The political economy of Philippine agriculture – Part 2

THE secular trend in the development process is that excess labor (due to limited land) from agriculture will seek employment in the industrial-manufacturing sector as a country's economy develops. This happened in the early capitalist development process in Britain and also in many developed and developing economies such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and, more recently, China and Vietnam.

Unfortunately, this did not happen in the Philippines because our industrial protectionist policy confined the market for our products to us. In contrast, all developed economies cited above targeted the global market. In view of the almost limitless opportunities presented, they were able to rapidly expand their industrial-manufacturing bases. Their industries absorbed all the surplus labor in agriculture, which once exhausted inevitably led to a rise in wages.