Pinoys in a globalized world

Thursday, August 18. 2011

The crucial question is who are we as a people? From my personal experiences I note three prominent characteristics that are typically Pinoy.

The first one is the strong family and clan “connectedness”. Pinoys may find themselves in the remotest part of any continent or in the middle of the ocean; they may live in foreign lands for years and even centuries; yet they always find their way home, the Philippines.

But the Philippines, for most Pinoys, is not the group of islands now called the Republic of the Philippines. It is first and foremost the kin and kith – the ancestors, the clan and the family. Home is in their hearts and blood.

The powerful symbol of this ‘connectedness’ is the world famous “balikbayan boxes for ‘pasalubong’. At airports everywhere, balikbayan boxes are marks of Pinoys ‘coming home’. But these boxes also traveled by all kinds of couriers – accompanied or not - they all go to the Philippines as if the whole world is being “delivered” to the motherland box by box.

The movement is also two-way. Pinoys also “import” their closest kin and kith the very moment they get their legal papers. They begin petitioning them one at a time and soon they build a small barangay or network of kinfolks in their adopted land.

Second to family and clan is, believe it or not, patient work and discipline. You find Pinoys doing all kinds of jobs and odd jobs. They work and they are NOT beggars and they pay their taxes. In many instances, Pinoys have dual jobs and they still work on weekends! They obey rules and they are good citizens notwithstanding the Philippines’ notoriety for “palusot” and "connection".

But the real miracle is the fact that notwithstanding difficulty and hard work, they are happy. There is always a smile on their faces and there is laughter in their lives that they can even make jokes out of their tragedies! Pinoys are a happy people and a happy nation even in moments of passing insanity.

The third is faith and tradition. Pinoys are known for their belief and traditions. The Visayans bring their Santo Niño; the Tagalogs their Nazareno; Bicolanos their Peñafrancia; the Ilocanos their Santa Lucia; the Pampangos their Pedro and Santiago, and Zamboangeños their Nuestra Señora del Pilar, etc. They, too, have their Pasyon, Visita Iglesia and Misa de Gallo. These faith and tradition are uniquely Pinoys and they have become not only the soul but also the bulwark of strength against adversities and challenges, in foreign lands.

Today people admire Mother Theresa or Oscar Romero or Martin Luther King Jr. or Desmond Tutu or Nelson Mandela, or our very own Cory Aquino not because of their achievements but for the values and beliefs they stood for. They believed and lived with integrity and no embarrassment.

In similar vein, Pinoys will endure. And they are recognized by their fidelity to the values and traditions they stand for. These three values are family, joyful hard work and their faith & traditions.

Pinoys, notwithstanding the difficulties they've face, have found a way to successfully write their story line. It is the story of their family, tribe and clan. It is a “kindredness” shaped not only by blood, but also by the “ili” – the community and eco-system. And Pinoys are darn proud of their story and they share it with the world with a smile on their faces and joy in their hearts.

How overseas Filipinos can win the battle against unbearable utang

Kuwento

By Benjamin Pimentel
8:17 pm | Wednesday, August 17th, 2011


SAN FRANCISCO —Tony Ranque worked for years in Saudi Arabia where he faced a dilemma other overseas Filipinos have probably encountered: The longer he worked abroad, the bigger his debt grew.

“Imagine the worst situation, when my credit cards, all five of them, were used up to their maximum credit limits,” he told me.

Eventually, overwhelming financial burden combined with the strain of separation led to the collapse of his marriage.

Today, Tony is one of many Filipinos using their experiences to take on a pressing need: Helping other overseas Pinoys and their families become smarter with money and debt.

There’s so much to explore on this subject. Readers have helped me do just that by sharing their own stories on their struggles with financial burdens — particularly with unbearable utang.

One U.S. reader tells of a Pinay whose relationships failed over disagreements over her desire to send $700 a month to her family back home.

Another reader spoke of Filipinos who worked on cruise ships who told him how “the amount they sent [to families] amounted to nothing later on.” One of them turned to drinking to forget his anger and frustration, he said.

An OFW from Saudi also wrote me about how she moved to the Middle East in order to pay off her debts, but the process has taken longer than she expected. She’s struggling to explain to her family “why I’m not sending much,” she said.

But she’s also gearing up “toward the positive side,” she added, “after having the strength to say NO to some requests.”

By the “positive side,” she meant that state in which she’s in control of her finances. It’s an important state to be in as the world slips into another time of economic uncertainty.

Dr. Macky Galvez, a pediatrician based in Manila, spoke of his own work with OFWs and their families, in a local cooperative. That experience brought home a key realization.

“OFWs should and must undergo financial literacy to protect and harness their money which is more often lost and squandered,” he said.

Let’s affirm a key premise here: Overseas Filipinos perform a vital role by sending money back home to help their families. But there’s also a growing need for families to find better ways to manage funds coming from abroad.

And we’re not talking about totally avoiding debt. In many cases, as I’ve noted, debt is necessary to meet a need.

But there’s such a thing as smart debt and dumb debt. Worse, there is unbearable utang — debt that becomes so overwhelming that overseas Filipinos end up wearing themselves out as they find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle.

Charito Basa, an OFW advocate based in Europe, listed four general principles for overseas Filipinos and their families (which actually applies to everyone in this time of crisis):


Have a budget and stick it to it no matter what

“There’ll be special requests from family and friends that will tempt migrants to deviate from their budget,” she says. “Be firm. People will eventually understand that they are doing it for the good of everyone.”


Save first, before spending (not the other way around)

Set aside a fixed amount for savings. Charito recommends at least 10 percent of one’s income. She and Tony Ranque point to the tested formula for sound personal finance management: Income minus Savings equals Expenses.

“Saving a portion of your income is a must, not an option,” Tony says. “If you cannot develop the habit of savings which is founded on discipline, force yourself to save by getting pension plans and other types of pre-need plans.”


Have insurance (health, education, retirement, pensions)

“When done through reputable companies, insurance plans can guarantee that needs are attended professionally and that funds are available when most needed,” says Charito.


Stay away from “get-rich-quick” schemes

This rule also applies to everyone.

Imagine this: Someone’s offering you some investment plan with eye-popping returns. Sounds tempting. But the smart approach is to ask very tough, detailed questions. Or simply walk away. Chances are it’s either a wild scheme, or even a scam.

There are many groups offering financial literacy training to overseas Filipinos and their families.

Charito cites the work of Atikha Overseas Workers and Communities Initiative which gives hands-on budgeting training. The group also conducts training sessions for overseas workers on such topics as “How to say NO,” “When to say NO,” and “Why the need to say NO.”

For some Filipinos like Tony Ranque, getting out of the debt cycle meant making tough, even painful, decisions.

This happened when he turned 50 several years ago. Frustrated with the seemingly endless cycle of work and debt, he began setting a different course.

“I slowly paid all my debts until I was debt free.” He then quit his job in Saudi Arabia, and started all over — back in the Philippines.

He invested his savings, including starting an e-learning center/Internet café in his hometown in Bohol.

Tony’s story may be unique. Other Filipinos, especially those helping out families with serious needs, may have a harder time breaking out of the cycle. But his experience at least shows there’s a way out for others.

Tony eventually became a regular speaker at financial literacy seminars geared to overseas Filipinos and their families. During one seminar, he told his audience about some of his former fellow workers in Saudi Arabia who, to his surprise, asked to be rehired in that country – even after they had reached retirement age.

“Sino kaya ang mas mapalad sa ngayon? Ako na nakauwi na, na ang buhay ay halos masasabing ‘isang kahig, isang tuka?’ O iyong mga dati kong kasamahan sa Saudi na inabot na ng retirement age doon eh nagpa-rehire pa?”

(“Who’s luckier? I who was able to come home and now lives a simple life? Or my former colleagues in Saudi Arabia, who ended up working there until they retired —and now is asking to be re-hired?”)

He makes less money now than when he was working abroad, Tony told me. But he’s happier.  “I believe I am now living a more fulfilling life than ever before.”

On Twitter @KuwentoPimentel. On Facebook at facebook.com/benjaminpimentel.

Utang in America and beyond: Who’s mayabang, FilAms or OFWs?

Kuwento

By Benjamin Pimentel
3:19 pm | Saturday, August 13th, 2011 

SAN FRANCISCO—My column on indebtedness and U.S. Filipinos prompted this blunt assertion from a reader based in Saudi Arabia.

“OFW’s are not mayabang, unlike FilAms who portray themselves as mayaman, but in fact, they are rich in debt and cursed to debt to sustain their rich-like lifestyle.”

A range of responses naturally followed, including this from another reader, who also worked in Saudi Arabia, but is now based in the U.S.

“Para sa akin, working in Saudi Arabia deserves our appreciation dahil mahirap talaga ang mangibang-bayan, at tumira rin ako ng matagal sa bansang yan—it’s really hard to leave one’s country. Pero ang ayaw ko lang ay [what I don’t want is] to call us all FilAms as ‘mayabang’? That’s very unfair.”

A fair, sensible response in what was in fact was a pointless dispute. (How in the world do you measure “yabang” anyway?)

But the mini-debate does open up an opportunity to talk about such issues as money, personal finance, debt and what an increasingly gloomy global economy means for overseas Filipinos most of whom left home for a key reason: To provide for their families in the Philippines.

It’s also a chance to drill down deeper into the subject of utang and its role in the expanding world of overseas Filipinos.

As we all know, the role they play is critical.

In 2010 alone, overseas Pinoys sent roughly $19 billion, making the Philippines the fourth largest recipient of remittance funds after India, China and Mexico, according to Philippine and World Bank data.

A big chunk of that money comes from U.S. Filipinos. But the rash of bad news — the downgrade, the market freefall, high unemployment — is bad news for that money flow.

“Increasing joblessness and prolonged recession will decrease the amount of remittances as past experience shows,” my friend Richard Cavosora, a social entrepreneur and an officer at Remit4Change.

For that’s what happened in the last market slump.

When the U.S. economy hit the skids in 2008, the rate of growth of U.S. Filipino remittances fell to three percent from 16 percent the previous year, Richard said citing data from the Central Bank of the Philippines.

With the U.S. economy still struggling, remittances fell six percent, or roughly $500 million, in 2009. When the economic outlook improved, they went back up. With another downturn looming, another decline is likely.

However, Richard points to one interesting data point: When remittances from the U.S. took a hit in 2009, Pinoy remittances from other countries actually went up.

“In short, the loss from the US was made up with gains of from all other countries,” he said.

The reason is clear: the Filipino Diaspora has expanded so dramatically over the past 25 years. The Pinoy money flow has gone global!

And the flow is being fuelled by a powerful motivator.

Richard cites an academic who in a 2008 survey of Pinoy remitters here in the Bay Area, concluded Filipinos tend to have “two homes and two hearts.” That is, they live in the U.S., but still are linked, emotionally and even financially, to their hometowns.

Nearly all of those surveyed in that study — 92 percent — said they work “to earn, save, and help kin.” In fact, as I noted in a previous column, when times are tough, and their paychecks aren’t big enough, Filipinos in the U.S. even borrow just to be able to send money home.

It’s a reality that Charito Basa, who moved to Italy to work as domestic helper and then became an advocate for overseas Filipinos, has seen in Italy and other parts of Europe. It’s also a reality she finds troubling.

“I’m very alarmed on this issue, because majority of the cases we confront here are about utang!” she told me.

“Migrants save and do a lot of sacrifices,” she added. And she shares a striking insight from her interviews with community leaders in different European cities:  90 percent of their members owe money to banks, lending companies and loan sharks.

And the push to send funds back home is so great, she said, “that many domestic workers here are sending and spending more than their capacity to earn.”

It’s a troubling trend, especially in a time of grave global economic crisis.

In her work and personal life, Charito says, she has met Filipinos “who are very worried also because nakalubog na sila sa utang” — they are buried in debt.

The people Charito quotes in a 2004 study of migrant Pinoys also complain of how their hard-earned money sometimes going to waste.

“They don’t know how hard it is to earn money here,” one says.

“When I send money to my parents, I always tell them to spend it wisely because it’s not that easy to earn money here,” says another.

Charito affirmed the view that “big spending or borrowing on education is in fact investment” and so are the funds used for health care expenditures for families in the Philippines.

But there are times, she stressed, when overseas Filipinos simply take on unnecessary debt burden.  In some cases, it’s an odd, even destructive, form of yabang, she said.

“Kaya daw sila nagkakautang (the reason they go into debt) is because of the high expectations back home,” she said. ” Isinusumpa sila (they’ll be denounced) if they don’t give!”

She was speaking from experience.

In her years as an expat, she helped a brother set up an auto mechanic shop, and bought a fishing boat for another brother, and land for the family. The business ventures failed for various reasons, including neglect and mismanagement.

That was when she became interested in such issues as financial literacy and education for OFWs. Overseas Filipinos, she now believes, must set limits, must have clear, realistic goals based on how much money they can earn.

And just as important, she argues, they must also take care of themselves.

There came a point when she became so frustrated with yet another story of funds sent home by an OFW that ended up going to waste, that she told a kumadre in Rome, “That’s enough, don’t send them anything anymore. More money will go into waste! Mag-ipon ka na lang muna. Save the money first.”

But overall, her focus is for her fellow OFWs to be exposed to more financial literacy and planning.

I know others are focused on that goal too. It is a subject worth exploring in depth. If you have ideas on this subject, send me an e-mail at kuwentopimentel@gmail.com.

On Twitter @KuwentoPimentel. On Facebook at facebook.com/benjaminpimentel