Hunger, Corruption and Betrayal

A Primer on U.S. NEOCOLONIALISM and the PHILIPPINE CRISIS The story of how the post-war imperialism of the U.S. IMF-WB Group reduced what was the preeminent developing economy in the Asia-Pacific in the fifties to the humanitarian disaster that it is today where 80 percent of the population live in hunger conditions. An introduction to development economics and the post-war economic history of the Philippines as a neocolony of the U.S. CITIZENS' COMMITTEE ON THE NATIONAL CRISIS + + + + Pope John Paul said the continuing plight of the Third World was caused directly by peoples and groups who wanted to keep developing countries poor. The unbalanced development taking place at present and posing the greatest threat to the stability of the world- where the rising material standards of some are in stark contrast with the deepening poverty and misery of oth- ers- is not the result of uncontrolled forces, but of decisions made by individuals and groups, he said. -- Imperialists blamed for havenots' plight Philippine Journal, June 9,1989 + + + + + ABOUT THE AUTHOR ALEJANDRO LICHAUCO, political economist and member of the Philippine Bar, is a prominent figure in the nationalist move- ment. He started his career in nationalist advocacy in the '50s when he joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of Claro M. Recto. In the '60s he became a charter member of the Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism (MAN) which he served as its ex- ecutive vice-chairman. In 1970 Lichauco was elected to represent the 1st district of Rizal in the '71 Constitutional Convention. In the convention he submitted a paper on U.S. imperialism in the Philippines. A week after martial law was declared, Lichauco was arrested as he left the convention floor and detained at Camp Crame as a political prisoner. He was charged with subversion for his activities in MAN and for his paper on American imperialism. His paper on American imperialism was published by the Monthly Review Press of N.Y. as the Lichauco Paper. Lichauco was among the 12 delegates who refused to sign the martial law Constitution for which he was placed under house arrest after his release from detention. Following Edsa 1, Lichauco turned to writing and among his principal books are Towards a New Economic Order and the Con- quest of Mass Poverty (1986), Nationalist Economics (1988) and The Philippine Crisis (1992). His writings have focused on the histori- cal connection between U.S. imperialism and mass poverty in the Philippines. Last year, he filed a paper with the Senate outlining the case for debt repudiation. Lichauco graduated from Harvard College with the degree of B.A. in economics and from the Harvard Law School with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was at one time policy director of the Philippine Chamber of Industries, director of the Institute of Economic Studies of Araneta University, senior consultant to the Congressional Economic Planning Office and head of the policy research department of the National Economic Council (now NEDA). He is married to the former Maria Teresa Hontiveros of Capiz, Capiz.