Pinoy Pride Economics Helps in Drug Mule Recruitment

Al Jazeera

Who can remember the execution of three drug mules in China on March 30, 2011? These were three separate cases where the three convicts were Sally Villanueva, Ramon Credo (who was cremated before his remains were brought home, and Elizabeth Batain (whose face was never shown). Sally had an episode in the GMA-7 TV show Magpakailanman, where her husband was personally interviewed by Mel Tiangco. We never got Sally on the big screen. The husband's side of the story said that his wife was guilty of a frame-up, while Mel herself said, "If the offer is too good to be true, don't take it, or you could end up in the same pickle." Take note that I'm just paraphrasing Mel's words, not saying the words she said. 

Reviewing the three drug mules who got arrested, based only on what's available for public viewing on the Internet

If we read through the circumstances, this is how they were arrested, proving they weren't a trio:

China has brushed aside appeals for clemency and executed three Philippine citizens arrested in 2008 for smuggling heroin into the country.

Philippine Vice-President Jejomar Binay said he had received word of the executions on Wednesday from Philippine diplomats.

The two women and one man were arrested separately carrying packages containing at least 4kg (8lb) of the drug.

They were allowed to see their families before their executions.

Elizabeth Batain, 38, was executed at a prison in the southern city of Shenzhen.

Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, 32, and Ramon Credo, 42, were put to death in the port city of Xiamen.

They were the first Filipinos to be executed in China for drug trafficking, Philippine officials said.

The families of two of the prisoners had sent open letters appealing for clemency, arguing they had been duped by others.

But China's foreign ministry said drug trafficking was a serious offence and that justice had been served.

That may explain why they never got a big screen, unlike Flor Contemplacion. Ramon's ashes were probably and silently moved back to his loved ones. Ramon's cremation was probably done because it's easier to sneak an urn than an entire coffin. Elizabeth's body was probably had the most discrete way of being moved back. I heard Elizabeth's relatives requested a media blackout from the Department of Foreign Affairs. This may explain why we never got The Ramon Credo story or the Elizabeth Batain story in theaters. No claims of torture were made either. Even Sally's case never had a fantastic narrative that could stir emotions against China!

Why I believe these cases were a result of Pinoy Pride economics

It's easy to say to punish the drug syndicates. Some may even blame the Chinese government. However, real talk, the Chinese Communist Party has very strict rules against drug dealing. We need to think not just about how to hunt down the drug syndicates, but also about why they still multiply like Hydra heads. We can arrest all the Tita Cacayans (Tita Cacayan is the identity of Sally's recruiter) but what allowed the likes of them to flourish? Why is it that drug dealers and POGO machineries ended up entering the Philippines and built their bases much stronger? I don't think the controversial Alice Guo, aka Guo Huaping, would've built the Baofu compound in such a short amount of time either! 

People can keep shouting about Pinoy Pride to justify the Filipino First Policy. They refuse to face one simple truth. Pinoy Pride Economics has a high socio-economic cost. Business World writer, economist Andrew J. Masigan, also said this last 2021 during the pandemic five years ago:

The restrictive provisions of the constitution have held back the country’s development for more than 30 years. From the 1980s up to the close of the century, countries like Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand leapfrogged economically on the back of a deluge foreign direct investments (FDIs). During that period, the Philippines share of regional FDIs was a paltry 3% in good years and 2% in normal years. The flawed economic laws of the constitution are largely to blame for this. Lately, Vietnam has taken the lion’s share of FDIs, leaving the Philippines in the dust.

See, embedded in the 1987 constitutions is a list of industries in which foreigners are precluded from participation. These industries include agriculture, public utilities, transportation, retail, construction, media, and education, among others. (For those unaware, these industries are collectively known as “the negative list”). Apart from depriving the country of forex investments, technology transfer and job opportunities, the lack of competition from abroad has created monopolies and oligopolies owned by a handful of families. These families earn scandalous profits even though they are inefficient.

Our flawed economic laws are the reason why our agricultural sector has not industrialized and why food security eludes us. It is why our manufacturing sector has not fully developed. It is why we lost the opportunity to be Asia’s entertainment and production capital despite our Americanized culture (Netflix located its Asian headquarters in Singapore, Disney in Malaysia, MTV in Hong Kong, and Paramount Studios in Taiwan). It is why our education standards have remained embarrassingly behind the rest of the world.

The constitution limits foreigners from owning more than 40% equity share in corporations. In addition, foreigners are barred from owning land. These provisions have caused us to lose-out on big-ticket investments which would have made all the difference in job and revenue generation. Not too long ago, we lost a multi-billion dollar investment from a US auto manufacturing company which instead went to Thailand. We lost a multi-billion smartphone plant by Samsung which went to Vietnam. Limiting equity ownership to a minority stake and prohibiting land ownership is a great disincentive for companies investing in large manufacturing plants with a useful life of more than 50 years. Land is used as equity for business financing and to take this away from the business model is enough reason for investors to take their business elsewhere.

This creates the problem. Many Filipinos want more jobs and higher salaries. However, the real problem is that a salary increase is also dependent on the supply-demand mechanics. We need to look at this statement from Corporate Finance Institute:

Supply and Demand in the Job Market

Similar to the markets of goods and services, job markets also follow the supply-demand mechanism. When the quantity of workers demanded is equal to the labor force available (the quantity of supply), the job market reaches its equilibrium point, and wages can be determined.

The wage level rises when the demand is greater than the supply and lowers when the supply exceeds the demand for workers. However,wages cannot always move freely. There is often a floor determined by the government, which is known as the minimum wage.

When the equilibrium wage is above the minimum wage level, introducing a minimum wage will not lead to a major impact on the job market. When a minimum wage is established at a level higher than the equilibrium wage, the quantity of demand will fall as businesses will instead try to control their labor costs by reducing the number of employees.

The quantity of supply increases as there are more active job seekers motivated by the higher wage level. It forms a gap between supply and demand and thus, leads to unemployment. Despite this drawback, the minimum wage policy can provide both economic and social benefits. By increasing the wages of low-income workers, the government can reduce its spending on social programs to support these individuals and relieve the economic inequality at the same time.

 

The big problem is that Migrante International continues to oppose opening up the country to FDI. It's probable that the whole The Flor Contemplacion Story movie was an anti-FDI narrative. The movie was probably meant to send a message: "If the Filipinos open the business to foreigners, foreigners will treat us like they treat Flor." The statements above by Joanna Concepcion are outdated. Communist Vietnam already abandoned it. I must even wonder how Migrante Internationale views FDI as an organization.A shame that Joanna has benefited from living in an FDI-friendly country, and Migrante has branches around the world. However, Joanna still has third-world economics in her mindset. 

If we think about it, it's much easier to manipulate people when they become desperate 

From what I heard, Ramon was an unemployed father. I watched the Magpakailanman episode where Sally was featured, and her husband was the consultant. Sally wanted to help get her children to finish school as planned. Sadly, the children finished school but their mother was no longer physicall present with them. It's a sad tragedy when you think about it. What led to Sally getting recuited by this Tita Cacayan? It's because there's a sense of desperation. Jobs in the Philippines don't pay much vs. the jobs abroad. However, the jobs abroad may not even be enough to secure the bills that are sent back to the OFW family.  

If there's one thing to think about, it's that undernourished people are easy to manipulate. It's only natural that when people are poor, eating three healthy meals a day is almost impossible. What happens next is that hunger comes next. It becomes easy to manipulate hungry people. If there's a lack of nutrients, the brain couldn't perform properly, no matter how you yell at the poor person, to use one's brain properly. I can just imagine how these drug mules were probably having real sob stories of their inability to eat three times a day.

Pinoy Pride Economics ends up accelerating the problem. If a legitimate job barely pays money, then you know where it ends. A person tries to get rich being honest, but again, there's always the intergenerational poverty. People can end up looking for shortcuts when the chances of going from rags to riches are much lower. During the time when the late Henry Sy Sr. and the late John Gokongwei Jr. built their empires, the chances of doing so were higher because the Philippines was under better economic conditions. However, as time passed, these rags-to-riches stories became lower and lower because the conditions changed over time. How can you expect Filipinos to actually get better if employment opportunities are lower?

That's why the promise of a huge monthly salary by just "carrying stuff" becomes more appealing. Perhaps, I can also say that a job as a drug mule becomes more "exciting" too. Why work a legal job that pays you less when this new job "gives you more"? Well, it's easy to post posters asking drug mules, "Aren't you thinking of other people's children? What if your children get into drugs?" It's a common Filipino flaw to say that as long as it's not their children, then it's okay with them to do such filthy actions. However, a mind that's desperate for survival has lower chances of thinking straight. It's useless posting that stuff if the people being told are in an environment where chances of survival (legally) become so slim that illegal businesses that pay much more, become all too appealing regardless of danger.