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[av_heading heading=’The decline of the Philippine peso’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY HERBERT VEGO
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Tuesday, January 17, 2017
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YESTERDAY, the published exchange rate of the Philippine peso against the US dollar was P49.80. I guess the beneficiaries of dollar earners are wishing it would exceed P50.
Unfortunately, it’s not really good news in the long run because inflation means weaker buying power of the peso. In reality, the gradual “increase” of the dollar from two pesos in the 1950s to what it is today has sapped the value of our currency.
I remember our primary school teacher telling us that the Philippines was the second most prosperous nation in Asia – second only to Japan. The minimum wage was only P120 per month, but it could buy much more goods then than P12,000 today.
China’s economy was weaker; it was then known as “the sleeping giant.”
Even in the 1960s, we were still way ahead of Taiwan. One peso as that time was worth seven Taiwan dollars. But today, the NTD (New Taiwan Dollar) is stronger than the Philippine peso; it’s one NTD to P1.60.
President Carlos P. Garcia – whose term covered the 1957-1961 period – tried to boost local products through his Filipino First policy, which restricted imports of products that were locally available and encouraged the manufacturing sector to export whenever possible.
An Ilonggo entrepreneur responded to that challenge by embarking on canning industry. His Lix Products (somewhere in Mandurriao, Iloilo City) canned mouth-watering pork and beef delicacies such as adobo, menudo, sarciado and mechado. Still etched in my mind is the memory of those days when my late mother would wait on the street once a week for the truck selling the said goods around Panay Island as scheduled.
After Garcia came President Diosdado Macapagal, who imposed “de-control” – a policy that pegged low price ceilings on basic commodities to minimize monetary inflation.
Even with the imposition of martial rule by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972, the economy initially resisted external pressure until the subsequent oil crisis which, coupled with the scarcity of rice, caused sudden price spirals.
The assassination of Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino in 1983 suddenly destabilized the peso down from seven to 13 against the dollar, kicking off the irreversible downward trend.
The People Power or EDSA Revolution that restored democracy in 1986 and installed widowed Cory Aquino to the presidency could have reversed the poverty of the masses, what with the United States and almost all other democratic nations of the offering economic assistance.
Alas, we did not do as well as South Korea had done. While South Korea had also relied heavily on foreign assistance for survival, she realized that prolonged dependence on richer countries was also stalling her growth. So the country marshaled her technocrats into developing industrial zones.
Today, South Korea exports her locally-built cars and heavy equipment.
In contrast, today’s President Rodrigo Duterte looks forward to more foreign loans and dole-outs to fund his deadly “war on drugs.”
Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos – whether skilled or unskilled – still work on foreign soil to ensure comfortable life for their families in the homeland.
Our women teachers swallow their pride, working as baby sitters, domestic helpers and caregivers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.
How foolish of us to imagine that by stretching high school from four to six years under the on-going K-12 program, we would be sending teachers to said countries to work as teachers.
What’s sure is that countries to where we “export” them free their own women of domestic responsibilities in order to augment their husbands’ income.
Ironically, ours is a country known for natural resources that are largely untapped. For instance, we turn our backs on idle pasture lands where we could have raised cattle, goats, hogs and other livestock for local and foreign markets.
And so we don’t have the answer to the song that asks, “Do you know where you’re going to?”/PN
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