A ridiculous proposition

BROWSING thru the Internet for materials for Pinoy Exposé, I came across this December 31 on an article written by one ‘Ian Nicolas P. Cigaral,’ who appears to be a young business reporter previously with the Philippine Star and is now connected with the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

From the get-go of the article’s title, ‘An upper middle-income nation by 2025? What PH is bound to lose,’ it is clear that its message and subtle suggestion is that it is better for us to remain poor forever so that we would not lose the “perks” we now have for being a fourth-rate, no-bearing member of the Third World.

This is the kind of ‘soft power messaging’ that the comprador class, the politicians, and their foreign controllers would want to peddle so they can continue to exploit the rest of us by denying us the right to have bigger dreams for ourselves, our family, and our country. It is, in short, a ridiculous proposition that only a total moron can accept.

Whether Cigaral is aware that he is being “played” by forces smarter than him or he is complicit all along, we do not know.

But the fact that he has allowed himself—maybe for the “glory” of seeing his byline consistently appearing in the news or articles he writes— to be part of an agenda that calls for Filipinos to be happy, to remain contented, with their miserable lot, to no longer entertain any ambition to improve themselves, speaks well of the kind of “journalism” we now have today. Pure trash.

‘To be finally called an “upper middle-income country (MIC)” sounds good to the ears,’ Cigaral writes—and he went on to list the “losses” and “risks” we are bound to encounter: no more cheap loans and ‘ODAs’ (official development assistance); losing our GSP (general system of preference) in the EU market for poor nations or what he described as ‘trade perks;” and finally, “fewer opportunities to study abroad.”

Well, doesn’t he know that we never had any “cheap loan,” and for that matter, ODAs from abroad that helped us develop economically and more importantly, independently?

All loans and ODAs provided to us, especially by the West and its institutions– IMF-WB, JICA, G7, etc., — came with stiff “conditionalities” that resulted to our being worse off than before they “helped” us as they are all meant to remove our sovereignty as a country.

This is now elementary knowledge for those seeking the truth about our experience that we wonder what history books Cigaral has been reading during his free time?

If all he can read are publications and articles coming from the Western/US mainstream media, their institutions and think tanks and their local acolytes like the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDI) that he cited at the end of his article, no wonder then that he has a very shallow understanding of the dynamics of the political economy at play in the larger world.

Cigaral also argued that becoming an MIC would hamper our access to the EU and the UK’s Developing Countries Trading Scheme that, last year, removed “80 percent” of our goods entering UK and which amounted to “21 million pounds annually” in monetary terms.

He also cited the “6,000 tariff lines” under the EU GSP given to us presently for our total export of “2.03 billion euros as of 2021.”

This is the kind of neo-colonial, ‘Euro-centered’ mentality that still pervades many Filipinos, our journalists included.

I mean, given the facts that he mentioned, are we to forego national development because we are to lose 21 million pounds in export to the UK and over 2 billion euros in the EU market?

These amounts are “peanuts” when compared to the potential we can have had we been more focused in trading with our fellow Global South partners. And of course, there is BRICS.

And in case Cigaral is not yet aware of it, the EU and the UK are notorious in their hypocrisy by linking our access to the GSP to our human rights record. Yes, Jose, the West/US have along ago “weaponized” their trade policies when dealing with small potatoes like us.

And are we to lose sleep because a few thousand Filipinos, over 30,000, Cigaral said, citing UNESCO data, may no longer get free scholarship abroad? In a population of nearly 120 million?

And proving true to the PIDI’s notoriety as a mouthpiece for Western development model, John Paolo Rivera, senior research fellow, echoed Cigaral’s concern that losing access to international scholarship and training “could hinder efforts to develop the human capital of Filipinos, particularly in critical sectors.”

In what planet are these two fellows living anyway that they are so detached from reality?

Don’t they know that our “brain drain” has long been our perennial problem since as far back as anyone can remember?

It is precisely because of our perennial poverty—that Cigaral is actually promoting thru his article– that our best brains and skills have left the country as soon as they can. They are called ‘OFWs’ by the way.

If we want to address our lack of human capital and improve our situation, the way forward is economic progress and development regardless of the laughable “risks” that the likes of Cigaral would want to scare us with.

Here’s hoping he was handsomely paid for scaremongering the rest of us.