BACKBENCHER
Rod Kapunan
8/13-14/2011
Should the government panel agree to the suggestion advanced by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front on the creation of a sub-state? The Moros would have gotten what they wanted without firing a single bullet or shedding a drop of blood. We say this because a sub-state, by any political and functional definition, is a state made to exist alongside the state from which it will be carved out. Its existence within the sovereign jurisdiction of a state is the last thing embattled states would do as they struggle to keep intact their national territory would do.
The so-called “concession” advanced by MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal—that the government would still be in control over national defense, foreign relations and currency—is pure nonsense. The fiction of a sub-state could easily be set aside once the other contracting party sees it fit to drop the agreement. There is no way we could withdraw our recognition. Maybe we can scrap it, but definitely not on its status. After all, the term is only a political icing one could easily set aside.
Such is the implication: there would be international recognition that indeed a state existed within a state. Thus, even if the agreement is revoked, those demarcated areas identified as sub-state will remain as such with all the trappings and elements of a state. This observation is not meant to douse cold water to the current peace initiative, but is intended to put the process in proper perspective. This is to negotiate from within the framework of our national sovereignty and Constitution.
It means that no negotiations should take place that would allow the other party to slice a portion of our national territory just to accommodate peace by appeasement. This has to be emphasized for there is no such thing as sub-state under international law. Whoever conceived that clearly wants to entrap the government into recognizing a state, functioning and operating well within its own national borders. Although the word “state” will be hyphenated with the word “sub”, there is nothing that could prevent other states sympathetic to it from elevating and recognizing that area into a full state.
By contrasting the term “state” from that of a “province” or “autonomous” area or region, one could easily visualize what we are trying to drive at. Political subdivisions termed as “province” or “autonomous region” are not necessary components to the creation of a bigger political subdivision called “state.” Even without that political subdivision or demarcation, a state could exist. But when political subdivisions are elevated to the level of a state, their status could invariably and effectively destroy the state. Either it is dissolved, or it loses a portion of its territory.
This explains why in all instances where people in a given political subdivision aspire to become a state, that process is often resolved in a bloody civil war or war for national liberation. In that instance, the seceding province or autonomous region must win. If it loses, it reverts to its status as an integral political component of that state.
It is on this score why it is politically anachronistic and suicidal for the Philippines to accede to the MILF’s suggestion. The creation of a landlocked Kosovo-type state in Mindanao could complicate the problem with possibly gangster-like international organizations as NATO savagely bombing this country allegedly to prevent another genocidal cleansing.
In fact, creating a sub-state is far worse than giving the MILF a status of belligerency. Belligerency status is extended only if it has become apparent that the rebels have shown the capacity to secede, while it has become untenable for the state seeking to contain the rebellion to regain those territories back to its jurisdictional control.
Such is evident once the rebels have achieved the strategic stalemate in their war against the government. Hence, the recognition of a belligerency status is intended to facilitate the exchange of prisoners and to give assurance that both sides observe the Geneva Convention on Warfare and the Protocol on the Treatment of Prisoners.
In the case of the MILF, it has yet to achieve that level. Its members remain roving rebel bands moving from one place to another, collecting taxes by intimidation, and at times engaging in outright pillage. For their failure to achieve that crucial status, their representatives would now want to shortcut the whole thing by suggesting the creation of a “sub-government” in areas they have yet to firmly control.
Complicating that is the fact that the MILF is not the only Islamic faction wanting to secede, and that does not include the extremist Abu Sayaff to which it has denied links. Worse, this motley band of badgering rebels is not even recognized by the Organization of Islamic States.
Paradoxically, should the government seal a peace pact with the MILF, that would be tantamount to concluding one conflict—but only to promptly renew our conflict with the Moro National Liberation Front. That could put us back to square one, because the Tausug-dominated MNLF nurtures deep resentment toward the MILF for its cozy alliance with Malaysia.
Although originally, former MNLF chairman Nur Misuari and his cohorts wanted to secede, using as their alibi the so-called Marcos dictatorship, their benefactors from Malaya, with the help of the British, insidiously mapped out a strategy to colonize their ancestral homeland. So, while the Tausug-dominated MNLFs were fighting a bloody secessionist war in Sulu and Basilan, the Malays from the Asian peninsula were forcibly integrating Sabah into the British-sponsored Federation of Malaysia.
Having realized the treachery made by the Malays and the British, the Tausugs found themselves no different from the Palestinians forcibly evicted from their homeland by the Zionists, with their former patron now shifting their support to the MILF. This explains why the MILF has not gained foothold in Sulu, Basilan and Palawan. The MNLF see in the leadership of the MILF as stooge of the Malays, and the idea of a sub-state is the same ploy intended to dismember this country with the Filipino Muslims divided in their obsession to recover Sabah.
Taking this backdrop of what a sub-state is, it is of no wonder why peace in Mindanao has remained elusive. This of course is the consequence of our indecisiveness to implement a genuine autonomy for our Muslim bothers. Remember, autonomy, rightly understood, is a political status of privilege given to inhabitants in an area. It is not ordinarily given to any province or region, and is meant to accelerate development and equalize economic opportunities without necessarily creating a new social class. It is this line that the government panel must pursue if it wants to achieve an honorable and lasting peace for our people in Mindanao.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
CCP imbroglio, a distraction
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/12/2011
Emily Abrera, chairman of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), defended the explosively controversial “Kulo” exhibit by saying that one of an artist’s duties is to “challenge prevailing beliefs.” Prelates and politicians, however, would not be assuaged and threats flew — from slashing the CCP’s budget to zero to excommunicating the Center’s culpable officials.
CCP visual arts director, Karen Ocampo-Flores, later submitted her resignation on the pointed end of the artist’s brush so to speak. But when I looked at the so-called “blasphemous” or “offensive” depiction of a penis and ashtray for the nose of a figure unmistakably representing Jesus Christ, that piece of art didn’t look so offensive to me at all (except that I’ve not been a believer for decades now). The artist indeed challenged prevailing beliefs in Philippine society; and the subsequent “Inquisition” only proved it was an immense success.
In a way, Roman Catholicism had set itself up for this. How often has the Church been castigated by other Christian denominations for its use of physical symbols — anthropomorphic at that — believed to be a blatant form of idolatry since early Christianity, which the Bible severely condemns?
This idolatry is, in fact, considered the real blasphemy based on one of the Ten Commandments:
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments (Exodus 20:4-7).”
Instead, what the Catholic Church promotes is the proliferation of mostly ceramic or wooden anthropomorphic figures that populate countless altars in churches and homes; dashboards of jeepneys, buses, and trucks; Catholic school hallways; nooks and crannies of disheveled squatter homes; and packed whorehouse dormitories, where the poorest or the poor pray amid their poverty and squalor.
If the Catholic Church were to give this up, how much in sales of ceramic and wooden idols, crosses, Mama Mary’s, Santo Niño’s and images of saints would be lost? Tens of millions of pesos, that’s what — raked in by Church-linked businesses that peddle these to the faithful. In that sense, these “idols” are indeed sacred… as profit centers!
It certainly is no different from the Jesuits’ “veneration” of their darling CEO, whom they even offered to be enthroned on the altar of their elitist school for his so-called “accomplishments.”
But then, how could they not when media reported just this week that “Meralco, Maynilad lift MPIC profit” by at least 25 percent through “Higher tariffs at Maynilad and Meralco… (that offset) the slight decline in the contribution from MPTC (Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.) following the expiry of its income tax holiday last year,” which are, in short, from our highest power rates in Asia and one of our highest water rates in the region?
Moreover, even as the Catholic Church and its acolytes in the legislature took up arms over a wooden penis, there is absolutely no “fire and brimstone” over the P80 billion in new loans the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. is taking on to keep itself running; this, after siphoning off around $18 billion in 10 years of privatization proceeds without reducing the National Power Corp. (Napocor)’s original debt of $18 billion.
While a fellow Atenean of the Jesuits’ favorite CEO, Rep. Erin Tañada, was heard issuing a token comment on the issue, we don’t expect much since his family is believed to enjoy close ties with a major player in that industry since time immemorial.
Oh, another very Catholic “person for others” from that elite university, Rep. Dina Abad, graciously “helps” the poor as House energy committee chairman by extending the “lifeline rate” subsidy to those who consume below P99/kWh a month but charges this to every average paying Meralco customer while saving her own P382 million pork barrel to herself, with not a single centavo channeled to her beloved poor consumers, whom her heart supposedly bleeds for.
But should that still come as a surprise when other “men for others,” such as high officials of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), are doing very good work too? In their case, though, “others” only refer to bankers.
Despite RP’s foreign exchange reserves hitting $70 billion with our foreign debt still standing at $52 billion (according to BizNewsAsia’s Tony Lopez) or $60 billion (from what I monitor), those Jesuit acolytes continue to uphold annual debt service of up to P800 billion (or around $9 billion) when paying off that debt entirely will still leave the country with enough reserves ($10 to $18 billion) to cover three months of imports as required internationally.
And despite the howls of pain of OFWs, exporters, and business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, the BSP chief still hailed the US’ debt woes and the strengthening of the peso, claiming that this will bring in more foreign capital to the Philippines, when the Philippines already has enough capital of its own (as we cited in previous columns).
We can go on and on about the issues that really matter. But, as long as many of the Catholic prelates and their acolytes in the Senate and House are silent about these and continue to figure in imbroglios that distract public attention, they, in effect — to put it in symbolic terms — are merely sticking their middle finger on all of us Filipinos.
(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, on “Mis-Rule of Law: From Edsa Dos to MILF Substate,” with Atty. Alan Paguia, Saturday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/12/2011
Emily Abrera, chairman of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), defended the explosively controversial “Kulo” exhibit by saying that one of an artist’s duties is to “challenge prevailing beliefs.” Prelates and politicians, however, would not be assuaged and threats flew — from slashing the CCP’s budget to zero to excommunicating the Center’s culpable officials.
CCP visual arts director, Karen Ocampo-Flores, later submitted her resignation on the pointed end of the artist’s brush so to speak. But when I looked at the so-called “blasphemous” or “offensive” depiction of a penis and ashtray for the nose of a figure unmistakably representing Jesus Christ, that piece of art didn’t look so offensive to me at all (except that I’ve not been a believer for decades now). The artist indeed challenged prevailing beliefs in Philippine society; and the subsequent “Inquisition” only proved it was an immense success.
In a way, Roman Catholicism had set itself up for this. How often has the Church been castigated by other Christian denominations for its use of physical symbols — anthropomorphic at that — believed to be a blatant form of idolatry since early Christianity, which the Bible severely condemns?
This idolatry is, in fact, considered the real blasphemy based on one of the Ten Commandments:
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments (Exodus 20:4-7).”
Instead, what the Catholic Church promotes is the proliferation of mostly ceramic or wooden anthropomorphic figures that populate countless altars in churches and homes; dashboards of jeepneys, buses, and trucks; Catholic school hallways; nooks and crannies of disheveled squatter homes; and packed whorehouse dormitories, where the poorest or the poor pray amid their poverty and squalor.
If the Catholic Church were to give this up, how much in sales of ceramic and wooden idols, crosses, Mama Mary’s, Santo Niño’s and images of saints would be lost? Tens of millions of pesos, that’s what — raked in by Church-linked businesses that peddle these to the faithful. In that sense, these “idols” are indeed sacred… as profit centers!
It certainly is no different from the Jesuits’ “veneration” of their darling CEO, whom they even offered to be enthroned on the altar of their elitist school for his so-called “accomplishments.”
But then, how could they not when media reported just this week that “Meralco, Maynilad lift MPIC profit” by at least 25 percent through “Higher tariffs at Maynilad and Meralco… (that offset) the slight decline in the contribution from MPTC (Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.) following the expiry of its income tax holiday last year,” which are, in short, from our highest power rates in Asia and one of our highest water rates in the region?
Moreover, even as the Catholic Church and its acolytes in the legislature took up arms over a wooden penis, there is absolutely no “fire and brimstone” over the P80 billion in new loans the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. is taking on to keep itself running; this, after siphoning off around $18 billion in 10 years of privatization proceeds without reducing the National Power Corp. (Napocor)’s original debt of $18 billion.
While a fellow Atenean of the Jesuits’ favorite CEO, Rep. Erin Tañada, was heard issuing a token comment on the issue, we don’t expect much since his family is believed to enjoy close ties with a major player in that industry since time immemorial.
Oh, another very Catholic “person for others” from that elite university, Rep. Dina Abad, graciously “helps” the poor as House energy committee chairman by extending the “lifeline rate” subsidy to those who consume below P99/kWh a month but charges this to every average paying Meralco customer while saving her own P382 million pork barrel to herself, with not a single centavo channeled to her beloved poor consumers, whom her heart supposedly bleeds for.
But should that still come as a surprise when other “men for others,” such as high officials of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), are doing very good work too? In their case, though, “others” only refer to bankers.
Despite RP’s foreign exchange reserves hitting $70 billion with our foreign debt still standing at $52 billion (according to BizNewsAsia’s Tony Lopez) or $60 billion (from what I monitor), those Jesuit acolytes continue to uphold annual debt service of up to P800 billion (or around $9 billion) when paying off that debt entirely will still leave the country with enough reserves ($10 to $18 billion) to cover three months of imports as required internationally.
And despite the howls of pain of OFWs, exporters, and business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, the BSP chief still hailed the US’ debt woes and the strengthening of the peso, claiming that this will bring in more foreign capital to the Philippines, when the Philippines already has enough capital of its own (as we cited in previous columns).
We can go on and on about the issues that really matter. But, as long as many of the Catholic prelates and their acolytes in the Senate and House are silent about these and continue to figure in imbroglios that distract public attention, they, in effect — to put it in symbolic terms — are merely sticking their middle finger on all of us Filipinos.
(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, on “Mis-Rule of Law: From Edsa Dos to MILF Substate,” with Atty. Alan Paguia, Saturday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Currencies and Consumers 101
CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/8-14/2011
Our currency fluctuates in value simply because the value of the US dollar, which the peso follows, one way or another, also fluctuates.
But is that the case for all currencies or moneys?
Market Forces
Unfortunately, for many laymen, it somehow gets convoluted even when, actually, the answer is “No.” Not all currencies fluctuate just because the dollar fluctuates.
Some currencies, like the yuan of the People’s Republic of China and the ringgit of Malaysia, don’t fluctuate as wildly as our peso does. That’s because the governments of those two countries exercise currency controls to decide on how they want their currencies to be valued.
In contrast, monetary authorities in the Philippines depend on so-called “market forces” and intervene only by buying or selling dollars in our local market, to the detriment of many consumers.
Mainstream newspapers reported a few months ago, “Aquino: Strong peso sign of improving economy.”
If it were only that simple, then we wouldn’t have heard the clamor of an overwhelming majority of our country’s economic sectors -- from exporters, OFW families, business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, among many others -- for government to do something about the appreciating peso.
Imports can be Cheaper
Does P-Noy know that when the peso appreciated against the dollar as the US was theatrically locked in its “debt ceiling impasse,” Filipino OFW families, BPOs, and exporters lost P70 billion for each peso's rise?
That means, when our currency appreciated by two pesos the past week, all three sectors sustained a staggering loss of P140 billion.
No wonder our OpinYon colleague Liza Gaspar, who earns by helping Canadians and Americans fix their tax and finance chores via the Internet, claims to have lost half her income already.
The supposed benefit from an appreciating peso and a devaluing dollar is that imports would become cheaper.
But, as our regular e-mail correspondent Ferdie Pasion heatedly complains about, fuel, electricity, water, toll fees, transport, and other consumer basics, which have foreign exchange components, don’t go down at all.
And that’s the other half of the loss of purchasing power which the likes of Liza Gaspar complain about, too.
What’s Eating our Pockets?
Why is it that despite the appreciation of the peso, inflation continues to zoom to stratospheric heights, eating up Filipino consumers’ pockets?
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima was heard explaining, “Old stocks (of fuel and oil) bought at the previous exchange rate” are to blame.
But then, when the exchange rate goes down in favor of lower imports, the international oil behemoths and speculators find a new way to raise prices either by using war or the latest shortage scare as an excuse (always manipulating the situation to their advantage).
Another problem with the fluctuating exchange rate, or the “floating currency exchange” rate (versus the controlled currency exchange rate), is that the speculators (bankers and investment managers alike) take advantage of or create the fluctuations themselves to earn windfall profits.
By the way, most of our monetary managers are themselves former bankers, fund managers, or executives of such speculating companies.
Paradise for Fund Managers
After the recent dive of the dollar, this report came out in the papers, “Peso declines after investors book profits… THE PESO took a breather from its northward trek against the dollar after investors took profits.
“The local currency shed 22.5 centavos to settle at P42.15 per dollar yesterday against its P41.925-per-dollar close last Monday.
“Traders yesterday said investors took profits from the peso, which surged to as high as the P41-per-dollar territory on Monday, after they flocked to emerging markets amid the euro zone and US debt problems.”
Right now, the Philippine economic and financial system is designed as a paradise for bankers and financial speculators, where these financial managers are a protected species.
Filipino First
The top honchos of the Department of Finance and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) were with Gloria Arroyo then, but are now as much with P-Noy.
BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco has just gotten another six years despite the dismal performance of his institution in protecting Filipino citizens and consumers from the ravages of international financial scams, such as the 2008 crash and current currency gyrations.
For a sure answer to all these peso-dollar problems, Filipinos only need to look back at the “Filipino First Policy” of President Carlos P. Garcia.
Back then, he, along with Central Bank Gov. Mike Cuaderno, maintained “currency and capital controls” to maintain the value of the peso at a level consistent with the welfare of the economy, the people, and the national economic development plan.
Such policy of “currency and capital controls” was the same thing that saved Malaysia from the ravages of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis caused by the attack of mega-speculator George Soros on the Thai baht and other Asian currencies.
Mahathir was Right
The IMF-WB, Time, Newsweek, Fortune magazine etc., and, locally, the late Max Soliven, Alex Magno, the Habitos and Paderangas, all lambasted Mohammad Mahathir, whom I probably was the only Filipino writer to defend.
Before long, Mahathir was proven right as his country sailed through the financial storm, safely docking as one of the premier economies of the ASEAN.
But, to institute currency and capital controls, one must have an enlightened, competent, and militantly nationalist political leadership alongside a banking system that is firmly under the control of that leadership.
If not, massive leakages (such as the capital flight instigated by the Makati-based banks during the time of Marcos) can only follow.
When Usury was a Crime
Unfortunately, mainstream media and the educational system in the Philippines have kept the Filipino public illiterate on matters of national finance by continuously conspiring to create the wrong impression that such matters are best left to “experts” (like Winnie Monsod and company).
They deliberately obfuscate the basic principles and issues to make the population blind and acquiescent even when the financial system and the economy adversely affect them.
Remember the term “usury” that was once taught in school as a “sin” and a “crime” against our national laws? Now that’s been forgotten.
We need to restore such an understanding as the basis of a productive, dynamic, and fair Philippine economic system.
A revolution of the mind is needed to provide the impetus -- leading to a nationalist leadership that will reinstitute “currency and capital controls” for the nation’s good.
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/8-14/2011
Our currency fluctuates in value simply because the value of the US dollar, which the peso follows, one way or another, also fluctuates.
But is that the case for all currencies or moneys?
Market Forces
Unfortunately, for many laymen, it somehow gets convoluted even when, actually, the answer is “No.” Not all currencies fluctuate just because the dollar fluctuates.
Some currencies, like the yuan of the People’s Republic of China and the ringgit of Malaysia, don’t fluctuate as wildly as our peso does. That’s because the governments of those two countries exercise currency controls to decide on how they want their currencies to be valued.
In contrast, monetary authorities in the Philippines depend on so-called “market forces” and intervene only by buying or selling dollars in our local market, to the detriment of many consumers.
Mainstream newspapers reported a few months ago, “Aquino: Strong peso sign of improving economy.”
If it were only that simple, then we wouldn’t have heard the clamor of an overwhelming majority of our country’s economic sectors -- from exporters, OFW families, business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, among many others -- for government to do something about the appreciating peso.
Imports can be Cheaper
Does P-Noy know that when the peso appreciated against the dollar as the US was theatrically locked in its “debt ceiling impasse,” Filipino OFW families, BPOs, and exporters lost P70 billion for each peso's rise?
That means, when our currency appreciated by two pesos the past week, all three sectors sustained a staggering loss of P140 billion.
No wonder our OpinYon colleague Liza Gaspar, who earns by helping Canadians and Americans fix their tax and finance chores via the Internet, claims to have lost half her income already.
The supposed benefit from an appreciating peso and a devaluing dollar is that imports would become cheaper.
But, as our regular e-mail correspondent Ferdie Pasion heatedly complains about, fuel, electricity, water, toll fees, transport, and other consumer basics, which have foreign exchange components, don’t go down at all.
And that’s the other half of the loss of purchasing power which the likes of Liza Gaspar complain about, too.
What’s Eating our Pockets?
Why is it that despite the appreciation of the peso, inflation continues to zoom to stratospheric heights, eating up Filipino consumers’ pockets?
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima was heard explaining, “Old stocks (of fuel and oil) bought at the previous exchange rate” are to blame.
But then, when the exchange rate goes down in favor of lower imports, the international oil behemoths and speculators find a new way to raise prices either by using war or the latest shortage scare as an excuse (always manipulating the situation to their advantage).
Another problem with the fluctuating exchange rate, or the “floating currency exchange” rate (versus the controlled currency exchange rate), is that the speculators (bankers and investment managers alike) take advantage of or create the fluctuations themselves to earn windfall profits.
By the way, most of our monetary managers are themselves former bankers, fund managers, or executives of such speculating companies.
Paradise for Fund Managers
After the recent dive of the dollar, this report came out in the papers, “Peso declines after investors book profits… THE PESO took a breather from its northward trek against the dollar after investors took profits.
“The local currency shed 22.5 centavos to settle at P42.15 per dollar yesterday against its P41.925-per-dollar close last Monday.
“Traders yesterday said investors took profits from the peso, which surged to as high as the P41-per-dollar territory on Monday, after they flocked to emerging markets amid the euro zone and US debt problems.”
Right now, the Philippine economic and financial system is designed as a paradise for bankers and financial speculators, where these financial managers are a protected species.
Filipino First
The top honchos of the Department of Finance and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) were with Gloria Arroyo then, but are now as much with P-Noy.
BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco has just gotten another six years despite the dismal performance of his institution in protecting Filipino citizens and consumers from the ravages of international financial scams, such as the 2008 crash and current currency gyrations.
For a sure answer to all these peso-dollar problems, Filipinos only need to look back at the “Filipino First Policy” of President Carlos P. Garcia.
Back then, he, along with Central Bank Gov. Mike Cuaderno, maintained “currency and capital controls” to maintain the value of the peso at a level consistent with the welfare of the economy, the people, and the national economic development plan.
Such policy of “currency and capital controls” was the same thing that saved Malaysia from the ravages of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis caused by the attack of mega-speculator George Soros on the Thai baht and other Asian currencies.
Mahathir was Right
The IMF-WB, Time, Newsweek, Fortune magazine etc., and, locally, the late Max Soliven, Alex Magno, the Habitos and Paderangas, all lambasted Mohammad Mahathir, whom I probably was the only Filipino writer to defend.
Before long, Mahathir was proven right as his country sailed through the financial storm, safely docking as one of the premier economies of the ASEAN.
But, to institute currency and capital controls, one must have an enlightened, competent, and militantly nationalist political leadership alongside a banking system that is firmly under the control of that leadership.
If not, massive leakages (such as the capital flight instigated by the Makati-based banks during the time of Marcos) can only follow.
When Usury was a Crime
Unfortunately, mainstream media and the educational system in the Philippines have kept the Filipino public illiterate on matters of national finance by continuously conspiring to create the wrong impression that such matters are best left to “experts” (like Winnie Monsod and company).
They deliberately obfuscate the basic principles and issues to make the population blind and acquiescent even when the financial system and the economy adversely affect them.
Remember the term “usury” that was once taught in school as a “sin” and a “crime” against our national laws? Now that’s been forgotten.
We need to restore such an understanding as the basis of a productive, dynamic, and fair Philippine economic system.
A revolution of the mind is needed to provide the impetus -- leading to a nationalist leadership that will reinstitute “currency and capital controls” for the nation’s good.
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