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ABSTRACT
The article is a historical investigation of the decontrol program propagated by the then President Diosdado Macapagal during his term in office from 1962 to 1966. The program was advanced, according to its proponents, with the end in view of fostering the Philippine economy using the modernization theory as model for economic development. Following the outward-looking economic policy or the Export-Oriented Industrialization (EOI), the decontrol program sounds very promising and was considered by Macapagal as the new hope for the common man. However, using the world systems theory as a framework, the study argues that the program was largely an influence of the Americans and other foreign business interests in order to control the Philippine economy. It was designed to serve the interests of the foreign elite groups who have made the local Filipino elite the puppets of the colonial masters. Simply put, the decontrol was an obvious perpetuation of the unbroken foreign hegemony to amass wealth from the country that begun from colonization to neo-colonization.
Keywords: Decontrol, Economy, Development, Filipino First Policy, Neo - colonialism.
INTRODUCTION:
The primordial aim of man's survival in this world is to ensure that his economic need is met. Apart from his desire to live freely in this chaotic and highly politicized world, he always sees to it that there are enough provisions for himself and for his family in order to live a prosperous and happy life. In fact, this has been the motivating factor why men the world over have labored so much and sustained resolute efforts to have a share to a much-coveted and limited resource of the earth.
In a larger context, this is also the goal of the Philippine state after it has finally been freed from Spanish and American domination for nearly three and a half centuries of exploitation. Colonization, however, did not actually ended in 1946 as commonly viewed by many historians. The colonizing hegemony, to a large extent, is still very much present in the political and economic structures of the Philippine society today.
The Americans, so to speak, still hold their privileged position as "models" in economic development in the guise of helping the Philippines developed her fledging economy. The Modernization theorists of the 1950's and 1960's...