STEPHANIE S.

FUENTES BSCOE-3L

1) The national economy introduces the entire structure of economic life in a country. The
main goal is to achieve economic growth, development, and improvement of the
material welfare of people. It consolidates all the activities correlating or associated with
the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services that are called
“factors of production.” Productivity, equity, and growth are the threefold goals of the
national economy in where productivity has the ability, capacity, or level of
effectiveness for executing the vaster output of every unit input applied. Equity has
opportunities, wealth, and income while growth is the sustained increase in the number
of goods and services produced by the nation (GDP and GNP). National patrimony refers
fundamentally to the national resources of the country which under the constitution
include “all lands of the public domain waters, minerals, coal, petroleum and other
mineral oils, all forces of potential energy, fisheries, forests, timber, wildlife, flora, fauna
and all marine wealth in its archipelagic waters, territorial sea and exclusive maritime
zone and our cultural heritage.” For me, I am not in favor of allowing foreigners to own
land, public utilities (water, electricity, transportation), and national resources that are
more than the stated percentage equity because they will only exploit it for their own
economy’s sake. The government administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is
explicitly targeting expanded foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, deploying a multi-
pronged approach to attract new investments. Measures include a wide-reaching tax
reform program, loosening limitations on FDI across several sectors – most prominently
financial services – and reducing red tape and bureaucracy. Our country has been
substantially known to restrict foreign ownership of companies to 40% of total equity
only, with 60% equity reserved for citizens. The government, however, has initiated
actions in the past to relax this rule to attract foreign investments to help grow the
Philippine economy. Rather than allowing foreigners to own almost everything in our
country, why not develop industrialization and full employment based on effectual
agricultural development and agrarian reform since the Philippines has a large
population; industrialization generates high employment, and the country has a high
agricultural base. We need to develop a self-reliant and independent national economy
effectively controlled by Filipinos, promote industrialization and full employment and
give all economic sectors and regions of the country optimum opportunity to develop.
Foreigners cannot alienate or lease lands of the public domain because it will violate
section 2 under article 12. They may lease private land and have the right to buy real
property if granted Filipino citizenship. Forest or timber, parks, and ancestral lands are
to be preserved by law. The ancestral domain within and belonging to a cultural region
should be protected. The responsibility of the state is to promote preference over
Filipino labor/products and utilize measures to make them competitive while the public
 should buy products of one's own country. We should prevent impulsive contracting of
foreign loans and transparency over foreign loans obtained/declared.

2) Political Dynasty or dynasties refer to family units with members involved in

government activities. In our country, political dynasties refer to groups of politicians
who come from the same family. Causes of the political dynasty are vote-buying and
government programs that can be used by local governments to obtain money. The
1987 Constitution Article II Section 26 provides “The state shall guarantee equal access
to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by
law.” Political dynasties continue to dominate the country’s electoral system with
almost 70% of candidates coming from a political clan. I am in favor of the Anti-Dynasty
Law because we shall ensure equal access to public service. The playing field of the
political arena should be leveled and opened to persons who are equally qualified to
ascend on balanced terms with those from ruling politically ascendant families. Our
society rotates around the system of extended families. However, this extended family
system an otherwise beneficial concept when applied to the social aspect of human
behavior in where public office becomes the exclusive domain of influential families and
clans that are well-entrenched in Philippine politics. The monopoly of political power
and public resources by such families affects the citizenry at the local and national
levels. In my opinion, poverty is more prominent in areas under a political dynasty. The
same study also shows that legislators belonging to a political dynasty are wealthier
than those who are not. If I have a father running for president, I will not allow my
brother or his son to run for any other position. Although the advantages of it are more
likely to pursue long-term development-oriented strategies and can use this continuity
by promoting and enacting laws and ordinances that are long term in nature with only a
slim chance of other candidates outside of the dynasty interfering with the plans. The
disadvantage is it promotes graft and corruption because of turning a blind eye to each
other's mistakes and crimes. It also tends to be for the status quo and develop interests
largely separate from the people they were supposed to be serving and prevent
challengers with potentially effective policy ideas from being able to take the office
which limits the capacity for bureaucratic responsiveness and administrative
effectiveness and adaptation to new ideas. So, I will prohibit my other family members
from running.

3) I am a registered voter.

4) Yes, I will vote in the May 2022 elections. I will vote because I am lucky enough to live in
a country where almost anyone can vote, and almost anyone can run to become an
 elected official. Because if we don't, we are giving up our right to vote, and the freedom
to scrutinize our government. The only way to change something we do not like is to
choose someone who has the enthusiasm and support to change the active issues in our
society.

5) I will vote for VP Leni Robredo. Last March 13, 2020, the Office of the Vice President
launched a fund drive on purchasing PPE sets for health workers three days before
President Rodrigo Duterte placed Luzon under ECQ that banned mass transport and
resulted in a work stoppage in industries to prevent mass gathering. They also started
accepting food donations to give for health care workers and other front liners from
their private donors on March 16, 2020. The OVP and its private donors offered a free
shuttle service on March 18, 2020, and on March 20, 2020, the OVP donated P5.3
million worth of extraction kits to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine which is
needed to conduct around 12,750 COVID-19 testings. She also disagrees with the
statement of our president in connection to his daughter Sara Duterte for potentially
running in the 2022 elections simply because he sees women as substandard and
deflates the campaign for gender equality. She believes that women’s participation in
governance is important. I may not know all the things she contributed to our country
but I know, she can fix better the Philippines.

6) Sara Duterte - 2
BongBong Marcos - 4
Manny Pacquiao - 3
Leni Robredo - 1