Christian principles

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Part of The Cross

Title: Christian principles
extracted text: WHAT DO WE NEED FOR A senator and a cabinet member point out what they think will help the country to solve its economic problems Christian Principles Bv SENATOR PEDRO R. SABIDO //•■■ECONOMIC life,” said His Holiness ** f4 Pope Pius XI in his Quadragesimo Anno, “must be inspired by Chris tian principles.” On the Church’s authority on economic problems, His Holiness Pope Leo XIII laid down the principle that “it is our right and our duty to deal authoritatively with social and economic problems.” (Five Great En cyclicals). The economic problems that beset our country are not new. They are the same problems that other underdeveloped coun tries are facing, with certain characteristic variations impressed by past influences and the impact of contemporaneous develop ments. We know their solutions. They are with in our reach. They are, I may say, in our very hands. What renders them, however, sometimes difficult, complicated and almost unattainable, is not the intrinsic difficulty of the problems, neither our want of ca pacity or competency to cope with them, but the frailties of the human factor upon which in the ultimate analysis, rests the secret of success or failure of any human venture. Cupidity for the possession of wealth no matter how, excessive love for luxury and comfort, lavish spending proclivities, want of sound and deep-rooted principles in our dealings, want of true love of country, nar row-mindedness, selfishness, greed, over ambition and worst of all, cheap politics often times darken our perspective of things, leading us to adopt a negative if not an en tirely misguided behaviour detrimental to our endeavours to build up a stronger and healtier Philippines economically. These human shortcomings have become glaringly manifested in the many hearings that the Senate Committee on Banks, Cor porations and Franchises, of which I am the humble chairman, has conducted on impor tant legislative measures related to our econ omy. I called on the“best men, so to speak, of our country in their respective fields of knowledge. ’ My sad experience is that most, if not all of them could hardly detach them selves in the formulation of their views or opinions from their respective personal or group interests. Thus, on the matter of controls, for in stance, when the witness is one of the bene ficiaries of the system his testimony invar iably was for the maintenance of controls, irrespective of their consequences on the general welfare. If the witness is one who failed to secure the approval of his applica tion for dollars, his testimony was not only against controls but he would go to the ex tent of denouncing real or imaginary evils allegedly arising therefrom; and would not admit any resulting beneficial effect. Again, if the witness happened to be a member ofthe existing militant political parties, invar iably he would condemn everything done or attempted to be done by the party in power. We know, for instance, that development requires capital formation, and capital for mation presupposes savings, and savings im plies a certain degree of privation, personal sacrifices. We know that luxury and the importation . of luxury goods will in no way help us build Turn to page 30 Page 6 The CROSS LISTEN TO— “ANG TINIG Nl MANG JUAN” DZPI—9-9:30 A.M.—Mon.-Fri. CHRISTIAN . . . From pago 6 up the economy of our country. And yet, in no period of our history have we imported more automobiles—and luxurious automo biles—than after World War II. Today our imports in this respect alone, including spare parts and gasoline, amount to more than P44 million. We know that we ought to be and must be self-sufficient in prime essentials, partic ularly in our basic staple—rice. And yet every year, except in 1953 and this year, per haps because of the bumper crop we have been graced with by God, we have been im porting rice to the tune of P25 million to P30 million yearly. Why? Because the pro ducers, particularly the big landowners have never effectively cooperated in the realiza tion of this laudable objective for fear that over-production might cause a substantial reduction in the price of this vital commod ity and subject them to losses or a diminu tion of their expected profits. We know that in our almost half a cen tury of association with the United States, this great country has prepared us for our political independence and for the enjoyment of a democratic way of life; but not for eco nomic independence. She established in the Philippines a pattern of economy that has made us highly dependent upon the Amer ican market. It was only in 1955 that Amer ica—realizing that we could not continue in definitely with such a pattern of economy— finally consented to gradually liquidate our free trade preferences until their eventual termination on July 3. 1974. And such ar rangement was conceived in order to give the Philippines, an opportunity to prepare herself for the impact of the changing con dition by redirecting production accordingly and by enlarging her trade relations with and/or promoting new markets in countries other than the United States. And yet, sim ply because the present administration, in line with the policy that America herself has set for us to follow for the stabilization of our economy, has explored and is exploring the possibilities of creating new markets for our export products or expanding exist ing ones in other countries and in securing the badly needed assistance, certain leaders of our country, obviously for political mo tives, have hurled the groundless charge that the present administration is veering away from the time-honored and battle-tested friendly relations with the United States and, what is worse, of conducting a hateAmerica campaign. We know that as a result of the organiza tion of the O'E.E.C. (Organization for Euro pean Economic Cooperation) by seventeen European countries, the Common Market Agreement among six European countries signed in Rome in March 1957 and which went into operation January 1st this year, and the proposed Free Trade Area, all of which organizations are designed to strength en the European economy including their overseas territories, such as, Nigeria and Belgian Congo, there is a serious danger that our products eventually may lose the important European market, dislodged by substitutes, such as, palm kernel and agaves. the production of which is now being pro moted in big scale in Africa, with the aid of tariff barriers. And yet, simply because our illustrious President has initiated a cam paign for closer relations with the Asian countries with the aim in view of similarly creating amongst them an organization for the mutual economic protection of said Asian countries jointly with the Philippines, the President has been and is being unjustly accused of ingratitude towards America. All these facts I cited to underscore the decisive role that the human element plays and will play in the solution of our economic problems. We need for the gigantic task that lies ahead not only learned men but un selfish, unbiased, and men with deep-rooted sound principles. We may only find such men, perhaps, among those imbued with Christian principles. In his Rerum Novarum, His Holiness Pope Leo XIII enjoined all of us: “Every one must put his hand to work which falls to. his share, and that at once and immediately, lest the evil which is already so great may bv delay become absolutely beyond remedy. Those who rule, the State must use the law and the institutions of the country; master and rich men must remember their duty; the poor, whose interests are at stake, must make every lawful and proDer effort.” (Excerpts from, a speech before Manila Council 1000, Knights of Columbus on March 4, 1959) Paqa 30
Date: 1959
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