Dictatorship, Corruption, and Cronyism PDF

Dictatorship, Corruption, and Cronyism Date Created @May 5, 2024 6:44 PM Sources Abinales and Amoroso — Marcos, 1965 - 1972 Manapat, Ricardo — The development of Crony Capitalism There were some dictatorial tendencies in the past but Marcos was the one that put it into law and implementation Corpora...

Dictatorship, Corruption, and Cronyism Date Created @May 5, 2024 6:44 PM Sources Abinales and Amoroso — Marcos, 1965 - 1972 Manapat, Ricardo — The development of Crony Capitalism There were some dictatorial tendencies in the past but Marcos was the one that put it into law and implementation Corporations were organized and managed but not as legitimate business ventures but as activities to generate quick money regardless of their long-term consequences (Manapat, 2020) What does it mean to be a dictator? And how does it magnify Corruption and Cronyism? How did Ferdinand Marcos take full control of both public and private corporations? Opponents were Silenced Marcos termed martial law as “democratic revolution” against the extreme left and the extreme right Members of the political opposition (Diokno, Aquino, etc), student activists, and leaders in the grassroots were jailed; some were tortured and killed Media was shut down, only to be reopened once it was controlled by Marcos’ friends and relatives Journalists were jailed, tortured, or killed, or they hid themselves Dictatorship, Corruption, and Cronyism 1 Desaparecido When Marcos comes into power, the Filipinos see how powerful the protests have become. So when Marcos announced Martial Law, the people did not think of it as a bad solution After almost three years of political conflict, martial law was to many a welcome respite (Abinales and Amoroso, 2017) The 1973 Constitution Article XVII. Sec 3 (2) In other words, Marcos was rendering the Congress essentially useless because the Congress can make laws but the president still leads the way The New Society It was not balanced on powers of executive, judiciary, and.. The AFP detained Marcos’ political enemies This was not a new method, Magsaysay did this as well It began a brutal engagement in the Southern PH with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and launched major attacks against the CPP-NPA It was only in the latter years that when things were happening in Luzon and Manila AFP officers were assigned to civilian agencies and received the largest allocation of the national budget from 880 million to 4 billion pesos The others who also funds the AFP were the technocrats and still the Americans, so they were invertedly supporting a dictatorship but why would they support it? America still wanted to keep control in the PH and Marcos let them keep bases in the PH This was the time were communism was spreading in China Presidential Decree No. 2 subjected the entire country to land reform Dictatorship, Corruption, and Cronyism 2 Marcos was the first one to do this, Magsaysay and Roxas tried but could not get pass to the Congress Technocrats were given a free-hand in expanding executive power State corporations managed by technocrats were created to actively “interfere in various markets or to compete directly with the private sector” Remember: Magsaysay and Roxas appointed technocrats because they have no political agenda, that is why they won’t be corrupt. But at the end of the day, they still had an agenda for profit, so they found out ways to make more money Kilusang Bagong Lipunan If you are a politician, you either join this or run in a minor party where your chances are lower Elections for local and legislative positions were held What is the point? Marcos would control the elections and the executive body is already mute BUT Marcos wanted to create the illusion still that there is still democracy for the Filipinos and for the US and that Filipinos are given a choice and Filipinos still choose him Marcos allowed for a few opposition leaders to win in some cities and provinces and a few seats in the National Assembly, but not enough to threaten his hold of a majority In Manila, Marcos used all his resources to assure a victory for the KBL party led by Imelda Marcos Economic Impact Land reform that Marcos implemented was for land used to plant rice Masagana 99 was not very effective for tenants to buy their land The PH economy reached a high point in the mid-1970s, but was unsustainable due to the continued reliance on export crops Dictatorship, Corruption, and Cronyism 3 Landlords worked around Marcos’ land reform program and tenants who accepted the leasehold found themselves in more punishing terms than in their tenancy Much of their construction projects were build to showcase the achievements of the Marcos regime; these projects were unprofitable and were criticized for being “over-designed by Asian and developing country standards” Public spending was funded by public debt The Sugar Industry Froom a boom to a crisis This is the most successful industry from pre to post war but during the Marcos dictatorship, it faces a crisis The Philippine Exchange Co. (Philex) was established to take control of all international trading of sugar for local hacienderos Philex will become middle men, they will be in charge of the export Because the hacienderos already have too much control and influence Philex hoarded sugar hoping to increase its prices in the international market. When things did not go as planned and the price of sugar went down instead, much of the sugar hoarded and stored have already deteriorated or where sold at a great loss Philex engages in a business crisis wherein they try to create a crisis in the business market → This failed because there are other sources of sugar The boom turned into a crisis Marcos covers for the mistakes of Philex by establishing the Philippine Sugar Commission (Philsucom) and later on the National Sugar Trading Corporation (Nasutra) to take control of the sugar trade These 2 agencies would: Fix the problem Philex created Take on the role of Philex Dictatorship, Corruption, and Cronyism 4 Nasutra bailed out the losses of Philex using public funds and underpaid the hacienderos for their porduce Nasutra was established to solve Philex’ problem but the person in-charge was the same An unnecessarily long market chain was established to increase profits and the trading costs were deducted from the payment to the hacienderos Logistics to export were all shouldered by the hacienderos Payment was delayed and was based on future (lower) exchange rates Nasutra waits for exchange rates to be in their favor before paying the hacienderos Hacienderos and millers sued Philsucom for its “confiscatory” scheme, but the Marcos government countered the lawsuit with a massive propaganda campaign Roberto Benedicto was in the perfect position to mask the scandal as he was also granted control over 17 radio stations and 16 television stations including ABS-CBN after it has been sequestered from the Lopezes In media, Philsucom and Natsura received high praise for its reforms on the sugar industry People knew hacienderos were greedy and Philsucom and Natsura were doing great things Why would Marcos allow mismanagement leading to losses? It was later exposed that the “unnamed buyer” of cheap sugar in the PH was a small group of corporations and individuals from NY who all had close connections with Marcos It’s ok for them to let the prices of sugar drop in the PH because the ones who will get money is the sugar corp in NY Never mind that it is destroying the sugar industry of the PH, the point is they were still gaining profit and because they were moving the profit to NY to the hands of people also close to Marcos, so they were still gaining profit at the end of the day and were hands clean to the hacienderos Dictatorship, Corruption, and Cronyism 5 Philsucom and Nasutra sell cheaply at the world market, sacrificing the interests of the Philippine sugar industry and its workers, so that the international sugar trading corporations connected with Marcos and Benedicto could realize huge profits at the dollar end. (Manapat 2020, 96) End of the Sugar Monopoly Marcos formally ended the monopoly on March 15, 1984 However, the hacienderos had no contacts of their own for international trade, having depended on Philsucom and Nasutra for almost a decade They had no choice but to sign into long-term contracts with Nasutra The Sugar Workers The most affected were the sugar workers because they were being used as a bargaining chip The gov’t was taking so much from the hacienderos so they would allow the hacienderos to compromise on labor rights Hacienderos were allowed to do this to appease their anger Dictatorship, Corruption, and Cronyism 6 When the workers complained of their poor working conditions, they were threatened and beaten up by hired company goons and soldierse 27 workers died and more than two dozen were wounded The Escalante Massacre (September 20, 1985) During the massacre they saw the car of the Nasutra chairman in the massacre The dead are dead, literally but because also that they were induced and incited to make the moves against the gov’t Cronyism was prevalent in every private industry Coconut, sugar, banana, tobacco Banking and finance Oil Cars and motors Logging Mining Real estate Shipping and transport services Media and telecommunications Meat, beer, and other food products Hotels and gambling The sad thing was that the fight of the workers was towards their boss, not the gov’t even when they do not realize that the power behind all what their bosses are doing are due to the gov’t Marcos’ principal economic achievement in 15 years of power has been to help his friends and relatives build giant conglomerates. Marcos’ “democratic revolution” was neither Dictatorship, Corruption, and Cronyism 7 democratic nor a revolution. It is more appropriately described as a coup or counterrevolution where Marcos sought to turn back the attempts at social reform in the early 1970s by perpetuating himself in power and enriching himself and his associates (Manapat 2020) Whatever was Marcos was able to achieve in his earlier terms, he also reversed, and when EDSA came, the PH was in such a worse condition than Dictatorship, Corruption, and Cronyism 8