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Emilio Aguinaldos term. He was the first president of the first Philippine
Republic. At that time the Philippines, although it claimed its independence it
had yet to be recognized as a sovereign state. Thus, conducting foreign
relations with other states was not attainable to the government of our first
Philippine Republic. Almost more than a century has passed since our first
government was established. The Philippines now in the 21st century has
established foreign relations with more than 50 other states.
With numerous bilateral and multilateral relations, the Philippines
require a guide to properly go about its relations with these foreign states.
These guidelines are called foreign policy. The Philippines has three pillars for
foreign policy they are political stability, economic development and the
protection and promotion of Overseas Filipino Workers rights. When
discussing foreign relations, we must address what may hinder successful
promotion of these relations.
Looking into the Philippines, implementing and formulating foreign
policy, challenges arise in all three pillars of foreign policy. Most of the points
in this report are derived from a study written by Renato De Castro about the
weaknesses of Philippine foreign policy. The first pillar, political stability,
faces challenges such as
1. inconsistent practice of foreign policy in different
administrations,
2. economic or trade policies benefiting bilateral partners rather
than the PH
3. internal conflict such as insurgencies in Mindanao,
4. and strong focus on military agreements rather than
improvement of PHs own facilities and training
5. lastly, high dependence on other states, mainly the United States
of America
Foreign Policy and the Factors that Affect It
The Philippines, thanks to its various administrations in government has
left us with a strange legacy, a legacy of erratic foreign policies.
local business growth, the Philippines will have a safer bet and higher
chances to be competitive in the global arena. This is due to the
improvement of facilities to match the needs of the consumers. The
Philippines has only given importance to industries centered on exporting.
If the Philippines were able to give equal importance to industries for local
consumers than the competition mentioned earlier may arise and
exporting goods will only serve as an additional income rather than the
main source of income of the Philippines business sector.
OFW Factor
The last foreign policy focuses on the rights of Overseas Filipino
Workers. The challenge that this policy faces is the compliance or
willingness of bilateral partners of the Philippines to prioritize the rights of
OFWs in their state affairs. The Philippines in this aspect, does not show it
is working on stabilizing or procuring policies that are beneficial to their
bilateral partners. The Philippines needs to work on helping others to help
itself. The Philippine govt has made sure that the Filipinos overseas are
allocated to different countries that can provide source of income and
occupations but the government has failed to show that it has done all
measures to ensure that the overseas Filipinos are safe and being treated
fairly under the host countrys laws. As of late there has been an
agreement made between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the
Philippines for the employment of domestic help. It has been the first
agreement of its kind that caters to the OFWs, especially in the domestic
services.
between both states. The reason the Philippines took the opportunity to
send diplomatic missions to Saudi Arabia is that the Arabian countries
began cultivating and industrializing their reserves of oil. With the
development of their resource, they needed many professionals with
expertise in those fields. Saudi Arabia did not have various nationals who
were dedicated to graduating with professional degrees like those that we
have in the Philippines, thus they welcomed many expatriates to go and
take over the work needed to be done in the oil development.
27 years later, the Philippines and Saudi bilateral relations expanded to
occupy the growing number of Filipino expatriates in the kingdom. Both
states experienced several challenges to the foreign policy formulation or
implementation. Throughout the years, professionals related to oil
development were no longer the only Filipinos being transferred in from
the Philippines. Now, there are tons of teachers, nurses, other medical
personnel that have flown in and have started running their respective
areas. Also widely popular in Saudi Arabia is the Filipina and Filipino
domestic help. The domestic help usually consist of cooks, maids, or
babysitters for rich families in Saudi. Living in the city, you are able to
experience the joys of tax-free food and basically other expenses are taxfree for expatriates in the Kingdom.
Where there are good things, there are also bad. As overseas Filipinos,
it is difficult sometimes to move higher up in your career because some
Saudis racially discriminate foreigners and prefer fellow Saudis to them.
This discrimination is mostly prevalent in hospitals with medical staff like
nurses. The challenge here is not only the racial
discrimination/preference, there is also another implication that arises
from the first aspect. With the preference of Saudi citizens/nationals
some Filipinos are paid less than Saudi counterparts who sometimes if not
always do less work than the Filipino/Filipina staff.
The second challenge faced by Filipinos in the Kingdom is the
difference in religious background. Most Filipinos have a strong faith and
actively participate in church activities but in the Kingdom, they are
limited to hosting these events in houses or other private locations in fear
of getting caught by the authorities in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has a
strict policy when it comes to religion. This is understandable as it is the
culture and traditional practices are founded and based upon the Islamic
religion. The challenge however, is the power to make foreign policies