Development Debacle: The World Bank in the Philippines

This landmark study of leaked World Bank documents published in 1982 went out of print in the 90's while the issues of consolidation of wealth and economic power raised here grow in relevance. The erosion of political autonomy in Third World nations remains a crucial issue. Clearly written, this book highlights the need to read more than American news in order to understand the history of the postwar era in the Philippines. The West's economic colonization of the globe is glossed over in much of the current Western media. Based on over 6,000 pages of secret reports, memoranda, and assessments of the World Bank's programs in the Philippines by Bank Philippines is a revelation of the ideals of Western hegemonic policy hidden behind euphemisms of "development" and "modernization." The book is an early attempt to debunk ex-Vietnam War policy architect and World Bank president Robert McNamara's 70's `relief for the poor' rhetoric.The (former US ambassador to the UN Jeane) "Kirkpatrick Doctrine" which claims, according to The Nation's David Corn, that right-wing authoritarian governments (which often are amenable to U.S. interests) are more likely than Communist nations to move toward democracy, justified US governmental support of authoritarian regimes. In outlining the patterns of the US led World Bank's complicity in the repression of Philippine people the book highlights a litany of mistakes in policy judgement, botched development and relief programs, corruption and repression to facilitate debt service. The hypocrisy of the Bank's self-mandated non-interference in politics is revealed as mere lip service to sustain their public relations image as an organization based upon democratic principles. After displacing many tenant farmers already living in primitive conditions, and creating unmanageable debt, rural development degraded into infrastructure support for government military counterinsurgency. A reign of terror was initiated during the occupation of the island of Samar during which many farmers were not informed that their farms had been designated as military "free fire zones," places where non-military personnel were shot on sight. Justifications for similar occupations of "unstable" territories by means of destructive force is reminiscent of McNamara's Vietnam-era thinking. The way to save the Philippine economy is by deconstructing it. Urban development was botched even more, if it is possible, than rural. Aid for the very poor was never harmonized with the Bank's repayment requirements. Industrialization created little net capital growth and imposed wage and price restrictions, devaluation of currency, removal of protective tariffs (decimating preexisting national industries), and established control over labor unions aggravating the hardships of the poor. The projected debt service ratio in the Philippines rose to over 30% of total exports. The cure of structural adjustment loans was worse than the illness, if one can call it