Consider and cooperate

After reading my piece on “Buy Filipino” and the choice between becoming “Peter the Great” or “Peter the Flake”, Trade Secretary Peter Favila went out of his way to exchange views with me regarding what he has already been doing on the subject. But more than the actual topic, Secretary Favila’s humility and effort to get in touch affirms the ideals that if we consider each other’s views and make an attempt to cooperate, we will all be better people for it.

As it turns out, the article served as confirmation of initial actions being undertaken by the Department of Trade and Industry to make sure that on the government side, purchases of supplies and equipment will give priority to locally made products.

Prior to this, the DTI successfully set up the OTOP or One Town, One Product program that allows Filipinos to buy the best products from every province without having to go the province itself. Perhaps Secretary Favila ought to convince the association of supermarkets and gas stations to provide space for OTOP as some do.

The DTI Secretary has even gone to the extent of considering a “new term” and approach to promoting Philippine made products because the “Buy Pinoy” slogan does not seem to inspire action. I pointed out to the good Secretary that the slogan is well established to the point of almost being generic.

The problem is we have a National slogan but there is no National campaign to buy Filipino products. 

Former Trade Secretary Joe Concepcion showed his nationalism and deep understanding of the Pinoy consumer when he launched the “BUY FILIPINO MOVEMENT”. Unfortunately government machinery did not back it in the same way Tourism is never seen as a key component of the economy and people did not want to make choices or changes. 

At the same time, decades of censorship distorted communications and trust in our society. What should have been a market changing force was actually accused as a self -serving strategy on the part of Concepcion because of his direct ties to the family of industrialists and businessmen. Sadly, critics “shot the messenger” before they even bothered to understand and analyze the message.

We now have the unique opportunity of having all the right reasons for a national campaign to buy Filipino made products. Just about every nation on the planet that is affected by job loss, export shutdowns, and recession will be implementing some form of “Protectionism” to save their economy. The US Senate is now moving to implement “Local purchase” policy for steel, which of course is strongly opposed by their neighbors such as Canada. In short if our lives and jobs depend on it, it has to be a “ME FIRST” policy.

Local manufacturing and businesses need markets and in the absence of export destinations, their products must have increased viability or “Buy-ability”. However this will not happen if both products and buyers don’t make the connection. Many Filipinos are patriotic enough to support Pinoy made products, but any housewife or consumer who needs a magnifying glass and a dictionary to know the difference between “MANUFACTURED BY, UNDER LICENSE BY, OR PACKAGED FOR”, won’t bother because they don’t have time for it.

The DTI should simplify everything by requiring ALL locally made and sold products to have a Philippine Flag over it! No other symbol could stir patriotism and it would be so recognizable. The DTI should likewise inspire or require advertisers and packagers to begin adding the spiel “proudly made in the Philippines” and “Buy Filipino made products”.

In addition, the DTI should ban as unfair competition the practice of big companies who pay for the “premium shelf space” in groceries and supermarkets. This practice unfairly gives eye-level prominence to products from abroad and other smaller companies end up as last choice in the bottom. Display should be on rotation basis and don’t tell me it can’t be done because that used to be one of my jobs!

Speaking of Unfair Competition, Secretary Favila now has to show his own Nationalism by reviewing policies and rules about setting up business, requirements etc that are designed to favor big business and deter small and medium enterprise. Example: FORCE and IMPOSE the 20% local content provision on ALL vehicles entering the Philippines. Tires, batteries and accessories made in the Philippines are world standard and export quality! We should give them the business and not China or Taiwan!

A new game in town

At the time that President Fidel Ramos chose to join the WTO-GATT fraternity, people told him he was too eager to play with the big boys. Now that the Big boys are all focusing on their own home “work”, it is about time we concentrate first on our domestic stability before going out on the global playground again.

Lets develop a POSITIVE island mentality like Singapore did when Malaysia cut them off. Work with what we have, develop professionals, develop Nationalism, develop a good civil service with limited personnel and NO “political casual employees” and enforce Laws in the Justice system. In the end, it was Malaysia who eventually copied the Singapore way and told the world powers and bankers to take a hike.

Stop experimenting with programs on a national scale and giving too much value and honor to foreign trained so-called experts who follow economic theories and rules such as “it’s cheaper to buy rice than to grow rice; so stop growing rice”. Experts who copy every tax measure in the modern world but denies every legitimate incentive or tax cut for emerging business.

Remove Masters of education but slaves of educational institutions who want to add financial burdens on the lie that one more year will better qualify students. What can justify the additional financial burden, delay and denial of economic opportunities and even after graduation, we all know that there are always more graduates than there are jobs.

Why can’t educators get a life by working at Jollibee, Petron or a Supermarket? Maybe in the monotony of work it might dawn upon them that training programs and internships would do more for the on the job competency of a person than another year in an inferior school under lousy teachers. At the very least when an employer says “EXPERIENCE NECESSARY”, the graduate can say they have it!