“Pare kape tayo!” The text message read of urgency for a short meeting with former “kasamas” or comrades of the national democratic movement who are now working as political officers or consultants of candidates in the Senate and the presidency.
Instead of having the "coffee meeting" at Starbucks, I offered to meet them at a small coffee shop where locally brewed coffee was served.
Patronizing locally made products has been part of my advocacy of helping local producers and industrialists.
We discussed the present economic and political situation. Someone asked me who among running for president am I supporting and voting. “I won’t go for Bongbong Marcos even knowing some of you are getting pulled by the bandwagon vortex,” was my answer.
It’s not a question of who, but for what am I voting and supporting.
I had not heard yet from the running candidates for president presented a comprehensive program on governance and economy.
Years ago, organizations in trade and agriculture crafted a Five-point Nationalist Development Agenda (NDA) that will serve as a framework to develop the two sectors of the economy despite globalization.
A series of conferences and round table discussions held by the Fair Trade Alliance (FTA) headed by former Senator Wigberto “Ka Boby” Tañada. Representatives coming from the industry, agriculture, labor, and other sectors participated in the crafting of the NDA
The 5-points are:
1.) Adopt a coherent, balanced pro-Filipino trade development framework, which means junking the dogmatic neo-liberal paradigm and using trade as a tool for development, not as an end. The primary purpose of trade is to strengthen industry and agriculture, and jobs. Trade opening per se without identifying the winners and losers, possible niches for job creation and value-adding, and a nuanced or balanced approach to liberalization is detrimental. Trade policies should help identify potential opportunity and job-creation prospects for local industry and agriculture.
2.) Rebuild the nation’s fences by recalibrating tariffs, fortifying walls against smuggling, strengthening the safety net laws and rules against unfair trade practices, and promoting genuine competition.
3.) Build the nation’s productive capacity. Resolve the fiscal and debt crisis, but not at the expense of domestic industry. Mobilize domestic investments for recovery, jobs, and incomes. Rebuild the nation’s industrial base and agriculture. Strategize the development of the service sector. Scale the value chain. We can no longer revert to the 1960s. Growth has to be sustained and further developed.
4.) Unleash the people’s productive capacity. The Filipinos are industrious. We have to upgrade the limited skills of our workforce.
5.) Develop a culture of industrialism, tangkilikan (patronage) of local products, excellence in products produced, and economic nationalism.
There are enumerated doable steps, which are part of the comprehensive guidelines in achieving the 5-points in the NDA. It is lengthy to discuss it here.
Interest groups incorporated in their legislative agenda the 5-point NDA as their framework in advancing their sector’s advocacies.
I offered the NDA to my former colleagues as their take-home as they go back to their "politico" principals. And hopefully, they would adopt the NDA as a framework in crafting their program on governance or legislative agenda.