Lowering the prices of onions, rice, sugar and other basic commodities by way of importation is NOT something for Filipinos to be happy about.
Even if rice would soon cost P20 per kilo as promised by BBM, that would amount to naught (ultimately) or would amount to aggravating our economic plight under such a situation. If what the government does to solve our food shortage crisis and all the other problems we have in the country is always through a “band aid” solution, then we can only expect more of the same binds we’ve been having. The wounds of the country are deep and many, and they need surgery to heal and recover.
Progress is no instant noodle.
Do we really have to embrace the deluge of foreign products and “investments” via the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) so much so that such embracing would, in the end, decimate our local products and producers, and from the outset soften/imperil the Filipino initiative to improve Filipino capacity to develop (scientifically and technologically) our very own just as other nations have done for themselves before they became competitive and good players in the world market?
Why put our local commerce and industries, together with our local producers and agricultural workers at an anomalous disadvantage by joining RCEP which could rout the nation’s “elusive” dream of progress (real progress), consequently? The RCEP program may be good and ideal, but certainly not for a country that is yet to develop and modernize its means and capacity to produce like the Philippines. With this world’s largest trade pact, we cannot compete. We can only trade our soul for a few “pieces of silver.”
Study the nations that yoked with RECEP and those that rejected it with an open mind, then perchance (hopefully), you’ll get to realize what you are trying to “achieve” for the motherland. There has been a prevailing international reservation on the latent effects of RCEP’s policies that are considered potentially inimical to member nations, especially and markedly to the poor and developing ones that hunger and thirst for mammon such as ours.
Don’t bite the bait.
Our farmers or agricultural sector is not mum on the issue. They have warned the government of RCEP’s “disastrous impact” on our nation. And Senators Risa Hontiveros and Imee Marcos were aptly saluted for their opposition to it as they indeed appear to be the “last men standing up for the local producers.” RCEP would only drive our already complacent officials to further complacency – to rev up even more our predicament and miseries as a people. No excuses, please, sirs and madams. Resist the RCEP lure.
You need not build homes for the homeless, Mr. President, if it will cost us our soul as a nation.
To our economic managers: You are not magicians. But even if you are, there is no magic to achieving progress. There can be a miracle, though, if the miracle is your change of mindset and direction to be on track, the same need of miracle for drunks in Congress who are out of themselves dancing Cha-cha all over the country.
Progress adjures time, hard work, sacrifices, patriotism, incorruptibility of intentions, faith, godly heart and wise, deep thinking. Please don’t make developed/progressive nations wear bigger smiles by joining the Philippines to RCEP at the expense of the already frowning faces of Filipinos due to hardship and stomach ache. With RCEP “trade deal,” foreign countries don’t need to invade us – to own us.
Queerly, the Senate is all smiles having recently ratified the RCEP, and China is the happiest for it with the biggest smile. Develop our own and thus we develop our country.
