
Philippines’ Development Strategy
THE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY of the country’s technocrats, by integrating the domestic economy into the world market, merely intensifies the dependent nature of our economy by nailing us to our subordinate and exploited role in the international division of labor as suppliers of raw material and importers of capital goods.
When an underdeveloped country adopts an export-led development program, as we have been doing, we commit ourselves to the principle of free trade, and free trade has been responsible to the backward condition of the economy. This is the reason why one of the first steps we took after martial law was to accede to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and to re-dedicate ourselves to a trade policy committed to the maximization of exports, and the minimization of restrictions on imports.
In its long-term consequence, therefore, the program can be expected to aggravate the problem of unemployment and underemployment because it operates to preserve the non-industrialized character of the Philippine economy.**
