Entrepeneurship vs mendicancy

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/04/2010



The Aquino III “working visit” to the US lasted for eight days. The daily reports of his hotdogs and hamburgers, photo ops of his walking in front of landmarks, and one or two gatherings with US-based Filipinos streamed into Manila’s front pages everyday that week. What is clear is that the PR machinery was working; but was Aquino III really working at all?

Three items highlighted that trip: (1) the US dole out agency, Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC), and its so-called $434 million grant (spread over five years) “for Aquino III’s compliance with anti-corruption standards;” (2) his seven minutes of glory chatting with Obama; and (3) the so-called $2.8 billion “investments” he claims to have brought home.

That the five-year MCC grant was released due to Aquino III’s anti-corruption credentials is an outright lie. This dole out has been flowing since 2003, going primarily to Mindanao projects where the US runs “conflict resolution” and “better governance” programs through the MCC, the US Agency for International Development (USAid), and groups such as the US Institute for Peace (USIP) led by J. Robinson West as Chairman, who is also head of PFC Energy (the US’ largest energy advisor).

If anything, this only reveals the pincer moves toward Uncle Sam’s goal: The capture of the oil, natural gas, and other resources of Mindanao through “peace” with the MILF and the establishment of a BangsaMoro Juridical Entity which Aquino III has given a positive spin lately.

Meanwhile, the promise of $2.8 billion in investments by a country that is now on the brink of financial and economic collapse is only fool’s gold, and Aquino III is bandying it about as if he had birds in hand. Well, his little birdies should have told him that the US’ promises to the Philippines have all been broken from the day it held sway over this Malay nation that was the first to succeed in an anti-colonial revolution, only to be betrayed when it was sold for $20 million.

Over the century that has passed, the US has already siphoned gold and other riches from the Philippine archipelago; utilized its strategic sea passages and harbors for imperial dominance and used our people as cannon fodder for the Second World War; aside from aborting the nation’s efforts toward industrialization through the Quirino, Garcia, and Marcos governments.

As we cringe at how Philippine media echoed the crowing of the Aquino III begging entourage, I am particularly incensed at one radio tandem that enthused over the reported $1-billion investment an American softdrink firm is supposed to make for “strengthening marketing execution and enhancing system logistics and delivery capabilities in order to better serve its expanding customer and consumer base” in the Philippines — which can only mean the proliferation of more diabetics in the Philippines!

Why, confusion even attended this announcement as Gloria Arroyo also boasted of a $1-billion investment in August of 2009. So the only thing new in this is the “press release.” And that’s why the soft drink company and Ricky Carandang stumbled over themselves to assure that it’s a new $1 billion coming.

It has often been said that “beggars cannot be choosers;” and that promises and illusions tide over the hunger by helping someone escape his dire realities. These are probably the reasons mendicancy, dependency, and escapism have become Aquino III’s answer to the national economic crisis, given the importance his government has placed on the begging-cum-propaganda mission.

Yet that’s what Filipinos have done decade after decade — waiting for manna from the Big Apple’s heaven while the rest of Asia started sailing away to become tiger economies in the 1980s and 1990s. This they’ve precisely done by shunning the beggar’s mindset while striving for self-reliance and economic development.

And as these are also the hallmarks of entrepreneurship, we ask: What if PeNoy never left for the US to gulp its hotdogs and burgers and just rolled up his sleeves to work on the nation’s farms and industries?

What if Aquino III sat down with the Philippine coconut industry and tapped the 330 million coconut trees for more than its crude oil, by adding nutra-ceuticals, pharmaceuticals, as well as industrial and ecological materials into the product mix, to multiply by five times the sector’s present $1-billion output?

What if Aquino III rolled up the hem of his pants and walked the rice paddies to figure out how to match China’s rice productivity of 6.6 tons per hectare and raise Philippine output from the present 3.8 tons?

What if Aquino III hunkers down with industrial and residential electricity consumers to formulate a plan to narrow the gap of electricity prices in the Philippines with that of our Asian neighbors to spur manufacturing and employment growth?

What if, instead of allowing Cesar Purisima to increase the national debt with bonds issued to his banker-masters, Aquino III sat down with groups such as the Freedom from Debt Coalition and worked on auditing the debt to cut down RP’s debt-servicing?

What if the country had an entrepreneurial instead of a mendicant political leadership? Wouldn’t that offer us a more dignified, promising, and progressive Philippines, especially for the next generation? Ah, but can a mendicant see beyond the crumbs laid out before him?

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