Effects of Globalization in the Philippines

Within effects of globalization in the Philippines essay I need to discuss the Philippine experience in capitalist globalization. Here I will give the review of the following aspects: politics, economy, human rights, culture, religion, science, health and medicine, and education.

Introduction

'Globalization is incredibly efficient but also far incredibly unjust' - Honorary President to Norte Europe, Jaques Delor. Indeed, living in the 21st century where the diversification of human leaps and advancements throughout time has flourished and is ever-continuing to burgeon, the term “Globalization” has become a cliche. Most predominantly to developing states and countries, whenever the aforementioned word is uttered, a rather long ‘sigh’ is to be expected from the residents. It is without a hesitating doubt that globalization became the gateway drug of ecstatic development of conglomerations from different facets of societal progressions such as in politics, world economy, human rights, culture, religion, science, health and medicine, and education. But, it does not delimit the inequalities and prejudices that happen beyond the closed doors of the more industrialized and developed nations. The epic nooks of human history from the silk roads to the modern-day trade agreements like NAFTA or the North American Free Trade Agreement tell us that various localities of the world have been engaging in the exchange across national borders for centuries through the practice of globalization. In the Philippine context, the jargon “SANA ALL” could be applied albeit such implications of partisanship and discrimination are evidently seen; “SANA ALL developed country na rin” is what every Filipino citizen is dreaming of in this age of opportune evolution. Nevertheless, the concept of globalization is not all banes and fewer boons, rather, it creates an unjust flaw by the capitalistic agendas. That is why this paper shall tackle copious angles of capitalist globalization in the current diegesis and unfiltered scenario of the Philippines through specifications of disparate and variegated aspects by both its positives and negatives.

Politics

For 34 years, the 1987 constitution has served the Filipinos political outlines intertwined with its democracy, laws, policies, mandates, and jurisprudence, but is somehow influenced by the continuity and cohesion of capitalist globalization. Moreover, subsiding with the 3 approaches of globalization theories such as the following -- hyperglobalist, the skeptical, and the transformational, it is verifiable that political changes occur in the country both positively and negatively. The growing influence of international organizations such as the UN and WHO defines that governmental action plots and are acted at an international level; being the Philippines a part of a number of these orgs and known institutions. However, these implications only mark the reason how the country is being left behind through political schemas, growth, and progression. Even if so the prevailing notion is that political and governmental effects of globalization include countries to become expressively democratic, it risks the developing ones into a quicksand of low socio-political and economic formation. Thanks to capitalistic and greedy pigs in the corrupted Philippine government, our state’s debt stretches far out to the point that even our “Apos” and the grandchildren of our grandchildren are liable to pay it. As Miriam Defensor-Santiago once said, “Kapag tumataas ang posisyon mo sa gobyerno, lumiliit ang balls mo”. 

Economy

Exploring through the past half-century, the world economy has developed into a more interdependent, integrated, and intertwined postulation as globalization and liberalization appear to have become a trend that is irreversible and inevitable. To put it in contextualization here in the Philippines, Guinigundo stated that globalization suggested factual evidence in which it has a beneficial and optimistic effect on the country's economic growth and employment rate. In precision, trade openness and foreign interrelated portfolio flows have majorly contributed to an increase of per capita GDP growth in the Philippines, entailed by reforms of FX (Foreign Exchange) implementations. These are all the boons of economic globalization, however, Callao begs to differ: Despite the immense impact on the country's advancement, globalization has been threatening Filipinos' lives, and the worst thing is that we are not even aware of this phenomena. The broadening economic gap between the rich and the poor puts the Philippines in a bottomless pit of poverty, due to capitalistic globalization, which causes social injustices and prejudice among citizens.

Human Rights

As proclaimed by UN.org (n.d.) “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a pivotal event in human rights history. The Declaration was drafted by delegates from across all parts of the world with various legal, social, and cultural backgrounds, and it was ratified by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 as a collective definition of accomplishments for all cultures and nations. For perhaps the first time, it lays out universally guaranteed basic human rights, and it has been adapted into over 500 languages.” Globalization has led to outlining humanity’s crucial guidelines in living a prosperous life-- which is providing universal laws and rights in protecting indifferences and equalities from varying cultures, identities, states, norms, and all walks of life. In the Philippines, the Commission on Human Rights or the CHR (Filipino; Komisyon sa Karapatang Pantao) is a constitutionally independent office created under the 1987 constitution, with its primary goal of investigating and quantifying violations of human rights involving both political and civil rights of the Filipinos. The foremost example for this would be the “War on Drugs” Agenda of the Duterte Administration. As Santos reported that the CHR is calling out the gov't to acknowledge the observations made by the International Criminal Court; in which it found a 'reasonable basis to believe' that crimes against humanity have been acted upon during the violent campaign. This diametrically shows the coordination of international and national organizations through protecting the rights of the people.

Culture

Each to their own, every country has its identifying unique culture. However, due to the constant pronouncement of the Western World as the tycoons and kings of capitalist globalization, the developing states are being whitewashed. Furthermore, loss of individualism and cultural identity takes place when globalization pursues a 'Western Ideal of Individualism'. Inherently, this promotes a homogenous mixture of beliefs set, values, and way of life. We all foresee the “Colonial Mentality” as a part of our identity already, and it is just unfortunate to live in a seemingly increasingly unbalanced identification of culture. Local examples of this facet would be adaptations of specific Korean and Spanish dramas and telenovelas over the past 20 years. The Philippine entertainment industry puts a little bit too much effort into making the perfect revamping of these mainstream cultural amusements when they could have just improved our very own.

Religion

This year embarks the 500 years of the Philippines being a majorly Catholic country. The CBCP said that this is indeed something to celebrate as the Christian faith in the country has not only survived over 5 centuries, but the strong influence in the culture and character of the nation is remaining intact with Catholicism. Even though the country has 86% of Christian believers, the remaining else is still an integral part of the nation’s identity and history. In addition, acknowledging the dissimilar belief systems and religions entails the positive side of globalization as it provided “Interfaith Dialogues'' or communication, cooperation, dialogue, and conflict resolution between different faiths and religious groups, which continuously helps to keep countries at peace when it comes to the facet of religious progression in the 21st century. Besides the aforementioned, Beyer categorized 3 hey impacts of globalization on religion: First, Particularism - where religion has increasingly been utilized as a platform for anti-globalization activity. Second, Universalism - focuses on the unity of major religions, unlike fundamentalists who emphasize their differences. Third, Marginalisation - due to Eurocentrism, religion has become marginalized in the contemporary world where it plays less actively in public lives.

Science

Thiel once quoted “In a world of scarce resources, globalization without new science and technology is unsustainable.” Through the premises of Filipino history, capitalist globalization has always been an integral part of the country’s advancement in the sciences, most especially during the colonial period of the American regime. Agricultural, food processing, medicine, and pharmacy were the focus of science during the American era. Due to the free trade policy with the United States, which cultivated an economy based on agriculture and trade, little attention was paid to the advancement of industrial technology. The Americans have funded and established several universities, resulting in a more academic society. Furthermore, the Bureau of Science (now DOST or Department of Science and Technology) was founded by them, to foster the country's scientific and technological progress. Without a doubt, globalization through the lens of sciences has become an advantage for developing states like the Philippines as it honed and embarked on the foundations that we know of, today. Into the bargain, Diega reported that advancing the science and technology of agenda is best for the global and economic growth of the Philippines, supported that in the challenging factors of Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) ranking, the country was ranked 73rd out of 128 economies, citing the country's success in both research and commercialization of STI light-bulb ideas. Globalization may not be perfect, but it indeed helped the Philippines in its scientific journeys and discoveries.

Health and Medicine

The facet of health and medicine is interrelated in a direct proportion with the advancement of science and technology here in the Philippines, however, for the past year in the current battle with COVID-19, the administration and its stakeholders seem to be mishandling this responsibility and opportunity just to suffice their capitalistic greed and corruptions. Each day, about 1,700 new cases of COVID-19 are reported in the Philippines, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to over half a million, second only to Indonesia in the region, and the question with the providence of health and medicine to the Filipino people boils down to “Why is the Philippines in such dire straits when it comes to vaccines?”. Well, perhaps, the President may have stated that 'The problem is that rich countries bought all the supplies” and 'There's a scramble [for vaccines] now,'. This is where the disagreement comes about, because it is evident to even the most simpleton of Pinoys that the tsars and rulers of the state has favoritism when it comes to the competence of worldwide produced vaccines, and that the developed countries who strategized well in the gathering and ordering of vaccine supplies have a stance is not to be blamed. Manila has ordered 25 million Sinovac vaccine doses, with the first 50,000 scheduled in February, this solely speaks of the prioritization on how they favored the less effective vaccine from China to show their wagging tails and obedience to the Xi Jin Ping regime as a capitalistic and globalistic motive of partnership, perhaps.

Education

Globalization's localized influence has been, is, and will strive to be a subject of intense discussion, particularly because the definition has been in the spotlight for the past two decades due to its Yin and Yang conflicting impacts on developed and developing countries. In the conjecture of globalization through education, the Philippines has always been on the capitalistic side. An unfortunate and realistically depressing example of this is garnering data from March and May of 2020, the SOS Network has documented 32 counts of attacks in the Lumad schools, particularly in Mindanao. The state does not prioritize the protection and improvement of the discriminated minority in the Philippines, that of the Lumads and indigenous tribes, and would only give accentuating support for the premier schools and colleges in the country who provide local and international recognition to the homeland. Because of the avaricious feature of globalization, the ones who actually need help in the education sector are being set aside to pave the way for those who “bring the bacon” to the table of hungry figureheads. This is the truth that must be told: Globalization feeds those who are already full and starves those who are hungry.

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