DEVELOPING THE NATIONAL ECONOMY Sample Clauses
DEVELOPING THE NATIONAL ECONOMY. The Philippine economy remains trapped in semifeudal and semicolonial backwardness. The neoliberal free market policies of globalization imposed by United States (US) imperialism and other big economic powers since the 1980s have worsened the country’s underdevelopment and the plight of the Filipino people. The country has vast agriculture, forestry, aquatic, and energy resources. It is among the most mineral-rich countries in the world with many of the basic minerals needed for industrial develop- ment. Our population is also a huge prospective productive labor force and domestic market. Yet the economy remains backward, agricultural, and with an insignificant Filipino industrial sector. Since the 1990s, it has fur- ther turned into a shallow service and trading economy more than a producing economy. As a semifeudal economy, it supplies foreign capital and econo- mies with cheap labor and exports of agricultural and extractive raw materials, while chronically importing industrial inputs, capi- tal equipment, finished goods, and agricultural commodities. The exploiters have made sure that they concentrate and accumulate the benefits from the economy in themselves. All these keep tens of millions of Filipinos poor and the econ- omy in the worst crisis of joblessness in its entire history. Peasant landlessness and rural backwardness are widespread. More ▇▇▇▇▇▇- nos are unemployed, in poor quality informal work, and more than ever forced to find employment abroad. A strategic economic program of self-reliant Philippine devel- opment encompassing agrarian reform, rural development, and national industrialization that gives due consideration to the envi- ronment is needed to develop the national economy. This means rejecting neoliberalism and replacing this with responsible state intervention and the democratic participation of the Filipino masses. A truly democratic and sovereign economy that benefits the majority of Filipino people will be the foundation of a just and lasting peace.
DEVELOPING THE NATIONAL ECONOMY. This part outlines how agricultural and rural development with national industrialization forms the bedrock of the national econ- omy. This is done with due consideration of the environment to ensure favorable conditions for the present and future generations.
A. AGRARIAN REFORM AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT The largest number of Filipino producers are peasants and the single largest sector of the domestic economy is agriculture. Real agrarian reform corrects historical injustices against the peasantry. It is also the key to ending rural poverty and the starting point for rapid development of the Philippine countryside. Agrarian reform shall break land monopolies through expro- priation with selective compensation. It covers all private and public agricultural land, fishing grounds, fisheries, and aquacul- ture while recognizing ancestral domain. Land shall be distributed for free with measures against reconcentration. The rights of the peasantry, including farm workers and fisherfolk, to living wages, humane work conditions, benefits, and to be free from usury shall be upheld and promoted. Agricultural production shall be developed with ample budgets for developing agricultural science and technology, agricultural credit, irrigation, post-harvest facilities, farm-to-market roads, and marketing support. The conversion of land producing food shall be prohibited. The country shall achieve food self-sufficiency. Rural industries shall be fully developed in: coconut, sugar, cacao and coffee, meat processing, fish processing, fruit, spices and vegetable processing, salt and seaweeds processing, dairy products, leather processing, abaca products, bamboo and rattan, clothing and textiles, pottery, furniture, and agricultural by-prod- ucts processing. The peasantry shall have real democratic participation in decision-making and the economy. The revolutionary mass orga- nizations and New People’s Army (NPA) shall have key roles in implementing agrarian reform. Peasant cooperatives and associa- tions shall be set up. A Joint Monitoring Committee on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (JMC-ARRD) shall be established and a New Agrarian Law enacted.
B. NATIONAL INDUSTRIALIZATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The NDFP has always considered national industrialization essential for economic development. It is needed to create jobs and livelihoods, raise incomes, meet the people’s basic needs, ensure rapid and sustained economic growth, and achieve economic inde- pendence from imperi...