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Wazzup Pilipinas!?
Filipinos to prepare for the worst The Philippine peso could further depreciate to P65 to P68 against the US dollar in the coming days.
Because the dollar power and weakening peso issue has to be discussed, here’s a brief explainer and analogy on why it affects ordinary Filipinos the most.
1. The Philippines has no industries.
While it may seem that “there are” industries in the country, they are mostly owned by foreign investors or multinational companies. This means that we can’t produce basic goods on our own such as oil, transpo, telcom, basic metals, etc.
2. US has industries and control of most of the products in the world.
US imperialism, or domination of US over a country’s economic, political, and cultural aspect, has ensured that it has its hands over strategic industries such as oil [1] through warfare and aggression.
At the same time, its economic policies (having one of the dominant currencies in the world) do not only occur in US but can seep through to other countries: such as the US Federal Reserve’s increase of interest rates to fight inflation in their own country which can weaken peso.
3. Given this economic relation, where will the Philippines buy basic commodities?
From US. But with the currency exchange, we will need more peso (58.80) to purchase the same product that amounts to 1 dollar - which means that prices will also increase for low income Filipinos.
4. While this may seem “good” for OFWs (since a dollar of remittance would mean more peso for their families here), it’s “benefit” would be canceled out by inflating price of goods that their families would have to pay.
In short, mataas nga ang padala, mahal naman ang bilihin.
5. This may also be interpreted as an “advantage” for local producers and agrisector - since imported products would be harder to get in, meaning less competition.
However, due to the continued negligence of the state over our farmers and agriculture, resulting to the overdependence on imported goods (such as rice, sugar, salt, etc.), local producers can only do so much, and the government would still have to pull in products from outside.
Unless agriculture and our farmers get the support they deserve, we remain food insecure and dependent.
6. How do we remove our reliance on US and the absurd dollar-peso relation?
Through national industrialization based on genuine agrarian reform. Improving our agricultural condition and building industries able to produce our basic necessities ensure our economic independence.
If we have sustainable agriculture, where the demands of our farmers (such as land distribution) are met, we can produce healthy and affordable food for the country.
If we have our own industries, we can produce affordable basic commodities for the ordinary Filipinos.
We would not be needing to maintain the import-dependent and export-oriented characteristic of our economy. Which means, we can and will also be sustainable without the intervention of US and its economic policies.
Our peso would not need to contend with dollar.
"It's not the lack of love for our country that's driving Filipinos to work abroad, it's the notion that we need to endure and settle for less just to prove our love and loyalty for a country that doesn't even listen nor care for our pleas"
References:
[1] https://t.co/1aeiVQJEtd
[2] https://t.co/ZM3zLpSpZE
Written by: Ajay Lagrimas
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Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
