Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

[Motion]
The motion for debate today is that globalization is a solution to the economic issues in the
Philippines.

We, as the affirmative, firmly support the motion, but before we come to our actual
argumentation, let us first define the important terms.
Globalization, by definition, is the spread of products, technology, information, and jobs across
national borders and cultures. In economic terms, it describes an interdependence of nations
around the globe fostered through free trade.
// additional terms

[Theme line]
This house believes that globalization is a solution to the Philippines’ economic issues because
… // theme line – why the case is logically correct

[Team Split]
We, the government, have structured our case as follows:
1. I, as the first speaker, will be talking about
 Globalization trends in the Philippines and their positive effects on our economy

2. Our second speaker will elaborate on the topic of

 Macroeconomic and distributional impacts of globalization in the Philippines

3. Moreover, our third speaker will do the rebuttal and sum up our team’s case.

[1st Substantial Argument]

To start with our first argument, I will be discussing the globalization trends in our country,
mainly trade openness and migration, as these are the ones with the most impact.

Trade openness in the Philippines improved from 88.1% to 101.0% of the country's gross
domestic product from the 1990s to the 2000s. The said factors that caused this increase were
the country's efforts towards a more open trade policy that started in the 1980s and rapid growth
in the country's ICT-BPO services (Information and Communications Technology-Business
Process Outsourcing).

According to the statistics on the IT-BPO earnings, the sector recorded above 50% annual
growth from 2006 to 2008, this growth remaining in double digits until 2016. Furthermore, the
Philippines, along with India, has established itself as one of the two major BPO industry
centers in Asia.

Moving on to migration, the United Nations indicates that the ratio of Filipino migrants to the
country's total population went up from 3.5% in 1995 to 5.4% in 2017. The primary motivation
for Filipinos' continuing emigration has been to find work abroad.

While the Philippine economy has progressively improved in recent years, with the
unemployment rate falling from 7.5 percent in 2009 to 5.0 percent in 2017, the country's
unemployment condition is still frequently mentioned as one of the primary reasons Filipinos
continue to seek work overseas. Employment possibilities in other nations are believed to offer
better salaries/compensation and better income and livelihood packages.
According to the most recent estimates from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, overseas
Filipinos are now distributed more geographically, away from the traditional destinations of
primarily advanced economies, and toward EMEs, which rely more on overseas Filipinos
services and abilities.

Consequently, overseas Filipinos remittances have grown significantly, from 2.5 percent of GDP
in 1990 to 9.2 percent of GDP in the first three quarters of 2017. In 2017, the Philippines was
the third biggest recipient nation for remittances, and it has been in the top ten since 1994.
Following advancements in international money transfer technologies, the BSP and the banks
themselves have implemented various initiatives in recent years to encourage overseas
Filipinos to channel remittances through the banking system.