Connie Veneracion
Manila Standard

Last Sunday, we visited the popular Market at the Hills along Temple Drive in Quezon City. Most of the stalls sold food but there was one, Bambuza, selling products made from bamboo and banana fiber. There were beautiful picture frames, custom-made cards, gift boxes and resin plates inlaid with pieces of bamboo. They were beautiful. Designed by local artists and locally made from local materials, it was one of those instances when the “Buy Filipino” slogan made so much sense.

It stirred a sense of pride inside me, really, seeing those beautiful products made by Filipinos and not even missing the environment factor. Instead of denuding the forests further to make craft paper from trees, bamboo and banana leaves and barks, both of which we have in abundance, have taken center stage. If beauty alone were my consideration, I would have bought everything from that stall and probably ordered some more to be picked up at a later date. The fact that the products are environment-friendly makes them even more attractive. But for every wise shopper, price is a consideration as well. None of the products were inexpensive. I could only afford to order a few pieces that I knew I would treasure for a long time.

I found myself mentally traveling back in time to a few months ago when we were furnishing our new house and my husband and I were looking for table lamps, floor lamps and pendant lamps. We went to a store called Keystone and their pieces were just magnificent. Unfortunately, the prices were beyond our budget. My husband was so disappointed that, within seconds of getting in the car, he went on a tirade about how Filipinos would ever feel encouraged to patronize local products when the prices are beyond the reach of the average Juan and Juana. To make a long story short, we ended up buying less expensive lighting fixtures made either in China or Taiwan.

It’s the same thing for the mothers and fathers who chose to buy unlabeled powdered milk to feed their babies. It’s a matter of economics. You just can’t argue with a consumer by insisting that in the long term, we would be helping ourselves more if we keep the local economy going by consciously choosing to buy Philippine-made products. The consumer who lives with a finite budget week by week, month by month, won’t really care about the long term if he’s already having a hard time making it through the short term.

It’s not about lack of patriotism. It’s just pragmatism. The truth is, in many cases, local products are more expensive than imported ones. I’m an advocate of Philippine agriculture but when push comes to shove, it’s really easier said than done. I can’t remember the last time I chose to buy local onions and garlic over the cheaper imports from Taiwan. It’s not because I believe that Taiwan garlic and onions are superior in quality. It’s because their prices are friendlier.

If we’re going to get political, philosophical and idealistic about it, we’d say that to boost local industries, the government should not allow the entry of products that compete directly with local ones. But that would be unfavorable to the consumer, wouldn’t it, who can only afford the cheaper imported products. Where’s the middle ground then? Is it not possible to boost local industries without detriment to the consumer who will be forced to buy their products at whatever prices they dictate?

When government explains why we import agricultural products that, ironically, we already produce locally, the most common explanation is shortage. We don’t produce enough, they say, so we import. But that’s not really accurate. The truth is that shortage is often artificial. There is shortage in the local markets because we export the best harvest and only sell locally whatever leftovers there are, mostly those whose quality do not pass export standards. The rejects, in other words.

Ergo, we are told we don’t have enough chicken or pork or beef and we see the markets flooded with chicken from the United States, beef and lamb from Australia and New Zealand, etcetera, etcetera. But because these imported meat are excess produce from their countries of origin, they are exported at rock-bottom prices. And while local producers are heavily taxed by the Philippine government, under the system of globalization, products of other countries enjoy a lot of incentives, including preferential customs and tariff rates, when they enter the Philippines. Is it really any wonder why by the time they reach our supermarkets, their retail prices are even lower than those of their local counterparts?

You see the difference? These exporter countries only sell abroad their excess produce. They satisfy their local markets first where you can be sure the prices are affordable for the majority because there is no great discrepancy between supply and demand. Conversely, we deprive local consumers at the first instance, leaving them no choice but to buy cheaper imported goods. It’s true with agricultural products; it’s true with non-essentials like floor lamps, garments and children’s toys.

But why would any conscientious local producer choose to export first and sell locally secondarily? First, because the buying capacity of consumers in First World countries is higher so the same products that can only be sold locally at cheap prices can command higher prices abroad. And, second, because the Philippine government provides more incentives to exporters than to local sellers. Go read the law on value-added tax (Title IV of the National Internal Revenue Code)—export sales by VAT-registered persons (corporations are juridical persons) are subject to zero percent VAT.

It’s all part of globalization, of course, the tagline of the new millennium. Our government has signed pacts and treaties obliging the Philippines to open its markets to products from other countries. The thing is, under the circumstances, the push to “Buy Filipino!” will never see fruition.

The author blogs at http://houseonahill.net, http://pinoycook.net and http://www.sassylawyer.com