THE common scene we see after a flood are people with tickets lining up to exchange these for plastic bags of rice, noodles and sardines from politicians, celebrities, civic clubs or other do-gooders that cone to town.

We have witnessed on several occasions this kind of aid distribution. We do not see happy faces or pride among the people lining up to get food packs; they are herded to fall in line inside a roped area, tickets in hand, supervised by barangay tanods or policemen.

Now we have succeeded in highlighting the tragedy by pauperizing the poor! We have seen many faces and we felt that we have stripped them of dignity and shame.

In November last year, we wrote a piece, Overhaul our Economic Policy, by stopping to import our needs from foreign countries. It is said that the opportunities for investment have become very few for the average Filipino today, hence millions are out of work; and this is because of our continuing embrace of free trade and globalization under the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) and our membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) since 1994. This allowed the importation of practically everything under the sun at low tariff rates, thereby easing out local products in the market.

Now, add to this again the JPEPA agreement with Japan, the terms and conditions of which we are hiding from the people under Executive Privilege. Is it true that the agreement is all-inclusive that even the contents of the toilet bowls of the Japanese may be exported to us?

Why don’t we make products for our own use and consumption instead of approving JPEPA, and perhaps withdraw also from similar onerous trade agreements like GATT and our membership in WTO?

We have recently seen at Robinsons Place Iloilo the exhibits of enterprises that Taytay sa Kauswagan, Inc. (TSKI) assisted to produce local products. The hablon products impressed us as very promising. But the problem is local patronage.

If we are loyal to our country and we want to help Filipinos, then maybe we should start buying products locally produced like that of TSKI-assisted enterprises. We learned that TSKI itself was the first one to use hinabul for the uniform of their employees. Why couldn’t other establishments follow suit like banks, government offices and schools, trade organizations, policemen and soldiers in our area, etc.? Maybe, a local civic group can adopt this as a project by campaigning with establishments to adopt the idea. That will be great!

It will be patriotic to do this for hablon, as well as for the other products that we locally produce. Soon, the day will come when many of our people will have work, and they do not have to line up anymore like paupers for a kilo of rice, noodles and sardines, even when a typhoon comes.

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