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Philippine Sociological Review
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PSR 28 (1980): 81-88
RANDOLF S. DAVID
University of the Philippines
Dependency theory takes off from the fundamental premises of the theory of imperialis
and traces the roots of backwardness and underdevelopment to our country's increasing integrat
into the vicious circuit of foreign capital, technology and markets. In examining the relationshi
domination and dependency between the advanced capitalist countries and the underdevelop
countries, the paper describes the situation in the Philippines. The social realities that we n
confront in the country are that we are witnessing the growing and unstoppable domination of
national economy by transnational corporations, the impossibility of repaying our internati
indebtedness, the increasing pauperization of the rural masses, the total degradation of
marginalized urban poor, to name only a few. There is need then to develop a truly self-directin
economy and we must articulate this critical knowledge in every conceivable forum.
81
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82 PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
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PHILIPPINE UNDERDEVELOPMENT 83
powerful
then we can start transnational conglomerates,
looking at our we are ow
experiencing the rapid
in the Philippines. Essentially, this p erosion of our national
culture as a direct result of the
stresses the importance ofinvasion by
exami
aggressive consumerist
relationship of domination and de culture from the
advanced capitalist countries.
between the advanced capitalist c
(metropolitan countries) and the
underdeveloped countries (also known These,
as in brief, are the focal points of
satellites or peripheral economies) as a wayDependency
of Theory. Let us now look at our
own situation at home.
accounting for the poor countries' continuing
underdevelopment. This relationship is best
described as one of dependency, which means Some Aspects of Dependency
concretely that: and Underdevelopment in the Philippines
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84 PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
In Mariveles, Bataan, we
Our technocrats have have
assured us that it is set
industrial exportnatural for developing which
enclave countries to borrow
offer
the most generous investment
money initially, and that we need not worry ter
found anywhere asin the
long as Third
our borrowings World.
are rationally
this enclave, weinvested.
give Someonetax exemption
even suggested that huge
imports and exports
borrowings areof TNCs,
a sign that the economy weis all
tax holidays fordynamic.
the first
Increasingly, few
however, years
we begin to
operation, and we give
doubt whether them
the national developmentthe r
program
deduct from their that our government has launched
subsequent taxable
the losses they will everincur
may rescue us from perpetual
during the f
years of their operation. indebtedness, and indeed, weIn worry both
whether M
Oriental and Bataan, we have cleared our such loans have really been wisely used.
lands and driven our own people from their
ancestral homes so that these global giants One thing is certain though - this type of
may have their industrial estates and exportdevelopment has severely hit the lower sectors
processing zones. of our population most. The landless urban
poor are mercilessly evicted to make room for
industrial sites. Whole communities are
Having discovered that transnational
displaced from their ancestral lands to make
corporations are animated by the constant
search for cheap and docile labour, we have way for export-processing zones, export crop
joined our Asian brothers in the debilitating
plantations, industrial estates, and
hydro-electric dams. Urban slum-dwellers are
race to keep our workers' wages down and to
suppress the rights of organized labour. ruthlessly dumped into relocation sites away
Consequently, our economy has become from the city as part of a massive
nothing more than the sweatshop of global beautification campaign aimed at attracting
and accommodating the increasing number of
corporations. This hysterical preoccupation
foreign-exchange carrying tourists. Instead of
with ex port-oriented industrialization has been
housing programs and medical care for the
thrust upon us by the realization that we
poor, our government has embarked on a
could no longer rely on our traditional
wanton expenditure of the national wealth in
primary exports - like sugar, timber and
high-visibility international image building
copra — to generate our foreign exchange
requirements. And foreign exchange we need
campaigns whose components typically
in large steady amounts. For we have include sponsoring international beauty
borrowed billions of dollars from internationalpageants, international conferences, and
international basketball, boxing and chess
lending agencies and private financial consortia
tournaments.
in order to keep our economy operational, as
well as to meet our outstanding global In 1975, for instance, in order to provide
accounts. Each year, our national deficit suitable accommodations to delegates to the
grows bigger, and we realize that we are IMF-WB Conference, we built 13 new 5-star
barely able to meet even the interest hotels. Today, hotel managers rejoice when
payments, let alone the loans themselves. Butthey can attain a 4(%> occupancy rate. These
we bravely plod on, even as we helplessly are very expensive hotels. Manila Hotel, for
watch the rapid drain of our resources example, was re-built reportedly at a cost of
through the massive repatriation and 35,000 US dollars per room. Large amounts
remittance of profits by foreign capitalists,of public funds went into this madness. In
and also by our own local elites who keep particular, money that should have gone to
deposits in Swiss bank accounts as a the construction of low-cost housing went
protection against expropriation or any
instead into the subsidy of tourist
sudden change of government. accommodations.
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PHILIPPINE UNDERDEVELOPMENT 85
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86 PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
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PHILIPPINE UNDERDEVELOPMENT 87
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