SALVADOR Araneta’s Bayanikasan Constitution is based on participatory democracy, democratization of power and democratization of wealth, so wealth is not concentrated in the hands of a few. With this as one of the pillars of the Constitution, we will find a country where capitalism is for all.
On the subject of incentives for landowners, Dr. Araneta called for voluntary land reform way back in the early ‘50s. The formula provided for under the Constitution is exactly the idea of Dr. Salvador Araneta, but it was his idea when the land values were high.
However, the payment for the property under land reform could not be set aside for such purpose because the payments were way below the value of the land. Some, up to today, have not been able to collect what is rightfully theirs after decades of waiting. In other words, it is too little and too late.
We have selected the two above sections as they are part of recommendations under the Bayanikasan Constitution of Dr. Salvador Araneta. The diffusion of wealth and power and the means to achieve this end are well defined and explained in earlier pages of this book.
Araneta, in his time, urged voluntary land reform so land owners could get better compensation for their land. This in return would allow them to become investors in industries and banking facilities. In turn we could have become an industrialized nation.
Araneta’s plan on full employment also has found its way into the 1987 Constitution after more than 15 years since it was presented in the 1971 Constitutional Convention.
Article II, State Policies, Section 9, The State shall promote a just and dynamic social order that will ensure the posterity and independence of the nation and free the people from poverty through policies that provide adequate social services, promote full employment, a rising standard of living, and an improved quality of life for all.
* Article XII, National Economy and Patrimony, Section I – The goals of the national economy are a more equitable distribution of opportunities, income, and wealth: a sustained increase in the amount of goods and services produced by the nation for the benefit of the people; and an expanding productivity as the key to raising the quality of life for all, and especially the underprivileged.
The State shall promote industrialization and full employment based on sound agricultural development and agrarian reform, through industries that make full and efficient use of human and natural resources, and which are competitive in both domestic and foreign markets. However, the State shall protect Filipino enterprises against unfair foreign competition and trade practices.
The Department of Trade and Industry Secretary and the Labor Secretary should be attuned to this mandate of the Constitution to make our products competitive in both local and foreign markets. Unlike land which we cannot reproduce, commercial goods abound in world markets.
However, in being competitive, we have to be balanced so that we do not use slave-like labor or child labor or place our laborers in unsafe conditions to achieve a national goal of full employment and future industrialization. We cannot be a nation of vendors, or of small-scale industries which would keep our standard of living in a hand-to-mouth existence.
It shall also be the task of everyone to really buy Filipino. Why is President Trump now with his Protectionist Passion, while all the time, America has been going to other countries to make sure their products are treated like local ones, allowed to come in, with the least of taxes paid on their goods?
We missed our chance of being protectionists but we had better keep a keen eye on what is going on around us, lest we become foreigners in our own land. (To be continued/PN)
