Heydarian is Orgasmic

An alliance restored: Marcos Jr.’s US policy

It used to be that broadcast and print media would find credible public intellectuals to guest in their public affairs program and write in their op-ed pages.

I keep wondering how certain quarter of the public believe that the Ilokanong-Iranian is credible. He claims to have worked for Walden Bello and Miriam Santiago but he certainly doesn’t reflect that in his analysis. I mean if he had a feel for the public’s pulse, he would definitely come to the conclusion that Leni Robredo would lose. And yet, he and his cohorts in the opposition continue to wonder why they lost and use the term coined by Maria Ressa, “networked disinformation,” as their excuse.

Now his panties are in a bunch at his ankles as Philippine Ambassador to the US has confirmed that BBM will be attending the UN General Assembly in September and also meet with President Joe Biden. No word yet on what the classification of the visit. More than likely it will be a working visit. I don’t think the Americans will lay out the red carpet for BBM with a state visit.

But this, combined with the recent one-day stopover of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the assumption of post by the new US Ambassador to the Philippines, has Heydarian basking in an post-orgasmic afterglow.

Finally, Marcos appears to be leaning more towards the US than China.

What I can’t understand about the opposition is why if they claim to be intelligent, are they so stupid not to see how the US has undermined the Philippines since 1898 after it bought the colony from Spain?

The easy answer is they’re just like the elites of the past, such as Emilio Aguinaldo, Pedro Paterno and Felipe Buencamino who sold the Philippines out first to the Spaniards and later on to the Americans. After that came Quezon, Roxas and Osmena.

The opposition’s brand of governance is Quezonian if you think about it; “A Philippines run like hell by Filipinos, not a Philippines run like heaven by the Americans.”

But how can the public reconcile this against the need for accountablity when the Americans single-handedly crippled their own colony after independence by leaving it akin to a woman who’s just been raped on a dark alley and left there to die?

Liberation came and with it the total destruction of most of our tangible assets. We were destitute and demoralized and we looked for America for succor. Independence came and America came across with a helping hand, but not without strings. The great American people were quite willing to help the common tao up to $1,000.00 worth of war damage payments. As for the rich people who lost a good deal more, there was a price to pay and the price to pay was the Bell Trade Act. The land-owning class was assured a temporary preferential status in the American market for various export products such as sugar, copra and hemp; and war damage payments over $1,000.00 was to be paid—on the conditions: (1) American finished products will be allowed to enter the Philippines duty-free; (2) we must change our constitution to allow Americans to exploit our natural resources on the same basis as Filipinos. It was strictly a business proposition which the entire Filipino people through a plebiscite had the power to accept or to reject. This entire country split into two camps—but on the wrong issue. The opponents of the Act took their stand against the parity provision. The paramount issue on whether duty-free American products would destroy our budding industries was obscured and forgotten in the dust and confusion of battle. One of the few who realized the true implication of the Bell Trade Act was Salvador Araneta who deserves special mention here. “Prophet of disaster” he was called and his voice was a cry in the wilderness. And the proponents of the Act skillfully maneuvered the issue into National Pride vs. Starvation. The Bell Trade Act was of course accepted, and the Philippines directed the economic efforts towards the production of raw materials for export rather than on the production of goods for domestic consumption. It was a reactionary move, a costly mistake. The American bonanza that came in the form of war damage and rehabilitation payments, surplus equipment and United States army expenditures, was mostly used up in an orgy of insatiable consumption—consumption of duty-free American good which f looded the country and totally obliterated our infant industries. A little of that bonanza was diverted towards the rehabilitation of our pre-war export industries—but what good did it do? The world market for copra was poor, because of the development of chemical detergents and the unacceptable quality of our production. The artificially created market for sugar in the States stood in danger of competition from Cuba and Hawaii which are closer to America. Hemp suffered from the mosaic disease and the competition of nylon and South America hemp. Within the national economy, the main flow of wealth passed from the hands of the absentee land owner in the form of export products, through the exporters out of the country; and then came back as finished products through the importers and back to the landowners. Wealth was a merry-go-round affair within the exclusive circle of landowners, exporters and importers—and the common tao looked in from the outside, hardly earning any more than he did during the Spanish times. 

This is what Larry Henares wrote in one of his columns in the past. It’s the reason why despite being one of the first in Asia to be granted independence compared to our ASEAN neighbors, we continue to lag behind them. Our oligarchs have long been used to rent-seeking business models. This is also why our agriculture sector is in crisis today.

The scandal presently rocking the Marcos administration today is symbolic of the root cause of most of our problems today. For so long, we have had President’s who always looked up to Uncle Sam. This was only broken when Duterte came into the picture and this is why the Ilokanong-Iranian is very much pissed off with Duterte. He defied norms and conventions. He wasn’t afraid to stick out like a sore thumb to the rest of the world. It can be said that Duterte’s sense of history is probably the strongest among the President’s who have come our way.

The mindset of our oligarchs has never been focused on industrialization as it has been used to import substitution, importation and making money off the backs of the average Filipino. This is why our economy is not export/manufacturing driven but consumption-driven. Our main export is labor with our OFWs who continue to fuel the economic growth with their remittances. They are the only export product which continues to keep on giving long after they’ve arrived at their destination.

Early in office, Mr. Marcos rebooted Philippine foreign policy toward major powers. While open to robust commercial ties with China, Mr. Marcos has effectively tossed out his predecessor’s often fawning, if not slavish, predisposition toward the Asian superpower.

Shortly after securing the presidency, the new Filipino president underscored his commitment to a more proactive defense of his country’s sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea, as well as a more critical, results-oriented approach to the largely “high rhetoric, low output” strategic relations with China. This has clearly been music to Washington’s ears. It also underscored Mr. Marcos’ determination to fully restore, if not further expand, a century-old alliance on the verge of collapse only a few years earlier.

Marcos’ first foreign sojourn will be to the US because I think he has something to prove with the Americans. The son of the President they unceremoniously ousted in 1986 is back as President.

It remains to be seen if Marcos can wangle substantial concessions from the US. I’m not betting on it. Uncle Sam continues to think of Filipinos being like a million Heydarian’s or like his patron, Albert Del Rosario who fawns and gushes over anything and everything American.

Frankly, I’m of the opinion that Marcos shouldn’t make his first foreign trip to the US but then again, I’m a nobody but an ordinary Filipino just like the rest of the 100M. To my mind, Marcos should play it coy with the Americans.

The recent tensions between the US and China over Taiwan because of the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have shown that the US need Philippine bases, if its to be able to help Taiwan in the event of an invasion by China.

However, we can’t afford this risk because we will be the subject of an attack when the time comes and trade sanctions in the interim, both of whch we should avoid because we’re well within our means to do so with an truly independent foreign policy.

Truth be told, I believe Marcos is getting is priorities wrong. His focus should be on economic recovery first. He has taken on the Agriculture portfolio because of the severity of the agriculture crisis but he’s not off to a good start. Perhaps this will get better now that Ding Panganiban is back as Undersecretary. But agricultural sector reform is not low-hanging fruit.

Yesterday, Ben Diokno announced that they will again revise the BOT/PPP Law. This puts BBB right back in the hands of oligarchs who would want nothing than more toll roads, seaports and airports under their control. Would this augur well for improving the agriculture value chain that Marcos has been repeating over and over again?

If we really want to become progressive, we have to let foreign competition in, under a level playing field. This will provide investments, jobs and competition which all redounds to the public beneift.

And all of these begins with political structural reforms, which involves amending the 1987 Constitution.