‘Made in PH’: We need to industrialize (2)
Take up the White Man’s burden … Go bind your sons to exile [t]o serve your captives’ need,” Rudyard Kipling opened his arguably most geopolitically consequential poem, “The White Man’s Burden.” “To wait in heavy harness [o]n fluttered folk and wild—[y]our new-caught sullen peoples, Half devil and half child.” Written on the eve of America’s consolidation of control over former Spanish territories from Cuba to Hawaii and across the western Pacific, the deceptively sentimental poem sought to provide an ideological foundation for the colonization of the Philippines.
By dismissing the Filipino people as “half devil, half child,” the poet of empire aimed to both dehumanize our ancestors and delegitimize our successful revolution against Madrid. As Nick Joaquin convincingly argues in “A Question of Heroes” (1977), our Katipuneros had already secured decisive victories in multiple battles against the Spaniards. What prevented us from politically consummating our military success was General Aguinaldo’s naïve reliance on Americans (who successfully sweet-talked him into a fatal alliance) and the sheer lack of strategic initiative during the Battle of Manila (1899), when our troops were favorably perched at the gates of a falling empire. Over the next 25 years, pre-Progressive Era America reshaped the Philippines in its own image.
In fairness, the gringos ended up far less predatory than their European counterparts—and even built modern educational institutions and public infrastructure in ways Spain could never afford to. My hometown of Baguio, which once boasted one of the best urban infrastructures and continues to have one of the most egalitarian communities in the country, is an American legacy.
Nevertheless, American colonization birthed a deeply flawed democracy with two negative long-term impacts. First, it inflicted a “double psychic wound,” with the Philippines both prevented from fulfilling its own independence project and—almost uniquely in the region—ending up as a “political bastard” of two radically different imperial projects. This deprived us of the kind of metaphysical self-confidence that was crucial to the audacious national visions of all major Asian leaders. Moreover, we failed to build strong state institutions, thanks to Washington’s libertarian bias as well as the consolidation of an oligarchy that was tethered more to parochial interests than a national development bargain.
Our successful neighbors lifted their people out of poverty into prosperity via the development of export-oriented manufacturing sectors. This was only possible because of the presence of a fortuitous combination: a capable bureaucracy in the hands of a developmentally oriented national elite—the very two elements our colonial legacy deprived us of. The Philippines ended up poor and corrupt not because of some genetic or immutable cultural factor but instead because it failed to build the foundations of a modern economy capable of producing inclusive and sustainable development. It’s truly difficult to create prosperity when our economic structure is so lopsided: manufacturing—the main engine of growth in neighboring economies—only accounted for 19 percent of gross domestic product in 2022, employing only around 7 percent of the country’s labor force. Little wonder, then, that the Philippines has ended up as a regional laggard throughout almost the entirety of its formal independence period.
Almost exactly a century after the peak of full-spectrum American colonization of the Philippines, we find ourselves at a geopolitical crossroads. If anything, we confront a “double Cold War,” as two superpowers vie for influence in our region while their proxies contest over the control of Malacañang Palace. But as the saying goes, even the worst crises should not go to waste.
Thanks to the New Cold War in Asia, the Philippines is fast emerging as a new geoeconomic frontier. After all, ours is a country that is rich in critical minerals, such as nickel; boasts a large, English-speaking working-age population; and, crucially, is neither overdependent on Chinese intermediate goods nor fully dominated by Chinese companies. In contrast to our peers, we mainly rely on Japan and Western nations for export markets and greenfield investments.
Therefore, what the multibillion Luzon Economic Corridor and Pax Silica represent is a once-in-a-century opportunity for the Philippines to move up the value chain and, crucially, build a 21st-century industrial base in tandem with strategic partners. In my next column, I will explain how we have an unprecedented opportunity to become a critical node in an emerging global supply chain with the West, Japan, and South Korea at its core.
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A sister remembers