From the Inquirer
The Philippines has received offers of investments and loans totaling $19 billion during President Rodrigo Duterte’s three-day official visit to Japan.
The bulk of the amount, $17.2 billion, was offered by Marubeni Corp., one of Japan’s major integrated trading and investment business conglomerates, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said in a text message to reporters in Manila on Thursday.
According to a document provided by Lopez, Marubeni will be “involved in $3.2 billion worth of projects (short term) and $14 billion (medium to long term) worth of projects in mass transport systems, roads and highways, water and power.”…
The agreements were signed after the Philippine Investment and Economic Forum on Thursday, which was attended by more than 1,000 Japanese businessmen and about 200 representatives from the Philippine business community, Lopez reported.
The impression generated by the article here is that Mr. Duterte’s visit to Japan elicited Marubeni and other Japanese business interests to impulsively open their checkbook and send them to the leadership.
Both media and the government projected C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-C-E in the article!
Such misperception has been reverberated or echoed by the public based on many commentaries.
Yet economics tells us that these “investors” EXPECT not only a RETURN on their capital but likewise INTEREST payments on loans.
In other words, Marubeni and other Japanese investors haven’t panicked to send their money to the Philippine government BECAUSE of the leadership alone. They have MOST likely conducted FEASIBILITY studies to determine whether these short and long term investments would generate sufficient returns and interest payments from their investments.
And they have done this EVEN long BEFORE Mr. Duterte’s visit. And the administration simply GRABBED credit for these long due investments.
Proof?
Trading house Marubeni, which has been doing business in the Philippines for more than a century, is “upbeat” about its investments in the country.
These include stakes in the power and energy development sectors, mass transportation projects such as the Metro Rail Transit 7 and the Light Rail Transit 2 extension, and the water sector.
New forays
Marubeni chair Teruo Asada said his conglomerate was also looking into new forays in the Philippines, including commercial vehicles.
Or this…
The President also met with Teruo Asada, chairman of Marubeni, which has had a 105-year presence in the Philippines.
Coloma said Marubeni is upbeat about its current Philippine investments in power, energy development, water utility, and mass transportation (MRT 7 and LRT 2 extension).
The Japanese company has also shown great interest in exploring new fields of business development in the Philippines, such as in commercial vehicles.
President Aquino arrived at the Haneda International Airport about 3:19 p.m. Tuesday for a four-day state visit.
The former quote was from an Inquirer article “Japanese traders eye PH investments”, in June 3, 2015. The latter was an Interaksyon article “Japanese investors eye business expansion in Philippines”, also from the same date.
Note that Marubeni has been “upbeat” in the Philippines even during the former president’s time. Importantly, the Japanese firm talked about virtually the same field of interests with what Mr. Duterte reportedly obtained: namely, mass transport, power and energy and utility
In fact, Marubeni has been mulling investments here way back in June 2009 or SEVEN years ago! From Philstar “Marubeni mulls investments in renewable energy projects” June 30, 2009.
Japanese trading giant Marubeni Corp. is mulling investments in renewable energy projects.
Masumi Kakinoki, Marubeni senior operating officer for the Power Projects and Infrastructure Division, said this is consistent with the company’s thrust of promoting a cleaner environment.
We are eyeing more investments, especially in renewable projects. We are very much an environment conscious company,” he said…
The Marubeni official said they are still studying which kind of renewable projects they will venture into.
This shows that Marubeni has been “upbeat” and has mulled over Philippine investments even PRIOR to the Aquino administration or during the GMA administration!
The simplistic idea presented has been Duterte PLUS $19 billion Japanese EQUALs C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-C-E and eventual G-R-O-W-T-H!
Another sad post hoc fallacy designed to feed politics as salvation to the masses.
There have been lots of issues to deal with on reported Chinese investments. Some sectors have already raised concerns over dubious or tainted characters of so-called Chinese investors.
Yet there is also the sphere of geopolitical relations.
Given that the Japanese government has been demilitarized as consequence to World War II, they have largely been dependent on the US for its defense. The US maintains several bases in Japan. In fact, Japan has a non-nuclear weapons policy, though the Japanese government has the infrastructure to produce themfast, if they so desire.
So Mr. Duterte’s angling of the Japanese signifies nothing more than a charade. The Philippine administration appears to be adopting a “bizarre love triangle” as foreign policy.
And given that Japanese could be seen as vassals for the American imperialism, Japanese "investments" will most likely have some tacit concurrence with the US government. This means that the US may be giving the Philippine leadership some room for normalization of foreign policy.
Besides who will Mr. Duterte chose in the territorial island dispute between the Japanese and Chinese government? How much more if these parties end up in a shooting war?
From Nikkei Asian Review [Duterte walks fine line between Abe, Xi on South China Sea October 27]
Abe called on Duterte to stand by Japan on the dispute, calling it a "matter of interest to the entire international community that is directly tied to regional peace and stability."
Mr. Duterte doesn’t seem to be playing neutral here. Instead, it would appear that he has been playing these contentious forces against each other (the Machiavellian divide and conquer strategy).
Bizarre love triangle.
Finally, Philippine populist ochlocratic politics have reached goofy levels.
From Washington Post's headline (October 27): Philippine leader Duterte says God told him to stop cursing
On the issue of Philippine patrols at disputed islands: From GMA: (October 28) Duterte: I don’t think China will stop PHL from patrolling territorial waters [bold and capitalization added]
President Rodrigo Duterte sees no issue with China in using patrol vessels acquired from Japan in the West Philippine Sea.
"Yes, within our territorial waters… But if you want, wala man tayong problema. I don’t think they would stop us, I mean China would stop us just going there and making a cruise," the President said in a chance interview after visiting the Japan Coast Guard on Thursday afternoon.
Duterte then added that he even told China could even park near Philippines' territorial waters.
"As a matter of fact, I also told them [China] that they can go near MY territorial water and park there if they want," the President revealed.
The Philippines now represents a fiefdom of Mr. Duterte?
As German propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels said in a speech in 1923 (bold mine)
It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
All actions have consequences. Sad to say, implicit in these actions would be a far BIGGER government that comes at the expense of the private sector economy and a severely restrained civil liberty
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