While the Aquino administration is assiduous in its efforts to make the hosting of the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit a success, several hundreds of displaced lumad from Mindanao, along with progressive groups who express their solidarity with indigenous peoples, are marching on the streets of Metro Manila to show that they are against the imperialist plunder of their ancestral domains and the nonstop militarization of their communities.
Under the theme of “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World,” this year’s Apec summit is expected to reaffirm the old formulas of globalization—privatization, trade and investment liberalization. Launched by the United States in 1989, the Apec was designed to strengthen the superpower’s hegemony in the region. It intends to limit, if not remove, the protectionist measures of smaller economies via tariff reduction, deregulation and other neoliberal economic policies that guarantee super-profits for transnational corporations. As we all know, China is now the United States’ biggest trading partner—partners in crime as the two powerful nations struggle for global dominance.
Since our first Apec hosting in 1996, the policy of globalization has severely eroded the Philippine economy, weakening the agricultural sector while worsening poverty and inequality in the country. From labor contractualization to environmental degradation, the Aquino administration has opted to ignore the harrowing effects of its neoliberal policies on the Filipino people in order to serve the interests of foreign businesses. Subservient to the core, that’s the kind of leadership P-Noy has shown for more than five years in office.
We cannot expect real industrialization as long as our backward economy remains foreign-dominated and import-dependent. Developed nations became industrialized because they protected their strategic industries, liberalizing only in areas that they deemed strong. The government is taking us for fools every time it announces that we are on the right path by conforming to the demands of globalization.
The plight of the lumad is a deeply-rooted social problem, and so are the predicament of the landless farmers and urban poor. Globalization, as championed by the Apec, was never a solution but rather the cause of the world’s misery.
—DANIEL ALOC, tierra.giya@yahoo.com