Buy Pinoy campaign gaining support

The revived Buy Pinoy, Buy Local campaign is slowly gaining support, with the House of Representatives and the Nacionalista Party (NP) led by Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. among the first ones endorsing it.

Rep. Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna party-list group on Wednesday said that the Buy Pinoy, Buy Local drive is being supported by lawmakers because they believe that it can help build local industries and revive the ailing Philippine economy.

During the Buy Pinoy, Buy Local Summit of the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) and Foundation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII) at Club Filipino in San Juan City (Metro Manila) on Wednesday, Casiño said that a recent House resolution that was unanimously adopted by the plenary called on the country’s economic and financial managers to prepare a roadmap to reorient the economy toward greater self-reliance by developing and strengthening domestic industries.

“Implicit in this call for self-reliance and the strengthening of domestic industries is the need for us to buy Philippine-made products. Thus, in a meeting last month, the convenors of the Legislators-Businessmen-People’s Forum (LBPF) has decided to revive the organization and work with FPI, FFCCCII and other business groups in a ‘Buy Pinoy, Build Pinoy’ campaign,” the lawmaker said.

The LBPF was formed in 2003 in the aftermath of the failed World Trade Organization talks in Cancun as a venue for legislators, businessmen and people’s organizations to work together toward protecting and promoting local industry and agriculture in the face of globalization’s dire effects.

“With the neo-liberal globalization model now in tatters, it is time to reassert the importance of economic nationalism, self-sufficiency, industrialization and agrarian reform and modernization as the real building blocks of national development,” Casiño said.

He added that he and Rep. Satur Ocampo also of Bayan Muna are working with the FPI to ask Congress to make Administrative Order (AO) 227 a Republic Act.

President Gloria Arroyo last year issued AO 227, which directed government agencies, state-owned corporations and local government units to make locally manufactured products a priority in their procurement. According to Casiño, the order “lacks teeth.”

“AO 227 is only persuasive, we want it mandated,” he said in Filipino.

Jesus Arranza, FPI president, said that implementing rules for AO 227 have not been drawn up.

“Making it [the Buy Pinoy movement] a legislation will give it more teeth and will ensure implementation,” Casiño said.

He added that they are preparing a legislation that will establish a long-term National Industrialization Program and reorient the economy by integrating local industries.

Casiño said that they plan to integrate local manufacturing industries such as steel, petrochemical, garments and textiles, utilities (including water and energy) and the mining, housing, transportation and telecommunications sectors in industrialization program.

He added they already filed a bill that will require projects funded by official development assistance (ODA) to also make Philippine-made supplies a priority.

NP throws support

The Nacionalista Party also expressed support to the Buy Pinoy, Buy Local campaign.

“We wholly endorse the campaign. We also hope that the country’s largest consumer—the government—can get involved in the drive in a big way,” former Rep. Gilbert Remulla of Cavite, the party’s spokesman, said in a statement.

Remulla urged national and local government offices to favor local products in procuring office supplies and equipment, staff uniforms, or even information-technology services.

“In public infrastructure projects, for instance, the cement and steel required should insofar as practicable, preferably be locally made,” he said.

Remulla added that bidders seeking to supply government agencies should be required to declare the percentage of Filipino content or input in the materials or services that they propose to provide.

He noted that in the United States, federal and state agencies make it a point to buy American cars and shun Japanese and European brands.

Remulla allayed fears that the new Buy Pinoy drive would invite criticism from the World Trade Organization and the country’s trading partners.

“This is a voluntary campaign. No new law is being passed here to force consumers to buy Filipino. We are merely encouraging the consumption of local products,” he explained.

No need to amend Constitution

Arranza said during the summit that there is no need to amend the economic provisions of the Constitution, saying that it would do more harm than good to Philippine businesses.

“The House of Representatives should forget Cha-cha [Charter change]. We do not need economic revisions in our Constitution and allow these foreign investors to own our lands,” he added.

Casino said that for the Buy Filipino, Buy Local campaign to succeed, efforts must be done to resist “any and all attempts to amend and water down the nationalist provisions of our Constitution, especially Section 12 on the national economy and patrimony.”

“If these foreigners will own our lands, sooner or later, we would be squatters in our own country,” Arranza said.

According to him, the campaign can increase industrial output.

“To date, our production level is around 35 to 40 percent. If we can help this [Buy Pinoy, Buy Local] project to succeed, we can increase operation by more than 80 percent,” he said.

Arranza added that the campaign can help the government combat smuggling, stressing that smuggling only flourishes because people buy smuggled foreign goods.

The Philippine government is losing billions of pesos in revenues to smugglers. Records from the International Monetary Fund showed that the total exports to Philippines from 2002 to 2007 amounted to $284.7 billion while the Bureau of Customs’ records showed only $195.01-billion worth of foreign goods landed in the country, or a disparity of $89.69 billion.
— Efren L. Danao, Frank Lloyd Tiongson, James Konstantin Galvez And Ben Arnold O. De Vera, Manila Times