Filipino Manufacturing's Golden Age ENDED Because of the Filipino First Policy

Here's a picture from the Dose of Disbelief Page on Facebook. Here's something that it wrote:

Filipinos once trusted locally made products more than imports. Before World War II, the label "Made in the Philippines" carried prestige, not stigma, reflecting a strong sense of national confidence in domestic production. Local products such as shoes, cigars, textiles, furniture, and food were often preferred over imports.

This preference was rooted in the belief that local goods were better adapted to local conditions, tastes, and were often of comparable, if not superior, quality. This period showcases a strong historical era of consumer nationalism and thriving local industries.

We need to look into the context of Filipino history 

If we look at the Philippine history timeline, we must account for 1935-1940, during which the Philippines was under the Commonwealth government. Independence was declared from Spain on June 12, 1898. However, there was a transition period when the Spanish occupation was overtaken by the American occupation. The Tydings McDuffie Law was created to promise independence by 1946. June 12 should be commemorated as independence from the Spanish Empire. The USA was freed from British imperialism back then, with the help of the French.

As I read through the comments, as usual, I will not share the names to avoid further shaming. Instead, I will copy/paste the comments without putting the identity of the people who said them. People, no matter how stupid or foolish, deserve some dignity and I must make a conscious effort not to stoop down to their level. Here are some comments that make me think of taking things out of context, or misguided nationalism. 

• "True! In 1958 My father and I went to the capital town of our province to buy a bicycle at a general merchandise store. The available bikes at the time were made in Japan. My father wanted a Philip/s bike made in the Philippines. The store salesman said that they had an order from their supplier in Manila and it will be available within a month. So we waited and after a month we went back to the store and the salesman had already reserved one for us. It was during the time of Pres. Carlos P. Garcia's Filipino First policy. The bike lasted for almost 40 years."
• "During the era of the Filipino First policy."
• "Globalization is the culprit..Pope John Paul II said in 1982 Globalization is evil." (This is actually false)
  

To refute the comments, as the late John Paul II never said globalization is evil, but condemned globalism instead. 

Both of these popes took a prudential approach that may be summarised as: globalism is mistaken, globalisation is a process that must be carefully managed, globality understood as the unity of the human race is a good thing. Globalisation as a process is seen as neutral: it may be positive or negative depending on how it is conducted. As John Paul II said in 2001, “Globalisation, a priori, is neither good nor evil. It depends what people do with it.” Globality concerns the “unity of the human family and its development for good,” which becomes the fundamental ethical criterion for guiding and evaluating globalisation, as Caritas in Veritate says (n. 42). Globalism is instead the ideological exasperation of globalisation and leads to a uniform global oppression that is enforced by anonymous trans-national powers.

Such mentality made me write how the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) actually promotes what I dub as the "Padre Damaso School of Economics". 

If we look at the timeline, we need to consider the following set of events after the Japanese War and leading to independence, up to when Carlos P. Garcia became president:

• 1945 was the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese forces. However, the Philippines still suffered major damage.
• Manuel Roxas Sr., the paternal grandfather of Manuel A. Roxas, became the president from May 28, 1946 up to April 15, 1948. He died in office.
• Elpidio Quirino became president from April 17, 1948 up to December 30, 1953. 
• Ramon Magsaysay became president from December 30, 1953 up to March 17, 1957. 
• Carlos P. Garcia became president from March 18, 1957 up to December 30, 1961. He's famous (and also infamous) for his Filipino First Policy, which unfortunately, still has a good amount of Filipino stubborn boomers defending it, even if they're not in business! 

In a way, we need to think that from 1945 up to some time, the Philippines actually benefited from the fruits of American colonization. America left the Philippines in 1945. It didn't mean the Philippines should abandon what the Americans left. The Americans have left a lot of technologies that were considered elite for their time. That's why local manufacturing could be on par. The Philippines, back then, had the advantage over Japan (during its earlier days) and its neighboring countries. There was an advantage that the Philippines once had, thanks to the American colonization period. I'm not saying that the Philippines should go back to being an American colony. The Philippines can remain sovereign while accepting foreign investment!

The Filipino First Policy was implemented during the boom, not the cause of the boom in Filipino manufacturing

Basically, Garcia decided to implement his structural failure of a policy, back when the Philippines was independent from American rule, and benefited from the technology left behind by the Americans. Instead, Garcia foolishly implemented this, according to the Official Gazette of the Philippines:

The "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.

This didn't prohibit foreign investment per se. However, this became the idiocy that discouraged FDI, even if it doesn't prohibit it. The plan seemed noble with the desire that Filipinos would obtain major and dominant participation in their own national economy. What was overlooked is that not all Filipinos are business-savvy. Another issue is that the joint venture basis is often unjust, because whether we want to admit it or not, it's a bad case of mistaking profits for revenues. Basic accounting will tell us that the net profit is computed by deducting the revenues minus all expenses, then taxes, which leaves ius with the net profits after taxes. Any profits taken back to the host country mean that the taxes, suppliers, etc. have already been paid.

The real issue is that Garcia failed to secure a reelection, despite the claims of the late Alejandro Lichauco of the IBON Foundation, who claimed that the Philippines became a "tiger economy" at that time. However, we need to think that, thanks to Garcia's policy, another person, the late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., also benefited from it. The problem was that the Filipino First Policy only benefited the oligarchs, but not the common Filipino. The Filipino First Policy provided the framework of the first Marcos Administration. Unfortunately, even after the dismantling of a dictatorship, the same foolishness continued under the current 1987 Constitution of the Philippines. That defect needs to be dismantled.

So, really, until when will Filipinos realize that the Filipino First Policy has been anything but helpful, for the common Filipino? 

The real problem why the Philippines lagged behind isn't because of a lack of "nationalism" but a lack of adaptation to the times

I'll have to be blunt by saying that several people defending the Filipino First Policy are using an absurdly outdated database. A lot of quotations are basically Monsod, Davide, CBCP, etc. all over again than learning new things. As the late Lee Kuan Yew said, "Let's stop trying to do everything ourselves and learn to do new things." The reason why the Philippines once excelled in manufacturing was that it stuck to the development mindset left by the Americans. The Americans gave the Philippines its independence and things to learn from. However, the Filipino First Policy helped establish the pattern of decay that never left the Philippines, even after the first Marcos Administration was toppled. That's why I call Atty. Neri Colmenares is a hypocrite for bashing the Marcoses, while supporting the very policies that established the first Marcos Administration.

It doesn't matter if Filipino entrepreneurs use imported materials and equipment. The reality of the situation is that any creative Filipino entrepreneur views imported materials and equipment as a chance to increase the quality of Filipino-made products. The use of Grab and Foodpanda helped Filipino businesses survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. A pragmatic decision would be, "I don't care if the delivery service is owned by Filipinos, as long as it helps Filipinos." The Filipino entrepreneur who chooses to do food delivery via pushcarts would never outrun those who choose to use delivery services, like Grab and Foodpanda. Any creative entrepreneur focuses on the long-term value of what's available, whether they are Filipino or foreign. After all, trying to run a business with 100% Filipino made only wouldn't survive in today's modern age.

This is why I'd listen to the likes of Kishore Mahbubani and Mahathir Mohamad. The reason why I quote from old people is that I'm frequently challenged by stubborn boomers. Again, the problem isn't being a boomer but being a stubborn boomer. Mahbubani and Mohamad, both grandfathers, are saying, "You never stop learning." This is a far cry from Atty. Hilario Davide Jr. (who will turn 90 years old this December 20). Come on, Mohamad is 10 years older than Davide, but the guy is giving Filipinos more useful advice! Mahbubani is currently 77 years old, which may not be that much of a grandfather in my eyes as Mahathir would be. Given my age, Mahbubani is more of a father figure to me since he's only 37 years older, unlike Mohamad, who would be 60 years my senior.

The real point isn't about being a Filipino or a foreigner. The late Lee Kuan Yew took advice from the late Albert Winsemius. Communist Vietnam's economic minister, the late Nguyen Duy Cong, took advice from LKY. What has Pinoy Pride Economics done for the Philippines anyway?