‘Asean to worsen exploitation of poor’

A left-wing lawmaker on Sunday described the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit as a “gathering to worsen the exploitation of poor sectors.”

In a statement, Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao said that the economic policies of Asean in favor of deregulation and privatization were “historically proven to throw Filipino poor to inescapable cycle of poverty and misery.”

Casilao said that trade liberalization in the Asean region paved the way for the country’s reliance on imported rice from Thailand and Vietnam, for which he blamed the bankruptcy and landlessness of Filipino farmers, as well as the conversion of prime agricultural lands.

“More imported rice will worsen poverty among Filipino farmers,” Casilao said.

Displacement of farmers

He also raised the bogey of Asean agreements allowing the entry of foreign-controlled plantations that could “threaten tens of millions of Filipino farmers,” citing the displacement of farmers and indigenous peoples by the expansion of oil palm plantations in Mindanao and some parts of the Visayas.

Casilao also cited the push of “foreign monopoly corporations” for a more “flexible” labor force in the country, which would mean effortless ways to lay off workers and scuttle competitive wages that were already lower than those of neighboring states.

“The more flexible labor is, the more irregular, contractual, with low wages, the Filipino workers are, more entry of foreign real estate developers and speculators, the worse demolition of urban poor communities and more US military intervention and aid, the more Filipino poor will be killed,” he said.

Casilao also called the Asean Summit a venue for US President Donald Trump to push the world “to the brink of a nuclear war via his aggressive threats against North Korea.”

“Here is the President of the Philippines who could not even commit to peace in his own country, allowing the country as a launching pad of US aggression and putting the Filipino population to the danger of nuclear obliteration,” said the lawmaker.