Socialist Outlook met with Sonny Melencio, a leader of Makabayan, one of the new mass socialist formations in the Philippines. What is the political situation in the Philippines? The government has been saying that the economic situation has improved, and that the political situation has too.
They have been claiming that there is a one per cent growth rate in the economy. But this is because the comparison is with 1986 - a period of negative growth tale From that starting point, anything that is not backwards is forwards! In fact other island neighbours are attracting much more investment than the Philippines. A recent study showed that the value of real wages has gone down.
As far as the concrete conditions go, there has been a deterioration - a large number of unemployed; there are many Malaysia. omy. people on the streets, and prostitution.
The government has a project called 'Philippines 2000'. It says that it will make the Philippines a newly industrialising country by 2000, following in the footsteps of Singapore, Hong Kong and We used to be more advanced than some of these countries, but now we are way way down the line. Indonesia has overtaken us and we're quite near to Bangladesh now in terms of the econPhilippines 2000 is posed in terms of the 'new world order' - meaning the order of the IMF and the World Bank, imperino possibility that the Philippines will become a newly industrialised country -there is simply no room left.
We do not have anything of value to export. Our main export now is human labour. This is what is keeping the Philippines alive - migrant workers. All our traditional exports have been overtaken by technological development.
The free trade zone in the Philippines is a mess. It has closed down. There is a new one being built, but it is not attracting much investment.
In this framework there is no hope. That is why we think the future of the