WHO CAN forget the manner in which the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham) lavished praise on Ferdinand Marcos for proclaiming martial law? Back then, it breathlessly sang the praises of dictatorship: "[AmCham] wishes you every success in your endeavors to restore peace and order, business confidence economic growth and the well-being of the Filipino people and nation. We assure you of
our confidence and cooperation in achieving these objectives. We are communicating these feelings to our associates and affiliates in the United States."
But a lot has happened since then, not least a generational shift in the attitude that businessmen can afford to ignore what goes on around them. If the businessmen of the past embraced martial law because it made business (and union-busting) easier, foreign businessmen in the Philippines today won't have any of it. The Joint Foreign Chambers
of Commerce (JFC) in the Philippines, composed of business groups from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Europe, Japan and Korea, and the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters have bluntly called upon President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to put an end to political killings or risk losing
aid and investments. "For the sake of justice and to deter continued killings, these murders should be investigated thoroughly and those found responsible punished under the law," they said.
They also expressed impatience over the Melo Commission's slow pace in investigating hundreds of cases of extrajudicial killings of leftist activists and journalists. They prodded the commission "to hasten the investigation and … to bring an end to a serious blemish on the country's national image, which could impact negatively on future
foreign investment and foreign economic assistance."
Representatives of US-based apparel companies such as Gap, Polo Ralph Lauren, Wal- Mart, Liz Claiborne, American Eagle Outfitters, Jones Apparel Group and Phillips Van Heusen made a similar appeal in a letter to the President. The apparel firms are particularly interested in the murder of Bishop Alberto Ramento of the Philippine
Independent Church and reports of violent attacks against striking workers at the Cavite Economic Zone (CEZ). Neither activist bishops, such as Ramento, nor striking workers would seem to be the kind of people investors care about. Marcos secured the support of
foreign businessmen during his time, precisely by being intolerant when it came to organized labor. But this time around, businessmen have thrown their weight behind the cause of human rights.
Perhaps now, the government will take notice and recognize what an international scandal human rights abuses in our country has become. When Philippine media, academe, civil society and the churches denounced the killings, the administration insisted, on one hand, that a lot was being done, and accused its critics of being disloyal
to the republic. We would have thought that the rude shock the President received in Europe -- where, instead of being lionized, she was excoriated for the escalation of political killings under her watch -- would have convinced her that killers shouldn't be
able to act with impunity. The situation, however, if not entirely going from bad to worse, has stayed quite bad -- and more people and groups keep adding their voices to the protests.
These businessmen know that their shareholders are sensitive to allegations that pursuing profit comes at a high human rights cost. The shibboleth of free trade is haunted by the concept of fair trade, among other things. And there is a growing list of large and small American and European enterprises that have had to deal with shareholder revolts over their indifference toward human rights. Word of workers being
harmed by agents of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority and the Cavite police, for example, might make companies operating in special economic zones the target of media scrutiny amid allegations of complicity in union-busting.
As things now stand, there will be greater pressure to bring outsourced jobs back to America in the wake of the Republican defeat in the mid-term elections. Activists could find a willing ally in American unions taking up the cry of pulling out of a Philippines
that treats workers just a little better than animals. And European public opinion, as the President has found out, has a tremendous effect on official opinion with regard to governments that violate human rights.