Militants tell Aquino: PHL not for sale

Shortly before leaving for Japan to attend a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), President Benigno Simeon Aquino III received a reminder from militants not to sell out the Philippines to foreign investors. The militant umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) voiced concerns that Aquino might support full economic liberalization and unhampered foreign investments that may harm the Philippine economy in the long run. Bayan also said it will lead a protest against the APEC on November 13. A report on dzBB radio said Aquino is due to leave for Japan for the APEC summit Thursday afternoon, and return on Monday, November 22. “The APEC is a dead end. Its neo-liberal economic policies have failed miserably to bring about real development especially for countries like the Philippines. These same neo-liberal policies have caused the global economic crisis we are facing today," Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes, Jr. said in a statement on the Bayan website. Reyes said it is "untenable" that Aquino continues to subscribe to neo-liberal globalization. "The Philippine president’s agenda seems to encourage the further opening up of the Philippine economy for more investments and foreign plunder instead of finding ways to develop our own economy on our own terms and for our own gain. It’s like saying the Philippines is for sale, cheap," he added. Bayan noted APEC's summit in Japan takes place during the worst global economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It noted APEC will also include “human security" and counter-terrorism in its agenda, following “terror alerts" by the US and three other APEC member economies against the Philippines. The other APEC member economies that issued travel warnings on terrorism against the Philippines included Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Bayan noted the Philippines has expressed interest in joining the free trade alliance, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership — which includes New Zealand, Singapore, Chile and Brunei — after the US also expressed interest in joining the group. It said the Philippine government is also expected to support moves for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. This aims to liberalize economies further and pick up from stalled Doha Round of the World Trade Organization. Major capitalist powers are trying to increase their exports to emerging economies as a way out of the current crisis, it noted. “In a time when globalization has wrought unprecedented damage to the global economy, the Philippine government should be putting the brakes on further liberalization of the domestic economy," Reyes said. "It should be rethinking the discredited economic paradigm that has cost millions of people their jobs and that has driven so many countries and people into bankruptcy. Aquino can even use the opportunity to notify the Japanese government of the problems of the Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA)," Reyes added. Bayan cited Philippine government figures showing the Philippine unemployment rate at 6.9% and underemployment at 17.9% as of July 2010. Economic growth for 2010 is projected by the OECD and WB to be at 6%, still lagging behind Southeast Asian neighbors. But it said the optimistic projections may be due to the economic activity during the previous national elections as well as the economic activity spurred by OFW remittances. "The Philippines is the fourth largest recipient of overseas remittances in the world, according a recent study by the World Bank. Some $21.3 billion in OFW remittances have entered the country this year," it said. It noted thataccording to the National Statistical Coordination Board the trade deficit for the first half of the year reached P10.9 billion . Bayan also chided Malacañang for claiming Aquino will promote “balanced and sustainable knowledge-based growth that would prevent the widening gap between rich and the poor people and between advanced and developed countries, take care of the environment and natural resources, and use new technology to speed up progress" during the APEC summit. “The Aquino agenda is a photocopy of the APEC agenda. It does not address the fundamental inequalities between developed and developing countries. This inequality will intensify now that the great economic powers are trying to recover from the crisis at the expense of the working people of the world," Reyes said. Bayan said the APEC summit will be another occasion to promote Aquino’s private-public-partnership which has been touted as the way out of the fiscal crisis and a path towards development. “We oppose the private-public partnership thrust of the Aquino government. The PPP’s will only open up our economy to greater foreign plunder and exploitation. The alleged benefits will be severely outweighed by the long-term negative effects such as bigger public debt and profiteering by the private firms. Our history is replete with failed privatization projects," Reyes said. Bayan said economic development for the Philippines should be grounded on a program of national industrialization and genuine land reform. These steps, Bayan said, are necessary to address rural poverty. This will also make the country a self-reliant economy that would be free from dependency on foreign loans and foreign remittances, Bayan added. –VVP, GMANews.TV