Foreign Policy.

The foreign policy of the country recognizes the importance of strong diplomatic relations to other states, which can be apparently seen by the efforts made by our Chief Executives from the time we gained our independence up to the present. All of them had the vision to improve the definition of the direction of diplomacy in the country while still considering different situational effect it could bring to the country. In pursuing these diplomatic relations, the country remained adhesive to the three pillars of foreign policy formulation: promotion and enhancement of national security, enhancing economic diplomacy, and protecting the rights and welfare of the OFWs.

In pursuit of our objectives, the Philippines stay close to United States of America as our main security protector. This gave the country the utmost security for years until US became passive in this bilateral relationship. Ramos was situated in this predicament of standing strong to fight for national security despite US acting lethargic and China being a threat. In here, he showed his adherence to policy of national security by continuing to develop international bilateral and multilateral linkages not only to maintain regional stability but also domestic peace and order.

In the realms of economic progress, our foreign policy has already been through different ways to ensure stable growth like how Garcia affected the country through his "Filipino First" policy while the older Macapagal chose to lift import controls to welcome free trade. Though neither of them succeeded, the alteration of it from one that was domestically inclined to one that was adhering to gloabalization, signify the maturity of our foreign policy. 

The looming diaspora of Filipino workers all over the world, is one of the realities our foregin policy considers. Tinge from stories of OFWs being maltreated in other foreign countries, the government has the major burden of protecting their welfare. As a major contributor to our GNP, it is but proper to embed their welfare as important as of the other two pillars of foreign policy. Though efforts have been proved by the government, reluctance from these agencies are still observed in their slow reaction and response mechanism in helping those Filipinos in need of support from our government. We hardly hear news of DFA initiating programs for the OFWs that will prevent them from being harmed. It would be better if the government can provide enough jobs to cater those Filipinos who are willing to work in the country only if given a decent work.

Conclusively, despite the rigid analysis of efforts that the government has put through this foreign policy, the overall "development diplomacy" we all want to transpire is still in a struggle of progress. Even though, compare to the past stage, we can say that the Philippines has been improving in diplomacy meter test, there is still a huge room for improvement, i.e. proper implementation and monitoring of the policies. As the change of administration means change in diplomatic path, the Philippines is in a problem of coping up with its desired development as long-term policies seem to be elusive.