The Philippines will be adversely affected

Asked about the implications of Loser’s findings on the Philippine economy, Africa explained, “The advanced capitalist economies are in crisis because they are now much less able to use merely digital capital to drive their recent consumption and production. The Philippine economy is directly affected by the resulting drastic drop in foreign demand and economic activity. There is a collapse in exports of manufactured goods and agricultural products and raw materials, falling foreign investment and more expensive foreign debt, and compromised livelihoods of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). OFWs face wage and benefit cuts, retrenchment, and much poorer jobs prospects abroad.”

“Filipino households directly dependent on these will have to deal with lower incomes, and the lower incomes will have further indirect effects on the economy by depressing domestic consumption and economic activity. Joblessness and poverty will rise even more this year on top of already historic joblessness and widespread poverty even before the crisis. Up to 12 million or more Filipinos will be jobless or desperately looking for more work because of the crisis, and tens of millions will be driven into deeper poverty,” the London School of Economics (LSE) graduate explained further.

Government is not doing enough

Africa said that as the global financial crisis goes deeper, the Philippines is less likely to recover, unless “concrete and dependable solutions” are applied.

“The Philippines has long been suffering a deep crisis of economic backwardness, joblessness, miserable incomes and severe poverty. The problems due to the current global economic crisis sparked by the meltdown in financial sectors only add to these. The government is deceitful when it says that it has a “stimulus” package because national government spending in 2009, measured as a share of GDP, is among the lowest if not the lowest in at least the last two-and-a-half decades. The supposed “economic resiliency” plan is largely spin, pretense and propaganda,” he explained.

He said the government just recycles and repackages programs and efforts that were already in place even before the intensification of the crisis.

“The measures it proposes such as supposed job placement, livelihood programs and loans are even basically meaningless amidst the general economic crisis. It is vital to begin from the real situation of millions of jobless and tens of millions poor even before the recent worsening of the crisis in the last quarter of 2008. At most perhaps some few hundreds of thousands will benefit from tiny and momentary dole-outs. The response must be not just to the recent intensification but to the long-standing problems of the economy. There must be immediate relief measures as well as more radical economic reforms that truly develop domestic agriculture and industry in an equitable, sustainable and broad-based manner,” stressed Africa.

He also said the Philippines has entered a new period of protracted economic depression that will last for years.

“The government had been hyping economic growth in the last few years that at one point was even said to be the fastest in three decades. Yet the people have clearly not benefited from any of that and were driven into deeper economic difficulties and poverty. The coming period will see even more severe problems for the economy and the people absent radical changes in economic policies,” he said.(Bulatlat.com)

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