Duterte’s dare on US, Australia spells economic disaster, says economist

Joseph

A business leader in Cebu described as immature the remarks and tirades of presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte against the United States and Australia.

Gordon Alan Joseph, president of the Cebu Business Club, criticized the mayor of Davao City for challenging the US and Australia to cut ties with the country should he be elected as president.

“Those are immature statements unbecoming of a potential president of the Philippines,” he said in an online interview.

Duterte’s remarks were made after the Australian and US ambassadors to the Philippines spoke out against what had already been widely condemned as a “crass” and “disgusting” rape joke, which the mayor delivered during a rally in Luzon on April 12 when he retold the story of a female Australian missionary who was raped and killed during a prison riot in Davao in 1989.

The uproar came after the mayor said that while he was very angry with the rape and killing of Jacqueline Hamill, she was so beautiful that he, as mayor, should have been first in line to rape her.

The mayor lashed back at his critics, calling them “stupid” and demanded from both the US and Australian diplomats to shut up and even then dared them to cut ties with the Philippines should he win in the May polls.

But the prospect of severing ties with the US and Australia could translate to economic disaster, Manila-based economist Bernard Ong said.

“Let’s check the numbers before telling the US and Ozzie to go to hell. Australia’s trade value (with the Philippines) in 2014 was $2.4 billion…Cumulative investment in the country as of 2014 was $9.6 billion and the value of aid extended to the country was $149 million. Remittances in 2014 was $863 million and total Australian tourists that visited the country in 2015 was 241,000,” he said in a Facebook post on April 21.

He also said trade with the US in 2015 was valued at $18 billion while investments reached $1.1 billion.

Ong said US and Australia make up 90 percent of the country’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines, which currently employs 1.1 million people.

He said the US and Australia are the Philippines’ “economic BFFs (best friends forever).”

“So, before we tell our BFFs to go to hell and dare them to cut diplomatic relations, take a deep breath and smell the math. Rape jokes, refusal to apologize, bullying, daring countries to cut ties are recipes for economic disaster at home,” he stated.

“A president – or a presidential wannabe – should not drag his countrymen to ruin just because he is upset and cannot control his mouth,” he added.

Ong’s post generated 1,400 likes and was shared 1,466 times as of 8:42 p.m. yesterday.

Philip N. Tan, past president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry, for his part, said the Philippines “needs more friends than enemies if we want to become a highly developed country.”

“We must be humble to accept that these countries have helped us in our history of independence,” he said.

The American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) in Cebu City has yet to respond to CDN’s request for a statement. But a female staff said it was unlikely that the ACCI would comment on matters that involved politics.

Joseph said there would be a huge impact if indeed our diplomatic relations with those countries would  be severed.

“We would become global trade pariahs. No one will take us seriously, which means foreign investments will slow down. Foreign funds and companies will stop investments or pull out investments,” he added.

The country will also have to deal with possible displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and it could hardly send workers to those nations.

A report by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released last year showed that in 2014,  OFW remittances through money couriers mostly came from the US, at P463.2 billion; with remittances from Australia in number 10, at P19.07 billion.

“I think it will become more difficult to deploy new OFWs there and in some cases, since we won’t have ties, many may have to come back to the Philippines,” the businessman added.

Joseph admitted that the business community in Cebu is divided on Duterte’s presidential bid and the possible Duterte presidency.

But while there are businessmen who support Duterte, there are also many businessmen who believed that he is not a good economic manager.

“(We have) Mixed opinions. Some believe he will change the country and many think he will not be a good political or economic manager,” Joseph said.

Volunteer groups and supporters in Cebu however solidly stood behind Duterte amid negative reactions to his challenge to the envoys of the United States and Australia to sever ties with the Philippines should he be elected as president.

Lawyer Rex Fernandez, head of the Cebu for Duterte Movement, said Duterte’s stand is their group’s stand.

“His dare, and it is a dare, is his answer to these two old colonial powers trying to maintain their oppressive grip on the Philippines by meddling in Philippine affairs of which they should not have a hand on,” he told Cebu Daily News in a text message.

According to Fernandez, it is time for the country to make an “independent stance” on international affairs and for it to forge its own destiny by looking after its own self-interest.

While in Kalibo, Aklan last Wednesday, Duterte dared the ambassadors to the Philippines of United States and Australia to cut ties with the Philippines for their critical statements amid the continued backlash following Duterte’s controversial remarks on the rape-slay of a female Australian missionary in 1989.

Duterte,  who came to Cebu after the Aklan sortie, also called on the ambassadors of Australia and the United States to the Philippines to refrain from commenting on the controversy.

“It’s election time. Ambassadors (and) diplomatic heads should refrain. Wag kayong sumakay (Don’t ride on the issue), Australia and United States, kasi hindi ninyo alam ang totoo (because you don’t know the truth),” he said during a gathering organized by the Garcia-led One Cebu party in Cebu City.

One Cebu gubernatorial bet Winston Garcia downplayed the controversy as a “joke” that was just not received kindly by others.

Close to 1,000 One Cebu allies and Duterte supporters gathered at the White Gold House Restaurant in Cebu City last Wednesday evening who willingly waited for their presidential bet even if he arrived around 12:30 a.m. on Thursday.

Garcia, in text message yesterday, said Filipinos decide on elections and not foreign ambassadors.  It  would also be up to the US or Australia to decide whether or not they would cut ties with the Philippines, ” he added

To some ordinary Duterte supporters, the statement of Duterte would not affect their support for him.

One supporter, banking associate Daryl Jabil, 21, said the mayor’s dare might discourage some supporters because “not all of them are brave enough to accept the way he verbally deals with critical issues.”

However, he said the issue was “very petty” to most of Duterte fans who have been defending the mayor by highlighting his previous achievements.

In Iloilo City, Duterte was also taken to task, this time for another joke involving persons with disabilities (PWDs).

“Why can’t he be more of (Canadian Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau instead of insulting us?” was the reaction of Louie Posa, founder of the Association of Disabled Persons -Iloilo, Inc. (ADPI), to remarks of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte concerning persons with disabilities (PWDs).

Posa found Duterte’s anecdote “not funny at all,” stressing that making fun of PWDs was “a wrong example for a person aspiring to be president.”

Posa said Duterte should instead show respect and understanding similar to Trudeau, who was photographed two years ago helping carry a wheelchair-bound person after an escalator broke down at a Montreal Metro station.

Duterte’s joke about PWDs during a campaign speech in Kalibo showed his lack of compassion for the disabled, said Posa, 65, who now has difficulty walking after he suffered from spinal cord injuries in a 1986 car accident.

In his speech, Duterte described the plaza of Davao City as one of the most beautiful in the country where wheelchairs, attendants, two nurses and a doctor were even provided for PWDs and the elderly.

He said that when he inspected the plaza, he found out that one of  the PWDs was a former classmate. “Gusto kong sabihin, magpakamatay ka na lang (I wanted to tell him to just kill yourself),” he said in jest, even suggesting that his classmate could use a barber’s shaving razor.

He also told how the PWDs ignored the military trainees who were jogging nearby but glanced up when the joggers were women. An attendant of one elderly PWD, he said, even helped turn the person’s head so he could continue gazing at the female joggers.