Suchergebnisse

Originally delivered as a privilege speech in the Philippine Senate, the piece highlights the inability of the government to identify the specific gains and losses that the Philippine economy will incur under the new General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) treaty. It answers the titular question with a firm negative, arguing that the Philippines is unprepared for such extensive economic liberalization. The country is heavily dependent on foreign industries in order to sustain its own productive capabilities. The country's local produce cannot compete with cheaper foreign alternatives, which will flood the country should trade restrictions be removed in accordance with the treaty's stipulations. Agriculture will suffer the most from such inundation; the unfair competition from cheaper imports will be a major setback in the country's progress towards self-sufficiency in rice and corn production. Only nontraditional export crops stand to benefit from GATT's injunctions, but this gain is hardly enough to offset the possible economic losses that the implementation of the agreement could bring about. In conclusion, the paper calls for greater government activism in order for the Philippines to thrive in a liberalized global trading arrangement—the government must do away with the naive assumption that growth automatically results from opening up the economy. The State must directly intervene in the development of local industries, following a deeper inquiry into the repercussions of the country's membership to GATT.

Lately, media has been inundated with criticism of the government's draft medium-term Philippine development plan 1993-1998. The hearings conducted by the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs have enlightened the public on how unrealistic some of the assumptions made by the nation's economic planners are regarding the so-called medium-term plan of the Ramos administration to transform our ailing economy into newly-industrializing country (NIC) status by the turn of the century. The problems that the plan, by design, or neglect, has been evading the following: 1) the debt crisis; 2) which industries are going to be hurt and what kind of adjustments should be made to minimize dislocations; 3) the problem of redressing social inequity; 4) the development of the domestic market and domestic-oriented industries; 5) constitutional guidelines on the economy; 6) lessons learned from development failures in the past; 7) the importance of local producers - the mass of workers.

This paper summarizes the main items discussed on the symposium on "Legal Issues Concerning the U.S. Military Bases" in April 1988. The legal issues especially are: jurisdiction over criminal acts committed by American officials and servicemen; exploitation, preservation and conservation of the natural resources in the baselands; taxes; increased salaries for the Filipino employees, laborers and workers, etc. (DÜI-Sbt)