Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Korean Invasion in Baguio City?



Our teacher in political science in 2008, assigned us this topic to work on: Korean Invasion in Baguio City. The report is based on facts gathered from the DFA in Bagiuo, certain journals, and from testimonies of the people living there. The report went well, although alot is still needed to be done, since there is scarce resources written on the topic.


KOREAN INVASION

Baguio has never been a stranger to foreign nationals visiting and living here. In fact, it was “Little America,” a mining and recreation town built by the Americans in the early 20th century. It was only after the 1990 earthquake and US Bases turnover in 1991 that Baguio has turned very Filipino. And not native Cordillera — it has turned more Ilocano, not only in dialect but more in terms of attitude.
In its heyday in the 1980s, Baguio would see busloads of American, Japanese and Chinese tourists, all armed with the latest cameras, taking package tours that included playing at the Hyatt Terraces Casino, horseback riding at Wright Park, shopping at Mines View Park, and golf at Camp John Hay.
After Baguio was devastated, foreign tourists stopped coming and the lowlanders migrated to Baguio in droves to study in our “naturally air-conditioned” schools, most of which do not require an entrance exam to enter, just tuition money.
Now Baguio sees more foreign nationals than ever before and they come from only one country — South Korea.
According to Dominique Cannon-Lee, a Baguio-born Filipino-American who is married to a Korean national, Eric, Baguio is being marketed in Korea as the place where, “for just $2,000/month, you can live like a king.” Of course there are many other places in the Philippines where that amount will go very far but they love Baguio because of the weather and the availability of fluent English speakers.
We first saw them in telenovelas, now we see them in person in our streets.
They walk in droves, with their trademark chinky eyes and off-white complexion, speak with their distinct accent, wear colorful garments. They are also changing Baguio for the native uplanders. In Baguio, the influx of Korean nationals has caught some attention. Baguio now is host to almost 10,000 Koreans. At first, only teenagers came here to study the English language. Most of them stayed for two months during their vacation from school in Korea. Then they started to study full-time in Baguio universities. Before long the Koreans started coming to Baguio with their whole families. 
            Many of the Koreans who were granted alien certificate of residence in the Philippines already acquired vast amount of real properties. Everywhere in the country, they have already made their presence felt, establishing exclusive schools for Koreans, resorts for Koreans, restaurants for Koreans, and hotels for Koreans.


Why are they here?
1. To learn English in order to pass the highly competitive entrance exams for the University of Seoul, that almost guarantees a good job in a big company like Samsung after graduation. To learn English to be able to get around better in Canada where they plan to migrate after their parents retire. And forced retirement in their country seems to be at the very young age of 40 or 45. Their parents cannot afford to quit their jobs just to learn the language, so the kids are sent here instead.
2 To get a degree in, what else, A.B. English from a local university. You will hardly find a Korean taking up a course in medicine or engineering.
3. To invest their retirement money. Because they receive more or less the equivalent of Php25,000,000.00, they use this money to set up businesses and to buy property in the Philippines. They hope that this investment will earn big, and quite a lot of them hope to be able to resell the same business to another Korean (who has just arrived) at a very hefty profit.
4. To buy property because real estate in the Philippines is considered one of the lowest in Asia. And by property, I don’t mean condominium units, which they are allowed to buy. They want to buy land, and huge tracts of it. Now, there are laws in the Philippines that limit the ownership of land by foreign nationals to just 40%, but both the Koreans and their crooked Filipino cohorts are exercising every ploy to circumvent this.
5. To “Christianize” the Philippines. Armed with heavy funding from their born-again churches back home and enviable missionary zeal, many come to the Philippines as missionaries and trainees. The influence of pastors is strong in their culture and many families prefer to send their children to church-run English academies.
6. To get rehabilitated. Many of the young students sent here are problem children who do drugs and join gangs in their country. Although Korea has many government-funded rehabilitation centers, parents prefer to send them to the Philippines instead “because of the shame.”
7. For fun and recreation as tourists, and hopefully to chance upon some good investment. According to Adrian Lee (no relation to Eric), a businessman who has lived in the Philippines for the past 6 years, Korean visitors like three things: golf, ktv and casino.

What businesses do they usually get into?
1. Financing. They have a lot of capital, plus the interest rates they charge will always be higher than what they will receive in their country. They fund projects, grant gambling loans, and just about anything that will earn them some cash profit.
2. Education. They like setting up English Academies. All their schools have to contain the word “Academy” because that’s what their countrymen recognize. This is a lucrative business that we Filipinos keep trying to get into ourselves, but what we have to realize is that the key to the institution’s success is the ability to recruit students — and no Filipino recruiter will succeed in Korea. It seems that the recruiter gets a 20% cut up front as the fee for his placements. Websites are essential tools for recruitment, too, and due to language differences have to be designed by Koreans at a fee of about S2,000.00
3. Restaurants, Retail Stores and Spas. They hardly eat anything other than their own food. So many local groceries now contain imported ingredients and food items that do not have any English translations on them and they’re usually spicy. And there is at least six Korean restaurants that are doing very well in the City.They love their own products and put up their specialty stores for groceries, cosmetics, and health care. They also like spa therapy and have imported specialized equipment from their country to replicate what they have back home.
4. KTV Lounges
5. “Homestay.” This is what they call private homes that are rented as dormitories, for which they charge their countrymen exhorbitant prices, until the latter wise up and find out that they can rent a hotel room or a whole house for the price they pay.
6. Golf. They like to rent whole golf courses or market golfing vacation packages.
7. Computer-based English learning. They hire language coaches to teach those who cannot come to the Philippines via the internet and charge the students by the hour.
8. Consultancies for Immigration, TESDA and DTI. These are government agencies that they have to deal with all the time should they wish to stay, study or do business in the country.

PROBLEMS
  1. Koreans using Filipinos as dummies, for establishing their businesses. Illegal businesses. They are marrying  Filipina, which they uses as dummies. Through willing Filipino “dummies” they are buying up whatever land they can get their hands on. Since Filipinos really do not plan for the future generations (judging from all the tree-cutting going on in the whole country) and live for the “now” (always just using the excuse that they need to make a living), they do not understand or care about the adverse effects of their actions. Filipino property ownership must remain with the Filipinos — once the land is gone it is gone forever. We are not nor ever will be equipped to buy it back.
  2.  Illegal recruitment
  3. Having a lot of properties, exceeds the 40% limit for foreigners
  4. The law is circumvent to favor them
  5. They have driven real estate prices up.
  6. Many are doing business here without the necessary permits, and many are overstaying without notifying the immigration authorities.
  7. The government is favoring them, because they got the money. They can go out of the country, even If they committed a crime, for example: murder, and others.

 Facts and Statistics
§  2 months extension for Koreans
§  Tourist
·         3,000 and 4,000 each week (peak travel season)
·         Tourist – 4700 (January 2008 – last week)
§  Students
·         permanent – 1,500 (special study permit)
·         Regular student  - 2,000 (Local schools and universities)
§  Business
·         Only 10 Koreans with valid working visas and are allowed to set up businesses here.
·         1500 (not all business tracked by Bureau of Immigration cause there are those Koreans that have illegal business, some of them even use Filipinos to work ) – interview with staff
·         ~ Under the law, a foreigner may only engage in retail trade here if he has a minimum capital of $2.5 million.
§  Students, tourists or permanent residents – is 3,341. (September 6, 2007 – week)

ü  Number of Koreans in Saint Louis University (January 2008, Buhay Slu)
§  192 Koreans out of 350 foreign students
o    Department of tourism
§  14,716 Koreans visited Baguio (19.16% of the total arrival – 2006)

Theoretical
           
Conflict Theory
                        The main assumption underlying the conflict theory: society is a collection of competing interest groups, each with its own goals and agendas.
Relating it to to the study, Koreans tend to compete with old businessmen her in Baguio. If this would go on, the tendency is that they would control portion of the city’s economy which would actually start conflict in the society.
           
Structural Functionalist Theory
We have seen that Korean invasion here in Baguio is a growing problem that if not regulated will create a new Baguio City in a short span of time,
We have known it for a fact that these past few years the increase in the populations of Koreans residing here is evident. Koreans establishing their own business here, both legal and illegal that creates competition among local business. Some Koreans acquire or use more resources that the local settlers. Slowly their culture is entering the mainstream which is degrading the dominant culture here in Baguio City. Metro Baguio is known for preserving its Cordilleran culture, and the influence of the said foreigners is slowly being adopted by the people here in Baguio. Their customs and traditions basically destroy the preserved culture.
Since were using Structural Functionalist Theory, we have considerer some function of this social problem
a)     Koreans contribute to the local economy
b)     Exposing local men with another culture
c)      Baguio city is being advertised in another country
Solutions
1. Tighter immigration processes or procedures
2. Limitation on the years of residence of Koreans in the Philippines
3. Restriction on acquiring real state properties
4. Their businesses must be regularly monitored to ensure compliance with all our national and local laws.
5. Professionalize the teaching of English.
6. We make sure their presence is temporary, not permanent. This means we lease them the land and not sell it to them, we should marry for love and not to escape.



Philippine Public Administration Refences



In relation to my recent post on the characteristics of a public administration in a Democratic institution, this are some of the sources that might help you in your study, i have also used this on my earlier post.

 “Philippine Public Administration Refences”


1.       Subranian, Venkateswarier (1990). Public administration in the Third World: an international handbook. Greenwood Publishing Group

2.       Tendero, Avelino (2000). Theory and Practice of Public Administration in the Philippines. Fiscal Administration Foundation Inc. (FAFI): Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines.

3.       Bautista, Victoria & Alfiler, Ma. Concepcion & Tapales, Proserpina (1993) Introduction to PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION in the Philippines. University of the Philippines Press and the College of Public Administration, University of the Philippines.

4.       Talingdan, Arsenio P. (1966) Public administration and management in the Philippines. Alemar-Phoenix Publishers (Quezon City)

5.       Tapales, Proserpina & Pilar, Nestor N., assistance: Romblon, Leonora (1995) Public Administration by the year 2000: Looking Back into the Future.  Quezon City : College of Public Administration, University of the Philippines.

6.       Cecile C.A. Balgos, eds: Chua, Yvone  & Coronel, Sheila S. (2003). The PCIJ Guide to Government. Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism: Manila.

7.       Cruz – Sta. Rita, Ma. Gladys. MPA, CSEE (2008) Running a Bureaucracy: A guidebook for Local Government Unit Administration, Other Public Manager, and Elected Officials. Center for Local and Regional Governance. National College of Public Administration and Governance.

8.      Morada, Noel M. & Encarnacion Tadem, Teresa S. (2006). Philippine Politics and Governance: An Introduction. Diliman, Quezon City : Dept. of Political Science, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines.

9.       Morada, Noel M & Encarnacion Tadem, Teresa S. (2006) Philippine politics and governance : challenges to democratization and development. Diliman, Quezon City : Dept. of Political Science, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines.

10.   International Conference on Public Administration plus Governance (2002) Public administration plus governance : assessing the past, addressing the future : papers and proceedings. International Conference on Public Administration plus Governance, October 21-23, 2002, Manila Hotel, Philippines

11.    Leveriza, Jose P. (1990) Public Adminisration: The Bussiness of Government. Manila : National Book Store.

12.    Rosembloom, David H. (1986). Public Administration: Understanding Management, Politics and Law in Public Section. Random House

13.   Farazmand & Pinkowski (2006). Handbook of Globalization, Governance and Public Administration.
CRC Press.

14.    Johnson, William (2001)..Public Administration: Partnership in Public Service. Waveland Press INC


Saturday, February 2, 2013 in , , , , , ,

Electoral Corruption Shapes Political Participation



... this is from a paper that i have written for my political economy subject, electoral corruption as a means to encourage political participation is already widely observed especially in the Philippines, however there are not much written on this topic before when i wrote about it, there are some theories of corruption but only a few touch on the subject that it's not only the candidate's fault why there is corruption in elections, but also the people, the voters itself.

 Electoral Corruption Shapes Political Participation
Electoral Corruption shapes political participation. This seeks to understand why voters participate in corrupt elections.  Elections provide excellent windows into the word of Corruption in the Philippines. In the heat of the electoral campaign, insiders in the sheltered world of political maneuvering use their knowledge of crooked deals as instruments against their political opponents.
Perhaps, because corruption has received an extensive attention in the communities, and perhaps, due to the fact that it has been over-flogged in the academic circles, corruption has received varied definitions. Corruption has broadly been defined as a perversion or a change from good to bad. Specifically, corruption or “corrupt” behavior “involves the violation of established rules for personal gain and profit” (Sen 1999, p.275). Corruption is “efforts to secure wealth or power through illegal means – private gain at public expense; or a misuse of public power for private benefit (Lipset & Lenz, 2000, p.112-114).
            The fundamental idea is that electoral corruption, in addition to directly affecting votes, can strongly influence patterns of political participation. This fact can weight heavily in candidates’ decisions about pursuing electoral corruption. In some settings, electoral corruption is likely to lead to a backlash, so candidates might avoid the temptation to pursue votes corruptly. But in other settings, particularly under conditions that often prevail in developing countries, electoral corruption can have the opposite effect, that is, to inhibit political participation, with potential electoral gains for the perpetrator.This simple idea goes a long way toward explaining observed patterns: When electoral corruption can influence participation,there exist conditions under which candidates may purposefully make their corrupt electoral activitiespublic, and/or pursue electoral corruption beyond the point where it is necessary for victory.
            The rents created by political interference invite private parties to compete for preferential treatment, which is at the disposal of the politicians and bureaucrats. Therefore, the donations received by the politicians to finance election campaigns may result in corruption once they are elected to office by providing preferential treatment to the private party who expended such resources.

            Electoral corruption includes purchase of votes with money, promises of office or special favors, coercion, intimidation, and interference with freedom of election. Votes are bought, people are killed or maimed in the name of election, losers’ end up as the winners in elections, and votes turn up in areas where votes were not cast. Corruption in office involves sales of legislative votes, administrative, or judicial decision, or governmental appointment. Disguised payment in the form of gifts, legal fees, employment, favors to relatives, social influence, or any relationship that sacrifices the public interest and welfare, with or without the implied payment of money, is usually considered corrupt. In order to further expound on my topic,          
            I will the apply the following theories in my study: 1) Rational Choice Theory, 2) Public Choice Theory, which The public choice theory tries to explain a politician’s motivations that depend upon on whether rent-seeking is“primarily”a consequence of electoral necessity, constituent preferences, personal financial gain and personal non-financial gain, and 3) Neo-Marxism Theory or radical underdevelopment theory.

II. Thesis
            This study is significant because corruption in the Philippines is a political phenomenon. De Dios and Ferrer (2001) identified Corruption in the Philippines as the presumed relationship between the polity and politician and politician and bureaucrat. The premise is the Philippine corruption is a political phenomenon that is pervasive and essential part of the political system and an accepted political reality, not a bureaucratic phenomenon
            In examining the nature of the political corruption , one also must look at electoral corruption. The will of the voters can be manipulated in many ways. In traditional systems in poor rural societies, resources are released by gatekeepers in exchange for votes. In these societies, the voters have no choice. Their vote is a commodity that they trade for their food, heating, or land. In more modern societies, voters can exercise an autonomous will, and the choice rests with them.
        What is also shocking is the level of acceptance by the people, whether candidates or the electorate, of corrupt practices during elections. Vote-buying and other forms of corruption during elections is public knowledge and a widely known phenomenon in which candidates are expected to give and voters are expected to receive money. The level of silence and tolerance of this corrupt practice though is shocking. The candidates even bribe voters in public. Some citizens consider it a good gesture rather than an act of bribery and that these candidates are worthy of their votes. There is a mentality that has developed in which voters question why they cannot cast their ballot for candidates who distribute money when they even vote for those who do not give them money at all.
            Now a days, Electoral Corruption is predominant in every political process. Political Participations are not inhibit but its shaped because the voters get something from voting. For example, in the case of vote buying. Vote-buying is not always bad, because its gives opportunities to people to earn some money. I define Vote Buying as Buying a vote is trading something of value—usually cash—for someone’s choice on election day.
            Vote Buying is similar to Vote Trading, a common practice in legislative bodies. For example, “I’ll vote for  your Reproductive Health Bill to be passed, I you both my Anti-Terrow Law”. Buying a vote also sounds a lot like the sort of conditional promises that politicians make: “I’ll cut your taxes if you vote for me.” Electoral Corruption, by any means can influence the behaviour of all political actors such as the candidates,  especially the voters.
            Khan (2001) explains that political corruption in developing countries is an unavoidable phenomenon for maintaining stability in a politically unstable environment. Patron client exchanges are used to destroy interest groups that threaten the political status quo. The resources of the political incumbents which enable to them to give money to the interest groups are funded by economic corruption.
            Rose-Ackerman (1997) comments that in some systems corrupt politicians coexist with democratic forms even though citizens are aware of their practices. Corrupt payoffs are used, in part, to fund political parties and election campaigns. In a democracy people may seek political office, not to fulfill an obligation for public service, but to extract as many rents for themselves and their supporters as possible.

III.  Review of theories of corruption and their applicability to the Philippines
            The theories concerning corruption can be categorized into four tendencies. First, Participation is explained by the Rational Choice Theory, which holds people behave in whichever way best serves their own self-interest. A rational choice is, thus, the result of a calculation about the costs and benefits involved in the options presented in any given decision-making situation. Models.
            The basic idea of rational choice theory is that patterns of behavior in societies reflect the choices made by individuals as they try to maximize their benefits and minimize their costs. In other words, people make decisions about how they should act by comparing the costs and benefits of different courses of action. As a result, patterns of behavior will develop within the society that result from those choices.
            Voters grab the opportunities that are presented to them by the candidates to earn some money, either by vote buying, Over the last decades rational choice theory has also become increasingly employed in social sciences other than economics, such as sociology and political science. It has had far-reaching impacts on the study of political science, especially in fields like the study of interest groups, elections, behavior in legislatures, coalitions, and bureaucracy.
            Second, according to Neo-Marxism Theory, it is argued that due to the subservient, neo-colonial peripheral and exploited position of the Third World, and the role of the local political elite as puppets of multinational corporations and Western governments, authoritarianism and political underdevelopment, including corruption, will only persist(Blomström and Hettne 1984).Imperialist-capitalist penetration and forced underdevelopment was put up as the substance of dependent economies, ofwhich authoritarianism and other political predicaments, including corruption, were
the logical consequencesThe solution suggested was a radical break with the capitalist world, or at least national protection in the form of“self-generating”or“endogenous”growth and import substitution industrialisation policies.
Hutchinson (1997) stated that something resembling this Neo-Marxism Theory was applied in the Philippines since the 1950’s as shown by its adopting protectionist trade and macroeconomics policies and import-substitution industrialisation. However, the effort applied to competing in the political arena over sources of rent, particularly in the form of quotas, tariffs and public monopolies resulted in a particularistic policy and demands for resources by a politically and economically powerful oligarchy.
            Second, according to the theory of the causes of corruption, public officials in some countries misuse public office for private gains more frequently and for a larger payoff than officials in others. The said official may be analysing the expected cost of a corrupt act including psychological, social, as well as financial costs, against expected benefits. It is suggested that a variety of characteristics of the countries’economic, political and social situation may affect expected cost, benefits or both. According to the theory of the causes of corruption, in a democratic form of government where the political system is open -- literacy, freedom of association, and freedom of the press -- the probability of containing corruption is high. An educated citizenry is motivated to expose a corrupt act and closely monitors government transactions.
The third trend to be investigated is called the public choice theory. Public choice can be defined as the economic study of non-market decision making, or the application of economics to political science. The subject matter of public choice are: the theory of the state, voting rules, voting behavior, party politics, the bureaucracy, and so on. The behavioral postulate of public choice as for economics, is that man is an egoistic, rational utility maximizer.
Self (199) assumes public choice thought as individuals who act as “rational egoist” who pursue their private interests in both economic and political life. Sutter (1999)attempts to explain public choice theory as an agent of the political process such as the candidate, voter and interest group that rationally pursues its self-interests; equilibrium results when no agent unilaterally alters his behavior given the behavior of others.
The logic of collective action specifies an outcome of political necessities; incorporates the impact of campaign contributions, lobbying and even bribes; and illustrates that the willful choices of politicians, hence, their motives, are important outcomes.
The purpose of public choice theory is to explore the role that politicians play by the use of models which predict interest group dominion of politics. As long as interest groups are not completely ineffective in bargaining with politicians, the agreed upon price or support will reflect the interest group’s willingness to pay and the legislator’s reservation price.
            Thus, rent-seeking requires specification of legislator’s politician motivations, e.g. a legislator may have multiple motives in voting a particular bill. A politician’s motivations depend upon on whether rent-seeking is“primarily”a consequence of electoral necessity, constituent preferences, personal financial gain and personal non-financial gain.
            Rent-seeking is sometimes used interchangeably with corruption, and there is a large area of overlap. Corruption involves the misuse of public power for private benefit, rent-seeking derives from the economic concept of “rents”, i.e. earnings in excess of all relevant costs, and equals monopoly
            Rent-seeking, is largely“directly unproductive”, wasteful and very often economically inefficient. The theoretical framework of public choice theory attempts to clarify the politician’s motives in rentseeking: The first motive is electoral necessity. Modern electoral campaigns are relatively expensive requiring campaign staff, polling and advertising. Because of intense competition to win, politicians face constraints and need logistical support; these drive them to make deals with interest groups.
            The second motive for rent seeking is constituent preferences. In the Philippines, this may result in a  culture of people where an election is used as an opportunity for earning money from the politician. The Filipino politician may influence a large number of the electorate to sell their votes to support his/her  candidacy. The money spent by the politician may be recovered from the government if she wins the election by means of graft and corruption.
            The third motive is personal financial gain derived from elected position. The payment can be  direct, as in bribery, or indirect, as in directing benefits to favoured businesses and providing postelective  positions. In the Philippines, it can also be in the form of commissions earned from government projects     and office supplies.
The fourth motive involves personal non-financial gain. Prolonged intensive lobbying influences mendacious beliefs among politicians. In the Philippine bureaucracy, the appointment of unqualified    candidates to government positions according to recommendations by members of the big family clans          may result in bias against other applicants who are more qualified.

 IV. Conclusion
            First, in some circumstances, expectations influence patterns of electoral participation. Second, the character of elections can influence expectations. Third, when the previous two points hold, there can exist incentives for contenders to pursue electoral corruption not only for its direct (or ‘material’) effect on the vote, but also for its indirect effect on the vote via the character of the election and its effect on participation. 
             Parties, politicians, and machines use a large array of tactics to win public office. Many of these—including making speeches, distributing leaflets, and promising to build infrastructure—remain perfectly legal ways of attracting votes. Buying votes, however, is an activity that parties practice, but is an unaccepted way of winning an election.
            The Philippine electoral system provides an avenue through which corruption is used in the government. Philippine election is a highly personalistic competition between candidates. The Filipino electorate votes for individuals rather than along party lines.