MHE512 - Disaster Relief Module 1 - SLP - Essay Example

(Atkins et al 2008) Political: Philippines has a fairly established democratic political system comprising of the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The chief executive is the President with departments governed by Cabinet secretaries. Since the year 2000 when the former president Joseph Estrada was impeached and removed from office, the country has suffered from several coups from the military and yearly impeachment of President Arroyo. She replaced Estrada after the ‘bloodless revolution’ and was later officially declared as the winner of the 2004 Presidential elections.

(Benson, 2005) Muslims in the south fought for autonomy starting in the 1960s and pockets of resistance are still present even though peace agreements have been made. Several of these groups, most notably the Abu Sayyaf, are resorting to terrorist kidnapping activities of foreigners. The Communist Party which is currently in political asylum in The Netherlands still maintains a revolutionary army in the country. They are still operating within the mountainous areas. (CNDR/USAID, 2000) Economic: Agriculture is the major source of income but it has suffered from low productivity, insufficient infrastructure support and low economies of scale.

Industrial production is now taking centre stage as electronics comprise two-thirds of export products. A Texas instruments operating in Baguio, one of its major cities, produces 100% of all the chips used in Nokia and 80% of those used in Ericsson. Toshiba laptops were also produced in Santa Rosa but the plant has been converted to produce HDD. The outsourcing industry is also growing as major U.S. call centers take advantage of the English-speaking proficient population. (Atkins et al, 2008) The country has also seen a large majority of its workforce going in other countries for employment and has led to the Overseas Filipino Workers Remittances economy.

Typical destinations include the Middle East, China, Canada,