Made in the Philippines

The big difference between the Philippines and the Asian nations (South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam) that have overtaken our economy over the last 40 years is having a robust manufacturing sector.

- BOO CHANCO

Even China was not a manufacturing giant when I first visited in 1982. A multitude of people all wearing the blue Mao jacket crowded the main avenue leading to Tiananmen Square in Beijing on their bicycles. Not too many cars.

Some of our leaders, like Mar Roxas when he was trade and industry secretary, thought we could leapfrog development from agriculture to services without going through manufacturing. And our PhD-in-economics president at the time agreed with him.

That seemed good for a while as we experienced success in the service sector (BPO). But many economists believe Roxas’s strategy overlooked the fundamental role of manufacturing in creating resilient, diversified economies, leading to ongoing debate about whether the country missed a vital stage of industrialization.

Besides, excess farm labor cannot be absorbed by BPOs.

We were never that good in our past feeble attempts at manufacturing. Filipino baby boomers like me remember our growing up years and how “Made in the Philippines” was dismissed as inferior, bad quality.

Despite politicians mouthing Filipino First, Filipino consumers who can afford, chose to buy imported products because of quality concerns. Most of our rent-seeking so-called industrialists were not worried about the low quality of their products because high tariffs protected them from foreign competition.

It was something like “Made in Japan” in those years being similarly considered inferior. But the Japanese worked on improving their reputation and soon after, “Made in Japan” was considered equal if not better than “Made in the USA” like cars and electronics, for example.

In our case, the few pioneers who ventured into import substituting manufacturing also ended up losing their businesses to Marcos’ cronies after Martial Law was declared.