Time to take care of ourselves

One glaring revelation in this pandemic was our country’s overdependence on many things foreign. Foremost are the jobs of millions of our countrymen that help keep the Philippine economy afloat. Millions of them work overseas, or work at night at the call centers answering customer queries from abroad. equally worrisome is our dependence on foreign goods to feed the demands of more than 100 million Filipinos. At a time when countries worldwide are prioritizing the need of their citizens by regulating the flow of their exports or worse totally closing their borders, plus the restrictive logistical barriers brought about by the pandemic, the Philippines still relies heavily on imports. And we are not just talking about our oil importation but other essential items such as food and medicine. If we are to move with a better chance of surviving in this new normal times, then we need to work on our self-reliance—and the sooner we do this, the better.

This over dependence on foreign goods generally fosters underdevelopment. We are supporting foreign producers instead of our own. Just go to any market and you will see apples and oranges sold beside locally grown bananas. How about poultry and livestock? We do have domestic grown supply in our markets, but try checking out what’s cooking in restaurants. Even the pork rinds of our chicharon are apparently sourced overseas, just like the potatoes used

to make french fries in our fast food outlets. But on top of the list is rice, the one food item that we Filipinos cannot live without. We all know the storyline of how we were the ones who taught our neighboring countries how to grow rice scientifically. Now we are heavily dependent on importation from these very countries that even our farm cooperatives are given import quotas to augment their livelihood. We were, in fact, in a brief quandary last year when our

Southeast Asian neighbors almost stopped their rice exports to have enough of the staple for their country’s domestic consumption. That would have been a major disaster for us amid the pandemic.

Equally worrisome is our import dependence on medical supplies and medicine. Remember last year when there was a short supply of facemasks and PPES, only to find out we had no domestic capacity to fulfill our needs? Imagine if our brewery tycoons did not pivot to alcohol production. And we all hear our healthcare capacity in terms of the number of hospital beds occupied. But no one is asking about medical supply. Not the medicines for Covid but the regular ones— the antibiotics, even the vitamins and others that we need to have in our own medicine home cabinet. For most of these, we are counting days of adequate supply, not weeks, as most of them are not produced locally. But the most glaring of all are the vaccines. While Indonesia, Vietnam and India have their own vaccines produced in their own backyard, we have virtually none. The unfortunate part is that we are not in short supply of talent with our world-class scientists and doctors in infectious diseases and other related fields. While our neighbors are ramping up their vaccine numbers, we are now in a national discourse debating on alternative medicines to augment the need for a Covid cure.

For us to survive in this new global environment, it is high time that we take care of our own. Our government policy-makers and lawmakers must give their utmost attention on this. Trade barriers or increasing import duties will not work, as we cannot afford the corresponding backlash. Policies must come out to support the foundation of self-reliance in both our food and medical sectors. This can be in the form of subsidies and tax incentives to those willing to invest in domestic production. Top corporations with government concessions must be made to venture into these areas. Treat manufacturing of these essential items as missionary opportunities and reward those who venture accordingly. Provide long-term government loans with minimal interests. Award the real scientists and innovators who break our foreign dependency. Yes, we do have the talents but we need to upgrade the environment for them to proceed. We need to be deliberate in pursuing this. We should not wait for the next pandemic to happen. We need to begin now.