Truck and feared

IT seems our government wants to help foreign motor companies here to make even more money – at the expense of everybody else.

So our brilliant DTI thinks that, in the process, it cannot avoid but kill hundreds, maybe even thousands, of Filipino small businesses.

That, mind you, is the very same Department of Trade and Industry that exists supposedly to develop local companies.

Yet the expected carnage of local business will be the clear result of a new DTI initiative to indulge those few foreign motor companies here some more.

And I mean “few.” You can count them with your fingers.

From what I gathered, the DTI already crafted the implementing rules and regulations for a recycled government program for those lucky motor companies.

In particular, the DTI has decided to ban the importation of used trucks, particularly right-hand-drive trucks from Japan.

An entire industry for converting the trucks to left-hand drive is thriving in the country, owing to the brisk demand for used (i.e. cheap) trucks among small businesses.

The DTI perhaps would want the foreign motor companies to feast on the good domestic market for trucks.

Thus the DTI crafted some rules that, in effect, would eliminate the used-truck competition to the “brand new” trucks sold by those foreign motor companies.

It did not matter to our beloved DTI that the fortunate foreign companies, already enjoying DTI protection for the past 40 years, merely import brand new trucks.

The DTI must insist on the importation ban on used trucks from the cheapest source possible on this planet – i.e. Japan.

Anyway, the buyers of those cheap used trucks were just small businesses. Just how on earth do they survive now – by going back to horse-drawn carriages?

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Actually, the DTI rules should only implement an executive order issued by the cute administration of Gloriaetta in its waning days – about 27 days to go.

That was none other than the controversial EO 877-A, the one creating a new program for the automotive sector, labelled this time as the CMVDP, or the Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Development Program.

But do you also wonder why the executive order had a “dash A?” I mean, what is EO 877 (without the “dash A”) all about then, if it exists at all?

From what I gathered, the Lola at the Palace already signed EO 877, containing the same CMVDP, which the Palace released to the public.

It so happened that the foreign motor companies, which are into assembly of vehicles from mostly imported parts and fancy themselves as “vehicle manufacturers,” still wanted some more provisions inserted in the executive order for the new program.

And so it seems that the DTI had to feed to the Lola a new version of the executive order, which was still called EO 877 but with the “dash A.”

Anyway, even under the Aquino (Part II) administration, the DTI was rather secretive about the new program, possibly to avoid public outcry against its moves.

For one, it did not even call for a single quick freaking meeting with those little guys in the used truck converting and selling business, regarding the importation ban.

Mysteriously quiet also was the group called Campi – the Chamber of Automobile Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (There, you see, the term “manufacturer!”)

All sorts of conjectures have been going around on the final outcome of the DTI rules implementing EO 877 “dash A.” Another group in the automotive business even made noises against the executive order, fearing that it would tilt things in favor of the members of Campi. The noises were left unanswered.

Supposedly, the new program CMVDP should help to develop our automotive manufacturing industry, apparently still in its infancy after about four decades.

You see, our government has been supporting the automotive industry for the past 40 years or so with all sorts of fiscal incentives and tariff protection.

But up to today, after all those recycled government programs, those foreign motor companies are still just assembling a few types of vehicles here.

Actually, most of the vehicles they sell here are still imported completely from Japan, the United States, South Korea, and Europe.

What “manufacturing” are we talking about?

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Anyway, the DTI perhaps wanted to pursue the automotive program, giving it a new twist through a brand new acronym CMVDP. (By the way, once upon a time, the program was called CMDP.)

Well and good. Perhaps, after 40 years of so-so performance, the program can still succeed finally. We are all for it, then.

But just why on earth must the DTI also ban the importation of the much needed used trucks, is really beyond our comprehension.

Let me see… perhaps to kill the competition for the benefit of those foreign motor companies selling imported brand new trucks?

To start with, those imported brand-new trucks are not even available. In one of her many press statements, the president of Campi, Elizabeth Lee, senior vice president of Universal Motors (seller of Nissan vehicles), noted that sales of brand new trucks were rather slow because of the “unavailability of units.”

Let us even say that, all of a sudden, by some miracles or something, the foreign motor companies should start to flood the market with brand new trucks.

The question is, can the main market for those trucks – the small businesses – even afford to buy the brand new imported trucks?

Based on the price lists of those foreign motor companies, one unit can cost more than P2 million. Go ahead and check it on the Internet.

The used trucks from Japan (converted from right-hand to left-hand drive) sell for about one-fourth of that price. Now, do the math. –Conrado Banal III, Philippine Daily Inquirer