Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
Withdrawing from business deals with China amid the situation in the West Philippine Sea is not the way to go for the Philippine economy.
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan made the statement in a Palace briefing where he was asked on how the NEDA responds to calls for a boycott of business with China amid the territorial claims at sea.
“(We) just have to use the diplomatic channels to get our issues addressed but the economy must (at) all costs be protected,” Balisacan said on Wednesday, Aug. 23.
The NEDA chief explained that whether “directly or indirectly,” the Philippines is linked to China as their respective economies are part of the global value chain.
Boycotting, he said, should not be the way to deal with the country’s neighbors.
“These economies, including China or even particularly China, they are now part of the global value chain. Our economy is part of the global value chain, we are linked to China, directly or indirectly. And that should not be the approach that we take in dealing with our neighbor,” he stressed.
Balisacan also pointed out that in global history, boycotting a country will not work. He further said that the government must stick to its diplomatic policy.
“I think you have to look at this issue in a broader scale. I don’t think that the history of the world that boycott will work. That has been proven many times in the history of nations,” the NEDA secretary said.
“So we have to, as the President said, we are enemy to none, friend to all. So let’s keep it that way,” he added. — Betheena Unite
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