Philippine Militants to Join Sept. 13 Global Uprising
Gov’t urged to toughen position in Cancun meet

Farmers’ and workers’ groups and other militant people’s organizations in the Philippines are gearing for the Worldwide Day of Action Against Corporate Globalization and War on Sept. 13. The internationally-coordinated protest highlights the Fifth Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to be held Sept. 10-14 in Cancun, Mexico where thousands of anti-WTO activists will also converge for various peoples’ forums and protest actions against globalization and Bush’s war on terror.

By Alexander Martin Remollino
Bulatlat.com

Signifying their intention to join what international organizers said is a “global uprising” against the WTO and war were Bayan, through its international chapter, the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS) and 31 other groups from all over the world.

In the Philippines, militant and anti-globalization activists last week called for the junking of the WTO even as they challenged the Macapagal-Arroyo government to toughen its position in the coming Cancun conference.

The Philippine government previously joined other Third World countries in opposing a new round of negotiations, which industrialized countries led by the United States have been pushing for.

However, it has yet to clarify its position in the coming WTO conference. Government representatives have refused to reveal its categorical stand in the Cancun meet, saying that doing so may affect its negotiating posture.

“Let’s not join them”

But Teddy Casiño, secretary general of Bayan (New Patriotic Alliance) said that “If we can’t beat them,” referring to the WTO, “let’s not join them. Almost ten years of inadequate safety nets, weakened industry and a swiftly collapsing agricultural sector have so far marked the regime of imperialist globalization.”

He urged the Philippine government to “stand pat on its rhetoric against unbridled globalization” by rejecting new WTO agreements.

The independent think tank Ibon Foundation has also issued a similar call in some recent statements. Ibon’s research director, Antonio Tujan, Jr., said “It is only proper that the Philippines as spokesperson of the group of 99 to lead ASEAN as well as other developing countries in calling the WTO to review the tremendous impact of its past agreements on poor peoples around the world.”

“More importantly,” Tujan said, “the Philippines should be firm in resisting the new so-called development round of negotiations that dangerously seeks to expand the WTO at the expense of what remains of national sovereignty of poor countries like the Philippines.”

Listed in the agenda of the Fifth Ministerial Meeting are a multilateral investment agreement under the WTO auspices to further open the economies of the developing world to foreign investment, a uniform competition policy for all WTO member countries, a proposal for transparency in government procurement that would allow foreign investors to take part in the procurement of government supplies, and a uniform trade policy for all WTO member countries.

Casiño said President Macapagal-Arroyo should be put on notice that her “government should not sign any new agreement that would be tantamount to death sentences on the other remaining industries left standing under the regime of imperialist globalization since 1994 and the liberalization of professions that are constitutionally safeguarded from foreign exploitation.”

The United States and the European Union which, according to Tujan, are “the only real players behind the WTO,”
have been pushing for further liberalization of agriculture, as well as opening up professional services to foreign competition.

According to Casiño, further liberalizing the agricultural sector would kill off the rice and corn sectors, while opening up the professions would deprive hundreds of thousands of people from the middle-class of their livelihood.

WTO impact on the Philippines

In 1994, Macapagal-Arroyo, then a senator, was the main proponent of Philippine entry into the WTO. She promised that the WTO would increase employment in the Philippines by about 500,000 a year. However, according to Ibon Foundation, it is the opposite that has happened. Since the country’s entry into the WTO, rural employment has decreased by at least a million. About 690,000 rural families have been plunged into poverty as a result.

The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), according to Ibon Foundation, also worsened the country’s balance of trade. The Philippines had an agricultural trade deficit of $764 million in 1997; by 2002, it had gone up to $794 million. The Philippines became a net importer of food products as rice imports increased by 540% and corn imports by 520%.

The AoA has also reduced agricultural productivity, said Tujan. “Because of the AoA, average annual growth in GVA of agriculture and fisheries shrank to 1.9% in 1995 to 1999 from 2.2% in 1990 to 1994. As productivity plunges, the country’s food security is seriously at risk.”

Tujan added that Philippine industries are also in dire straits. “Everyday in 2002, ten small- and medium-scale enterprises either closed shop or reduced their workforce due to stiff competition and lack of demand. These bankruptcies meant that everyday, 212 workers were being displaced.”

U.S. crisis

Bayan, in an article published in the August 2003 issue of Paninindigan, said “The bullying and manipulative tactics employed by countries such as the United States during the Doha meet, and predictably, the Cancun meet, against Third World countries underscore the severe and unprecedented crisis the U.S. is undergoing.”

The WTO held its fourth ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar in 2001. In that conference, government procurements, tariff, subsidy, export-import policy, and full liberalization of trade and investment, services, and agriculture by 2004 were discussed. But the implementation of two AoA provisions—Quantitative Restrictions and Tariff Reduction—was not finalized.

Even the U.S. is currently plagued by a 13% unemployment rate. Its manufacturing sector is suffering from competition among monopoly countries.

The U.S. has been leading the call for the abolition of protective barriers used by Third World countries. However, it has been pushing to be allowed to subsidize and fully protect its own products and services. The US, along with Europe, and Japan have spent a total of $320 billion on farm subsidies. Bulatlat.com

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