While the average inflation of 3.2% in 2024 was almost half compared to 2023, it continued to erode the purchasing power of wages. Relatively higher food prices also disproportionately hurt minimum wage earners and informal workers with 4.3% inflation for the bottom 30% of the income households. Thus, the demand for another round of minimum wage increases in 2024 was a recurring theme for organized labor. The campaign for a wage hike was two-pronged, with wage bills for a P150 increase filed in Congress and in the regional wage boards. 

The Senate approved a P100 increase in the minimum wage in February 2024. This advance was a result of organized labor’s successful leveraging of the rift between the two chambers of Congress over the latest move to amend the Constitution. The Senate stood pat against charter change and instead enacted the salary increase, but the reverse was the case in the House of Representatives. Despite conducting hearings on pending wage hike bills, the House committee on labor sat on the proposal and basically killed it. 

In contrast with this inaction on the workers’ demand for a wage adjustment, the House was fast and furious with the quad committee’s inquiry into the connections among the war on drugs and extrajudicial killings during President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration as well as the illegal offshore gambling hubs and the blue ribbon committee’s investigation of the confidential funds of the Office of Vice President Sara Duterte and the Department of Education during her tenure as its chief.

The year ended with no legislated wage hike but with wage orders for several regions. Still, minimum wages in all the regions—including those which had an increase, like Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Cebu and Central Luzon—remained below the official poverty line even if the threshold was assailed for being too low, as the controversy over the P64 daily food budget revealed. With the wage boards perpetuating a system of poverty wages, calls for the abolition of provincial rates became popular.

Philhealth funds

On another front, organized labor and civil society allies fought a defensive war to keep Philhealth funds devoted to improving benefits to members and providing services for indigents, as mandated by the Universal Health Care Act. As much as P60 billion of Philhealth funds were transferred by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to fund unprogrammed items in the national budget before the Supreme Court in October stopped the last tranche of P29.9 billion. The labor coalition Nagkaisa was an intervenor in the Supreme Court case to oppose the transfer of P90 billion of Philhealth funds to the national treasury.

Another battle erupted in December when the congressional bicameral conference committee removed the subsidy for Philhealth along with cuts in other social services. Nagkaisa led protests in Metro Manila and Cebu—including a big rally on Mendiola—to call for the restoration of the Philhealth subsidy and the budget for social services. 

But President Marcos Jr. did not heed the popular clamor as he signed the 2025 national budget by yearend with the much-assailed budget insertions for “ayuda” kept intact. Among these was the P26 billion unprogrammed budget for Akap, or the Ayuda para sa Kapos sa Kita Program, which has been criticized as funding for electoral patronage and tagged as the brainchild of House Speaker Martin Romualdez. This means that formal and informal workers will now have to beg politicians for assistance for medical and other emergencies instead of getting health insurance as a right. 

As if on cue, the Commission on Elections allowed the distribution of “ayuda” even during the midterm elections in May, breaking with the long-established prohibition on disbursement of public money during the campaign period—a ban based on the fact that doles are easily exploited as a means for vote buying. 

Prospects for 2025

The start of the new year greets workers with a higher social security contribution of 5% to be deducted from their wages. This will result in lower take-home pay for private-sector laborers. To keep the Social Security System afloat while easing the burden on workers, the government should subsidize the employee share. This is a tough task as the Marcos Jr. administration would rather have workers and the poor solicit “ayuda” from politicians. It promises to be another plank of organized labor’s demand for quality public services and universal social protection.

Even as demands for higher pay, lower prices, more jobs and decent work remain very popular issues during the election period, the chances of positive outcomes for workers are bleak because political dynasties, which are evolving from fat to obese, dominate the landscape. Workers have no allies either in the two main political dynasties—dubbed the “House of Polvoron” and the “House of Fentanyl,” which will be fighting for supremacy in May.

Continuing recent trends, many labor-based groups have been eased out of the party list system as it has been swamped by electoral vehicles for politicians who cannot compete in district polls. The party list system has warped into  another pathway for members of obese dynasties to enter the House through the backdoor.

Nonetheless, groups such as Partido Manggagawa (PM) are engaging with local candidates for the establishment of public laundromats and whole-day childcare centers to ease the care burdens of employed and unemployed women. Along with such low-hanging fruits, PM is also campaigning for the passage of the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy bill in response to the crisis level of teenage mothers. Against the tide of sleek TV and FB ads of national candidates, PM is conducting information dissemination in working-class communities for four imperatives, or what it calls “Apat na Dapat”: wage hike, regular jobs, social services and national sovereignty.

Workers will have to endure worse economic difficulties as political infighting heightens in 2025 and the remaining years of the Marcos Jr. administration. But this situation also motivates organized labor to engage with public outrage over wanton government corruption and dynastic political dominance. A big multisectoral rally in January promises to jumpstart a robust movement for good governance, in which workers’ demands should be embedded and integral.

Judy Ann Miranda is secretary general of Partido Manggagawa and a labor feminist. This piece is an expanded version of a letter to the editor that appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Daily Guardian in Iloilo in the first week of January.

Read more: In 2022, crisis in incomes and jobs pummeled labor sector

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Reneboy and his wife May, 54, collected the mounds of scraped crystals in wicker baskets, which were brought to a large barn for storage and could take months or even years to sell to buyers. Before the day ends, Reneboy refills the salt beds with seawater, ready for the next day’s drying.

This had been the Ybañezes’ daily routine during the dry months of December to May since they were employed at the 80-hectare salt farm in 2009. Three of their children helped them haul the salt crystals.

For their efforts, the family would earn P58,000 for the entire dry season, on top of the food allowance given by the farm owner. During the wet season, when salt farms were closed, they caught and sold fish to augment their income.

Today, the Ybañezes are looking for another means of livelihood after the farm was sold by its owner. Hundreds of other salt farmers in San Nicolas are in a similar predicament.

“Malungkot din sa amin … Sabi nga nila na, ‘di na tayo [makakapag-asin] dito dahil naibili na. Panibago na naman ng maa-apply-an kung saan meron (We’re sad. … They said we can no longer make salt because the farm had already been sold. We now have to apply for jobs elsewhere),” May said.

She said they were not consulted about the sale of the farm. They believe that the property would be developed for residential and commercial use as it is only three kilometers from the New Manila International Airport (NMIA) project site.

The conversion of salt farms and aquaculture areas in Bulacan has intensified in recent years, driven by surging land prices attributed to the NMIA project, according to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Central Luzon.

“Kapag kasi above market value yung offer sa [owners], so talagang idi-dispose nila ‘yung kanilang farm. They might opt to sell and possibly shift to other businesses,” said Stephen Arlo Lapid, who heads the Fisheries Post-harvest and Marketing Section of the BFAR regional office.

New gateway

The NMIA is expected to be the country’s next international gateway. San Miguel Corp. (SMC) bagged the contract for the P735-billion project, which includes an airfield and airline support facilities, terminals and access points, and development of a 2,500 hectares of land mainly situated in the barangays of Bambang and Taliptip in Bulakan, Bulacan.

In 2020, San Miguel Aerocity Inc. (SMAI), a subsidiary of San Miguel Holdings Corp, was granted a legislative franchise to construct, maintain, and operate the proposed NMIA project under a 50-year concession agreement.  It is expected to start operations by March 2027.

Upon completion, SMAI will manage and maintain the airport before handing it over to the government at the end of the concession period.

According to the company, the facility aims to ease the existing air traffic congestion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia). At present, Naia’s total passenger capacity is around 33 million annually.

Last year, it accommodated some 45 million passengers, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) reported. The MIAA projects the number to rise further and likely double to more than 60 million by 2030.

SMC said in its website that the NMIA’s initial passenger capacity will be 35 million a year during the first phase of the project and will increase to 100 million once fully operational.

The new airport is expected to generate over a million direct and indirect jobs, it said. But since groundworks started in 2019, the project has displaced hundreds of residents, fisherfolks and salt farmers in neighboring barangays of Taliptip and Bambang.

SMC said residents of Taliptip voluntarily gave up their land in exchange for cash assistance and titled lots and houses. It has also partnered with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to offer skills training to students coming from relocated families, with employment prospects for graduates at SMC’s various projects, including the NMIA.

Some residents, however, say they were intimidated and pressured to leave their homes.,

As of this writing, SMC had yet to respond to a letter asking for comments that was sent by the writers of this article and their efforts to follow it up. There was also no word from its media affairs department.

While the NMIA appears to be a game-changer in the country’s air transportation sector and economy, many displaced residents, fisherfolks and salt farmers from Taliptip and Bambang are reportedly reeling from the impact.

In 2019, a fisherfolk group, Pamalakaya, estimated that at least 700 fisherfolk and coastal families would be displaced by the airport project. In 2020, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that around 3,000 fisherfolk have agreed to leave their homes.

Gilbert Sebastian, 56, a former salt farmer in Bambang, said many of his co-workers were informed by their employers that the farms had all been sold. He now works as a bangkero or boatman.

“Before, there were 41 boats to ferry passengers. I’m now the only one left because there were hardly any passengers” Gilbert said in Filipino. “Before, I had only one day of rest. Now, in one week, I have six days and only one day of work.”

More salt farms at risk

Neighboring barangays of Bambang and Taliptip are wary about the ongoing and planned land development, too.

Aside from at least 1,700 hectares of land covered by the airport, the entire project extends to an estimated 2,560 hectares for other components and facilities, according to the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of the NMIA.

The legislative franchise awarded to SMAI the right to develop an “airport city” in areas adjacent to the NMIA and deemed leasable for industrial, logistics and commercial purposes as stated in the project’s Environmental Compliance Certificate. The development is part of the Bulacan Special Economic Zone and Free Port or the Bulacan EcoZone (BuZ), which is described as a “self-reliant and self-sustaining” aviation and commercial hub.

Under Republic Act No. 11999, or the Bulacan Special Economic Zone and Freeport Act, the BuZ will cover land in Malolos, Meycauayan, Bulakan, Paombong, Guiguinto, Balagtas, Bocaue, Marilao, Obando and Sta. Maria in Bulacan. Other parts of Bulacan and surrounding provinces may also be declared part of the BuZ through a presidential proclamation.

A 2018 master plan by SMC for the airport complex identified residential and commercial development areas in at least five barangays in Bulakan, including salt farms and aquaculture sites.

Bulacan has 486 hectares of salt farms in Bulakan, Malolos and Paombong, according to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). These farms host a total of 8,940 salt ponds that produce over 10,000 metric tons (200,000 cavans) of salt in a year.

If the development projects in these areas push through as part of the airport city and the BuZ, these could affect the livelihood of over 100 maestros or tenants, 520 farm laborers, and hundreds more kargador or porters.

In San Nicolas alone, at least 40 tenants and 200 salt farmers listed by the BFAR may lose their jobs or their farms to give way to the development projects. For Manuel Clara, 54, a farm caretaker for the past three decades, salt-making is not only his main source of income but a passed-down tradition in his family as well.

“My grandfather perhaps worked for some 30 years, too. So did my father. It may have been more or less 100 years that the family has worked here,” he said in Filipino.

While the owners will be compensated, salt farmers like him are still waiting for something definite. “I was told that we would somehow receive an amount as an employee. … But no figures are being floated,” Clara said.

Under Bulakan’s 2010-2020 Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP), the coastal areas of San Nicolas were designated for aquaculture. This may change, however, with the new land-use framework to be established by the Bulacan Economic Zone and Free Port Authority (BEZA), which manages the BuZ, as mandated by RA 11999.

While the law calls for “inter-local development and coordination,” an expert said local communities may be excluded from the planning process.

“There was no consultation in the process of drawing up the CLUPs. Though there was NGO representation, many steps are still required and excluding these would lead to cases of displacement,” Rafael Dimalanta, a researcher at the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies, said in Filipino.

He noted that public-private partnerships are rooted in the “profit-seeking” and “corporate” nature of local government units, as mandated by the Local Government Code.

“In many cases, LGUs are receiving unsolicited proposals from the private sector … If a proposal comes from one corporation, they agree to it. Profit interest comes first,” Dimalanta added.

Jose Albert Ferrer, the head of the Bulakan Municipal Planning and Development Office, admitted that the development project will result in loss of agricultural and aquaculture areas. He, however, said the NMIA will boost employment opportunities and could accelerate the town’s transition into a city by 2028.

“This land use will be converted into special use once developed, which will result in rapid urbanization growth. [Moreover] … the conversion of huge rice land areas to a Commercial Business District (CBD) will cater [to the] business affairs of the NMIA,” Ferrer said in an email..

Under the Local Government Code of 1991, reclassification is limited to 10% of a municipality’s total agricultural land at the time of the passage of a land-use ordinance. The President, however, can authorize a municipality to reclassify lands in excess of the limits when “public interest so requires.”

Aside from issues on land use, the airport and airport city will disrupt fishing activities and marine transportation in the area.

Based on the airport’s Environmental and Social Impact Assessment report, the project could potentially affect those who operate fishing structures, those fishing within the area’s vicinity by boat, and those sailing across the project’s maritime coverage.

“Traffic and transportation of construction materials to the site could negatively affect local road users as well as having potential impacts on marine traffic movements … These may also cause community health and safety impacts such as increased risk of road and maritime traffic collision and nuisance effects such as noise and dust,” it stated.

This could restrict fisherfolks and salt farmers like the Ybañezes who rely on fishing to augment their income from salt-making.

Industry meltdown

Central Luzon used to be one of the top salt producers in the Philippines. Bulacan supplied almost half of the country’s total salt demand in the 1980s, according to a 2003 report by Bulatlat.com.

With the passage of Republic Act No. 8172, or the Act for Salt Iodization Nationwide (ASIN), in 1995, however, salt farmers were required to boost the micronutrient content of their product with iodine. This led to the closure of many salt farms in Bulacan for lack of iodization capacity while others struggled to market their harvest with the newly imposed 12% value-added tax.

The ASIN Law was an attempt to eliminate iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) in the population, including goiter, hypothyroidism and premature births.

The government still allows the importation of industrial grade or non-iodized salt, as reported by the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI) in April 2023, local manufacturers were tasked with the iodization of imported goods.

In 1997, the government decided to gradually lower the tariff on imported salt to 1%, making it significantly cheaper than locally produced salt. At the time, there was no regulatory agency to protect the interests of the salt industry.

“The DOH (Department of Health) was focused primarily on salt iodization, while the Department of Agriculture did not include salt in its plans,” the Philippine Association of Salt Industry Networks (PhilASIN) reported in its 2021-2026 Philippine Salt Industry Roadmap.

Consequently, the country became increasingly dependent on salt imports from Australia, China and Thailand. In 2020, salt imports rose to as high as 93% of the annual total salt requirement of the country, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

However, latest data from the NFRDI estimated that the contribution of domestic salt farmers is closer to 16.78% of the country’s total salt demand, higher than previously reported.

Mimaropa (Mindoro-Marinduque-Romblon-Palawan) is the top salt-producing region, contributing 57.43% of the country’s annual local output. It is followed by the Ilocos Region with 31.93%. Central Luzon only contributes 4.11% to the local salt production, mostly coming from Bulacan province.

In 2003, Bulatlat reported the existence of more than 50 salt farms in Bulacan, but the latest data from BFAR’s regional office showed that only about 15 of these farms remain, including three in the town of Bulakan.

The NFRDI cited land conversion as one of the leading factors in the dwindling salt production in the country. Its 2022 study on the industry identified profitable land-use conversion as one of the key constraints faced by salt farmers in places like Bulacan and Cavite.

“Given the upcoming reclamation and expansion projects along Manila Bay, the region’s [Central Luzon] current 4.11% contribution is expected to diminish further,” the agency  reported.

“The salt farms in Bulacan were bought by private entities for conversion into industrial spaces,”  Gezelle Tadifa, NFRDI Officer-in-Charge for Fish Handling and Processing, said in Filipino in an interview.

Reviving a dying industry

Last March 11, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Republic Act No. 11985 or the Philippine Salt Industry Development Act, which aims to revitalize the local salt industry and achieve salt self-sufficiency.

Under the law, salt farmers will no longer bear the burden of iodizing their harvest. Instead, this responsibility will fall on local processors and distributors of imported salt.

A 9% tariff will also be imposed on imported salt, which will be primarily used to develop the domestic salt industry. “That’s worth four hundred million a year, that tariff,”PhilASIN president Gerard Khonghun said. “As far as we’re concerned, lahat ng hiningi namin, halos lahat, nandoon [sa batas].”

The law also established the Philippine Salt Industry Development Council, headed by the secretary of agriculture. This body will lead the creation of a five-year roadmap that will chart all short, medium and long-term plans for local salt trade development.

State agencies and salt-producing cooperatives have already started working on the half-decade plan to modernize the industry. However, this interagency collaboration will take time due to the law’s lack of implementing rules and regulations, according to the BFAR’s Lapid.

“Medyo mas mahirap kasi … the agency would be mandated to specifically identify their roles. With all the agencies working towards its development, talagang appropriate needs would be developed … and hopefully help the salt producers to really sustain and expand their operation,” Lapid said.

In cooperation with Bulakan MAO, the bureau has distributed production equipment to the farmers, such as water pumps, clay tiles, baskets and solar lights.  

‘Too late’

For salt farmers like the Ybañezes, government efforts to revive the salt industry are too late, now that major threats like land conversion continue to destroy the salt farms they depend on. “More farms were being sold than those remaining,” May said.

Even BFAR’s Lapid admitted that their office had noticed the impact of the NMIA on the salt farmers. “The number of farmers we are now assisting has been reduced.”

While the government is just beginning to revitalize the local salt industry, the Ybañezes and other salt farmers in Bulakan must lick their wounds and seek greener pastures to survive.

“We can apply for work in a number of other salt farms. We may rest for one or two years before we return to our old job. But it will be elsewhere, not here,” May said.

This story project was produced with support from the University of the Philippines’ Department of Journalism. —ED.

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(Last of two parts)

Bert Cabornay, who at 56 has been fishing for three decades, used to farm clams and mussels in the area now occupied by the Manila-Cavite Expressway or Cavitex. Forced to move farther out, he now takes 20 minutes in his boat to reach his mussel farm in Bacoor Bay.

Building his own farm was not easy. The bamboo structures to which the mussels are attached require constant maintenance and replacement to withstand typhoons and monsoon winds. He also spends his entire day, and sometimes even sleeps, in his makeshift hut to guard his farm from thieves.

Despite Cabornay’s efforts, it has been a year since he made a profit from his mussel farm. His harvest has been declining since reclamation activities began in the bay four years ago.

In fact, a small artificial island can already be seen near his farm. 

“The quality of the water has deteriorated because of the reclamation. It’s like the ocean is being disturbed. Nothing like this was happening before the project started,” Cabornay said in Filipino.

The livelihood of fishers and mussel farmers in Bacoor is in danger, with a central business district akin to Bonifacio Global City in Taguig set to rise in the very sea that they sail. Soon, high-rise condominiums, malls and industrial zones will be built as part of the 320-hectare Bacoor Reclamation and Development Project (BRDP) and the 100-hectare Diamond Reclamation and Development Project (DRDP). The twin projects are a joint venture between the Bacoor City government and Frabelle Fishing Corp.

Local officials believe that this joint venture will bring jobs and revenues to Bacoor. But it will come with a cost, especially for thousands of residents whose lives flow with the sea. 

Mussels in peril

Green mussels used to earn for Cabornay between P100,000 and P200,000 during the six-month harvest season. But now, he deems himself lucky if he can fill a medium-sized paint bucket with mussels each time he sets out to sea.

“The last time I made a profit was last year. Nothing so far this year,” he said. “I tried, but the harvest is sparse.  It used to be that there was enough to finance my bamboo purchases. Now the mussels are just for our meals.” 

Bacoor Bay is one of the biggest mussel-producing areas in the Philippines, along with Maqueda Bay in Samar, Sapian Bay in Capiz, and Manila Bay.

Data from the Cavite Ecological Profile (CEP) in 2010-2021 show that Bacoor City topped the province’s mussel production for 12 years. In 2021, Bacoor made up 100% of Cavite’s mussel production at 6,809.75 metric tons.

But despite the relative decline of mussel production in Bacoor, data also show that it has never had a year without green mussel harvests, compared to other cities in the province, such as Kawit and Cavite City. 

In 2013, Bacoor fishers harvested over 16,000 metric tons of mussels before seeing a sharp decline in the next five years. The notable decrease in mussel production can be attributed to the alig—or poor water quality—in Bacoor Bay, said Allan Chua, the city’s agricultural services officer in charge.

“We really fear water pollution,” Chua said in Filipino. “It affects not only mussels but also crabs. You see crabs floating dead in the water, or they are stunted. Even if they’re small, they are caught and cooked.”

Aside from pollution, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Region IV-A identified land reclamation as one of the threats to mussel cultivation. The building of land structures over the sea, such as in Cavite, has caused congestion in the province’s shellfish farms.

Consequently, the lack of cultivation areas in Bacoor has led to dwindling shellfish production, the BFAR report said.

Cabornay said authorities have also forbidden mussel farmers from installing bamboo stands or fixing their cultivation areas. “They call your attention when you make improvements in your farm. They’ve measured the area,” he said.

Former environment undersecretary Benny Antiporda claimed that bamboo stands in  mussel farms are causing pollution, in an effort to justify the demolition of such structures in Manila Bay in 2021. 

Compensation

According to the BRDP and DRDP Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports, the mussel farms are most vulnerable to the twin projects. As compensation, Frabelle and Diamond are mandated to shoulder “all foregone incomes and cost of relocation” of those displaced and otherwise affected. 

Cabornay has been cultivating his 0.4066-hectare mussel farm for more than two decades. He has invested about P100,000 in it. But because mussel farm owners are only given P0.50 per square meter for their farms, Chua said, Cabornay will receive the meager amount of P2,033. On the other hand, mussel harvesters and cleaners are not entitled to any amount. 

All affected mussel farms are to be moved to the mussel culture zone designated by the local government, west of the reclamation project. 

But Cabornay believes that these initiatives undermine the fishers’ capacity to adjust to this setup, and that designating a spot for mussel farms creates limitations in space and resources.

“The relocation area is crowded. If you use rope to designate borders, everything will get tangled up when there are typhoons or strong waves,” he said. 

And as more mussel farms are to be relocated farther from the coast, the fishers would need a docking place for their boats. The local government also has plans for this aspect. 

“There is currently a plan to establish a wharf measuring around 281 meters long, 14 meters wide and 5 meters high which can accommodate 300 bancas,” the Coastal Resource Management Plan 2023-2025 of Bacoor City states.

The same document indicates that in the year 2022, a total of 515 boats were registered. But there is no visible progress in the structure other than a tiny slab of concrete situated near Barangay Sineguelasan.

“Currently, there is no fisherman’s wharf and dormitory that can serve the needs of the fishermen,” the document states.

Said Cabornay: “It’s only a tiny place, and it’s not even fixed yet. If there’s a strong wind, or a typhoon, the boats would surely crash against each other because it’s open space. There should be a seawall. But as it is, they haven’t fixed it yet.” 

Aside from the threats to livelihood, the reclamation projects’ EIAs also identified the displacement of residents as a major issue.

Like a fish out of water

A makeshift bamboo roof and a blue tarp shield Arni Villamon’s family from the harsh sunlight. Crumbled walls mark the remains of her old home. Fishnets hang where windows used to be. But Villamon chooses to live in this shack in Talaba Dos, Bacoor, rather than move away from the sea.

For decades, Villamon and her husband, Fonso, have sustained their family through fishing. She recalled that they never went hungry even during the pandemic because she had savings with which to buy food. She even had an extra ₱35,000 to build a new dwelling place just across from their house.

But in July 2020, the local government ordered the relocation of families living in coastal areas in preparation for the reclamation projects. The Villamons moved to the relocation area in Naic.

“We had no extra money when we moved to Naic. Some of our neighbors had savings because they had stable jobs. But fishers like ourselves who rely on our daily income had none,” Villamon said in Filipino.

Villamon said the authorities offered only a bag of groceries and ₱10,000 in cash aid to the displaced fishing families like themselves. There were no sustainable jobs or livelihood programs.

Naic is a coastal municipality but the families relocated from Bacoor currently reside in Rancho Verde, 3.6 kilometers from Manila Bay. Surrounded by farmlands, the new homes of Bacoor’s fishers offer no means to make a living. 

With no means of support, Villamon’s family returned to Bacoor to ensure they had enough to eat.

The Villamons are among the 395 informal-settler families (ISFs) that the local government has relocated to either Naic or Ciudad Kaunlaran in Molino, Bacoor. 

Even before the reclamation project was conceptualized, the local government had planned to move the families living in “danger zones” along Bacoor Bay to “safer areas,” said Ligaya Cas, an officer of Bacoor’s Housing, Urban Development and Resettlement Department. 

Cas said the families that will be affected by the reclamation project are also located in “danger areas,” so the local government is just keeping them safe.

Out of 1,961 identified ISFs, 1,387 that were qualified for the government’s housing program have yet to be relocated. Because the families had to pay up to P600,000 to own their homes, single or elderly individuals living alone were excluded from the program. 

The local government also disqualified those renting spaces in Bacoor. Around 179 families have been disqualified from availing themselves of the housing program. 

Villamon argued that while their home in Naic is considerably safer than that in Bacoor, the government should have ensured jobs especially for families like hers who have relied on fishing almost their entire lives. 

She also pointed out that public schools and hospitals are far from the housing project. Her children have to walk for 38 minutes just to reach the Malainen Bago Elementary School, the educational facility nearest to where they live. Additional spending on commuting to get the kids to school meant a further drain on their finances. 

Meanwhile, only private hospitals serve the entirety of Naic. The sole affordable public healthcare facility in the town is a rural health unit in its center.

The relocation site’s inaccessibility to basic services and livelihood prompted other families to sell their homes in Naic, said Villamon.

 Cas confirmed that some relocated residents have left the area, but dispelled the notion that the local government fell short of its promise to provide liveable homes to its constituents. She also said a school building is currently being built near the relocation site. 

But Villamon said the government should have ensured that the relocated residents would be provided ample assistance or livelihood programs to help them adjust. Merely providing dwelling places is not enough to quell hunger, she said. 

“It’s true that our house here in Naic is safer and better than in Bacoor. We can sleep well here. Still, I prefer our home in Bacoor because at least we had something to eat there. Here, my house looks nice, but we are struggling,” she said.

‘Where are we now?’

As development in Bacoor moves forward with promises of job creation and increased revenue for the city, fishers like Villamon and Cabornay expressed concern about their fate. 

For the displaced residents, the fleet of boats that used to dock off Bacoor Bay is now just a memory of a once thriving town where fishers’ worries about food, shelter, and livelihood were held firmly at bay. 

“It’s hard to be poor,” Cabornay said. “The ones who will benefit from the reclamation are those with money. They won’t hire fishers like us. We probably can’t even go near the planned commercial district because we don’t have any money,” he said.

Meanwhile, the waters that kept them alive have been dumped with sand, forcing the fishers to witness the burial of Bacoor’s huge potential in mussel farming and fishing—the only way of life they know.  

Cabornay and Villamon, like many Bacoor fishers, hope that the pursuit of development will not cast adrift those who have been the lifeblood of the city’s fishing industry.

“Development is okay, but fishers like us should not be excluded from it,” Cabornay said. “They always say that the development of an area means the development of fishers like me and the community … But where are we now? We were shoved to a place with no livelihood.” 

He added: “We won’t fight them because it is a government project. But they should consider small people first … The fish we catch are not just for us to eat. Many people also benefit from what we harvest.” 

This story project was produced with support from the University of the Philippines Department of Journalism.

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While he still can, Bert Cabornay continues to fish in the sea off Bacoor City, Cavite. He rows farther than usual, towards clearer waters and away from his mussel farm that is barely operating.

Cabornay, 56, noticed in 2020 that the waters around his farm had become turbid. It was during this time that authorities started dumping sand in nearby areas, eventually forming an artificial island.

Across Bacoor’s waters, more land will emerge, commercial buildings will rise and new residences will be built. These are the promises of the city’s twin reclamation projects: the 230-hectare outer island and 90-hectare inner island Bacoor Reclamation and Development Project (BRDP) and the 100-hectare Diamond Reclamation and Development Project (DRDP).

The city government, the proponent, is rezoning its waters to accommodate the two big-ticket projects. But in the process, a large portion of the city’s fishing grounds and aquaculture zone will be wiped out. 

Numerous mussel farms beside his own have been demolished, Cabornay said. 

“They first targeted mussel farms at the 100-hectare island,” he said in Filipino. “Everything that island covers, they’ve already fenced off. They’ve compensated the affected owners.” 

Bacoor, a coastal city skirting Manila Bay, is known as one of the biggest mussel-producing areas in the Philippines, along with Maqueda Bay in Samar and Sapian Bay in Capiz.

Data from the Cavite Ecological Profile spanning 2010-2021 show that Bacoor topped the province’s mussel production for 12 years. Kawit City and Cavite City also contribute to overall production.

Before the sand-dumping started, Cabornay earned between P100,000 and P200,000 every harvest season. But hopes of earning this much will soon be washed away as his farm is next on the list.

“They’re constructing the 230-hectare project next. They’ll compensate the affected mussel farmers… I will be one of them,” he said.

The 90-hectare inner island is materializing, too. In 2020, authorities began dumping sand on the coastal Barangay Maliksi I.

Fishing families once resided here. Boats used to dock at its edges. Bamboo stalks trapping all sorts of edible sea creatures stood in its waters. 

As the land stretches farther, more coastal barangays where fishing families reside will be affected by the largest reclamation project in Bacoor’s history.

Through the decades, artificial islands and reclaimed roads have been restructuring Cavite’s waters.

The Island Cove in Kawit is a product of reclamation that started as early as the 1970s. It is now the site of Philippine offshore gaming hubs. Meanwhile, a portion of the Manila-Cavite expressway (Cavitex) that began operations in the 2000s rips through the waters of Bacoor.

Both projects have stirred controversy for disrupting the livelihood of Cavite’s fishers and displacing mussel farms.

Bacoor’s waters make up a small portion of Manila Bay, which has been subjected to decades-long dump-and-fill operations. More change will come as 13 reclamation projects in Manila Bay, including the BRDP and DRDP, have been approved by the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) as of November 2023.

Demand for land

Bacoor’s growing population prompted the implementation of the BRDP and DRDP. “With such rapid growth, land developments are much needed to facilitate this expansion,” the project report states.

By adding residential and open commercial lands to Bacoor, the “waterfront central business district” is envisioned to enhance and create new sectors, provide adequate housing, and eventually attract economic development, the report adds.

Data from Bacoor’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) for the years 2015-2024 indicate that the population “is expected to double by 2024 based on the 2010 census.”

Bacoor’s CLUP, last updated in 2016 according to the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, hinted at reclamation efforts to accommodate the projected growth: “The ‘interior’ municipal waters, that is, the municipal waters from the [Cavitex] towards the shore, may be considered for reclamation. This municipal water is estimated to occupy an area of 90 hectares, and there is a provisional approval to reclaim this.” 

The reclamation of the outer islands, however, is missing. And if zoning orders from Bacoor’s CLUP are to be strictly followed, its municipal waters should only be allotted to fishing, aquaculture and mangroves.

The CLUP serves as the long-term management plan of a locality and “identifies areas where development can and cannot be located and directs public and private investments accordingly,” a memorandum circular from the Department of the Interior and Local Government says.

Every local government unit is mandated by law to prepare its own CLUP, which is sometimes referred to as “the people’s plan.”

The City Planning and Development Office is fashioning an updated sea use plan that will put the reclamation projects on the map.

“Only the mangrove, aquaculture and fishing ground zones were included in the existing plan. In our new plan, we have a water use plan that includes the reclamation projects,” said the city planning officer, Rhowena Alcantara.

‘Something’s wrong’ 

Carmelita Liwag, a professor at the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UP SURP) raised an eyebrow at Bacoor’s plans to change its CLUP.

“If the reclamation is not included in the CLUP approved by the city or the Cavite CLUP, something’s wrong,” Liwag said in a mix of Filipino and English.

But she also pointed out that revising a CLUP during its years of coverage is technically legal: “Although usually, there’s a loophole for the local government unit. They can easily pass a resolution or ordinance to push through with their project be it privately or publicly initiated.” 

As early as 2016, the city council had shown intent to reclaim about 900 hectares of Bacoor’s municipal waters “for future development as a commercial, industrial, residential and tourism center.” It was signed by then Mayor Lani Mercado-Revilla.

No such proposal had reached the PRA’s list of approved projects as of November 2023.

But reclamation continued, only now through private corporations. In December 2016, Frabelle Fishing Corp. and Diamond Export Corp. submitted the BRDP and DRDP as unsolicited proposals, respectively, to the Bacoor City government.

In 2018, the city council approved another resolution allowing the mayor to sign joint-venture agreements with the developers of the reclamation projects.

The revised CLUP had yet to be finalized at this writing, but reclamation operations have been underway for four years now.

Government representatives commonly hold more power in the formulation of CLUPs, said Rafael Dimalanta, a research analyst at the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies.

Dimalanta said that while representatives of nongovernment organizations may participate in a local government’s planning through a local development council (LDC), getting accredited for this body “entails numerous bureaucratic processes and requirements.”

Getting elected to an LDC is “mired [in] politics…” he said. “As such, voices of dissent regarding the content of CLUPs, including zoning ordinances, or even revision of these, are not very common.”

In compliance with the requirements for the reclamation projects, the Bacoor City government has consulted various stakeholders on the impending changes in the municipal waters.

Through these dialogues, city officials admitted that the CLUP does not include the reclamation projects.

Loss of livelihood

Dissenting views on the project, but not necessarily on the CLUP, found space in these consultations, with environment officials raising concerns on the projects’ impact on marine resources.

Meanwhile, the affected fishers voiced their worries about losing their livelihood and homes. “What will happen to the livelihood of fishing families in Bacoor?” a representative asked authorities in the January 2019 public scoping for the reclamation projects.

Lawyer Bernadette Corrasco, a city government official, tried to calm their anxiety, saying in Filipino: “All of us here will thrive… We will put you in a fisherman’s village that is not far from the coastal area.”

But “how will the government ensure that the affected residents are properly relocated?” was the question posed by a barangay captain in a 2018 dialogue. 

Carrasco responded that there will be in-city resettlement of displaced residents. She said their “partner” had already bought land in Bacoor for the relocation site and the local government had secured a budget from the National Housing Authority.

Mercado-Revilla, who accepted the projects on the city’s behalf, addressed her constituents in a public consultation in January 2020. “We should all be excited because the coming changes are towards the progress and development of your family and community,” she said in Filipino.

A relocation site called Ciudad Kaunlaran, located some eight kilometers from Bacoor’s coastal area and to be composed of 3,000 units, will accommodate the displaced residents, Mercado-Revilla said.   

The tenement-type resettlement should be able to house the affected informal-settler families, which number 1,961, according to the Housing, Urban Development and Resettlement Department (HUDRD) of Bacoor City.

But groundbreaking for Ciudad Kaunlaran’s Phase II occurred only last January. Only nine buildings with a total of 540 units comprise its first phase, the HUDRD said.

Cabornay, whose house was among those that got in the way of the projects, opted for the off-city resettlement in Naic offered by the Bacoor City government. Naic is about two hours away from Bacoor. Still, he prefers the houses there over the smaller units in Ciudad Kaunlaran.

Besides, he said, there is a fisherman’s village promised for folks like him. 

But when the Cabornays’ house was demolished, the fisherman’s village had yet to be constructed. They availed themselves of the offered unit in Naic to secure a future house of their own, and, in the meantime, searched for a place to rent in Bacoor.

“As long as there is livelihood in the sea, I will stay,” Cabornay said. “I won’t live in Naic because there’s no job for me there… I know how it is to work in the sea.” 

The promised village, which is now referred to in city documents as a “fisherman’s dormitory,” has yet to be built at this writing.

“If the dorm has space that we can squeeze ourselves into, we’ll fight for it so we can have a place to sleep,” Cabornay said.

Space and capital

In the January 2020 dialogue, Mercado-Revilla denounced claims that the projects would kill Bacoor’s mussel and oyster industry, arguing that there would still be space for fishing and aquaculture.

As of 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority listed 411 mussel-growing areas in Bacoor, covering about 256 hectares in total. The area allotted for aquaculture in the proposed sea use map is only 156 hectares.

Space is one issue, but capital is another.

Cabornay is worried that mussel farmers like himself will again have to find huge sums of money to set up their farms. He has been cultivating his 0.4066-hectare mussel farm for more than two decades now, investing some P100,000 in it.

But because compensation for farm owners is pegged at only P0.50 per square meter, according to Bacoor’s agriculture office, Cabornay will be entitled to the meager amount of P2,033.

“There will still be space for mussel farms… But what? It will be too cramped, you’re overcrowded, and you’ll need new capital,” he said.

Consulting with the affected residents is only one of the tasks of proponents before their major reclamation projects begin. They must also draft an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of their operations and secure an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The projects’ EIA identified reclamation as posing a “(t)hreat to existence and/or loss of important local species and habitat.” But it also said that once stock enhancement measures like re-seeding of species are conducted, residual effects will be “nil.”

The projects’ ECC, meanwhile, states that water turbidity is bound to increase, but with the “installation of a silt curtain surrounding the area to be filled with the reclamation materials,” there will be “100% no turbidity.”

Oceana Philippines, an organization dedicated to the conservation of ocean and marine resources, is skeptical about these mitigating measures.

Lawyer Gloria Ramos, Oceana’s vice president, asserted that re-seeding will not work because it is not a sustainable practice. “If it’s that simple, why has fish production been consistently declining?” she said in Filipino.

Bacoor’s mussel industry had been improving since experiencing a sharp decline in 2018. But starting 2020, progress has slowed.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Region IV-A identified land reclamation and lack of expansion areas as threats to mussel production in Bacoor.

UP SURP’s Liwag said reclamation should always be the last recourse to accommodate growing populations. She said that vacant spaces, whether small or large, should first be explored, and that vertical development, or construction of high-rises, is also an option especially if the government can afford it.

“If there’s really no option … the last strategy is reclamation because once you reclaim—and naturally you reclaim the sea—firstly, that’s so costly. But it will also cause a myriad of negative environmental impacts,” the environment planner said.

Unsolicited projects

The P58.32-billion twin reclamation projects were not part of Bacoor’s plans. These are unsolicited projects proposed by Frabelle and Diamond to Mayor Mercado-Revilla’s office.

Because these are joint-venture agreements, the city government only has to allocate a minimal budget for the construction.

When the islands are completed, a sizable chunk will be owned by the developers and the remaining portion will become the property of the local government. Portioning has yet to be finalized, said city planning officer Alcantara. 

Frabelle and Diamond, both formerly chaired by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., submitted the unsolicited project proposals for BRDP and DRDP, respectively, to the Bacoor City government in December 2016. 

A month later, the Local City Council passed City Ordinance No. CO 7-2017, formally establishing a Public-Private Partnership Code in the city that would facilitate agreements between the city government and private developers.

In May 2017, Mercado-Revilla issued a certificate of acceptance for the proposals and began negotiations with the developers. The reclamation projects were also opened to other private entities, but no one expressed interest in them.

The Bacoor City Council greenlit Mercado-Revilla to sign the joint-venture agreement through a resolution dated January 2018. Sand was first dumped on Barangay Maliksi I for the BRDP in 2020. 

Robinsons Land Corp/ (RLC) is also involved in the construction of the BRDP’s 90-hectare inner island as a joint-venture service provider of Frabelle, according to a 2021 resolution of the Bacoor City Council.

A report by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reveals that a joint venture was brokered between Frabelle and RLC as early as 2018.

This reporting team sought comments from Frabelle and Diamond by email and phone call on May 7, 2024, and sent a physical letter to their office in Navotas on May 8, 2024. Follow-up requests were made four times, but no response has been received at this writing. 

Tiu Laurel has divested from Frabelle and Diamond, as shown in SEC records obtained by this reporting team. But members of his family, many of whom are board members and stockholders of the businesses, are tied to the projects affecting Bacoor fishing families.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed Tiu Laurel as agriculture secretary in November 2023. The business mogul donated P30 million to Marcos’ presidential campaign in 2022.

A few months into his tenure, Tiu Laurel, laid out a plan that would “[expand] and [improve] available agri-fishery areas to increase production.” 

Poorest sector

Fishers are the poorest among all sectors in the country, the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show.

The Bacoor City government believes that the displaced fishers can still benefit from the touted “world-class business hub.” They are welcome to mount their own business establishments there and sell any products they may have, Alcantara said.

She said livelihood programs and “training” are available for them and their spouses, including how to sew: “Tinuturuan din sila, like paano manahi, para ‘yung mga asawa ng fisherfolk meron silang trabahong pagkakakitaan.”

Cabornay, breadwinner of a family of three, was less optimistic. “They mentioned that the children will be the first ones to acquire jobs once businesses open in the reclaimed area… That’s if your child graduates from school. But how will our children finish their studies if we don’t have jobs?” he said.  

This story project was produced with support from the University of the Philippines Department of Journalism.

The post Bacoor rezones waters for reclamation, reducing fishing grounds appeared first on CoverStory.

The number of cops is 1,000 more than what was initially planned, which may lead the curious to wonder if the increase had anything to do with the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, now formally the US Republican Party’s candidate for Potus, or Vice President Sara Duterte’s announcement of her absence at the Sona and her assignment of herself as the “designated survivor.” 

In the face of backlash generated by that provocative term, Duterte has described her announcement as neither joke (biro) nor threat (banta)—yet another instance of vague repartee, whether her own or formulated by her comms team, that portrays her as flippant and ultimately unhelpful.

Whatever, the President will deliver his third Sona with plenty on his plate, much of it, including lowered trust and approval ratings, worrisome to Malacañang. He has a lot of things to say and is concerned that the speech might be too long, he said in a TV news clip on Friday while visiting parts north to inaugurate agri projects and to distribute “ayuda” of close to P500 million to sectors hit hard by El Niño. 

Whether lengthy or brief, his Sona is eagerly awaited (in a manner that perhaps his predecessor’s profanity-rich annual reports were not). Many of those tuned in will be basing future actions according to what they will hear from him, such as the leading lights of about 50 medical and health care organizations who informed the public in a press conference on Friday of their intent to take their case to the Supreme Court if he ignores their plea—the intense Filipino term “nagsusumamo” was used—to disallow the transfer of PhilHealth’s “excess funds” of P899 billion to the national treasury. They said only he, the President, can override the Department of Finance on the fund transfer that, they emphasized, counters the Universal Health Care Act, and against which certain economists have earlier sounded alarm bells. 

Economics

Is there ground for Mr. Marcos to expect a well-received Sona? The fact is that current economics provides inhospitable terrain for any planned glowing report by him, with, among other things, labor justly insulted by the proposed P35 minimum wage increase in Metro Manila, jeepney drivers and operators still at odds with, or plainly unable to afford the attendant costs of, the government’s jeepney modernization program, and specific health care frontliners in the battle against Covid-19 still awaiting their health emergency allowances after all these years.

In June, Pulse Asia recorded high inflation as the paramount factor troubling most Filipinos. As much as 72% said controlling inflation requires the government’s “immediate” attention, followed by increasing workers’ wages (44%), reducing poverty (32%), creating more jobs (30%), fighting government corruption (22%), and easing involuntary hunger (20%).

“Controlling the spiraling prices of basic commodities” is “the only issue, out of 17, that is considered an urgent national concern by the majority of the country’s adult population,” Pulse Asia said. Indeed, the ever-rising costs of food, fuel and utilities—and everything else down the line—are top of mind because grounded in reality, making, for example, “the nouveau poor” no longer just a cute turn of phrase among a cluster of the middle class slowly losing their toehold on a particular way of life, but a critical mass. 

Where are “the nouveau poor” reflected in the surveys? In June, the Social Weather Stations recorded 58% of Filipino families rating themselves as Poor (mahirap)—up by12 points from 46% in March (the SWS’s Mahar Mangahas wrote in his Saturday column in the Inquirer that “so large a jump is not a sampling blip”). The Not Poor (hindi mahirap) was 30%, and the Borderline was 12%. 

Mangahas discussed the reality of the three categories and the necessity of “repeated quantitative monitoring” to understand the dynamics of poverty. “Over the past four decades, the largest group has generally been the Poor, the middle-sized has been the Borderline, and the smallest has been the Not Poor. With more analysis of the data, how can this order be reversed?” he wrote.

Beyond the numbers, how can impoverishment be reversed, with huge amounts of public funds lost to graft-ridden government projects and official theft, and drought and monsoon rains alternately devastating agricultural lands north and south and plunging farmers deeper in debt? “Ayuda”—the state distribution of which is constantly aired, with the receivers invariably shown in postures of gratitude as though accepting largesse from private donors—can only go so far. 

Actual benefits 

Yet a glowing Sona—one that conveys sensible action plans and actual benefits for sectors in dire need, making it truly deserving of the rounds of applause commonly interrupting it, and not one filled with, say, “misleading claims and falsehoods,” as Trump’s nomination-acceptance speech was described on CNN—is within the realm of the possible. 

Think of what P125 million in confidential funds, the sort awarded to agencies not even in need of them and spent with impunity within days, could have done for the training and increased salaries of public school teachers who carry the formidable responsibility of educating generations of Filipinos. Imagine, in another time, what the P12 billion paid by the government to Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. for shoddy and overpriced Covid-19 supplies, could have done to construct and staff public hospitals in the remote regions; or conceive of the intensive training of Filipino athletes that could have been subsidized by the P50-million “Olympic cauldron” produced in 2019 under the aegis of the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee led by then Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano.

Filipinos were doubtless reminded of the cauldron touted as a priceless work of art, and other things besides, when Cayetano, now senator and chair of the Senate committee on accounts, launched a hearing early in July on the purported P23-billion cost of the new Senate building. He had the crust to tell the latecomer Sen. Nancy Binay, his predecessor in the committee, that they were in the Senate and not a wet market. It came across more vividly in Filipino—Senado ito, hindi palengke, he said, suggesting that the chamber deserved better, classier, behavior than what she was displaying. 

But he appeared like a palengkero himself: raising his voice and dispensing accusations of rumor-mongering and of supplying reporters with planted questions. He actually called Binay crazy when she, apparently feeling that she had made her point, walked out. (In the startling exchange captured on cam and aired in TV news loops, Sen. Robinhood Padilla—whose spouse once thought nothing of using the Senate building in the conduct of her beauty protocols, even posting one such activity online—was seen stolidly watching his colleagues and chewing on his lunch.)

Binay has since filed an ethics complaint against Cayetano; he has since issued a general apology for his behavior. Former senator Panfilo Lacson, who chaired the committee on accounts during his term, lamented that the heated exchange had wrongly suggested to the public another case of abuse of public funds. That may be so. It also called to mind that in other times, separately, Binay’s family members and Cayetano himself were embroiled in issues concerning the questionable use of taxpayer money. (Another point of recall was Cayetano reneging on an agreement over a shared speakership in the House. But his striking performance alongside Mr. Marcos in a 2016 vice presidential debate that touched on government corruption and the Marcos hidden wealth likewise momentarily surfaced. Memory bites.)

P6-trillion budget 

The President is expected to defend the P6.352-trillion budget for 2025 and his administration’s spending priorities, including food security, health care, digital connectivity, etc. The record-high figure is said to reflect the planned bigger budget allocation for local government units and the additional funding requirements for the midterm elections. The expenses for a modernized military including, crucially, the Navy and Coast Guard front-lining the country’s defense of its sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone comprise information not to be missed.

Also of critical attention is the issue of the Philippines’ external debt, which stood at a frightening high of US$128.7 billion in March, and the corresponding debt service.

The sale to low-income families of stock rice at P29/kilo in Kadiwa stores in the metro has been constantly in the news, with authorities announcing plans for its extension, and still lower prices of the staple, in other areas nationwide. The gut issue of rice is a cinch for Mr. Marcos’ Sona, highlighting as it does a seeming path toward fulfilling his campaign promise of rice at P20/kilo, while burnishing the Kadiwa brand, a pillar of his father’s authoritarian regime. A reduction in the rice tariff has allowed the influx of imported rice, suggesting abundance amid difficulty and want. Barely known to the general public is that farmer groups are opposed to the tariff cut that, they argue, will hurt both local producers and consumers and deprive the government of revenues. They have sought the Supreme Court’s intervention. 

Then there are the Pogos, or Philippine offshore gaming operators, lately exposed as startling emblems of power and influence. The President has all this time been mum on whether he considers them boon (for the money they bring) or bane (for the accompanying high crimes and sleaze and the general danger, to speak nothing of the disrepute, they pose to the republic). The call that they be banished from Philippine shores grows ever louder, but it’s uncertain if, in the din of the coming election year, he can hear.

Read more: Sara Duterte’s breakaway

Firm stance on sea row, total ban on POGOs sought

By Isa Jane Acabal

Civil society groups are calling on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to respond strongly to the West Philippine Sea (WPS) conflict and totally ban Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 22.

“At present, [Chinese} aggression still continues and is even intensifying, and this affects the lives and safety of our fishermen,” Chloe Ong, Liberal Party Youth representative, said in Filipino.

Ong spoke with other co-convenors of Tindig Pilipinas during the coalition’s press conference on July 18. She urged Marcos Jr. to take a firm stance in asserting the Philippines’ rights over the WPS within its 370-kilometer (200-nautical-mille) exclusive economic zone.

Khylla Meneses, secretary general of Akbayan Youth, challenged the President and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to declare the total ban on POGOs in the country.

“Let Duterte, Harry Roque and Mayor Alice Guo be held liable for the abduction and trafficking of women like us),” Meneses said in Filipino.

Duterte allowed the proliferation of online gambling operations during his term, while Roque was believed to have acted as counsel to some POGO operators. Guo is under Senate investigation into the raid of a POGO complex in her hometown, as well as reports of abduction and human trafficking there.

Business groups

Earlier, the Makati Business Club (MBC) issued a joint statement with other groups saying that POGOs had contributed little to the economy compared to their social costs. They also cited their involvement in human trafficking, kidnapping, and money laundering.

“The crimes related to POGO investments can hinder growth, affect investor perception, and potentially affect our bilateral and multilateral relations,” the statement said.

Other signatories were the Alyansa Agrikultura, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, Foundation for Economic Freedom, Institute of Corporate Directors, Justice Reform Initiative, Management Association of the Philippines, and the University of the Philippines’ School of Economics Alumni Association.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) supported the closing of POGOs but cautioned that abrupt closure could lead to job losses and disrupt related businesses.

“We call on Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) and other government agencies involved in regulating POGO operations … to carefully review the mandates from licenses, work licenses and tax obligations of the POGO operators,” said PCCI President Consul Enunina V. Mangio.

Education reforms

Mathew Silverio of Youth Resist, another Tindig Pilipinas convenor, appealed to Marcos Jr. and Department of Education Secretary Sonny Angara not to disappoint Filipino students and act to stem the education crisis.

“More classrooms and [educational] infrastructures. And utilities in Gida (geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas), adequate salaries for teachers, and upholding of rights of students,” he said in Filipino. 

Silverio reiterated his group’s call to reform the K-12 curriculum in order to “respond to our own needs, not of other countries.”

Former presidential adviser Teresita “Ging” Deles, another Tindig convenor, said Marcos Jr. should look into Duterte’s involvement in reported human rights violations during the drug war as cited in a complaint before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

For Solidar/Talisayen convenor Teddy Lopez, the ICC investigation is an opportunity for the Filipinos to witness an “unbiased process that reveals the truth behind abuses that occurred, particularly during the last administration.”

A one-act play “Tango Inferno: Sayaw ng Dalawang Uhaw,” written and directed by Jessie G. Villabrille, was performed before the start of the press conference. 

The play showcased with humor the conversation between Vhong (portrayed by Alvin Astudillo) and Shara (portrayed by Cha Dumayag), characters representing Marcos Jr. and Vice president Sara Duterte respectively, before the SONA.

Isa Jane Acabal, a journalism student of the University of the Philippines’ College of Mass Communication, is an intern of CoverStory.ph.

The post Marcos Jr.’s Sona and great expectations appeared first on CoverStory.

After the fall of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s, the United States stood at the apex of the unipolar world, unrivalled both politically and economically. Some 35 years later, it has become a struggling superpower and has no one to blame but itself for its current deep crisis. 

The American empire unleashed two major drives in the last three decades, and the consequences of these initiatives have come back to gnaw at its entrails.

The first was neoliberalism, an effort to restructure the US economy and the global economy on free market principles and place few constraints on making profit.  The second was termed “nation-building,” a new collar for an old dog called “imperialism.”  

There were three major prongs to neoliberalism.  One was structural adjustment—placing as few political and social constraints on the movement of market forces. The second was financialization—making the financial sector the cutting edge of the economy.  The third was globalization—doing away with political, cultural, and social barriers to the free flow of trade and capital.  I will focus my remarks on the third.

TNC-China economic partnership

The main thrust of globalization was to incorporate China into the global capitalist system, an objective on which the US corporate elite was united. The US-China partnership lasted until 2017, when Donald Trump came to power.

China was important to US transnational corporations (TNCs) because in the early 2000s, the hourly manufacturing wage there was less than 5% of that in the US.  Investments in China, along with neoliberal restructuring and financialization at home, halted the decline of TNC profitability. Profit rates for US firms rose from 6% in the early 1980s to 9% in the early to mid-2000s. The so-called “China Price” saw US stock investments in China balloon from $30 to $40 billion a year in the mid-1990s to $107.6 billion by 2019.

US big business soon became China’s closest foreign ally. Under President Bill Clinton, big business lobbying overcame objections from pro-Taiwan right-wing elements, human rights advocates among Democrats, and a Pentagon that was convinced that China would be the US’ principal strategic competitor. 

The TNC-China nexus was a “devil’s bargain” that would remain strong through succeeding administrations until the Trump presidency. The TNCs were out to exploit Chinese labor for superprofits. China agreed to this, but with the goal to gain the investment and technology needed to develop its economy. 

The Chinese state was not like previous client regimes that had been integrated into global capitalism. It was the product of a successful popular national revolution. It confronted US forces in Korea in the 1950s, and played a role in the Vietnamese victory over US forces in the 1970s. It was also stronger than the South Korean and Japanese states, whose capacity to resist US demands was limited by their subordination to US strategic interests. Beijing was thus able to manage foreign capital.

The cost of China’s willingness to have its workers exploited was considerable. For the period 1960–2018, China suffered a loss in terms of value transfer—or unequal exchange—of approximately $19 trillion. But from Beijing’s perspective, this cost in return for economic development was a devil’s bargain that was worth making. 

The TNCs accepted the devil’s bargain in order to improve their bottom lines. Former US Treasury secretary Hank Paulson remarked that many US firms “accepted the Faustian bargain of maximizing today’s earnings per share while operating under restrictions that jeopardize their future competitiveness.” 

The US clearly got the short end of the Faustian deal. Its industrial heartland has been largely deindustrialized, with factories moving to China.  By the end of the second decade of the 21st century, the relative power of China’s foreign corporate allies had been reduced by a decade-long stagnation in the US economy, a Covid-19 recession, and China’s rapid technological advances. 

The US economy had also been shaken by a social and political upheaval characterized by job losses, rising inequality, and growing indebtedness. To be sure, China also has crises, including rising corporate debt, overinvestment in real estate, and the demographic crisis. China’s crises, however, stems from its unbalanced growth, unlike the US crises of decline. 

China has now become the world’s biggest economy in terms of purchasing power parity, the center of global capital accumulation. As The Economist acknowledged: “Over the past 20 years China has been the biggest and most reliable source of growth in the world economy.” 

The Middle East quicksand

The second development that undermined the US empire was its misadventures in the Middle East. A chain of events started with Osama bin Laden’s assault on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Bin Laden saw this attack as exposing the vulnerability of the “Great Satan,” and inspiring Muslims to join his jihad against it. 

Bin Laden’s plan, however, horrified most Muslims, who distanced themselves from his terrible deed.  Still he was in luck, thanks to George W. Bush and the neoconservatives that came to power in 2001. For them, his assault was a God-given opportunity to teach both America’s enemies and friends that the empire was omnipotent. 

Bush drove the US into two unwinnable wars against highly motivated insurgents in the Middle East. Prolonged occupation demanded boots on the ground; thus, most of the US Army’s brigades were overseas, and those left in the country were too few to maintain the contingency reserve or the necessary training base. Military morale plummeted, as tours of duty were extended and casualties mounted. 

This led to the overextension of US political and military power from which Washington is still reeling.  Eventually, the already limited public support for the Middle East expeditions went up in smoke. This impossible situation forced Joe Biden to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, in a disorderly, chaotic departure that brought US prestige to a new low, even among America’s allies.

During those 20 years (2001-2021) when Washington was tied up in the Middle East, China concentrated on its drive to develop its economy and unfold an economic diplomacy that gained it much friendship, support, and sympathy in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and even Europe.

In the last three years, Washington shifted to diplomacy to shore up its deteriorating position in the Middle East. Washington tried to regain control of events by brokering a diplomatic rapprochement among Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the smaller Arabian Gulf states like Qatar. 

The Hamas offensive into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, however, blew up Biden’s plan for regional stabilization, with the Saudi government and other Arab states scorning a deal with Israel while the latter was slaughtering another Arab people, the Palestinians. Today, with a defiant Israeli tail wagging the American dog, the US stands even more isolated than ever, condemned by most of the world, except Western Europe. 

Meanwhile, China allied itself with the global South and promoted a peacemaking diplomacy that contrasted with Washington’s unqualified moral and military support for Israel’s genocidal offensive.

The US is equally losing control in Europe, with the Ukraine situation deteriorating.  Washington’s aid lifeline to Kyiv is now threatened by congressional Republicans’ opposition. With the threat of an isolationist Donald Trump regime coming back to power in November, the US’ European allies are increasingly worried that Washington can’t be trusted with providing their “security.”

Containing China

Washington’s rhetoric comes across as simply preventing Beijing from becoming No. 1. But Beijing disclaims seeking to be No. 1 and has shown unwillingness to replace the US as global hegemon. Taking their cue from Biden’s increasingly provocative pronouncements, US military leaders have become more confrontational in their language, as shown by statements from Gen. Mike Minihan, head of the US Air Mobility Command, and Adm. Michael M. Gilday, chief of US naval operations.

The US military edge over China, however, is overwhelming. The US military posture is offensive while China adopts a strategic defensive stance which even the Pentagon acknowledges. Though it has raised military spending and might be re-orienting its force posture, Beijing is not engaged in an arms race with the US, which has spent thrice more than China in recent years. 

China’s nuclear arsenal remains puny in comparison to that of the US. China has only one overseas base, in Djibouti, compared to the scores of US military bases and installations in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Guam, in addition to the Seventh Fleet patrolling the East and South China Sea. China’s offensive capabilities are limited, its naval force provided by three Soviet-era aircraft carriers that are lightyears away from the capabilities of the US supercarriers. 

The main site of confrontation between an aggressive US and a defensive China is the Asia-Pacific region, particularly the South China Sea.  Three points need to be made here.

On Taiwan, Washington has been rattling about responding to a Chinese “invasion.” Beijing’s long-time policy has been to integrate Taiwan through economic ties which have strengthened in the last 25 years.  While Beijing reserves the option of military action against Taiwan, it would be crazy to do so since the US could wipe out most of the Chinese Navy within 24 hours of hostilities.  

Second, Washington’s declared intent in obtaining more military bases in the Philippines is to support Taiwan in the event of an invasion by China. The reality is that defending Taiwan against a nonexistent Chinese military threat is a smokescreen for the real goal of using the Philippines as a springboard from which to contain China.

Third, China’s motivations for its South China Sea encroachments are primarily defensive: to expand its defense perimeter against attack from US bases in the Western Pacific and the Seventh Fleet. Beijing’s main intent in the maritime formations it has seized is installing missiles to shoot down missiles aimed at China’s industrial infrastructure in Southeastern China.

Beijing, however, has blundered in its defensive goal by unilaterally claiming 90% of the South China Sea and appearing as a big bully. But it can rectify its frayed relations by negotiating with Asean and proposing a demilitarization and neutralization of the South China Sea in return for the withdrawal of US bases from the Western Pacific and the abrogation of military agreements with the US. 

Hegemonic transition or vacuum?  

With an economically strong but militarily disadvantaged China facing off against an economically and politically weakened United States seeking to shore up its position by bannering its military superiority, can one really speak about a hegemonic transition? 

Perhaps what is emerging is a hegemonic vacuum rather than a transition akin to the post-World War I era when a weakened Western Europe could no longer restore its prewar global hegemony. At the same time, the US did not follow through on Woodrow Wilson’s push to assert hegemonic political and ideological leadership. 

Within such a vacuum, the US-China rivalry continues to be critical, but with neither power able to decisively manage trends, such as extreme weather events, growing protectionism, rising global wealth disparities, the decay of the US-imposed multilateral system, the volatilities in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the resurgence of progressive movements in Latin America, and the rise of authoritarian states and their likely alliance to displace a faltering liberal international order. 

Traditional policymakers argue that the situation still requires a hegemon, with Western analysts having the US in mind, not China. 

On the other hand, the crisis of US hegemony can be viewed as offering, not anarchy, but opportunity. Despite the risks involved, a hegemonic stalemate could lead to a world where power is decentralized, where there could be greater freedom of political and economic maneuver for smaller, traditionally less privileged countries which could play the superpowers against each other, and where a truly multilateral order could be constructed through cooperation rather than imposed through either unilateral or liberal hegemony.

Walden Bello is co-chair of the Board of Focus on the Global South and adjunct professor of sociology, State University of New York at Binghamton. This piece is abridged from his speech at a forum at the University of the Philippines Diliman on “The US Empire: The Beginning of the End?” on Feb. 23, 2024, organized by the UP CIDS Programs on Alternative Development and Strategic Studies and the University Student Council. The forum can be viewed at the UP CIDS YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ONsBzifPSE

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Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri’s surprise filing on Jan. 15 of Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 6 proposing the amendment of certain economic provisions represents a stronger than usual push for Charter change. It used to be that only the majority in the House of Representatives avidly sought this drastic procedure that, in all the times it was attempted in past administrations, ultimately fell by the wayside.

This time things are shaping up fast. It was only in December that House Speaker Martin Romualdez raised the idea of amending the Constitution; mere days into the new year, a campaign for a people’s initiative appeared to be underway. Zubiri’s resolution, coauthored by Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda and Sen. Sonny Angara, signals a resolve by the Senate leadership not to allow the upper chamber’s strength and status to be clipped by the move seeking a “joint vote” for Charter change by two-thirds of all the members of Congress.

The demand for “economic Cha-cha”—the amendment of the Charter’s economic provisions alleged as stumbling blocks to the entry of foreign investments touted to lift the Philippines out of its backward state vis a vis its neighbors in the region—is louder, more strident. Pirma (or the People’s Initiative for Reform, Modernization and Action) has stirred to life and, through a TV advertisement aired prime time, declared what in the past was merely slyly suggested: that the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution and its results, including the 1987 Constitution, were for naught and now getting in the way of progress.

The temerity of the script is stunning, although it seemed that only those of a certain age and political perspective swiftly took offense. The “creatives” who produced the ad on the cues of their principals could be said to have risen to their expected provocative level: As articulated by representatives of the Gana Atienza Avisado law firm that paid for the ad, it was intended as a trigger for a wider discussion of economic Cha-cha. But the ad’s use of the term “Edsapwera”—to mean the nation’s exclusion from progress because of a supposed constrained and limiting “Saligang Batas”—was telling and deserved deeper outrage for its dismissal of a high point in Philippine history: the toppling of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship, a brutal regime that, among other economic factors, was marked by “hyperinflation of 50% in 1984, immediately followed by 23% in 1985,” according to Inquirer columnist Mahar Mangahas.

“These,” wrote Mangahas, president of the opinion survey firm Social Weather Stations, “were surely part of the fuel behind the Edsa People Power Revolution in 1986!”

In full swing

Still, the gathering of signatures looks to be in full swing, giving credence to the principals’ purported timeline that the Kabataan Partylist had earlier divulged, to the effect that a fait accompli would be presented as a midyear gift to President Marcos Jr. Already the Commission on Elections has announced receipt of signature sheets and forms for a purported people’s initiative. From the Cordillera in the north to the Bangsamoro in the south, the poll body’s local offices have received the documents, per Comelec Chair George Garcia, indicating a vigorous nationwide effort to produce the signatures of 12% of the Philippines’ registered voters on a petition for Charter change. 

Bishop Broderick Pabillo of the Apostolic Vicariate in far-off Taytay, Palawan, was the first of a number of Catholic bishops to warn the faithful not to sign any such petition, and to refuse money offered in exchange for their acquiescence, the activity being, in his pointed description, “not an initiative of the people but only of a few politicians.” 

Stories of big money changing hands for the purpose of buying the required signatures (denied by named parties) and of people signing in the belief that it was for ayuda, etc. are rife. So rife that even Sen. Imee Marcos, who chairs the Senate committee on electoral reform and people’s participation, saw fit early on to advise the citizenry to be aware that “tricking the people” is involved in the signature-gathering. Her friend and ally, Vice President Sara Duterte, has belatedly chimed in, lamenting the “pera-pirma” (money for signatures) as an insult to the dignity of poor folk.

In a  recent TV report, the President’s manang also lit into the Speaker, her first cousin, for his push for Charter change, quipping that one can’t choose one’s relatives.

The pertinent talking heads are being kept busy indeed. Garcia was quoted as saying that the Comelec could verify the authenticity of the signatures, but only after the formal petition had been filed. Imagine the tremendous expense and effort that would go into such an undertaking, supposedly to preclude possible coercion, bribery and fraud. And within 60 days yet. Nevertheless, Garcia subsequently said, those who eventually discover that they had signed the forms without fully understanding the nature of the enterprise are within their rights to withdraw their signatures.

“Ordinary people submitting boxes of signatures for verification by the Comelec”—as primly described by Cha-cha advocate Albay Rep. Joey Salceda—realizing they’ve been shafted, finding it unacceptable, and getting their signatures back? This potential display of enlightenment and quick restitution, many will agree, is something we’ve got to see. 

Political agendas

One question remains valid in this setting where political agendas almost always lurk behind proposals for economic progress: Is constitutional amendment the panacea for the anemic inflow of foreign investments? Many think not, correctly, including the minority in the Senate and in the House, as well as groups and individuals who constantly seek to air clear explanations of political developments and how these impact on the general public.

Through the noise, University of the Philippines economics professor Cielo Magno—undersecretary of finance until last September, when she ran afoul of authorities for posting her thoughts on the law of supply and demand as it pertains to the gut issue of rice, just as the President set a price ceiling on the precious grain—kept it simple. A genuine resolve to address such critical issues as corruption, the high price of electricity, the general difficulty of doing business in the Philippines, etc. would achieve much more in terms of drawing foreign investments than opening the Constitution for amendments, she said in the briefest of interviews with ANC’s “Pasada” on Jan. 15.

Unfortunate that the show hosts did not devote their running time for Magno to expound on the matter, but observers attentive to the realities in this unhappy archipelago surely got her drift. The realities become more entrenched as the days go by. For one example, power blackouts in Panay and Negros again occurred on the heels of the 4-day outage earlier in the month, doing havoc and posing a continuing threat to big and small businesses, yet the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines  is seemingly just coasting along. For another, ordinary Filipinos are struggling with ever-rising costs of rice and other staples, as well as of utilities, fuel, and virtually everything else. Farmers are losing their shirt (if they haven’t lost it already) in the face of imported produce. Other sectors are in turmoil, not least jeepney drivers and operators. Etc. 

So that tickets to the Coldplay concert have become an extreme, unthinkable luxury…

Dire straits

It should be evident that Charter change is hardly the solution to the dire straits in which many Filipinos now find themselves, even if, as announced, Angara would lead the Senate’s deliberations on RBH 6 and not Sen. Robinhood Padilla, the author of RBH 5 which seeks to lift term limits on elected officials. Padilla, the former action star and No. 1 in the last senatorial elections, chairs the committee on constitutional amendments and revision of codes and is the Senate’s foremost pusher of Charter change. 

Those who oppose the opening of the Constitution for amendments are correct to warn of the great risks involved in the process. They are correct to direct attention instead to the urgency of curbing corruption in public office and guarding against the plunder of public funds and resources, in order to boost agriculture, foster genuine industrialization, and generate employment, among other measures. Good governance is, after all, as important as foreign investments, which are apparently still elusive despite the President’s numerous trips overseas (so numerous that the Philippines recently merited a question in “Jeopardy” on the country with the most globe-trotting leader).

But battle lines have been drawn in this power dance. Watch their moves.

Read more: Challenge to Congress: Easing of bank secrecy is necessary for economic Charter change

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With calls for Charter change (Cha-cha) once more gaining traction, the Foundation for Economic Freedom issued this statement last Jan. 4: “Economic Cha-cha is necessary but not enough. Other conditions, such as rule of law, good infrastructure and ease of doing business, among others, must be present to compete with other countries in attracting foreign investment.” 

The same position was conveyed by economist Solita Monsod at a hearing conducted last year by the House of Representatives on the matter of amending certain economic provisions of the Constitution. She enumerated similar other necessary conditions, most significant of which is the need to curb corruption.

Corruption is perhaps the biggest bane in our life as a nation and the most pernicious obstacle to achieving economic freedom. Corruption ruins the rule of law, retards needed infrastructure, and obstructs ease of doing business.

Economic Charter change and the other necessary conditions for attracting foreign direct investments involve tasks independent of one another. The easing of the 1955 bank secrecy law, or Republic Act (RA) No. 1405, ought to come first. It is vital to going after the corrupt and to shaping and ensuring transparency in governance.

Stamping out corruption requires policies directed against corruption. Amending RA 1405 can well be the nation’s biggest leap towards economic freedom.

Finance and business organizations have tried to get bank secrecy rules eased by another knot for tax purposes and predicate crimes and to allow the Philippines to comply with its international obligations.

BSP support

At a hearing of the Senate committee on banks in 2016, Amando Tetangco Jr., the then governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), was asked if he would support the repeal of RA 1405. 

Tetangco replied: “Our main concern, Mr. Chairman, with respect to the bank secrecy law, is in terms of being able to ensure that existing regulations are being complied with. That’s No. 1. And No. 2, to provide some form of deterrent for possible fraud, unlawful activity, or irregularity…” 

He added: “The Philippines is one of only three remaining countries in the world with such ultra secrecy. The other two are Lebanon and North Korea.”

Speaking at a special membership meeting of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines in August 2022, the incumbent BSP governor, Felipe Medalla, said the central bank was requesting and needed support for more authority so it could examine suspect bank accounts, particularly those with possible links to illegal activities.

The International Monetary Fund finds a compelling rationale for amending the Philippines’ unusually strict bank secrecy regulations so that law enforcement and financial regulators can have complete and direct access to depositor information. It also says that the Philippines will be able to remove itself from the “gray list” of the Financial Action Task Force by revising its bank secrecy rules.

At present, no one can access records of bank transactions except in two instances: via a court order or by waiver of the depositor. A third exception, introduced in House Bill (HB) No. 8991 and approved by the House committee on banks and financial intermediaries of the 18^th Congress, is in cases where the inquiry or examination is made by the BSP, provided that there is reasonable ground to believe that fraud, serious irregularity, or unlawful activity has been or is being committed, and that it is necessary to look into the deposit to establish such fraud, irregularity, or unlawful activity. 

The results of the inquiry or examination shall be for the BSP’s exclusive use and shall not be made available except, as applicable, to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation, Anti-Money Laundering Council, Department of Finance, Department of Justice, and/or the courts, provided that the sharing of the results of the inquiry or examination is necessary to prevent or prosecute any offense or crime.

The BSP is supporting HB 8991, or “An Act Promoting Transparent Governance and Instituting Anti-Corruption Mechanisms in the Operation of Banks, amending for the Purpose Republic Act No. 1405.” The bill takes note of the deliberations during the hearings conducted by the House committee on banks and financial intermediaries, in which various stakeholders—including the Bankers Association of the Philippines, Chamber of Thrift Banks, Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines, Cooperative Banks Federation of the Philippines, Alliance of Non-Stock Savings & Loan Associations, and Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines—participated and provided comments.

In this 19^th Congress, HB 7446, which is similar to HB 8991, was approved by the House on third reading on May 8, 2023. In the Senate, a similar measure, Senate Bill No. 1839 filed by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian on Feb. 6, 2023, is pending at the chamber’s committee on banks and financial institutions and currencies.

Indirect initiative

As a means of support, Kapatiran Party may file in both chambers of Congress a similar version of HB 8991 through indirect initiative. 

RA 6735 defines indirect initiative as “the exercise of initiative by the people through a proposition sent to Congress or the local legislative body for action.” It adds: “The procedure to be followed on the initiative bill shall be the same as the enactment of any legislative measure before the House of Representatives except that the said initiative bill shall have precedence over the pending legislative measures on the committee.” 

To give precedence means to give priority or more importance. The people’s right ingrained in the law is substantial.

Establishing a government that shall promote the general welfare of the nation is a duty not just of our leaders but, more importantly, of each Filipino, collectively. Only in working together in a cohesive manner can we influence Congress to undo corruption by passing an amended bank secrecy law. There is no better alternative.

What more can we do together to raise the importance of amending the bank secrecy law to the wider public, gather massive support, and break open the congressional walls of personal interests?

Norman V. Cabrera is president of the Kapatiran Party. —Ed.

Read more: To nourish a legacy of criticism and scholarship in the academe

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The Philippines is also the country that proportionately spends the most on Christmas food, according to a 2023 worldwide survey of 23 countries by WorldRemit. The survey classified Christmas spending according to three categories: food, decorations and gifts. A Filipino household on the average spends 60% of its Christmas budget on food, 33% on gifts, and 7% on decorations. Average total spending is US$614, or P34,872 at the time of the survey.

In comparison, an American household’s Christmas spending is the reverse. Americans spend the most on gifts (69%), next on decorations (19%) and least on food (12%).

In the same vein, according to a 2016 report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Filipinos spend on food 41.9%, or about  P42 for every P100 that the household earns. In comparison, Americans spend only 6.4% of their household income on food, and Singaporeans spend just 6.7%.

More recently, a 2018 Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas report said: “Food consumption accounted for the largest share in the total (Filipino) household expenditure (72.1%).”

Whatever the percentage may be now, it is safe to assume that a large portion of Filipino household income still goes to food. This being so, it can also be safely presumed that among our greatest preoccupations is working for, preparing, and consuming food.  

Whichever way one looks at it, that definitely makes us “Isang kahig, isang tuka.” Meaning we are a subsistence economy, with not much disposable income beyond meeting our most basic needs. 

We now have the unenviable distinction of being the world’s No. 1 rice importer. Despite the presence of the world-renowned International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, Laguna, where many of the world’s rice scientists and technicians have innovated and trained, and despite various programs from agrarian reform to irrigation, infrastructure and postharvest facilities, even the provision of online farming guides and databases, our agricultural productivity has remained abysmally low. So much so that, in an effort to turn things around, the President himself acted until recently as agriculture secretary, and billions of pesos in debt of agrarian reform beneficiaries have been written off to remove the debt burden on them and hopefully motivate and fund greater productivity. Yet, year in and year out our agriculture and fisheries sector is among the poorest performers.

Anyone citing the reasons for low agricultural productivity trots out the usual suspects, from devastating typhoons to lack of affordable credit to inadequate postharvest facilities to not having enough young farmers. And yet, and yet, and yet…

There is something more fundamentally wrong. No matter how much money you throw at the problem and whatever program you devise, agricultural productivity will remain low. Maybe a profit motive or the opportunity for profit is lacking. Maybe we were not meant to be farmers. Consider: We are among the world’s best seafarers, the world’s most caring nurses, the world’s most hardworking domestics, the world’s most wonderful singers—but we are the world’s worst farmers. The Israelis can make the desert bloom and their agricultural technicians are in great demand, but I have not heard of a single Filipino farmer being recruited to work abroad, unless one counts the utterly menial job of a fruit picker in some California or Hawaii plantation.

Or maybe the system is wrong. It is the large agribusiness corporations and the large property developers that prosper, and farmers just sell their land and become seafarers, nurses, domestics and singers instead.

“Generally speaking,” the WEF observed, “the more developed a country is, the smaller the percentage of household income it spends on food.” It further indicated that income disparity within a country correlates with the proportion of income spent on food: “Over the past 25 years, the poorest 20% of households in the US spent between 28.8% and 42.6% on food, compared with 6.5% to 9.2% spent by the wealthiest 20% of households.”

There clearly is a relationship between the level of development and the percentage of household income spent on food. The bigger the income, the smaller the proportion of the food expense, and of course, the smaller the income, the bigger the proportion spent on basic sustenance. 

One can make other interesting observations as well. For example, the United States proportionately spends the least on food and yet obesity among Americans is of epidemic proportions. We spend the most on food and yet malnutrition is widespread. According to the World Food Programme, 27% (or almost 1 out of 3) of Filipino children under 5 years old suffer from stunting.

Thus, more than anything, it is economic disparity and the structures that perpetuate it that must be addressed. Our import-oriented, service-focused, consumer-driven economic mindset will always stunt agricultural production.

Nevertheless, it is Christmas. And whether rich or poor, eating and eating well are among life’s greatest pleasures. Whether by yourself or in the company of others. Preferably in the company of others, especially loved ones, and especially during Christmas. A pleasure shared, a journey shared. 

Thus, the market, the kitchen and the dining table are the happiest places on earth. Our gut is our second brain, it is said. And what a smart one it is. No wonder happiness surveys always show Filipinos as among the happiest people on earth. We know what’s important: food. And the kinship it brings, especially during the season of blessed abundance and rebirth.

Read more: 5 Christmas parties while exploring for mines in 3 countries

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Despite the meager starting daily wage of P300, with free meals and board, he bit the bullet, seeing a chance to save up enough to allow him to pursue his chosen career and an office desk in an IT outfit.

After 15 days, his wage was raised to P350, but he had to pay half the P2,500 charge for a room he was sharing with three other workers. 

Three months later, Gregorio was back at home in Pandan, Antique, a fourth-class municipality about 50 minutes by bus from Caticlan’s jetty port, Boracay’s jump-off point in Malay, Aklan. 

His employer had shut down the restaurant due to bankruptcy. A second job in a food market stall paid P50 more but still proved too little to be of use.

“Mai-mai” told a different story. She decided to stay put as a food service attendant in a hotel chain despite a new company policy designed to cut down on operational costs: working only 20 days in a month and spending 10 days idle with no pay. 

As a single parent supporting a 2-year-old child that she left in the care of her mother in the family home in Makato, Aklan, Mai-mai felt that she had no choice.  

Most poor residents of Aklan and neighboring Antique think of the world-renowned Boracay as a paradise for seekers of employment and leisure, as well as a hub for small-scale entrepreneurs. Widely regarded as the Philippines’ premier tourist draw for its beaches of powdery white sand, glorious sunsets, and fun water recreation activities, it holds out a promise of a convenient, easy life. 

But signs of a business drag have appeared over the past several months—to almost everyone’s frustration.

‘Economic yield, not numbers’  

Last Nov. 7, the number of tourist arrivals since January came up to some 1.8 million, according to the tourism office of Malay, which has jurisdiction over Boracay. With this figure, it had already met its target for 2023, yet still fell below those of 2022 and the period in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic hit.  

“The problem is that we focus on the numbers, not on the economic yield,” said Gil delos Santos, owner of Roy’s Rendezvous, who has embarked on a personal crusade to bring Boracay back to its luster. 

“It is being felt on the ground, by the stakeholders and the different sectors,” he said.

In a CoverStory.ph interview last Nov. 25, Delos Santos stressed: “Acknowledging the problem is the initial step toward identifying and implementing remedies that can help restore Boracay’s business sector to its former vibrancy.” 

The young businessman appealed for local government policy changes in a presentation to Malay officials on Nov. 13. He cited the low influx of hotel and resort check-ins, few bookings and restaurant customers, and an “alarming level of income than usual.” 

These, he said, have resulted in layoffs, forced leaves, reduced business hours, unpaid rentals and business closures—concerns aired similarly by other business leaders, residents and workers.

“We’re struggling through the months, with 40-50% occupancy,” said May Ann Oluwaldare, general manager of the 51-room Microtel by the Wyndham in Barangay Yapak, during the Kapihan sa Boracay Forum hosted by the Boracay Foundation Inc. on Nov. 25. 

She, however, said she expected an improvement to 80-90% by December.

Another forum guest, Nilda Serrano, general manager of Le Soleil de Boracay, said: “We’re doing good, except September with 40% occupancy, but we hoped to hit 80% in November and full occupancy in December.”

Workers have aired their own complaints, too, like three days off a week for those doing hotel housekeeping, and more days off than duty days for some fast-food waiters, CoverStory learned.

Optimism

Felix Gregorio delos Santos, the local tourism officer, was quoted by the state-owned Philippine Information Authority as saying that Malay was “optimistic” that the number of visitors would reach 2 million by December based on the current trend of arrivals.

Of the 1,825,758 visitors recorded lately, 1,433,024 (or nearly 80%) were locals and 357,066 (or 20%) were foreigners, largely Koreans and Chinese. The remaining 35,668 were vacationing overseas Filipinos. 

Malay’s tourism office said the figures were still below the prepandemic levels, but noted that inbound tourism markets were showing signs of increasing arrivals, with 5,000 to 6,000 tourists per day.

Gil delos Santos said the local government must look beyond the numbers. “Concentration on numbers rather than on economic yield is an incomplete equation,” he said.

He noted that tourist arrivals were generally low compared to those of previous years and foreigners were few. He observed as well a decrease in “medium to high-paying tourists” and an “upsurge” in budget-conscious travellers.

Moreover, he posted on his Facebook account that 2024 does not look good for Boracay with the Asian market, as economic experts had predicted. 

“Direct flights to Caticlan and Kalibo airports from Korea, China, and Taiwan have been limited or cut already. What else can Boracay expect in terms of tourist arrivals?” he said, adding:

“Our Asian neighbors are done and over with Boracay’s bureaucracy—policies that kill convenience for travelers: entry requirements, beach regulations, high cost and extra fees.” 

Other destinations

The trend could be an offshoot of a government policy to open and develop other tourist destinations, like Bohol and Palawan, Gil delos Santos said. He raised suspicion that decision-makers intend to direct tourists “to other islands who want to get a share [of] the hospitality pie.”  

Under the National Tourism Development Plan (2023-2028), the Department of Tourism will “diversify” the Philippines’ tourism portfolio through “multidimensional tourism.” This means that the national government is pushing other tourism destinations, Delos Santos said.

He mentioned Bohol as a “serious competitor” and a “threat” to Boracay. The island-province has many places to offer tourists, like Chocolate Hills, Alona Beach, Balicasag Island, tarsiers’ sanctuary and the Loboc River, and its airport is near these areas, he pointed out.

“Changes need to happen now. We need to pivot to the rejuvenation path, unless we want to decline further,” Delos Santos said. “Our local leaders should take the first step first—to realize that actions need to be taken now … before it becomes too late.”

For starters, he said, authorities must act on “key issues affecting negative tourist experience,” such as cutting long lines, reducing jetty port transactions to two minutes in a single-step process flow, conducting professional customer-service training for all port personnel and service providers, and improving Caticlan airport operations, and the number, frequency and prices of flights.

On Nov. 15, Aklan Gov. Jose Enrique Miraflores announced the “good news” to local and foreign tourists that hotel booking vouchers will no longer be required from them.

‘Updates’ 

The governor also introduced the following “updates”: 

• Allowing beds and umbrellas on the beach.

• Extending time for night swimming to 9 p.m.

• Serving of food and drinks on party boats.

• Suspending the P20,000 fee for foreign tour guides.

After a disappointing three-month stay in Boracay, John Neil Gregorio, the computer science graduate, said he was no longer keen on working on the island. He said he would rather stay in Pandan, where he is now employed as a foundation employee. 

On the other hand, Mai-mai, 25, the service attendant and breadwinner, said she felt “a little sad [about the work conditions] but still happy that Boracay is regaining its previous energy, although slowly.”

Read more: One island paradise, five worlds

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