Metrobank offers text notification for remittance beneficiaries

i.t. matters
Friday-Saturday April 07-08, 2006 MANILA, PHILIPPINES

Families of Filipinos living abroad can now get notices of remittance through Metrobank’s Remittance Text Alert Service.

A press statement quoted Metrobank Remittance Division head Jovencio R. Capulong as saying: "It was a logical next step, as text-messaging is a cost-effective, fast, and efficient means of notifying beneficiaries."

With the new service, remittance beneficiaries using Globe, Sun Cellular or Smart cellphones will receive a Short Message Service -- or "text" -- message informing them of their remittance.

The text alert service replaces the telegram or mail notices previously sent out to remittance beneficiaries. To experience the full benefits of this free service, remitters need only to provide the complete cellphone numbers of their beneficiaries.

Metrobank is the Philippines’ largest bank with consolidated assets of P586.5 billion as of end-2005. It has cornered a major share of the total remittance business owing to its remittance offices and partners abroad. The bank has over 800 local and international branches, offices and subsidiaries in Asia Pacific (Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Shanghai), the Americas (New York, Hawaii, New Jersey, Chicago, and the Bahamas) and Europe (London, Rome, Milan, Bologna, Madrid, Barcelona and Vienna).

http://www.itmatters.com.ph/news.php?id=040706e

3 OFW fatalities in Bahrain boat mishap named

April 01, 2006
Updated 03:31pm (Mla time)
Veronica Uy
INQ7.net

THE Department of Foreign Affairs on Saturday named the three fatalities in the Al-Dana boat mishap in Bahrain as Norman Belardo, Edwin Felipe Batacan, and Quennie Aboboto Dunca.

In a phone interview, DFA spokesman Gilberto Asuque said the Philippine embassy in Bahrain is now providing assistance to repatriate the remains of the three fatalities.

He said the office of DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. has already informed the next of kin of the three fatalities.

Asuque said Aboboto was earlier declared one of two missing Filipinos until his surviving compatriots identified his body among those of the three Filipinos who died. He said the search for the one other missing Filipino crewmember continues.

A party was being held on the floating restaurant when the boat capsized at around 9:45 p.m. local time (1845 GMT) about a mile south of the Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman bridge, which links the capital Manama with the smaller Al-Muharraq island.

Earlier, Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) officer Ramon Nerida identified the survivors as Lilia Hermoso, Bayani Hermoso, Lanette Salgado, Zegunda Siena, Hyacinth Dacay Perez, Abigail Silva, and Pamela Belardo.

Reports from Bahrain gave different figures on the fatalities. One said 48 people were killed, while Bahrain's information minister Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar said in an interview with CNN that he believed 25 Britons, 20 Filipinos, 10 Egyptian, 10 South Africans, and a number of Bahrainis were on board the boat.

The monarchy is an archipelago of 35 islands ruled by the Sunni Muslim Al-Khalifa dynasty. It has a 650,000 population, of whom 450,000 are Bahrainis.

Bahrain, which has negligible oil reserves, is the leading banking center in the Gulf, and the main base of Islamic banking in the region.

http://news.inq7.net/express/html_output/20060401-71308.xml.html

1st OFW bank for 'world's greatest workers'

First posted 04:26am (Mla time) Mar 31, 2006
By Christine Avendano
Inquirer

Editor's Note: Published on page A1 of the Mar. 31, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday announced plans to establish the first OFW bank as part of government efforts to help overseas Filipino workers remit their earnings conveniently through postal systems here and abroad, and at lower service rates.

The President said the "newest service" was an offering to "our new heroes and greatest workers in the world," who sent a record high of $11 billion in remittances to the country last year.

"So that we can help our OFWs in saving and sending their money back home, we will make the Philippine Postal Savings Bank (PPSB) an OFW bank," she said during a roundtable discussion with government officials in Malacañang.

The government-run PPSB will be renamed Philippine Overseas Postal Bank, according to its president Rolando Macasaet. The new OFW bank will be operational in three to six months, he said.

Ms Arroyo said the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) would invest P1 billion in the modernization of the PPSB facilities.

Macasaet proposed the establishment of the OFW bank at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting and this was "approved by Cabinet members," the President said.

The new bank will receive remittances sent by OFWs through postal offices abroad. It will send the money to their loved ones through automated teller machines (ATMs) that it will put up in the 2,000 post offices throughout the country.

In December 2004, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas estimated the total number of OFWs at 4.9 million, including 3.6 million on temporary employment and 1.3 million working without legal documents.

'Novel' idea

Macasaet told reporters that the bank's creation was a "novel concept," noting that OFWs currently remit their money through the existing banking system, such as through the Philippine National Bank and Allied Bank, or informal channels.

"So instead of going, say, to a branch of a certain bank, all they have to do is go [to a post office abroad], remit the money and send it here, and we receive it and we have 2,000 post offices here," he said.

"We will be radically different because we will be using the post offices abroad and we'll be using the post offices here," Macasaet said.

He said he planned to talk to Postmaster General Dario Rama so that the new OFW bank could have access to the post offices nationwide.

Negotiations will also be made with postal offices abroad, particularly in the United States, the Middle East and the European Union, to facilitate the remittances of the Filipino workers, he said.

Last year, Macasaet said the OFWs in the United States sent the biggest amount of remittances at $6 billion, followed by those in the Middle East ($1.4 billion), Europe ($1.4 billion) and Asia ($1.1 billion).

Informal channels

Through the new bank, he said, the government intended to corner 20 percent of the amount that the OFWs normally send home through informal channels. Remittances sent this way amount to $2 billion, he said.

Macasaet said the OFW bank would offer lower service fees, charging 20 to 30 percent less than what the existing banking system collected. At present, banks charge between $5 and $20 per remittance.

The new bank will also offer better foreign exchange rates compared to other banks, he said.

"When an OFW sends money, the rate is $51. They (banks) give you only P49; we'll probably give them a little more," he said.

Macasaet said the OFW bank would offer other services, such as free e-mail services in the post offices here for the families of migrant workers.

For a "minimal" fee, the families can get in touch with their loved ones through the Voice Over Internet Protocol, a new technology where they can talk with their relatives via the Internet.

Legal requirements

Right now, Macasaet said he was completing the legal requirements to set up the OFW bank. These include securing approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It will be the first time for the PPSB to venture into a project involving OFW remittances since the bank mainly deals with micro-financing and rural lending.

18 branches nationwide

PPSB has 18 branches nationwide. Last year, it earned P30 million, the same amount it made in 2004, Macasaet said.

Asked whether the new OFW bank intended to replace Philippine National Bank and other banks here, Macasaet said it would actually "complement the banks."

"We should have a bank for our new heroes, that is the objective of the President," he told reporters.

The President said the sacrifices, problems and perils faced by the OFWs abroad did not escape the notice and concern of the government.

For this reason, she said, the government intends to help them from the time they leave the country up to the time they return home.

http://news.inq7.net/thegoodnews/index.php?index=1&story_id=71153

OFW inflows spur faster growth in domestic liquidity

By Des Ferriols
The Philippine Star 04/02/2006

Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have fueled an acceleration in the country’s domestic liquidity growth, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported over the weekend.

The BSP said domestic liquidity, known as M3, grew by 9.4 percent in February, rising for the first time since it started to slow down in the latter part of 2005.

The BSP said the February growth in domestic liquidity was faster than the 8.4-percent year-on-year increase recorded in the previous month.

On a month-on-month basis, M3 grew by 1.1 percent in February following a 0.9-percent contraction last January, the BSP reported.

According to the BSP, the growth in liquidity continued to be driven by strong inflows of foreign exchange from OFW remittances and direct and portfolio investments.

The BSP said government borrowing from the domestic credit market continued to slow down as the state improved its fiscal position and reduced its need to borrow to finance its budget deficit.

The BSP reported that net lending to the public sector declined by 15.6 percent in February when the government out-performed its deficit target two months in a row this year.

On the other hand, credits to the private sector remained weak, posting a slight increase of 0.7 percent, the BSP said.

"The BSP continues to monitor the growth of domestic liquidity to ensure that it remains consistent with the BSP’s price stability objective," said BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco.

"At the same time, the BSP will continue to pursue its efforts to strengthen the banking system in order to ensure that credit activity proceeds at a pace in line with real sector activity," he added.

The growth in domestic liquidity is one of the key indicators being monitored by the BSP in determining future policy actions.

Tetangco has repeatedly hinted that the BSP’s Monetary Board is not likely to change its policy stance even with the narrowing of interest rate differential between US and domestic interest rates.

The latest increase in US federal rates brought US rates ever closer to the Philippines’ benchmark 90-day treasury bill rates but local monetary officials said the narrowing of the gap has not resulted in capital flight as investors seek better investments back in the US.

According to Tetangco, the interest rate differential is not a good guide by itself especially since the narrowing of the gap has not affected portfolio investments and the peso has remained strong despite a monetary reaction in the currency market.

The US Fedederal Reserve boosted the federal funds rate by one-quarter percentage point to 4.75 percent. This is the rate that banks charge each other on overnight loans, affecting a range of interest rates charged to consumers and businesses.

At present, the BSP’s overnight borrowing rate is at 7.50 percent and the lending rate is at 9.75 percent. But the actual benchmark rate is now at 4.978 percent for the 90-day treasury notes.

The market is expecting the BSP to finally take action as US rates increased, but Tetangco said the BSP’s inflation-driven policy stance need not change especially since inflation pressure is projected to ease in the second half of the year.

"We are projecting that our inflation rate would begin to ease in the second half of the year and there is a continued slowdown in domestic liquidity growth on top of that," Tetangco said.

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/news200604020701.htm

Cabinet okays creation of bank for OFWs

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo disclosed yesterday that the Cabinet has approved the conversion of the Philippine Postal Bank into the Overseas Filipino Workers Bank to give OFWs an alternative channel for remitting their dollar earnings to their families back  home at lower services fees.

As approved during the Cabinet meeting Tuesday upon recommendation of Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will infuse a P1 billion equity into the Postal Bank, which is now owned by the Philippine Postal Corp.

"The infusion of fresh capital will enable the bank to modernize its facilities to enable it to receive remittances of earnings of overseas workers," the President told a roundtable discussion telecast over NBN-4.

Mrs. Arroyo boasted that the OWWA has chalked up an P8 billion surplus last year compared to a net loss before she came into power.

OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque said that at present, commercial banks charge from $5 to $20 per dollar remittance of OFWs. He said the

OFWs would naturally prefer to remit their money through banks that charge less service fees.

"That is the newest kind of service that we are trying to extend to our overseas workers, our modern-day heroes­the machinery of the Postal Bank which we want to transform into an OFW Bank," the President said.

The President noted that OFWs from all over the world remitted a total of $11 billion to the Philippines last year the biggest amount  of remittance so far by those workers group.

She said the increased remittances from OFWs and inflow of foreign investments were the biggest factors for the strengthening of the peso and the hike in the international dollar reserves to $20 billion as of the end of 2005.

"We need to boost our dollar reserves to maintain the stability of the peso. We should have at least $15 billion to $16 billion reserves. But our reserves have exceeded $2 billion," the President said.

Mrs. Arroyo said that the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency and OWWA have taken steps to improve the services to OFWs before they

Leave the country and upon their return.

She said OFWs can now borrow up to P40,000 from the OWWA fund to finance their overseas placement. She said the OWWA also extends assistance to OFWs' who are victims of abusive recruiters and employers, who have contracted ailments and who have been jailed for criminal offenses.

Last year alone, more than 50,000 OFWs who were maltreated by their employers were assisted by the government. This included 97 workers who were jailed in Saudi Arabia.

The President said the government is also helping the OFWs in investing their money in various kinds of enterprises.

She said the entry of the proposed OFWs' bank into the remittance business will also boost the government's campaign to encourage workers to save their income.

Meanwhile, the President said she has authorized the allocation of P500 million for government scholarships to high school graduates  who will take up vocational courses to fill the demand of the industries for workers who are well-trained for technical jobs. The President said the fund will be channeled to state colleges and universities.

Other guests in the roundtable discussion were POEA Deputy Administrator Ramon Tionloc, Philippine Postal Bank president Rolando Macasaet, Industrial Management and Personnel Services president Angelito Hernandez and OFW Rodolfo Estrada, business manager of the Disney Magical Cruise of Florida.

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page==politics02_mar31_2006

OFW inflows spur faster growth in domestic liquidity

By Des Ferriols
The Philippine Star 04/02/2006

Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have fueled an acceleration in the country’s domestic liquidity growth, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported over the weekend.

The BSP said domestic liquidity, known as M3, grew by 9.4 percent in February, rising for the first time since it started to slow down in the latter part of 2005.

The BSP said the February growth in domestic liquidity was faster than the 8.4-percent year-on-year increase recorded in the previous month.

On a month-on-month basis, M3 grew by 1.1 percent in February following a 0.9-percent contraction last January, the BSP reported.

According to the BSP, the growth in liquidity continued to be driven by strong inflows of foreign exchange from OFW remittances and direct and portfolio investments.

The BSP said government borrowing from the domestic credit market continued to slow down as the state improved its fiscal position and reduced its need to borrow to finance its budget deficit.

The BSP reported that net lending to the public sector declined by 15.6 percent in February when the government out-performed its deficit target two months in a row this year.

On the other hand, credits to the private sector remained weak, posting a slight increase of 0.7 percent, the BSP said.

"The BSP continues to monitor the growth of domestic liquidity to ensure that it remains consistent with the BSP’s price stability objective," said BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco.

"At the same time, the BSP will continue to pursue its efforts to strengthen the banking system in order to ensure that credit activity proceeds at a pace in line with real sector activity," he added.

The growth in domestic liquidity is one of the key indicators being monitored by the BSP in determining future policy actions.

Tetangco has repeatedly hinted that the BSP’s Monetary Board is not likely to change its policy stance even with the narrowing of interest rate differential between US and domestic interest rates.

The latest increase in US federal rates brought US rates ever closer to the Philippines’ benchmark 90-day treasury bill rates but local monetary officials said the narrowing of the gap has not resulted in capital flight as investors seek better investments back in the US.

According to Tetangco, the interest rate differential is not a good guide by itself especially since the narrowing of the gap has not affected portfolio investments and the peso has remained strong despite a monetary reaction in the currency market.

The US Fedederal Reserve boosted the federal funds rate by one-quarter percentage point to 4.75 percent. This is the rate that banks charge each other on overnight loans, affecting a range of interest rates charged to consumers and businesses.

At present, the BSP’s overnight borrowing rate is at 7.50 percent and the lending rate is at 9.75 percent. But the actual benchmark rate is now at 4.978 percent for the 90-day treasury notes.

The market is expecting the BSP to finally take action as US rates increased, but Tetangco said the BSP’s inflation-driven policy stance need not change especially since inflation pressure is projected to ease in the second half of the year.

"We are projecting that our inflation rate would begin to ease in the second half of the year and there is a continued slowdown in domestic liquidity growth on top of that," Tetangco said.

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/news200604020701.htm

Peso rallies on strong OFW remittances

this story was taken from www.inq7money.net
URL: http://money.inq7.net/topstories/view_topstories.php?yyyy=2006&mon=04&dd=05&file=1

Peso rallies on strong OFW remittances
Posted: 2:09 AM Apr. 05, 2006
Doris C. Dumlao
Inquirer

THE PESO on Tuesday rallied to within the 50-to-the-dollar level before closing at 51.45 on strong money remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) ahead of the opening of a new school year in June and on rosier prospects on the government's finances, analysts.

News of the government's plan to buy back Brady bonds -- similar to the strategy adopted by Latin American countries, like Mexico, Brazil and Colombia -- also boosted confidence in the government's financial position, they said.

The peso opened trading Tuesday at 51.03 to the dollar and breached the 51.00 barrier to hit an intra-day high of 50.95 before closing near the intra-day low of 51.05 to the greenback.

The volume of trading amounted to $626.5 million.

"The offshore market is bullish on the Philippines. They're even more bullish than the locals," said Marcelo Ayes, chief foreign exchange dealer at Equitable PCIBank.

Jonathan Ravelas, chief strategist at Banco de Oro Universal Bank, said. "We're looking at 50.50 to the dollar" as the next target rate, given strong OFW remittances ahead of tuition payments starting this month.

OFW remittances are strong in April and May in time for tuition payments for the school year that starts in June.

Ayes said the recent peso upward trend appeared sustainable and the next key barriers would be 50.80 and 50.50 to the dollar.

The peso also benefited Tuesday from a strong regional currency market as the US dollar fell after release of weak US manufacturing data.

The peso broke into the level of 50.00 to the dollar for the first time this year on March 7, on a strong influx of foreign portfolio investments. At that time, the market suspected that the central bank was starting to intervene to stem the peso's sharp rise by buying dollars on the spot market.

Ayes said the market was perked up by expectations that the government's main revenue-collecting agencies -- the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs -- likely met their collection targets in March.

He added that the proposed Brady bond buyback sent positive signals because it meant that the government was in a stable financial position to afford prepaying the bonds, some of which are to mature in 2018.

"That's why interest rates are likewise going down," he said. With INQ7.net

OFW inflows boost peso

By Des Ferriols
The Philippine Star 04/05/2006

Strong inflows from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) sent the peso hitting beyond the 51-to-$1 mark yesterday, touching a high of 50.95 during intraday trading before closing at 51.045 to a dollar.

The peso has been trading sideways for about a month but the market saw strong inflows from OFWs yesterday, possibly in anticipation of the reopening of classes in June.

The inflow of OFW remittances washed over the dollar demand which is usually weak this time of month anyway.

The local currency last showed this much strength in March 7 this year when the exchange rate hit an intraday high of 50.88 to the dollar.

The peso has appreciated by as much as 4.2 percent so far this year and despite some issues in the political front, the financial market is still upbeat over the country’s economic fundamentals.

Market sources said strong economic fundamentals had fanned more optimism in the market, especially after the Arroyo administration reported that its consolidated deficit was even better- than- expected.

Inflation was also expected to slowdown in March as local oil prices eased.

OFW inflows are usually strongest in March as families spend for graduations and in May when workers send more money in preparation for the reopening of schools in June. OFW remittances pick up again towards the Christmas holidays.

With strong inflows and moderate corporate demand combined with market optimism, BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco said the peso would continue to find support over the next few weeks.

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/news200604050701.htm

Thousands of nurses leave RP yearly

April 07, 2006
Updated 08:01pm (Mla time)

Agence France-Presse

NURSES and other medical workers are leaving the Philippines at the rate of at least 15,000 a year for better-paying jobs abroad, threatening the country's health infrastructure, World Health Organization (WHO) officials warned Friday.

"It is a serious, serious situation," WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley said, noting that even Filipino doctors abandon their practices and go back to medical schools to enroll in nursing courses.

The number is more than any other country, with the United States, Britain and lately Australia the main destinations.

WHO country representative Jean Marc Olive warned that the exodus was expected to persist until 2015, with annual demand for medical workers in the United States and Europe estimated to be about 800,000.

"In the Philippines the shortage of nurses is starting to be felt, therefore it's a pressing issue that needs to be addressed, but not the quick fix solutions," Olive told a news conference.

He urged the government to "look into the needs of the health workers" and adopt plans to convince them to stay.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque acknowledged the problem, estimating that 85 percent of the country's nurses have left the Philippines, where four in 10 people live on two dollars a day or less.

Medical workers started to go overseas in large numbers when the country's mass labor export program began in the 1970s.

The temporary workers, along with Filipinos living permanently in wealthier countries, sent back a record 10.7 billion dollars to their families in the Philippines through the formal banking system last year, the Central Bank said.

Duque said the government would support proposals to enact a law that would require fresh graduates from nursing and medical schools to stay in the country for between six months and one year before they are allowed to practice abroad.

He said the state-run lottery, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), has pledged to finance a scholarship program to put about 100 students through medical school every year.

The lottery has budgeted 252 million pesos (4.93 million dollars), enough for 6,000 students, he added.

"The first batch will enter this June," Duque added.

http://news.inq7.net/express/html_output/20060407-71989.xml.html

Philippines seeks relaxed immigration policies for OFWs

04/08 1:56:17 PM

The Philippines has proposed to labor receiving countries the relaxation of immigration policies to enable migrant workers including the overseas Filipino workers (OFWS), to apply for new jobs before the expiration of the workers' employment contracts.

In a speech at the recent International Conference on Migration and Development in Brussels, Labor and Employment Secretary Patricia A. Sto. Tomas proposed the removal of the so-called 'barriers' to the movement of migrants in host countries to maximize the migrants' contributions to development.

The barriers pertain to immigration policies, quotas on certain professions or occupations, and employment contracts that explicitly restrict migrant workers from applying for a new job once the current contract ends, Sto. Tomas said.

She added that the absence of rules on the mutual recognition of skills and qualifications also limit the mobility of migrant workers across countries.

The barriers to the entry to and exit from certain occupations and geographical locations tend to limit the migrant workers' capacity to fully contribute to development, the Labor Chief said.

In contrast, countries which allow migrants to thrive in their territories in recognition of their huge economic contributions, have proven to rise and be included among the most economically successful, Sto. Tomas said.

Countries with the high levels of immigrant workers such as the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Germany, Switzerland, and Luxembourg in Europe are now among the wealthiest in the world, she said, even as she called on host countries to ensure good working conditions for migrant workers.

For migrant workers to be productive contributors to the receiving country, they should be guaranteed with decent employment terms and conditions such as commensurable wages and work environment that provide for rest and recreation, social protection, and political participation, Sto. Tomas further said.

The DOLE chief also proposed for the development of terms of reference that would govern the movement of irregular workers to address legal norms and the lack of administrative resources that make the repatriation of irregular migrants difficult.

For instance, she said that migrant workers with irregular status could earn the right to have their statues legalized if they met minimum conditions such as being gainfully employed and found to have made an effort to integrate with the host country's social mainstream like learning the language.

The Secretary added that host countries would be better off regularizing the status of migrant workers they cannot send back home.

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/NEWS_FLASH040820066919_8.htm

Fil-Am comes home to invest in country's human capital

this story was taken from www.inq7money.net
URL: http://money.inq7.net/topstories/view_topstories.php?yyyy=2006&mon=04&dd=23&file=4
Fil-Am comes home to invest in country's human capital
Posted: 5:20 AM Apr. 23, 2006

Inquirer

(Published on page B3 of the April 23, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

FILIPINO-American Michael "Mike" Rivera came back to the Philippines last September and was floored by the country's teeming talent that he decided to put up the first offshore company that exclusively catered to employee benefits administration here.

Rivera is the president of ProView Global, a company under the US-based ProView Administration, one of the leading employee benefits outsourcing firms in the United States whose clients include leading hospitals, hotels, and manufacturing and real estate companies.

He was in that industry for over 17 years and has helped developed one of the United States' first systems for HMO Management, working extensively with Fortune 500 companies for over a decade.

"I realized that there was an incredible amount of untapped human capital here," says Rivera, who left the country in 1979. "I read and witnessed the exodus of talent from this country, as I refer to as 'brain drain' in search of better opportunities. That's when I realized that what this country needed were investments to create better job opportunities."

When his family first migrated to Seattle, Washington, he experienced the stigma of racial discrimination as he and his siblings were the only Asian kids in their community.

"I overcame this by focusing on my education," Rivera says. "I remember feeling particularly proud in receiving high honors for US History and English. In a way, I wanted to prove to everybody that I could be better at their own language and their own history."

When he finally finished high school, Rivera's family couldn't afford to send him through college.

"I got a partial scholarship in computer science in one of the smaller colleges in the Seattle, Washington, but I had to turn it down. I just felt that it wasn't the thing for me," he says.

As fate would have it, Rivera made the right decision since he eventually got the opportunity to get the college degree he wanted.

Rivera joined the Marines at 17 despite his mother's objections.

Out of the 160 recruits, only 80 of them graduated. "And I was at the top of my class," Rivera says.

It was this experience in the Marines, he says, that taught him discipline, goal setting, and determination.

Right after college, Rivera was hired as an administrative assistant for an insurance company and eventually went on to work for a firm that handled employee benefits management, one of the biggest industries in the United States right now.

Employee benefits administration involves the handling of the insurance benefits of a company's workforce. In the United States, much like here, medical and other benefits are generally provided for by employers, and the cost of administering these benefits can be quite high. These benefits range from the traditional medical and dental benefits to the more complex Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (Cobra) that provide a continuation of health care coverage even after an employee has left a company.

Prior to joining ProView, Rivera was the National Leader of Supply Chain Management for the Group and Health Care practice at Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

Last year, Rivera decided to come home for the first time in over 20 years.

"I was reading some business papers that time and I realized that the country had a significant amount of intellectual capital here," he says.

This made him decide to create what he calls a "win-win" situation for both ProView and his (home) country.

"Employee benefits administration is highly labor-intensive. Seeing that the Filipinos here can replicate if not surpass the quality of work that we have in the US, I decided that I'd wanted to provide opportunities for the talent here," Rivera says.

And he is not just talking about providing opportunities for his countrymen, but giving them better salary deals as well.

"I wanted to make sure that ProView paid more than the prevailing wages. Our staff's salaries, depending on the role, can be as much as 30% more than the current market average compensation rates. Our human capital strategy is to attract the highest caliber of talent, who will provide more quality service to our customers and at the same time create a much more loyal human capital asset base. The way you take care of your employees will exactly be the same they would take care of your clients.," Rivera explains, adding that he is aware that most business process outsourcing companies in the country have a relatively high turnover rate, something he is looking to change.

ProView, which has started operations about a month ago, currently has 20 employees whose ages range from 20 to 45.