A FILIPINO NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY 1

[Slightly revised paper (2015) originally presented during the Roundtable

Discussion on the issue, “Is there a need of a Filipino ideology for the 21st
century?” held at De La Salle University on 23 April 2008. This paper is
Chapter 9 of my book, Philosophy, History, and Culture (C & E Publishing,
Inc., 2010: 116-37). Forewords by William Sweet and Bernardita R. Churchill.
The context is 2008, so the ideas are retained.]

A FILIPINO NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY

FOR THE 21ST CENTURY 1
Rolando M. Gripaldo

This paper presents a conditional argument.

If Filipinos want the Philippines to become a
First World country in the 21st century, like
Japan, England, America, or upcoming South
Korea, then what are they supposed to do? It
argues that they must go for economic
development—for superindustrialization—with
nationalism (a sense of nationhood) as its
ideological driving force. While there is a need
to modify the political system, there is also a need
to make changes in the Filipino character itself.

INTRODUCTION

Let me begin by saying that I am a futurist. A futurist

is one who gives importance to the future on the basis of
present realities. Aspects of the present are significantly
emphasized projectively to create an image of the future
that one desires. Chapter 18 of Alvin Toffler’s Future
shock (1970, 398-27) is titled “Education in the future
tense.” Education must be used to achieve one’s image
of the future. That futuristic image will determine the kind
of curricular offerings we must have in our colleges and
universities.
Some years ago, the DLSU website carried a
message which said, “The future begins now.” It captures
2 HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND CULTURE

this futuristic orientation I am talking about. It appears

to suggest that the past is relatively insignificant.
Restituto E. Embuscado (see Gripaldo 2004a, 1-28), a
painter, once said in his theory of art that the true artist
must abandon a past-present orientation and must adopt
a present-future orientation. He advocates the cutting of
one’s umbilical cord, so to speak, from the past. Many
of us may not be as radical as Embuscado as we believe
some aspects of the past can still be useful for the future,
but his stress on the present-future strategy is something
to think about. This is probably because imbedded in
the present, at least partly, is the past.
You are probably familiar with the political campaign
of Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential
nomination. He said that today’s issue in America is not
about men and women or about black and white; it is
about the past and the future. And he constantly hammered
on a projective kind of change for the better.2
I will take the affirmative side of the question, “Do
we need a Filipino ideology for the 21st century?” I need
to qualify that what we need is a nationalist Filipino
ideology. By “nationalist” I mean a person who has a sense
of nationhood. Renato Constantino (1966, 96; Gripaldo
2004b, 214) says it is an expression of the reality that “we
have a country of our own, which must be kept our own.”
Its political expression is the freedom to plan and work
out our own national goals; its economic expression is
industrialization (I would say now, superindustrialization)
with full control of its economy while accepting foreign
financial and technological aid; and its cultural expression
is the development of a culture rooted in our national
heritage while admitting foreign influences. By
“ideology” I mean a set of integrated ideas that serves as
a practical guide to maintain or achieve the desired goal(s)
of an individual, a class, or a nation. An ideology can be
used negatively by the elite—to oppress the people—or
by the masses (common people) —to topple the ruling
elite—but I want to go for the positive use of ideology by
 A FILIPINO NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY 3

both the elite and the masses to transform a Third World

country into a First World nation.

IMAGE OF THE PHILIPPINE FUTURE

Having stressed the importance of the future, what

then is our image of the Philippine future? Some years
ago, former President Fidel Ramos (see Philippine News
Agency, 24 April 1997) argued that the Philippines can
“pole vault” from Third World to NIC status in the 21st
century. Seven years later, Congressman Jose de Venecia
Jr. (2004) argued that if we change our system of
government from the presidential to a unicameral, federal
parliamentary system, then by 2020 we will be a First
World country. I am not sure how we can become a First
World country through the federal parliamentary system
in just a matter of about sixteen years since as a people
there are a number of attitudes that we must first change
in ourselves. These attitudes have become a hindrance to
Philippine progress. But the image of the Philippines
becoming a First World country is indeed a desirable
image even if it will be achieved in more than sixteen
years.

First World Components

Let us first identify some of the important

components of a First World country. In 1970, Toffler
projected that by 2025, the world generally will be
transformed into a Third Wave civilization. The
agricultural and industrial civilizations were the First and
Second Waves. While other writers called the Third Wave
as “postindustrial,” Toffler called it as “superindustrial,”
where all industries are highly computerized.3 Toffler
identified four major clusters of industries of the future:
space industries, biological industries, oceanic industries,
and electronic and computer industries.4 The United States
leads in all four while the Philippines is slowly advancing
4 HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND CULTURE

in the electronic industries, especially in the production

of softwares,5 and in the biological sciences, especially
in medical biotechnology (production of drugs) and in
agricultural biotechnology (production of genetically-
enhanced foodcrops, mixture of agri-products and
vitamins, or the like).6 When Fidel Ramos (1997) said
the Philippines can “pole vault” into the 21st century, it
seems we can “pole vault” not only to NIC-hood but to
superindustrialization, that is, we can bypass
industrialization, the Second Wave (which is a dying
civilization), and “pole vault” into the Third Wave
civilization right away.
The Philippines, however, does not only lag behind
in the electronic and biological industries, it is virtually
zero in space and oceanic industries. It will take a miracle
for the Philippines to become a First World nation by
2020, which was Malaysia’s target date to become First
World. In fact, Toffler’s 2025, as benchmark for the world
to be generally transformed into a Third Wave
civilization, may no longer be realistic in view of the
emergence of what Samuel Huntington (1997) calls the
“clash of civilizations”—particularly, between Islamic
fundamentalism and Western conservatism—a factor that
Toffler had not anticipated. This clash slows down the
world’s transformation into Third Wave. Perhaps, 2050
as benchmark will be more realistic. First World nations
are in the process of completely becoming Third Wave
civilizations.

System of Government

The advantages, of course, of the parliamentary

system over the presidential system is that, firstly, in the
former, the party in power—for as long as it has the correct
objective of making the Philippines a First World nation—
can continue to pursue its platform until the objective is
achieved even if it runs into many decades; and secondly,
since the prime minister is a member of parliament, he
 A FILIPINO NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY 5

or she participates in the making of laws and can

immediately implement the approved laws. Hence, it
is cost efficient and cost effective. In the present
presidential system, it is more personality-oriented
rather than platform-oriented, and the president
a p p e a r s t o h a v e t w o b o a r d s o f d i r e c t o r s— t h e
congressmen and the senators—fighting with each
other and many times ending in a stalemate. De
Venecia said that there are a thousand bills approved
in the House but still pending in the Senate for more
than three years now. Moreover, a conflict usually
arises between the executive and the legislative
branches of government.
As I said, however, even in the parliamentary
system, which is basically platform-oriented, certain
Filipino cultural and mental attitudes will still have
to be changed or modified. These attitudes generate
cultural practices that are inimical to the idea of
“progress.” Unless these are first altered, the
unicameral, federal parliamentary system can easily
slide into a tyranny or a dictatorship of the ruling party.
Even Jose de Venecia Jr. recognized this. He (2004)
said: “Yes, we need a change in the personalities, in
the individuals but most importantly, we need a change
in the structure and the system of government.” In
Malaysia, which is a unicameral, federal parliamentary
system, it takes only 15 to 30 days to process a bill
into law while in the Philippines, according to de
Venecia, it generally takes three years to do so, and
sometimes even more, or never at all. The Philippines
may, of course, opt for the federal presidential system,
strictly following the U.S. federal presidential system
(see Bulletin Today 2008b), but it will still have the
probable conflict between the executive and the
legislative, and there will still have two “board of
directors” quarreling with each other. And the people
through the inefficient passage of the laws will
continue to suffer.
6 HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND CULTURE

ALTERATION OF ATTITUDES/PRACTICES

I will discuss only a few mental and cultural attitudes

or practices that must first be corrected because they are
deleterious to the idea of “progress.”

Colonial Consciousness

Colonial mentality creates the irrational attitude and

cultural practice of preferring foreign commodities and
cultural products to national or domestic ones. It makes
us blind to the merits of local products even when they
are superior in quality. This attitude redounds not only to
the neglect of patronizing local products but also of not
recognizing their qualitative potential. As a consequence,
domestic products and cultural commodities are
marginalized and their prospect of competing
internationally is compromised. Some local industries
tried to infuse creativity (see CITEM 2008) into their
products to stand out in foreign competition but many
common commodities suffer from competitive
marginality.
Colonial consciousness among big-time businessmen
also translates into a reliance on import substitution and
protectionism rather than on international competition
(see Sicat 2005, 3-4). Filipino corporations must be able
to compete not only domestically but also internationally,
and that is why patronizing local products and
commodities is important to enlarge the domestic market
for local consumption. Many Filipino corporations,
however, produce only for the domestic market. The first
time South Korea, for example, produced color television
sets, it immediately capitalized on both the local and
international markets. Now, the Samsung TV production
is a multibillion worldwide business. But even when
Samsung was producing black and white TV sets, it was
already exporting some of them.
 A FILIPINO NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY 7

Right now, the general economic scenario is that

many foreign corporations have put up industries in
Special Economic Zones (Ecozones), 7 especially in
Export Processing Zones (EPZs), for basically export
purposes. Very little of EPZ products, if any, have
trickled into the local market. This is, of course, a way
of generally protecting local industries. Unfortunately,
we do not earn much from these export-processing
activities in that virtually all of them are tax free for the
first few years and the 5% tax on gross income later has
a deduction from training expenses of workers, etc. (see
Fiscal incentives, n.d., and PEZA 1996). Moreover, we
are always in deficit in the balance of trade. We have
more imports than exports. From 1983 to 2007, except
in 1999 and in 2000, we have an annual unfavorable
balance of trade (see PIDS 2008 and Foreign Trade
Statistics 2008, 7). Our gain is in the labor market since
the EPZs employ a number of Filipino workers although
compared to the total labor force, the EPZ employment
is marginal. We have to thank our OFWs for infusing
billions of dollars to the economy that gives us a positive
balance of payments margin (see Bocchi 2008). No
wonder that the Philippine government considers our
OFWs as modern heroes.

Crab Consciousness

Crab mentality creates the attitude whereby those

above the cultural hierarchy try to push down—as crabs
do in a basket—those below while those below try to pull
down those above them. The reason for this is unclear
although it could be envy, personal pride, or a cancerous
tissue in the Filipino collective consciousness. The general
effect of crab mentality is the slow general progress for
all of them. It should be no wonder why South Korea,
with the leadership of strongman Park Chung Hee, has
overtaken us and probably Vietnam will overtake us in a
few years. South Korea decided to industrialize, despite
8 HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND CULTURE

criticisms, by focusing on heavy and chemical industries,

particularly on the “development of several key industries:
steel, petrochemicals, automobiles, machine tools,
shipbuilding, and electronics” (see “Heavy-chemical
industry drive,” n.d. and Cha, n.d.). The government tried
to pull up the Korean large conglomerates as they likewise
responded by satisfying the economic expectations of the
government. The financial crisis of 1987 in South Korea
was temporary and she rebounded faster by becoming
aggressive in exports. In the Philippines, we have really
nothing to industrially show off. We are only
fundamentally a consumer and a labor market. Many of
our so-called industries are generaly nothing but
assembly lines.

Ningas Kugon Attitude

It is said that character makes a person. Success is

generally measured in terms of the patience, perseverance,
foresight, and hardwork of a person. The ningas-kugon
attitude defines a character that initially is very
enthusiastic to do or pursue a project but later the
enthusiasm declines or is extinguished. One may support
another or may be interested in doing certain things for
a week, a month, or even a year, but after that his or her
interest tapers and dies out. It is like the Kugon grass
which when ignited immediately burns fast but also
immediately subsides and dies out.
Many activities and projects are long-term and must
be nurtured with hardwork, perseverance, and foresight.
The enthusiasm must be maintained all throughout the
culmination of the activities and its successful turnover
to future successors.

Mañana Habit

Coupled with the ningas-kugon attitude is the mañana

habit of putting off till tomorrow what can be done today.
 A FILIPINO NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY 9

Time is gold, as the saying goes, and lost time cannot be

recovered anymore. One’s lifetime is generally short; it
is not eternal. I know for a fact only a few hardworking
people, who are achievement-motivated and who are
willing to pay more for saved time. These people do not
spend an hour bargaining in stores to save one or two
pesos but would rather pay the two pesos and save the
one hour spent for bargaining for more fruitful activities.
Or they prefer to travel longer distances, use more
gasoline, but save time, to travelling short distances with
so much traffic and in the process wastes one or two hours
of travel time, which can be used for more productive
purposes in the office.

Pakikisama

Many Filipino cultural traits (see Leoncini 2005, 157-

84) are ambivalent or double-edged. They can be used
for good or for bad. Pakikisama (going along with others)
is one of them. It can be responsible or irresponsible.
Pakikisama is responsible when the action or activity to
be pursued by the group redounds to the good of the
individual members, the community, or the society-at-
large, as in bayanihan (group cooperative activity)
through pakikisama. It is irresponsible when one joins,
or is forced to join a group for the sake of pakikisama
even when the group’s action or activity is deleterious to
oneself, the community, or society. One may want to
spend the evening studying the lessons for tomorrow, but
he passes by a group of friends who want him to join
them for some kicks in the neighborhood. He refuses but
is told, “Wala kang pakikisama.” And he reads in the
papers the following morning that the group was
apprehended by the police for robbing a restaurant.
Sometimes, however, the remark—”Di ka marunong
makisama; wala kang pakikisama”—carries with it a
threat to one’s person. And this is dangerous. Filipinos
must enhance the good side of pakikisama and avoid the
10 HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND CULTURE

bad side, even when it means danger to oneself. I trust

that Filipinos can imagine some creative ways by which
this danger can be mitigated. One should find ways to
refuse unoffendingly or politely.
The bad side of pakikisama is inimical to oneself or
to society. When applied to projects, this bad type of
pakikisama apparently makes those projects eo ipso
devilish.

Bahala-na Attitude

Another cultural trait that can be used responsibly

or irresponsibly is the bahala-na attitude (Gripaldo 2005,
203-20). Bahala na, which primarily means “leaving to
God’s care the final outcome of one’s decision,” is
responsible when it is invoked after a thorough analysis
of data or an investigation of facts in a choosing
situation—say, to work abroad or not—but the data or
facts still make one unable to decide. Pressed by time
constraint, one may finally make up one’s mind and say,
“Tatrabaho na lang ako abroad; bahala na.” When I use
the word “responsible,” I mean to say that the chooser
has evaluated the situation exhaustively, including the
prospect of failure and its remedies. The decision to work
abroad must carry with it the evaluation of “calculated
risks.” Bahala na is irresponsible when one relies on his
or her instincts or passions in deciding to work abroad
without a thorough evaluation of the plus and minuses of
that decision. The irresponsible invoking of bahala na
when applied to worthwhile projects may—in all
probability—end up in failure.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

Undoubtedly, there are many Filipino cultural traits

that are ambivalent, but I singled out the six traits above
as they are adversely relevant to the idea of “progress.” A
First Wave agricultural country cannot become a Third
 A FILIPINO NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY 11

Wave superindustrial nation without toying with the idea

of “progress.” The Enlightenment idea of progress
through science, technology, and philosophy—which
provided the rational direction of progress—enabled
agricultural countries like England, France, Germany,
Japan, and the United States to become industrial and,
later, superindustrial nations. Toffler and Drucker talk
about the transformation of an industrial economy into
a superindustrial one. An integrated steel mill of the
Second Wave, which produces two million tons of steel
and employs about three thousand workers, will likely
have less than a hundred workers for the same amount
of output since most of the mechanical jobs will be
computerized (see Drucker 1994, 73, 108-109, 182). A
nation cannot become First World without manufacturing
steel in large quantities. Former President Ferdinand
Marcos tried to industrialize through his eleven key
industries, but political opposition and corruption
overpowered most of them.8
Anyway, for the 21st century, we need Filipino
mechanical engineers who are themselves experts in
using computer and electronic technology. They can
double as superindustrial technicians or knowledge
workers. Their expertise must be of different kinds: some
may specialize in heavy machineries, including the
fabrication of factories; others in small devices and
equipment to be used in biological and medical
industries; and still others will specialize in machineries,
gadgets, and equipment to be used in ocean and space
industries. To be truly First World, a Third World country
must indeed need more time to restructure its systems:
economic, political, social, educational, etc. But such
restructuring must be done quickly.
If futurism is our guide and making the Philippines
a First World country is our goal, what then should be
done by Filipinos for themselves as a people, culturally
speaking? In short, what will be the components of a
nationalist Filipino ideology for the 21st century?
12 HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND CULTURE

Believing in Ourselves

First, as Filipinos we must believe in ourselves and

in our capabilities. An important component of this is
critical thinking. We must be logical in order to properly
evaluate our choices, and not rely on hunches, guesswork,
prerogatives, passions, and the like. We must be able to
determine critically and logically the legitimacy of our
actions, coupled with their possible consequences. This
critical attitude will get rid of our inferiority complex. We
feel inferior because we feel inadequate rationally. We let
a professional paper or a local product to be validated or
accepted by foreigners first rather than validated and
accepted by us first. We feel the foreigners are superior to
us and we are incapable of making a rational and legitimate
validation.
South Korea believes in herself: in her
industrialization;9 her nuclear energy facilities10—it has
twenty nuclear power reactors/plants with four under
construction and another four in the planning stage with
two to be possibly decommissioned (see World Nuclear
Association 2008); in electronic and biological industries;
in ocean industry—it established in 1973 the Korea Ocean
Research and Development Institute which is active in
oceanography and coastal and harbor engineering research
(see VIMS, n.d.); and recently in space industries—
Hyundai builds a satellite launching pad at the Naro Space
Center in the southern part of the country (see “Hyundai
to build first South Korea launch pad,” 2007) under
contract with the Korea Aerospace Research Center, which
launches its first satellite in space in 2008. South Korea is
fast becoming a First World nation while the Philippines
is not even a Second World country.

Building Our Own Institutions

Second, we must build our own institutions in all

areas—institutions which we can be proud of: economic,
 A FILIPINO NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY 13

academic, political, social, and so on. When I was in

Tehran in 1999, the Iranians were stressing the need to
build their own institutions, one of which was the
institution of having their own nuclear facilities. The other
important component was the development of
philosophical studies. They held the World Congress on
Mulla Sadra which was not limited to Mulla Sadra and
Islamic Studies alone but to Western philosophical studies
as well. Mulla Sadra is the Iranian counterpart of Aristotle
of the West. When I visited Malaysia in 2007, some
professors of the Malaysia Science University in Penang
informed me that they are developing the institution of
entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is one of the subjects
which all their students take up because they want them
to be equipped with its principles. Even when their alumni
work in various fields, when the opportunity arises for
them to participate in an entrepreneurial activity, they
know what they are doing.
In Philippine philosophical studies, Filipino teachers
and scholars of philosophy and Filipino philosophers
themselves are building their own institution of
professional scholarship and scholarly philosophizing by
putting up Φιλοσοφια as an international journal and in
publishing selected papers presented in PNPRS lectures,
PAP conferences, and so on. Φιλοσοφια is abstracted in
The Philosopher’s Index, the most prestigious abstracting
institution in philosophy. It is also abstracted by
Thomson Reuters and Scopus, which are famous
worldwide for science and humanities studies. Instead
of simply submitting articles in established philosophy
journals abroad, why not believe in our capability of
putting up our own international philosophy journal that
is respected worldwide? I enjoin the other Philippine
academic disciplines to do likewise: start building their
own institutions by organizing a committed organization
that will publish their own international journal with or
without the help of a university or the national
government.
14 HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND CULTURE

To summarize, there is a need to develop in the

Philippines nuclear facilities [we need this technology
for space explorations later (see Hagen 1998)],
ocean and aerospace researches, entrepreneurship,
superindustrialization, federal parliamentary system,
international journals in many areas, and the like.

Developing the Attitude of International

Competition

Third, we must develop the proper attitude of and

the proper planning for international competition. The
real competition is abroad, not here locally. Sometimes,
we exhaust ourselves in competing domestically when
the genuine competition is outside of the Philippines.
While individual competition is the rule, we must
transcend this and compete either individually or as a
group.
Local businessmen must transcend import
substitution, avoid extending industrial infancy and
protectionism, and compete internationally. This way,
they are enlarging their markets. The academics—the
professors and scholars of the academe both in the
humanities and the sciences—should compete
internationally by reading quality papers not only as
individuals but as associations of individuals.

In Whatever Significant Thing You Do,

Do It for Nation Building

Lastly, we make choices for ourselves and our families.

We seldom or never link this with our nation. We normally
do not ask, “Is my choice of A rather than B, good11 not
only for myself, but also for my nation?” We assume that
A and B are significant alternatives. By “significant” we
mean the option or alternative has a relation to the good of
the country. If I say, “Should I choose the red or blue pair
of shoes?” it appears that the choice of color does not have
 A FILIPINO NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY 15

a relation at all to nation building and is therefore not a

significant choice. But if I say, “Should I buy a pair of
shoes produced locally or an imported one?” Assuming
the same quality and competitiveness of price, then one
ought to buy the local product because that is good not
only for oneself but also for the country. However, if one
can relate rationally—not in terms of rationalization or
justification, but a real reason for action—the imported
product to the good of oneself and the country, then by all
means buy it. In a paper read in a philosophy conference,
I (2007, 50) said that “If…I choose to finish my doctorate
early, write articles and books, read papers abroad, and
help organize philosophical institutions, it is not only for
self-development alone but also for national
development.” Finishing your Ph.D. early means you can
now actively participate in the international competition
of ideas insofar as your specialization is concerned, and
this means you are ushering in the good not to yourself
alone but also the good—the prestige you bring—to your
country as well. If we succeed in this philosophical
orientation of choosing not only for oneself but also for
the nation, then this will be our antidote to the massive
corruption in our country today.

CONCLUSION

To recapitulate, an ideology—as a set of integrated

ideas that serve as a practical guide to maintain or achieve
the desired goal(s) of an individual, a class, or a nation—
should be nationalist in orientation in order to attain the
goal of making the Philippines a First World country
within the 21st century and should opt for a platform-
oriented rather than a personality-oriented political system
provided certain of our attitudes are altered by (1) being
confident in ourselves, (2) building our own institutions
in various fields, (3) being internationally competitive,
and (4) making choices not for ourselves alone but for
the nation as well.
16 HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND CULTURE

NOTES

1. Paper originally presented during the Roundtable

Discussion on the issue, “Is there a need of a Filipino
ideology for the 21st century?” held at De La Salle
University on 23 April 2008 and sponsored by the DLSU-
CLA Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center and
the National Center for Culture and the Arts.
2. Obama’s political campaign in various speeches
was partly aired in cable TV coverage, particularly in
CNN and Fox News from January to April 2008. See
also Zapata (2008) and Reuters (2008, 16). Obama won
the nomination and later the presidency.
3. Some details of these clusters are: (a) space
industries (space cities; about 400 alloys which cannot
be produced on earth because of gravity can be
manufactured in space, etc.); (b) oceanic industries (ocean
floating cities, ocean underground cities, ocean mining,
etc.); (c) electronics and computers (fiber optics,
calculators, diode watches, computers, TV-screen games,
etc.); and (d) biological industries (biological solar cells,
bio-agricultural industries, metal-hungry microbes,
genetic engineering, stem-cell transplants, etc.). See
Toffler’s Future shock (1970) and Third Wave (1980). An
important sequel is Powershift (1990). For the use of
“post-industrial,” see Hunting (2004, 2007). Some of
these writers are: Daniel Bell, Manuel Castells, Antonio
Negri, and Michael Hardt.
4. A summary of this Third Wave civilization image
is found in Gripaldo (2000, 116-29).
5. We hope that Intel’s decision to possibly move its
facilities from the Philippines to China or other places
will not adversely affect the electronic industries in the
country (see Bulletin Today 2008a, B-7; see also Toral
2005 and DTI 2007).
6. We have stem cell research being done at the
Research and Biotechnology Department of St. Luke’s
Medical Center and at the Lung Center of the Philippines.
 A FILIPINO NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY 17

We also have cloning researches on the water buffalo.

Genetic engineering is done on, at least, the papaya,
mango, rice, and corn at the University of the Philippines
at Los Baños and in some private laboratories (see
Magdalita et al. 2004; St. Luke’s Medical Center, n.d.;
PIA Press Release 2007; Grudgings 2008; Association
of Southeast Asian Nations, n.d.; Arroyo 2005, 49-59;
and “The biotechnology industry in the Philippines,”
n.d.).
7. An ecozone, created in 1995, may include an
Export Processing Zone, a Free Trade Zone, an
Information Technology Park, a Tourist and Recreational
Center, an Industrial State, or a combination of these. It
is supervised by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority
(see Philippine Ecozones, n.d.). Foreign companies are
now also in mining.
8. Marcos launched the 11 major Heavy Industrial
Projects and appointed Roberto Ongpin, a Harvard-
educated economist, to accelerate the industrial projects
to give the Philippines “an upstream industrial
infrastructure” (see Landers 1997).
9. It is preferable to develop superindustrialism with
Filipino technology or with a combination of borrowed
technologies but built with Filipino skills. Concretely, it
is preferable to produce Filipino automobiles as in South
Korea or Malaysia to simply producing or assembling
cars with foreign companies such as Toyota, Honda,
Suzuki, etc. although in Thailand these car companies
were able to come out with 1.25 million vehicles in 2007,
54% of which were exported (see “Thailand claims niche
in Asia small-car production,” 2008). Ford Philippines is
doing well so far with its manufacture of flexible fuel
engines (up to 15% ethanol mix) but the capacity is small,
that is, 100,000 engines in five years (see Green Car
Congress 2005). The same is true with shipbuilding in
the Philippines—small scale although a good start—by
Aboitiz and the Tsuneishi Heavy Industries of Japan.
The Philippines aims to be the fourth largest shipbuilder
18 HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND CULTURE

by 2010 to 2015. The FBMA Marine Inc. is a wholly-

owned Aboitiz subsidiary that manufactures small fast
crafts exported abroad (see “RP aims high in
shipbuilding” 2005 and Aboitiz 2006). The Hanjin
shipyard in Subic is wholly South Korean and employs
some 5,000 Filipino workers, aside from the
subcontracting jobs (see Regala 2008, B-11). These are
all welcome for as long as the customers come from
abroad.
10. In addition to nuclear energy, South Korea
exploits all other kinds of energy sources: geothermal,
solar, biomass, bio-ethanol, bio-diesel, hydrogen fuel
cells, tidal, hydroelectric, and wind (see Globe-Net,
2008).
11. The word “good” here is used psychologically
to mean “in reference to the welfare of,” morally
speaking (when legality is not an issue), legally speaking
(when morality is not an issue), or both (when morality
and legality are at issue simultaneously).

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