Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

280 MICHAEL PINCHES
investments in manufacture, banking, real estate and agribusiness. The growth of
home-market manufacture during this era also saw the emergence of a new layer
of capitalists from backgrounds in petty trade and middle-class employment. Other
layers of new capitalists emerged during the authoritarian Marcos era (1972—86):
some through substantial political patronage across a range of economic activities;
others, more or less independently, mainly through the growth of export
manufacture. Though many capitalists have failed or left the country, most notably
during the economic crisis at the end of the Marcos era, each of the above layers is
represented in today’s class of Filipino capitalists. 4
Many of the most prosperous new rich capitalists in the Philippines started out
in these earlier periods, but have greatly multiplied their wealth and economic
activities in the post-Marcos era. Some of them now have business empires and
family fortunes which surpass those of many old elite families. While members of
the old elite continue to dominate much of the Philippine economy, they have done
so only by reorienting themselves to the changing economic environment. Those
who have relied solely on old forms and areas of wealth accumulation have
generally suffered downward social mobility.
Since 1986, many new capitalist enterprises have been spawned through growth
in retail trade, manufacture, banking, real estate development and an expanding
range of specialist services like accounting, advertising, computing and market
research. Fostered by government policies of liberalisation and deregulation, the
development of these new enterprises has been oriented both to the export and
domestic markets, and has entailed increasingly diverse sources of foreign
investment and variable subcontracting, franchise and service relationships, with a
noticeable expansion of ties connecting the Philippines to other countries in East
and Southeast Asia. 5 A substantial stimulus for many capitalists, small and large,
new and old, has been the growth of the domestic consumer market around the
repatriated earnings of the 4 million-odd Filipinos who have left the country for
overseas contract work. 6
Much more numerous than the owners of large business empires are the new
capitalist entrepreneurs in medium-and small-scale enterprises, many of them
subcontractors or franchise holders, others more independent operators in retail,
business services, construction and recreation. Little systematic research has been
done on the growth of these businesses, and on the backgrounds of those who own
or run them. The material that is available, including my own interviews, indicates
that many of these new capitalists are women, former salaried professionals,
middle-class Filipinos returning from periods of residence in North America or
Europe, and people with a background in even smaller businesses. 7 Only a small
minority appear to have been overseas contract workers. The most visible of these
new capitalist entrepreneurs are to be found in the many new shopping malls, as
the owners of boutiques, restaurants, food outlets and gift shops, in some cases
linked to small factories or workshops located elsewhere.
Since independence, other Filipinos have experienced new wealth by becoming
part of the educated urban middle class, both through state employment and