Top 4 Reasons Why The Marcos Years Were Far From The Philippines’ Golden Era
PHILIPPINES -- After the bloodless EDSA People Power Revolution which toppled the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, myths about the era of martial law slowly emerged and were instilled in the minds of the youth, one of which is the incorrect notion that the term of Marcos is the ‘Golden Age’ of the Philippine society and also its economy.
Some millennials and even Filipinos from older generations lacked the will to recall the brutality of the martial law era and the economic adversities that it brought to our country. That is why we think that one of the best ways of remembering the economy during Marcos regime is to look at the data and open ourselves to the story behind these.
To best illustrate the negative impacts of the Marcos era on our economy, we highlighted four (4) major reasons why the notion ‘Golden Age’ of the Philippine Economy is not true.
1. The Philippines became the sick man of Asia
The income per capita of our neighboring countries, compared to ours, went up. By the time we recovered our 1982 income levels, their incomes had already grown between 2-4 times. Because of this economic impediment, we were named as the “sick man of Asia” for 3 decades during the Marcos regime. Though the country was having a high annual growth rates of 5-7% in recent years, our country is still struggling in catching up with our neighboring county’s economic growth rate.
2. The Marcos administration debt crisis
The country’s debts grew in the late 1970’s and this hasty debt management erupted into a full-blast crisis by 1983.
From 1977 to 1986, or in just 5 years, the country’s total external debt grew from $8.2 billion in 1877 to $24.4 billion. For the country as a whole, borrowing money from the international budget is not a problem; but in fact it can even promote growth. Borrowing is problematic only when it becomes unmanageable, or when the borrower fails to meet its requirements.
This is exactly what happened during the Marcos regime. While it is also true that the regime was spending a lot of the administrative budget over infrastructures, this was done mainly to justify its existence and at the unreasonable cost of the inflation of the country’s external debt.
The 1983 debt crisis is an agonizing reminder that borrowing alone cannot produce growth. Instead, it requires deep and structural improvements that transform the economy and stimulate growth through innovation and enterprise.
3. Rise of unemployment rate
As the Martial Law started, the gradual rise of unemployed and underemployed Filipinos also grew. Since underemployment equals to poverty, the severe underemployment caused by the Martial Law is an indication of the deterioration of welfare for Filipino household during that time. This incident was also the reason of the rise of the OFW phenomenon after 1986.
4. We lost 2 decades of development
A continuous increase in GDP per capita (or income per person) is an indication of an overall improvement in economic welfare. The Philippine GDP per capita deteriorated after 1982 and did not reach the same level until 2003, or 21 years later. This severe decline of Filipino’s income per person which was called as the “lost decades of development” proves that there is something wrong going on with our economic history. This incident took an entire generation of the country to recover from the consequences of the Marcos regime’s economic policies and management.
To wrap this up, the view on the Philippine economy under the Marcos regime as “golden age”, especially during its latter years is not factual and is very inaccurate especially when you revisit the data during that time. It is actually amazing and also disturbing at the same time that a single man with an absolute power could bring down an entire economy to a lower growth track and set back the growth of the country’s economic development by decades.
Since the Philippines is a democratic country, wherein the people has the power to elect the highest position in the government, we hope that the Filipino people have learned the lessons of history and acknowledge existing data presenting the truth behind what the Marcos administration did to our country.
Let’s choose leaders who will lead us to swift, comprehensive and sustainable development by not repeating the mistake of the Marcos regime or even daring to follow his footsteps. Before we make our judgement or even proclaim the Marcos regime as a “Golden Age”, we first need to stop and look back to what is the truth according to cold, hard facts.--The Quintessence