Chamber sponsored the "Made-in-the-Philippines Week" to popularize local products. It also organized the National Congress of Filipino Businessmen. On November 19, 1934, the Chamber's initiative gave birth to NEPA in a founding meeting held at Club Filipino. Founding officers The founders were: Antonio Brias, Salvador Araneta, Isaac Ampil, Florencio Reyes, Benito Razon, Arsenio N. Luz, Joaquin Elizalde, Leopoldo R. Aguinaldo, Vicente Villanueva, Toribio Teodoro, Gonzalo Puyat, Ramon J. Fernandez, Ciriaco Tuazon, Aurelio Periquet Sr., and Primo Arambulo. Rise of the movement Right after its founding, NEPA launched a nationwide campaign to promote economic protectionism. Provincial, municipal and student chapters were created all over the country. Popular meetings and assemblies, attended by thousands of Filipinos, were held in different parts of the country. "NEPA" became a trademark and a symbol of pride of Philippine-made products. The war years World War II disrupted the work of NEPA. However, the pre-war consciousness-raising efforts of NEPA regarding self-reliance made it easier for individual entrepreneurs and families to produce essential commodities out of locally available materials. Post-war revival NEPA was revived in late 1948 under the leadership of Senator Gil J. Puyat, Gabriel A. Daza and Daniel M. Gomez. In the 1950s, the entrepreneurs and firms associated with NEPA spearheaded the great industrial drive that developed around the program of import controls and foreign exchange controls. The rapid industrial transformation of the Philippines made her the envy of her Asian neighbors. During this period, NEPA founded the Home Industries Association of the Philippines, Filipino Inventors Society, Philippine Hatter's Association and Philippine Standards Association. The decade ended with NEPA becoming the main pillar of the "Filipino First" program of President Carlos P. Garcia. Difficulties of 1960s The decade of the 1960s saw the Macapagal administration putting an end to the "Filipino First" policy. Decontrols, peso devaluation and an open door to foreign investors became the order of the day. This policy reversal, formulated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and implemented by a rising group of so-called technocrats, was continued in the first term of President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Crisis of the 1970s In the 1970s, the Philippines literally became an open economy — open to foreign capital, foreign loans and foreign economic advisers. Filipino capitalists were relegated to junior partners under the policy of labor-intensive, export-oriented, transnational-dependent industrialization. This induced economic slowdown, which was exacerbated by the floating of the US dollar in August 1971.