What should be the happy results of a fully operational, Party-free I-Congress directly managing the Philippine economy?
a) Government will exercise prudent monetary management despite changes in regimes' personnel. Most Filipino politicians had over decades considered government as a 'service' that requires no balancing of income and expenses nor saving for future wars, economic crises, emergencies, and property expansions to raise international credit worthiness. Needs were met by tax impositions and loans, all payable by the people, affordable or not. These days, the mantra is still 'spend-spend-spend', with hardly any equivalent and proportional program on how to 'earn-earn-earn' thru world-scale national productivity and marketing prowess.
The new I-Congress on the contrary should be corporate-minded. Composed largely of top corporate talents who by habit know that spending beyond one's earnings will result to bankruptcy, I-Congress will focus on 'produce and sell' at 1st World levels to afford spending for 1st World type infrastructures. Yearly per capita GDP (Gross domestic production) based on purchasing power parity for instance need to be raised from the current average of $4,000 theoretical production per citizen to well above minimum 1st World GDP at $10,000 per citizen. Currently, not one Filipino politician has broached such idea, for tradition relegates national productivity to the business sector, which is largely independent of the State. Business elites are even considered by many politicians as 'exploiters' that need to be regulated by State. Full State-business synergy in the manner of the Japanese and East Asian 'tiger' societies have never been adopted by the Philippines. Result: the Philippines remains as the 'odd man out' among the prosperous Pacific Rim countries. I-Congress should change the picture for the better.
b) I-Congress should ensure that present and future generations of Filipinos will not be burdened by living costs rising to the stratosphere, unlike old-style Congresses that used State taxing power to acquire billion-dollar loans that financed unproductive or corruption-tainted projects. The massive sums producing 'smallish' volumes of consumer products naturally created high inflation that depreciated peso value from P2/$1 in early 1900s to P50/$1 these days, which means subsistence-level mass incomes buying 'basket scale' products that are 99% imported or made from imported parts.
a) Government will exercise prudent monetary management despite changes in regimes' personnel. Most Filipino politicians had over decades considered government as a 'service' that requires no balancing of income and expenses nor saving for future wars, economic crises, emergencies, and property expansions to raise international credit worthiness. Needs were met by tax impositions and loans, all payable by the people, affordable or not. These days, the mantra is still 'spend-spend-spend', with hardly any equivalent and proportional program on how to 'earn-earn-earn' thru world-scale national productivity and marketing prowess.
The new I-Congress on the contrary should be corporate-minded. Composed largely of top corporate talents who by habit know that spending beyond one's earnings will result to bankruptcy, I-Congress will focus on 'produce and sell' at 1st World levels to afford spending for 1st World type infrastructures. Yearly per capita GDP (Gross domestic production) based on purchasing power parity for instance need to be raised from the current average of $4,000 theoretical production per citizen to well above minimum 1st World GDP at $10,000 per citizen. Currently, not one Filipino politician has broached such idea, for tradition relegates national productivity to the business sector, which is largely independent of the State. Business elites are even considered by many politicians as 'exploiters' that need to be regulated by State. Full State-business synergy in the manner of the Japanese and East Asian 'tiger' societies have never been adopted by the Philippines. Result: the Philippines remains as the 'odd man out' among the prosperous Pacific Rim countries. I-Congress should change the picture for the better.
b) I-Congress should ensure that present and future generations of Filipinos will not be burdened by living costs rising to the stratosphere, unlike old-style Congresses that used State taxing power to acquire billion-dollar loans that financed unproductive or corruption-tainted projects. The massive sums producing 'smallish' volumes of consumer products naturally created high inflation that depreciated peso value from P2/$1 in early 1900s to P50/$1 these days, which means subsistence-level mass incomes buying 'basket scale' products that are 99% imported or made from imported parts.
Since independence year 1946, Filipino politicians have wasted enormous sums of the people's money in financing roads to nowhere, overstaffed offices, ghost employees, loans to farmers at 50% arrangers' cuts, 'muffin' roads, 'white elephant' buildings, etc. Furthermore, they have imposed tax rates that are based on politics instead of economic logic, and passed laws that impede instead of facilitate business. All such impediments against national productivity and mass wealth should end once an I-Congress dominated by retired corporate and sectoral directors and executives replace lawyers who dominated past Congresses. Lawyers are trained to regulate businesses and everything else, while corporate people are trained to produce and sell at good profit. One should therefore expect a wealthy and productive Philippines to evolve thru a business-oriented I-Congress running the show.
c) Anti-poverty laws will easily pass. Laws that lend capital to employees for investment in mega co-ops, that re-channel personal income tax and half of corporate income tax towards purchase of mega co-op capital shares, and other laws that foster productivity and economic democracy such as described in this blog will speedily pass with near-zero impediments. Past Congresses dominated by elites often channeled State loans, protection and aid to elite corporate groups, especially local-foreign joint ventures and infrastructure projects. On the contrary, an I-Congress dominated by managerial-level upper and middle class retirees (not elites) who had direct contact with employee masses and thereby understand their plight will tend to perpetually support mega co-op corporate groups to democratize wealth and power arrangements in Philippine society.
d) Corrupt officials' pay or get disapproved habit will end. Unlike old times when large-scale State land leases, franchises, licenses and permits cost millions of pesos in bribes, mega co-ops and their international allies will not be subjected to such outrages. Mega co-ops and business groups may submit (via congressional website) project plans or economic, political, legal or social issues that need resolution to an appropriate I-Congress committee. Said committee then deliberates on the issue and submits discussions and recommendations to the Secretariat which then submits a summary for website voting by all I-Congressmen as referendum body. Action items are thereafter submitted to the Executive branch via website. For infrastructure and other large projects, contract bids have to be discussed by thousand-member I-Congress evaluation committees, resultant recommendations to be presented for voting by the 60,000-member Committee of the Whole, all via Congressional websites. Since no contractor will be able to afford bribing majority of 60,000 'electronic signatories', corruption becomes an impossibility for as long as I-Congress exists.
Yearly budgets should be prepared by both the Executive agencies and I-Congress, with the Mega Co-op Movement and people's suggestions considered, again thru Congressional websites. Project bidders should present technical specifications on their websites, and the Secretariat may hire expert groups to help in decision-making if Congressional committees or the entire membership requires. The same procedure should be followed at lesser scale by local governments. 60,000 I-Congressmen should have their share of retired expert engineers, purchasing and operations executives and specialists in all economic, scientific, marketing, management, legal, social, production, engineering and other lines. All committee members in thousands will exchange views via internet regarding business, technical and economic aspects and the proven past dishonesty of certain contractor-bidders. Each committee will then send its recommendation to the 'committee of the whole' for final voting via internet, which won't take long with experts. All-member voting ensures everyone able to grasp both micro and macro views required in effective governance. Thousands of top retired local skills as provincial, city or municipal Internet Councils (whose members are also I-Congressmen) should vote on local projects and bid winners based on national budgets prepared by I-Congress. All Congressional websites and I-Congressmen's personal blogs should be open to media, NGOs and the public so suspicions of old-style contract rigging or railroading may cease for all time.
e) Full employment in rural areas as a consequence of nationwide mega co-op operations will end decades-long rebellions and banditry. Fast-track organization of numerous mega co-op corporate groups will employ over 60 million Philippine bottom poor who are armed groups' potential recruits. Rural businesses' usual 'quintuple taxation' burden imposed by local and national governments, Communist rebels, religious separatist groups, and military/police 'protection fund' requirements will be reduced to legal payments. Reason: Employment at almost maximum levels will emasculate illegal groups' memberships and recruitment prospects while sending watchful professionals to rural areas, thereby obviating the need for 'protectors'. Extortion of businesses by armed groups in remote rural areas will be ended as rising mega co-op businesses afford armies of security guards and radio links to police personnel and para-military camps in strategic places. Burnings or destruction of assets of businesses that refuse to pay rebel groups' 'taxes' will end. Kidnapping for ransom and murder of corporate employees whose companies fail to pay will cease. Politicians will find no recruits for their private armies which in the past conducted land grabbing and 'votes ensuring' activities thru terrorism. Rural mega co-ops will conduct College-targeted work-study programs for new employees who are mostly Primary and Elementary level, inculcating democratic, productive, entrepreneurial, inventive and mega co-op values among students, thereby insulating them from 'barrel of the gun' philosophies.
f) Every elite family and its corporate group will very likely invest in hundreds of mega co-op joint ventures to spread out the risk and earn 'widespread' dividend income plus rises in market value of their purchased shares. ASEAN Festival Malls worldwide should be top investment targets for elites and their corporations aside from other projects described in this blog. AFMs selling elite companies' products will further expand elite profits that will likely be partly invested in more mega co-op joint ventures. In effect, elite wealth will help pare down the Philippines' centuries-old highly-tapered social pyramid.
g) Trillions of pesos formerly spent by political parties during election periods will get re-channeled to investments in mega co-op corporate groups, especially with the ASEAN Festival Malls' world-scale profit allure. Former politician-elites will be respected as job creators instead of being scorned, feared or mobbed for handouts by people in need as in centuries past.
h) All Philippine companies will link up with mega co-ops' ASEAN Festival Malls to tap world markets instead of slugging it out as usual over tiny local markets that yield paper-thin profits.
i) Mega co-ops, business associations and the government will link up to form Philippines Inc. which will conduct century-business plans (with five-year reviews) to prevent cut-throat competition or local overproduction, and to conduct joint activities towards accessing world market niche and mainstream markets. Philippines Inc. as described will thereby ensure that the redeemed poor will never revert to poverty despite world economic crises brought about by the ups and downs of world business cycles and the actions of 1st World financial speculators and central banks. An I-Congress dominated by top retired corporate directors, CEOs, economists, scientists, professionals and technical specialists will know how to manage the economy for productivity, profit and mass good because they have by habit been doing exactly the same throughout their adult lives, although at smaller scale.
j) True political democracy will be created out of the newborn economic democracy as Filipinos become 99% educated middle and upper classes as employees and part-owners of giant enterprises. The country's centuries old extreme imbalances in wealth and power between elites and masses will hence gradually wither away.
k) The Mega Co-op Movement being born partly out of the climate change issue will tend to expand reforestation tropics-wide thru inter-coop joint ventures. The tropics will 'inhale' a major part of Earth's 700+ billion-ton long-resident CO2 blanket and 'exhale' life-sustaining oxygen at the same scale. Concurrently, the tropics' clean industries will prevent further additions to the planet's greenhouse gas blanket. Indeed, the climate change issue coupled with 3rd World clones of mega co-op governmental systems should at long last cure humanity and the planet of their major ailments.
c) Anti-poverty laws will easily pass. Laws that lend capital to employees for investment in mega co-ops, that re-channel personal income tax and half of corporate income tax towards purchase of mega co-op capital shares, and other laws that foster productivity and economic democracy such as described in this blog will speedily pass with near-zero impediments. Past Congresses dominated by elites often channeled State loans, protection and aid to elite corporate groups, especially local-foreign joint ventures and infrastructure projects. On the contrary, an I-Congress dominated by managerial-level upper and middle class retirees (not elites) who had direct contact with employee masses and thereby understand their plight will tend to perpetually support mega co-op corporate groups to democratize wealth and power arrangements in Philippine society.
d) Corrupt officials' pay or get disapproved habit will end. Unlike old times when large-scale State land leases, franchises, licenses and permits cost millions of pesos in bribes, mega co-ops and their international allies will not be subjected to such outrages. Mega co-ops and business groups may submit (via congressional website) project plans or economic, political, legal or social issues that need resolution to an appropriate I-Congress committee. Said committee then deliberates on the issue and submits discussions and recommendations to the Secretariat which then submits a summary for website voting by all I-Congressmen as referendum body. Action items are thereafter submitted to the Executive branch via website. For infrastructure and other large projects, contract bids have to be discussed by thousand-member I-Congress evaluation committees, resultant recommendations to be presented for voting by the 60,000-member Committee of the Whole, all via Congressional websites. Since no contractor will be able to afford bribing majority of 60,000 'electronic signatories', corruption becomes an impossibility for as long as I-Congress exists.
Yearly budgets should be prepared by both the Executive agencies and I-Congress, with the Mega Co-op Movement and people's suggestions considered, again thru Congressional websites. Project bidders should present technical specifications on their websites, and the Secretariat may hire expert groups to help in decision-making if Congressional committees or the entire membership requires. The same procedure should be followed at lesser scale by local governments. 60,000 I-Congressmen should have their share of retired expert engineers, purchasing and operations executives and specialists in all economic, scientific, marketing, management, legal, social, production, engineering and other lines. All committee members in thousands will exchange views via internet regarding business, technical and economic aspects and the proven past dishonesty of certain contractor-bidders. Each committee will then send its recommendation to the 'committee of the whole' for final voting via internet, which won't take long with experts. All-member voting ensures everyone able to grasp both micro and macro views required in effective governance. Thousands of top retired local skills as provincial, city or municipal Internet Councils (whose members are also I-Congressmen) should vote on local projects and bid winners based on national budgets prepared by I-Congress. All Congressional websites and I-Congressmen's personal blogs should be open to media, NGOs and the public so suspicions of old-style contract rigging or railroading may cease for all time.
e) Full employment in rural areas as a consequence of nationwide mega co-op operations will end decades-long rebellions and banditry. Fast-track organization of numerous mega co-op corporate groups will employ over 60 million Philippine bottom poor who are armed groups' potential recruits. Rural businesses' usual 'quintuple taxation' burden imposed by local and national governments, Communist rebels, religious separatist groups, and military/police 'protection fund' requirements will be reduced to legal payments. Reason: Employment at almost maximum levels will emasculate illegal groups' memberships and recruitment prospects while sending watchful professionals to rural areas, thereby obviating the need for 'protectors'. Extortion of businesses by armed groups in remote rural areas will be ended as rising mega co-op businesses afford armies of security guards and radio links to police personnel and para-military camps in strategic places. Burnings or destruction of assets of businesses that refuse to pay rebel groups' 'taxes' will end. Kidnapping for ransom and murder of corporate employees whose companies fail to pay will cease. Politicians will find no recruits for their private armies which in the past conducted land grabbing and 'votes ensuring' activities thru terrorism. Rural mega co-ops will conduct College-targeted work-study programs for new employees who are mostly Primary and Elementary level, inculcating democratic, productive, entrepreneurial, inventive and mega co-op values among students, thereby insulating them from 'barrel of the gun' philosophies.
f) Every elite family and its corporate group will very likely invest in hundreds of mega co-op joint ventures to spread out the risk and earn 'widespread' dividend income plus rises in market value of their purchased shares. ASEAN Festival Malls worldwide should be top investment targets for elites and their corporations aside from other projects described in this blog. AFMs selling elite companies' products will further expand elite profits that will likely be partly invested in more mega co-op joint ventures. In effect, elite wealth will help pare down the Philippines' centuries-old highly-tapered social pyramid.
g) Trillions of pesos formerly spent by political parties during election periods will get re-channeled to investments in mega co-op corporate groups, especially with the ASEAN Festival Malls' world-scale profit allure. Former politician-elites will be respected as job creators instead of being scorned, feared or mobbed for handouts by people in need as in centuries past.
h) All Philippine companies will link up with mega co-ops' ASEAN Festival Malls to tap world markets instead of slugging it out as usual over tiny local markets that yield paper-thin profits.
i) Mega co-ops, business associations and the government will link up to form Philippines Inc. which will conduct century-business plans (with five-year reviews) to prevent cut-throat competition or local overproduction, and to conduct joint activities towards accessing world market niche and mainstream markets. Philippines Inc. as described will thereby ensure that the redeemed poor will never revert to poverty despite world economic crises brought about by the ups and downs of world business cycles and the actions of 1st World financial speculators and central banks. An I-Congress dominated by top retired corporate directors, CEOs, economists, scientists, professionals and technical specialists will know how to manage the economy for productivity, profit and mass good because they have by habit been doing exactly the same throughout their adult lives, although at smaller scale.
j) True political democracy will be created out of the newborn economic democracy as Filipinos become 99% educated middle and upper classes as employees and part-owners of giant enterprises. The country's centuries old extreme imbalances in wealth and power between elites and masses will hence gradually wither away.
k) The Mega Co-op Movement being born partly out of the climate change issue will tend to expand reforestation tropics-wide thru inter-coop joint ventures. The tropics will 'inhale' a major part of Earth's 700+ billion-ton long-resident CO2 blanket and 'exhale' life-sustaining oxygen at the same scale. Concurrently, the tropics' clean industries will prevent further additions to the planet's greenhouse gas blanket. Indeed, the climate change issue coupled with 3rd World clones of mega co-op governmental systems should at long last cure humanity and the planet of their major ailments.
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