The recession that has hit so many parts of the world, in particular Japan and the United States, has had far-reaching effects on people reliant on these two economic giants in many ways. Everyone is familiar with the ‘big’ news, the slippage in the bourses, the dependency on foreign oil, the need to restructure industry giants such as the car companies and the mortgage problems facing the USA. However the Philippines have also suffered its share of “recession blues”.
Recently Philippine Air Lines began a service every day to Canada and the US whereas up until now service had been limited to four days a week in some cases, depending on the destination. Of course PAL played it up as being ‘new and better service’ to the public while in reality it is to facilitate the number of Filipino workers who have been laid off by their employers in several countries throughout the world, mainly Japan and The US and are returning home.
This is not helping the Philippine economy which is terminally unhealthy anyway. As a matter of fact it’s disastrous. Overseas workers, whom I mentioned last time account for between 16 and 20% of this nation’s economy are coming home in droves, cut loose as an expense no longer capable of being maintained by upper middle class Westerners. The Manila government is not in a hurry to expose this exodus. It controls the media and determines which news shall be made public and which shall stay under wraps and incidentally, which news shall be dreamed up and fed like candy to children.
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Little word is spread in the media regarding the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW’s) but it travels from house to house, village to village and city to city by word of mouth. The populace has absolutely no trust in its government and ignores the headlined stories of the latest word from Malacanang Palace — which they indeed should. Much of that information is nothing more than BS. The English Language Press op-ed columnists can print what they want and not risk the strong arm of President Arroyo and her thugs because few of the nearly 100-million Filipinos read English. The local language Press is filled with Beauty Contest winners and gossip plus ‘flower show’ events featuring Ms Arroyo and her husband Mike, the ‘first gentleman’, a noted criminal.
The English language writers are not considered dangerous as they are read by so few and it is merely their word again hers and after all, she is the President. But most Filipinos are aware of what goes on. I do not recall ever having spoken on the subject of The Philippine government with a knowledgeable Filipino who does not offer a guilty smile when asked if he or she is not aware of the extent of corruption which exists and controls his or her country by the heads of government. It is a way of life, inspired by the Spanish in the same manner as are most Spanish-colonized countries world-wide.
The problems caused by the return of the OFW’s are creating an increasing need for people to live on their own resources. In other words subsistence. Grow and raise your own food. With the money earned by this returning workforce cut off it is only to be expected the population must face hardship. However instead of assisting the people, the government merely increases taxes, and goes about working its scams in a variety of ways, most of them transparent to the public.
One example of this is companies that charge a premium on purchases made through the use of credit cards. Pay by cash and there is no problem however if you wish to put a large sum of money on, say, the purchase of an airline ticket and wish to use your credit card, some Travel Agencies will tack on an extra five percent. A recent check with the Credit Card company in Manila which oversees all major credit cards — MasterCard, Visa and American Express — yielded the news that such charges are not permitted. “We do not permit charging premiums” I was told.
However this particular travel Agency will simply say those are our rules and if you wish to buy your ticket using Visa you will have to pay the added amount. Completely illegal. Who’s going to call them on it and what would it get them? When one starts to add up all the OFW’s in the US, four million in that country alone some of who are now either back in the Philippines or about to be (many use a Philippine Travel Agency), the five percent surcharge amounts to a considerable sum. The premium is graft money. It is a scam — and one way the government can use to retrieve some of the money lost when OFW’s can no longer send the bulk of their pay-cheques home to be used within the borders of the Philippine Islands. The government merely squeezes the Travel Agent.
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The Philippines has been, as stated above, in the grip of Corruption since the Islands were discovered by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan — in service to the Spanish Crown — five hundred years ago. In the latter part of the 19th century, the Philippine aboriginal people grew restless under the rule of the brutal Spaniards and the greedy Roman Catholic Church both of who, in concert with each other, conspired to keep the Filipino native under bondage — poor and submissive. The people implored their one true hero, Jose Rizal to help them wrest control from their subjugators. Rizal declined saying, correctly as it turned out, that the people were not ready for revolution and any insurgency would only end in defeat.
Rizal’s two novels which told the story of the suffering Filipino people gave the Spanish all they needed to execute the man. He was shot for having written against the Spanish and the Roman Catholics. Rizal’s successor as national hero, Andres Bonafacio seen as defender of the poor, led a large movement against the Spanish in 1896; however he fell out with his own comrades of the upper class and was slaughtered in a bungled revolution.
Today, the Filipino people, many victims of the World recession, dream of a time when they might rule through honesty and do away with corrupt government. It will never happen. Since Ferdinand Marcos raped the county in the 70’s and was given permission to flee to Hawaii by the United States, the once proud South-East Asian tiger has dwindled to a despicable backwards slough largely due to a lack of sincere politics and led by a greedy would-be monarch, her lawless family and kow-towing members of a hopelessly inadequate Congress backed by the nation’s armed forces paid by Arroyo to defend her against a public who each day grows to despise her more.
It is inconceivable that such a person could remain in control of a country while dragging it down, an individual twice as unpopular as Marcos she is not even allowed to attend large church services for fear of public unrest. And while her countrymen come drifting back from the sinking ship which is The Western Recession one has to wonder just how long the Philippines can hold out.
Tags: Economy, Philippines
March 27, 2009 at 8:52 pm |
[...] Airlines increased its service in several countries which blogger Caswell Whiteside interpreted as a sign that more and more retrenched Filipino migrant workers are now returning home Recently [...]