PHILIPPINE VOYAGER

We at Philippine Voyager wishes everyone in the world a Happy and Prosperous New Year.  Let’s all be safe and we’ll see each other alive and well next year. [Written by Julius P. Bantigue]

I’m spending this festive season with my family here in the Philippines.  I’ll resume work on my next articles after December 25.  Anyway, I hope everyone will share this joyous ocassion relaxing with relatives and friends, and to not spend it all in one place.  In the light of economic recession from many parts of the world, my only hope is we be frugal with our spending on both food and gifts.  Let’s all be grateful for what we have and don’t have.  Living on less is sometimes a more rewarding and humbling experience than having more.  Cheers. [Written by Julius P. Bantigue]

Originally posted on Monday, 21 July 2008
 
Lately, I’ve been preoccupied with my planned return trip to the Philippines, which I’ll finally get to do this coming March. All the preparations can be very hectic – selling items I no longer need, packing all the things I’ll be shipping home, and getting things straightened at work before I leave. It’s exciting too, just thinking about going back to my old life. I have learned a lot since I first left five years ago, and I feel all these new experiences and ideas will serve me well in the coming years.They say that when your mind is attuned to a specific thought or goal, you tend to attract similar ideas, people, and events that correspond to what you’re attuned to. In my case, returning home has almost been an obsession to me, so it’s no coincidence that I have come across people with similar vibrations.
I haven’t told anyone in the office other than my boss about my timetable for going back to the Philippines. So when my Indian co-worker Rohan asked me, “So Robbie are you planning to work in US forever or will return home after some time?”, I was pleasantly surprised. Rohan was one of the good guys at work – bright, hardworking, friendly, and always helpful to everyone, in sharp contrast to much of the indifferent and oftentimes grumpy people in the office. I told Rohan, I don’t plan on staying in the US for good as I miss life in my home country. Then I asked him what his future plans were.

His answer was astounding. He said he always knew that the US would be temporary thing, and that India will always be home. In fact he and his friends were in the process of building a business in their home city. The way he said it, it sounded like it was the most natural thing to do. Almost as if it was expected of him to return to India after a couple of years and apply everything he learned from the US. There is much opportunity in India, according to him. I told him that I was happy to hear that, and that it was the first time I’ve heard someone say that they plan to return and give back to their country. I can imagine that in a few years, he will be back home, managing his own company, and building up the local industry in India. It made me proud and sad at the same time, as Indians like Rohan have such pride in their own country, something we Filipinos have not yet realized on our own.

I also met a pinoy shuttle driver named Tony. He is a slightly elderly man who looks much younger than his age. And he always has a cheerful disposition. Talking to him is a treat as he tells a lot of stories during his younger days in the Philippines. And he gives lots of frantic advice such as “Bata ka pa iho, mag-ipon ka, wag ka gastos ng gastos palagi, mas madali maubos pera mo dito” (”You’re still young so you need to save your money and avoid overspending, it is easy to run out of money here in the US”). There is always a sense of urgency in his voice, which reminds me that the choices we make today have a big effect on what will happen to us tomorrow.

He had this particularly amusing anecdote which I will relate. A decade ago, Tony used to work as taxi driver in Metro Manila. Just imagine this handsome, mestizo Fil-Am looking taxi driver, only he wasn’t your ordinary driver. One time, this British national and his Filipina wife rode in his taxi, I forgot where their destination was, it was probably some mall or something. But along the way to their destination, the British guy and his pinay wife kept complaining about how dirty and unorganized the Philippines was. It was like they found fault with everything they saw. This irked Tony to the point where he finally turned to them and said, “You keep complaining about everything you see. But the Philippines is not America or the UK, so it isn’t fair to keep comparing it to them. Let me make you a deal, I will turn off the meter, this ride is free. But in return you need to allow me to give you a free tour around Marikina, entirely at my expense, to show you that there are parts of Metro Manila that are clean and organized.” This was during the time that Marikina Mayor Bayani Fernando had cleaned up Marikina to the point where it was much like a small well-off US city, maybe even better than most.

The couple was flabbergasted. I guess they realized they weren’t dealing with your typical taxi driver. So they politely declined the offer and stayed quiet the whole trip. Hopefully they got Tony’s point, and I think in the future, the Filipino woman will be more appreciative of her home country and take the good with the bad.

Tony has lots of other stories, mostly about politics, his Americanized daughter, and his admiration for former Subic Chairman Dick Gordon, but that’s for another time.

My last anecdote is about a couple I met in a party a month ago (I sent them the link to philippinevoyager so hopefully they are reading this!). The duo are a pinay named Dulce and her husband Joel, an American, and I think they have one kid together. When I told them that I had planned to return home, Dulce’s eyes lit up, “why??”, which is a response I am used to hearing. But the interesting thing is the American guy, Joel’s reaction after hearing that I wanted to return. I think he actually wanted to spend more time in the Philippines, but his wife didn’t feel the need to. When the rest of the crowd was sufficiently distracted, he confided some questions to me, some I didn’t expect and found fascinating.

He asked me what the job prospects are for me in the Philippines. I told him that Metro Manila is just like any other large city in the world, there are lots of people, lots of jobs to be had, and plentiful multinational corporations investing in it. I told him that I actually find Metro Manila to be more urbanized than most of the United States. People have this impression that the Philippines is all countryside, but anybody who has stayed in one of the major cities in the Philippines knows that this is furthest from the truth. I told him “We have high speed internet, dsl, cable, everything you are used to having in the US.”

Then he asked me this question, what do I think are the possibilities that a class revolution will occur in the Philippines, as there are a lot of poor people. I told him, yes there are definitely a lot of poor people in the Philippines, but there are also many more happy people in the country, both rich and poor. People can be poor and unemployed, yet happy as they can count on their family and friends for support. This type of thing is hard to describe to a westerner, as you really need tfo spend some time in the Philippines to relate to the culture. We have a culture wherein we are economically poor but spiritually happy, if that makes sense. Unfortunately, my conversation with Joel was cut short, but I hope was able to give him a clearer picture, and maybe it will encourage him and his wife to visit the Philippines more often.

Whether we are abroad or in our home country, it helps to think of ourselves as ambassadors of the Philippines. Foreigners and outsiders are listening, and curious to learn more about our country. Don’t hesitate to give praise when deserved and promote the good stuff and simple pleasures in our country that aren’t obvious. There is a lot that we can share to the rest of the world if they only knew. [Written by Rob dela Cruz]