Educators’ Forum for Development
Free Education & Health Care/ Economic reforms the most compelling reason to continue the peace talks
February 5, 2017
Pres. Rodrigo Duterte recalled the government’s peace negotiators from negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) until being given “compelling reason” to resume talks. Research group IBON, however, points out that the most compelling reason for having peace talks are the economic and political reforms on the agenda that can address the roots […]
Change Underway?–The IBON 2016 Yearend Birdtalk
December 31, 2016
The overwhelming win of an unorthodox Presidential candidate in the May 2016 elections promised several windows for reforms. For a country stricken with poverty and a worsening jobs crisis, beyond a coarse-mannered figurehead, prospects that this new leadership could jumpstart measures to improve the lives of the poor majority of Filipinos were introduced. In […]
Marcos-initiated “globalization” led to PH economic decline
November 26, 2016
“In 1980, the Marcos regime actually made the Philippines the first country in Asia and the second country in the world, after Turkey, to be at the receiving end of a World Bank structural adjustment loan (SAL). The conditionalities of the US$200 million loan included among others tariff cuts, removal of import licenses and […]
Marcos ensured US-directed IMF/WB intervention in PH policy making
November 25, 2016
“The rule of Nacionalista Party’s Ferdinand E. Marcos which began in 1965 was strong on nationalist and patriotic rhetoric. Yet Pres. Marcos was by no means a nationalist if ‘nation’ is understood as the majority of Filipinos and ‘nationalism’ as upholding their interests and asserting Filipino sovereignty over foreign powers. “Most anti-nationalist president. […]
Under Marcos dictatorship unemployment worsened, prices soared, poverty persisted
November 25, 2016
“The decade 1975-1986 was actually a time of intense social crisis and economic difficulty for most Filipinos. The unemployment rate was falling in the early years of the Marcos regime – from 7.1% in 1966 to 3.9% in 1975. But this reversed in the mid-1970s to rapidly rise back to 7.9% in 1980. The […]
Word-class bureaucrat capitalism under Marcos added to PH econ woes
November 24, 2016
“This narrative highlights the evils of dictatorship and abuse of power. But it falters in explaining why, over three decades after the end of the Marcos regime, the economy still remains so backward in the things that matter – job creation, poverty reduction, agricultural and industrial development, and policy sovereignty. “Bureaucrat capitalism under Marcos was […]
Marcos debt equivalent to 4x 1986 PH budget
November 24, 2016
Marcos dictatorship debt totaling Php470 billion is equivalent to 4x the national government budget of Php121 billion in 1986.
Repost from “Anyare? Economic Decline since Marcos”
November 19, 2016
Never again In hindsight the arc of neoliberal globalization of the Philippine economy is clear. The Martial Law regime started the market-oriented restructuring of the Philippine economy and its debilitating effects were immediately felt. After Marcos, cronyism was craftily used to justify even greater liberalization, privatization and deregulation as early as the Corazon Aquino administration […]
Lumad evacuees’ return home signals rebuilding of alternative schools
September 7, 2016
The Educators’ Forum for Development (EfD), a network of 100 schools nationwide advocating transformative education, commended the more than 2,000 Lumad evacuees on the reclaiming of their homes and ancestral land in Bgy. Diatagon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur. The group said that this also signifies initial steps towards the rebuilding of Lumad alternative schools and […]
