An interdependent world

I had three significant learnings and realizations in our class discussion. First is regarding regional arrangements. In our world today, there are various regional arrangements. Since it is one of the major concerns of our foreign policy, it affects the policy’s crafting process. I learned that even though these regional groups are diverse in nature, still all of the diplomatic initiatives that occur concerns the economy. These regional arrangements aim towards the expansion of markets and trade. Before, I thought that there are only specific regional economic groups and they are only the ones who deal with economic concerns.

My second realization is regarding Philippine tourism. Despite tourism being one of the major concern of the Philippine’s foreign policy, there is still no clear focus on how to prioritize and act on it. Noting that the Department of Tourism is one of the Departments that receive low budget and most of which are spent abroad and not in the country, we can see how can government prioritizes tourism. In class, we have stated that the airline industry needs to be liberalized. I and some of my classmates pondered in class why is it more expensive to travel in the Philippines than going abroad, such as in Hongkong? It is due to the privatization of the airline companies. It causes Filipino citizens to be aliens or foreigners in their own native land.

And my third realization is regarding another foreign policy concern, the OFW’s. There is really a need to educate them. Educate them on the country’s culture, the laws and policies of the government or State and most of all on the role of the government in helping them abroad. There are a lot of things that needs to be taught to the OFW’s. I also studied in my class before titled Philippine Policies on OFW’s that there is a required seminar or pre-departure orientation seminar or PDOS to the OFW’s. Yet, I think that there is still a problem regarding its implementation because many of our OFW’s still aren’t knowledgeable on the basic information that they should have known. At the end of the day, I still believe that it will depend on the OFW, whether to follow the rules or not.