I’d say the Philippines is like the Argentina of Asia.
We went from a rich country, once labeled as the Pearl of the Orient and a model for economic development in Asia. All these changed in the 1970s when then President, Ferdinand Marcos, declared martial law. While martial law gave the façade that the society was more disciplined and the city was more clean, it masked the true corruption and nepotism that was happening within the government and protests were heavily quelled.
The economic environment of the 70s was also not favorable as the oil crises kicked in which saw the Philippine Peso losing its fixed rate to the United States Dollar, forced to float by the IMF, and see the Philippine Peso commence its decline in terms of exchange rates. It was also during the 70s/80s that the US began an era of rapprochment with China under the Ping-Pong Diplomacy which saw the US slowly turn its eyes to cheap labor and resources to China over the Philippines.
During this time, US manufacturers had their factories in the Philippines including automobile manufacturing plants. The growing unrest in the Philippines, the poor economic background of the decade and the improving US-China relations saw these businesses closing down their Philippine plants and moving over to China. Quickly, the Philippines saw its raw materials and finished goods diminishing in terms of the money they brought in and the Philippine economy began to go south in the 80s.
The closing of US military bases in 1992 saw US troops leaving the Philippines and tourism falling to a new low as Americans who went to the Philippines for a vacation to see their spouses in service saw no need to visit the Philippines thereafter and protests and military coups continued into the Aquino Administration. It was also around the late 90s that China began to become richer and started to harrass the Philippines over the South China Sea. The Philippine economy proved to be improving as it favorably overcame the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 along with Singapore, experiencing only two or so quarters of negative growth. However, protests continued.
Today, the Philippine economy is steadily improving and is predicted to be the 19th biggest economy by 2050. However, the growing population due to the lack of birth control measures is outpacing the economy and sadly, the GDP per capita remains the lowest among the economies in ASEAN. As of now, the GDP per capita stands a little over US$3000. Most Filipinos continue to have no access to education and end up homeless and jobless who pass down this never-ending legacy to their children. Most of these families can have as many as seven children! It’s really a case of people being born into poverty.
And this is the thing. In the 70s, homelessness wasn’t a big issue as it is now. It was the false belief of the people then from the provinces who mistook living in the city as a way to enjoy wealth. Most of these people quickly saw that it was all a façade and their inability to return back to the provinces forced these people to live in slums especially in Tondo, Manila.
There’s still a long way to the predicted values of 2050 and things could change for the better or the worse. A Filipino in 1960 could’ve thought that the Philippines of the 2020 would be the richest or one of the richest in the region; that’s certainly not how history played out for the Philippine economy. Seeing old photos of Manila would give you this sense of dilemma as to how did the Philippines end up the way it is today?
Even the Manila of the 1960s could be on par with modern success cities like Melbourne and Toronto. Today, Manila can barely keep its game against Jakarta and Bangkok
Photos of Manila from the 1960s
And Manila, prior to World War 2 and the destruction it brought, once had a massive tram line that was the envy of all Asian countries.
Manila, 1920s
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