First Policy" can be absurd when seeking to make sure that "only Filipinos will be the dominant players in the country". In theory, it sounds good but one needs to take a look at how Venezuela and North Korea are doing for one. It would also be interesting that when Garcia made the Filipino First Policy--Mao Zedong was also in power during that time. Mao was in office in China from March 20, 1943, until his death on September 9, 1976. Imagine that seven years after Mao came to office--Garcia wanted the "Filipino First Policy" implemented. I would dare say that it failed as proven by the Lee Kuan Yew in From Third World to First.
The notion has always been that only multinational corporations (MNCs) will get rich. The irony is that some people who might be saying this are using Food Panda (which is from Germany), Grab (which is from Singapore), and maybe using iPhones and Mac PROs to blurt out their lies. Isn't it really ironic? Loving something imported for its quality can't be considered a colonial mentality at all. Colonial mentality is when you love everything imported even when it's of bad quality. The extreme opposite of xenophobia that's ironically spread through imported gadgets and mediums. It's really funny to be on Facebook (an American-owned social media platform) and those who demand protectionism for local Filipino businesses are there.
It would be time if you'd be willing to patronize substandard products and services in the name of "Filipino First"
After several years of disheartening trial and error, we concluded that Singapore's best hope lay with the American multinational corporations (MNCs). When the Taiwanese and Hong Kong entrepreneurs came in the 1960s, they brought low technology such as textile and toy manufacturing, labor-intensive but not large-scale. American MNCs brought higher technology in large-scale operations, creating many jobs. They had weight and confidence. They believed that their government was going to stay in Southeast Asia and their businesses were safe from confiscation or war loss.I gradually crystallized my thoughts and settled on a two-pronged strategy to overcome our disadvantages. The first was to leapfrog the region, as the Israelis had done. This idea sprang from a discussion I had with a UNDP expert who visited Singapore in 1962. In 1964, while on a tour of Africa, I met him again in Malawi. He described to me how the Israelis, faced with a more hostile environment than ours, had found a way around their difficulties by leaping over their Arab neighbors who boycotted them, to trade with Europe and America. Since our neighbors were out to reduce their ties with us, we had to link up with the developed world-America, Europe, and Japan-and attract their manufacturers to produce in Singapore and export their products to the developed countries.The accepted wisdom of development economists at the time was that MNCs were exploiters of cheap land, labor, and raw materials. This "dependency school" of economists argued that MNCs continued the colonial pattern of exploitation that left the developing countries selling raw materials to and buying consumer goods from the advanced countries. MNCs controlled technology and consumer preferences and formed alliances with their host governments to exploit the people and keep them down. Third World leaders believed this theory of neocolonialist exploitation, but Keng Swee and I were not impressed. We had a real-life problem to solve and could not afford to be conscribed by any theory or dogma. Anyway, Singapore had no natural resources for MNCs to exploit. All it had were hard-working people, good basic infrastructure, and a government that was determined to be honest and competent. Our duty was to create a livelihood for 2 million Singaporeans. If MNCs could give our workers employment and teach them technical and engineering skills and management know-how, we should bring in the MNCs.
It's ironic how the same people calling Public Services Act of 2022 "imperialism" are also complaining about high costs and poor quality. The solutions tend to be like passing a law to increase the speed of the Internet. Other poor proposals are giving the indigent cash handouts costing PHP 10,000.00 together with higher salaries and lower cost of goods. Simple cost accounting will tell you that cost of labor will affect the cost of the final product. If you're going to raise salaries and improve services then you must increase the cost. It's like how coffee shops sell their coffee higher than canteens because of factors like better ingredients, longer operating hours (which leads to higher utility costs), a huge work crew, and the cost of the Internet doesn't come cheap. Then again what do you expect when those who know nothing about basic business and economics protest, right?
Demanding Filipinos to patronize substandard products and services is absurd. Being a casual foodie--I think I can start with food. I remembered how a Buwan Ng Wika program or a Values Education class even had the whole "Ibagsak ang France" (Bring Down France) or how the person threw away the imported cookies in favor of the local cookies. It only makes sense to discard the imported cookies if the quality is bad and to eat local cookies if the quality is good. However, to discard something because it's imported in the name of "Filipino First" is just stupid. It's pretty much like how you would rather eat in a dirty eatery (or even eat pagpag) than eat in a restaurant owned by a foreigner. For all we know, those dirty local eateries don't even pay taxes while the restaurant owned by a foreigner is a candidate for the taxpayer award. In my case, I don't care if the restaurant was owned by a Filipino or a foreigner. What matters is that it pays taxes and provides delicious food (preferably as affordable as possible) to people. It's like I order a Jollibee burger today and get a Kentucky Fried Chicken next week. One's Filipino and the other's American while they still benefit the Filipino people regardless.
Just imagine if you decided to compromise your health and money in the name of "Filipino First". You wouldn't drink clean water if it was offered by a foreigner. Instead, you'd drink dirty water if it was offered by a Filipino. If you decided to eat pagpag or in a dirty eatery then you're compromising your health. Health is wealth since only healthy people can help generate income. That's why some old businessmen try to remain strong as they can or step down when they can no longer handle it. That's why there's a retirement age if people get too old. If one produced much health before then there may be a glorious retirement if one grows to become too old. However, if you started to compromise your health--you may not grow old because you'll die young. I read of a lot of problems brought in by dirty eateries. Many of them have really bad standards of sanitation which will bring in pathogens in the form of dirty food, dirty water, pests, and you can name a lot them. Would you still want to compromise your own health in the name of "Filipino first"? That's just one thing to ask.
Another would be businesses would eventually stunt down. I can understand if some people refuse to avail of services from Grab or Food Panda due to the mark-up costs. Instead, they decide to do their own delivery services with their own delivery fee because they could. However, some wouldn't mind selling their foods at a higher cost for delivery. It's because some customers are willing to pay a bit higher for convenience. The customer may want to order food but he or she is sick or the only person around to take care of a sick elder wanting the food. It would be stupid to reject quality delivery services and let habal-habal drivers (who I hear are illegal, by the way) deliver their goods only for the products to end up no longer usable. It would also be stupid if they would stick to using pushcarts to deliver services all in the name of "Filipino First". The growth was stunted as a result.
Deng Xiaoping, the founder of Modern China, made a quote about cats. It's all about, "Black cat or white cat--does it matter? What matters is that it catches mice." Deng knew about his economic policies and Lee called him "a great man". Lee mentioned in one of his speeches which Lee mentioned the following about Deng himself:
“You got on the one hand, the Open Free Market System in America, you have on the other hand, the exact opposite, the closed, controlled, command economy of the Soviet Union, Communist Russia…
The Chinese tried the Communist model, with their own modifications, and it failed! And they have admitted that it failed, and they’re trying to pick up the same competitive spirit between workers, between different enterprises, which they noticed in Hong Kong, so they have opened a new town on the border with Hong Kong called “Shamchun” (Shenzhen in Cantonese) and they’re inducing Hong Kong entrepreneurs to go… and create employment!
Dr. Lee Siew-Choh and Mr. Jeyaratnam talk as if these things have never happened. They haven’t learned!
Deng Xiaoping is a great man… He fought a great revolution. He saw the product of that revolution turn sour. He was fortunate to live long enough and he had the courage to say “NO! WE CHANGE COURSE! LET’S LEARN! Let’s stop trying to do everything by ourselves.”
So they started importing and buying Boeing 707’s. So they bought Tridents instead of trying to manufacture their own aircraft. Eventually they will but it would take 2, maybe 3 generations.
That’s how we succeeded because we have open minds, common sense. A lot of analysis, careful weighing of the odds, make a firm decision, monitor it, implement it, modify as it goes wrong. ABANDON IF IT IS NO GOOD!
But often… And I say this more out of relief than out of pride… Often, 8 times out of 10 we have been right… We’ve made mistakes… We put money in New Port in Jurong… Second hand machinery… We were young then… We were new in the game…
They sold us second hand machinery, we didn’t know… We lost money… We wrote it off. But we learned…
Mr. Jeyaratnam says we are obsessed with profits. I said YES! That’s how Singapore survives!
We have no profit, who pays for all this?
You make profit into a dirty word, and Singapore dies.”
Deng's economic reforms when he decided to engage in free-market economics. The result was that China awakened from its long slumber induced by Mao's two failed programs--the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. All it produced was a nation of Chinese who were impoverished. Instead, Deng's approach was it no longer mattered if the product was foreign or Chinese--all it mattered was that it helped China. Deng's policies of bringing in American MNCs and the like helped bring China to progress. It may not be perfect but China got out of its slumber to becoming a powerhouse for some time. If China intends to stay powerful--I believe it must stop with its outright ridiculous censorship policies such as banning Facebook and Google--two of the many powerful tools we can use today in the e-commerce world. Chinese tech companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi are using those tools outside China and look where it got them--they succeeded.
The opposite happened in Venezuela and North Korea. Where did all the so-called nationalism take the two countries for a start? Venezuela's people are lining up for food every day. If Venezuela had a more open economy then both local and imported food will be available to the people. The closed economy of Venezuela instead made it a wreck for the citizens. The people in North Korea aren't well off either. North Koreans can only be amazed if ever they get a glimpse of South Korea. The Netflix television series Crash Landing on You may end up talking about the big differences between North Korea and South Korea. I believe that both countries are a warning to where "Filipino First" could end if it were further enforced. Fortunately, economic amendments are made so the Philippines is nothing like North Korea or Venezuela. However, if it were further enforced, then the extremely high risk is really there.
Filipino entrepreneurs with good business sense could care less about "Filipino First". Instead, any good Filipino entrepreneur would care more if what they have will give them the quality they desire. Imagine a Filipino delivery service buys several imported motorcycles, gets the best of both worlds, and creates a quality delivery service. It would be different than a Filipino delivery service that sticks to wooden pushcarts which can't compete against motorcycles in this day and age. Local Filipino restaurants that have succeeded take advantage of Grab and Food Panda. Sure, they have to put a mark-up but it gives convenience to customers who don't want to dine in. It became rather convenient especially during COVID-19 when eating in a fancy restaurant is rather restricted. Not all of them can create their own delivery services. If they do, they could care less about the equipment as long as it delivers quality. Bongbong's Piaya in Bacolod accepted modernization and look where this cottage industry is in now. It's now a nationwide cottage industry. Instead, the acceptance of MNCs helped local businesses to grow and mature. It's not just competition but also adding more service providers, more suppliers, and more customers (which means more money) into the equation.
It was "Filipino First" that actually crippled opportunities to grow. How could businesses grow if there were hardly anything to work with? How could businesses grow if they had to care more about "Filipino First" than the quality of a product or service? The answer is the chances are rather very slim. That's why it ends up nothing more than good on paper but like many protectionist regimes in several places--it's nothing more than another failed fantasy.
References
Books
Websites
"Carlos P. Garcia, Third State of the Nation Address, January 25, 1960"https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1960/01/25/carlos-p-garcia-third-state-of-the-nation-address-january-25-1960/#:~:text=THE%20%E2%80%9CFILPINO%20FIRST%E2%80%9D%20POLICY&text=This%20policy%20is%20therefore%20designed,and%20with%20fairness%20to%20all.