“There have been persistent inequity in global governance,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said in his speech on Tuesday, October 5, at the 15th meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). This comes after his claim to call for a “new world order” that is no longer for some, but for all—as developing countries have always been the foremost beneficiaries of the profound impact of globalization in exchange for submission to foreign interests protected and managed by native elites. The Philippines, being one of the recipients of detrimental effects of neoliberalism, must emancipate itself from faux developments being enforced by the system in attaining not just new, yet genuine world order.
One of the three pillars of Philippine Foreign Policy as Republic Act No. 7157 stipulated, is the ‘promotion and attainment of economic security’ thus, negotiations with UNCTAD are inevitable as it mandates to promote and expand trade, investment, and development in developing countries.
To seek such development yields consequences of liberalization, privatization, and deregulation, which consistently sided with the elites and oligarchs at the expense of the marginalized.
Perpetuation of such tenets is no longer a surprise since complacency has been the brand of every administration in the government—solely putting their trust and fate on foreign countries and in self-regulating markets to attain economic prosperity.
Try to picture it, one of the major players in the electric power industry in the Philippines is the Lopezes and their Manila Electric Company (MERALCO), holding 80% of the market. On the other hand, the Pangilinans (also one of the owners of MERALCO and TV5) dominate the telecommunication market with their Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT). Moreover, the largest oil refining and marketing company is Petron Corporation, owned by San Miguel Corporation (SMC) of Cojuancos (but currently dominated by Angs—one of the prominent businessmen who is affiliated with environment-deteriorating projects such as Pasig River Expressway (PAREX) and SMC Airport, which led to ‘Save Taliptalip Movement’.
Public utilities being privatized and deregulated contributes to the inaccessibility of these services for the majority of the Filipinos; therefore, putting each one foot of every Filipino family in the grave as they carry the eternal burden of not affording their immediate necessities.
Diving deeper, trade liberalization may be visualized by seeing rampant harvested crops or rice either being thrown away, leaving farmers to earn breakeven or worse, succumb themselves to bankruptcy while seeing imported products patronized by the majority. As breaches of barriers and borders become permissible, it gradually inflicts insecurity and demise of local industries causing starvation of hope and opportunity to meet ends daily.
New world order is not something that one should solicit for, but it must be asserted for. It will not be solved by complete submission and reliance on countries that have left remnants of dysphoria in the system. As the Philippines trudges its path to development, it must break ‘fair conditions’ with other countries through implementing independent foreign policy and pursue pro-people development, which would not compromise human rights and lives to serve the interest of the few.
It must be clear, hospitality should not go up to a certain extent of exploitation among the Filipino people. New world order will be permissible by the time the government accepts the decaying results of the tenets of neoliberalism which offer exclusive benefits only for the few.
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Written by: Jennifer Balgos Layout and Design by: Dan Kurt Buenaventura
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