Posted by Online on Oct 26th, 2011
Manila, Philippines – The Saudi Arabian Labor Ministry is poised to
put a ceiling on remittances by foreign migrant workers to protect the
economy of the oil-rich kingdom.
According to reports, Labor Minister Adel Fakieh disclosed early this
week the plan to introduce a so-called “salary protection” program.
Under the new program, expatriate workers must keep the bulk of their
salaries within the country.
“About nine out of 10 workers in the country are foreigners,” Fakieh
was quoted by local newspapers as saying. “This has led to millions of
riyals being transferred back to their home countries, harming the local
economy.”
Based on available data, migrant workers in Saudi Arabia were able to
send home an estimated 98.2 billion Saudi rials, roughly $26.2 billion,
in remittances last year, almost double the value of remittances in
2005.
Remittances to the Philippines from Saudi Arabia amounted to $1.544
billion in 2010 or around 8.2 percent of the cumulative $18.763 billion
in cash sent home by all overseas Filipino workers from around the
world, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) statistics.
Remittances to Pakistan from July to September this year from Saudi
Arabia amounted to $854.18 million, according to the State Bank of
Pakistan.
India was the world’s largest remittance recipient in 2010 with $55
billion transferred to India by expatriates. The Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) contributed 30 percent of India’s total remittances.
Egypt, which counts remittances as among its top sources of hard
currency along with tourism and Suez Canal receipts, got $1 billion in
remittances from Saudi Arabia in the last fiscal year. (Roy C. Mabasa)
http://bit.ly/vZ5pUi
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Why a department for OFW’s
Posted by Online on Oct 26th, 2011
MANILA, Philippines — Last month, the remains of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) arrived in Manila and official reports declared her death a year ago in Saudi Arabia as a suicide. But, when the body was embalmed, the family learned that some of her internal organs were missing.
In March of this year, three OFWs were executed in China for drug smuggling. News reports, citing government data, said about 500 other Filipinos were languishing in various jails abroad for drug-related crimes and that there thousands more for other offenses.
Some people may say that the number of OFWs in jails in other countries is just a small part of the 10 million Filipinos working and living abroad. And they may treat my proposal for an executive department to handle OFW issues as nothing more than an emotional appeal.
I disagree. There are other factors which have prompted me to propose a Cabinet-level agency to handle OFW affairs.
Why, in the first place, do we have three press secretaries with Cabinet rank but we cannot have one for OFWs? I am not even asking for an increase in the number of the departments in the Executive Branch. What I am proposing is a re-prioritization, because many decades ago, when the departments were being organized, there were only a few Filipinos working abroad. The term overseas Filipino worker came later.
Now, setting aside the emotional or social concerns regarding OFWs and their families, let’s talk about the country’s economy and the role that OFWs play in its growth.
Our economy received more than $18 billion in remittances from OFWs last year, notwithstanding the conflicts in the Middle East, the disasters in Japan and the economic problems of the US and Europe.
According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, remittances for the eight months to August this year totaled $13.02 billion, up 6.9 percent from the same period last year. Last August alone, the remittances amounted to $1.67 billion, up 11.1 percent from $1.5 billion in the same month last year. This was the fastest pace of growth in 18 months.
The BSP said it expected OFW remittances, which fuel domestic consumption and support the peso and the balance of payments, to grow by 7 percent this year despite the anticipated slowdown in overall economic growth.
These OFW remittances are in cold cash, not loans that need government debt service. On the other hand, we got less than $2 billion in foreign direct investments last year, and we’ll be lucky to get more this year given the slump in the global economy.
We have a growing tourism industry, but it is beaten by OFWs for which we should have an executive department, from a purely financial point of view.
As I have said we have 10 million OFWs. On the other hand, we got about three million tourists a year. OFWs also beat the information and communications technology (ICT), which has been taken out of the Department of Transportation and Communications, in line with proposals for its elevation into a department level.
I’m not against having departments for tourism and ICT because we need to promote these industries, too. But I firmly believe that OFWs deserve no less better treatment considering their contributions to the economy.
Less we forget, the remittances from OFWs saved our economy from collapse not once but several times, from the first oil crisis in the seventies, the debt moratorium in the early eighties, the Asian financial crisis in 1997 to the global crisis in 2008.
About two-thirds of the world, including the United States and Japan, went into recession in 2009, and yet the Philippines managed to grow about 1% because the OFWs kept on sending precious dollars home which fueled consumption.
In fact, the remittances continue to drive the growth of the retailing, services and real estate industries and allied businesses. The remittances are also the main reason why the Philippine peso has remained strong in the currency markets.
Clearly, right now the single biggest thing going for our country is our OFWs.
With the growing fears that the global economy may enter another period of recession, our economy will continue to rely on the remittances of our OFWs to keep it afloat and, hopefully, sustain growth.
Viewed from any perspective, our OFWs deserve a Cabinet-level secretary to look after their interests.
Perhaps, some agencies, or even a department, may be dissolved to make way for a department for OFWs, our modern-day heroes.
(For feedback: mbv_secretariat@yahoo.com)
http://www.tempo.com.ph/2011/why-a-department-for-ofws/#.Tqe-7lbIFWY
MANILA, Philippines — Last month, the remains of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) arrived in Manila and official reports declared her death a year ago in Saudi Arabia as a suicide. But, when the body was embalmed, the family learned that some of her internal organs were missing.
In March of this year, three OFWs were executed in China for drug smuggling. News reports, citing government data, said about 500 other Filipinos were languishing in various jails abroad for drug-related crimes and that there thousands more for other offenses.
Some people may say that the number of OFWs in jails in other countries is just a small part of the 10 million Filipinos working and living abroad. And they may treat my proposal for an executive department to handle OFW issues as nothing more than an emotional appeal.
I disagree. There are other factors which have prompted me to propose a Cabinet-level agency to handle OFW affairs.
Why, in the first place, do we have three press secretaries with Cabinet rank but we cannot have one for OFWs? I am not even asking for an increase in the number of the departments in the Executive Branch. What I am proposing is a re-prioritization, because many decades ago, when the departments were being organized, there were only a few Filipinos working abroad. The term overseas Filipino worker came later.
Now, setting aside the emotional or social concerns regarding OFWs and their families, let’s talk about the country’s economy and the role that OFWs play in its growth.
Our economy received more than $18 billion in remittances from OFWs last year, notwithstanding the conflicts in the Middle East, the disasters in Japan and the economic problems of the US and Europe.
According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, remittances for the eight months to August this year totaled $13.02 billion, up 6.9 percent from the same period last year. Last August alone, the remittances amounted to $1.67 billion, up 11.1 percent from $1.5 billion in the same month last year. This was the fastest pace of growth in 18 months.
The BSP said it expected OFW remittances, which fuel domestic consumption and support the peso and the balance of payments, to grow by 7 percent this year despite the anticipated slowdown in overall economic growth.
These OFW remittances are in cold cash, not loans that need government debt service. On the other hand, we got less than $2 billion in foreign direct investments last year, and we’ll be lucky to get more this year given the slump in the global economy.
We have a growing tourism industry, but it is beaten by OFWs for which we should have an executive department, from a purely financial point of view.
As I have said we have 10 million OFWs. On the other hand, we got about three million tourists a year. OFWs also beat the information and communications technology (ICT), which has been taken out of the Department of Transportation and Communications, in line with proposals for its elevation into a department level.
I’m not against having departments for tourism and ICT because we need to promote these industries, too. But I firmly believe that OFWs deserve no less better treatment considering their contributions to the economy.
Less we forget, the remittances from OFWs saved our economy from collapse not once but several times, from the first oil crisis in the seventies, the debt moratorium in the early eighties, the Asian financial crisis in 1997 to the global crisis in 2008.
About two-thirds of the world, including the United States and Japan, went into recession in 2009, and yet the Philippines managed to grow about 1% because the OFWs kept on sending precious dollars home which fueled consumption.
In fact, the remittances continue to drive the growth of the retailing, services and real estate industries and allied businesses. The remittances are also the main reason why the Philippine peso has remained strong in the currency markets.
Clearly, right now the single biggest thing going for our country is our OFWs.
With the growing fears that the global economy may enter another period of recession, our economy will continue to rely on the remittances of our OFWs to keep it afloat and, hopefully, sustain growth.
Viewed from any perspective, our OFWs deserve a Cabinet-level secretary to look after their interests.
Perhaps, some agencies, or even a department, may be dissolved to make way for a department for OFWs, our modern-day heroes.
(For feedback: mbv_secretariat@yahoo.com)
http://www.tempo.com.ph/2011/why-a-department-for-ofws/#.Tqe-7lbIFWY
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Ex-OFW cuts a sure path to success
|
 |
| Julito "Boyaks" Malinao's passion has always been in beauty. |
It is very difficult for Julito “Boyaks” Maliano of Bogo City, Cebu to find any spare time these days.
Between running his busy Boyaks Malinao Hair Salon, which is always teeming with people who want their hair cut or nails cleaned, and looking for new places to expand to, the former overseas Filipino worker has his hands full.
It was not always this way, and the 43-year-old graduate of the University of Mindanao still can’t believe how much he has already achieved.
Boyaks is actually a broadcast technician by profession, but his passion has always been in beauty.
He remembers how, when he was still in high school, he would go to a beauty parlor near his school to observe how the salon experts cut people’s hair. Later, when he entered the University of Mindanao, he took up formal hairdressing and hairstyling training courses.
It was those skills that enabled him to go to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1993 to work as resident hairstylist for VIP Salon. He stayed there for five years, earning a monthly pay of just $75, which he sent home. He then went to London in 2000 and stayed there for four years, working at the Chelsea Salon.
As the family breadwinner, Boyaks supported his siblings and financed his father’s expensive cirrhosis treatment and hospitalization. His father eventually passed away and that contributed to his decision to come back home for good in January 2005 and set up his own business.
He figured that he should work hard for himself and his family, not for somebody else. With P50,000 in savings accumulated from years of working abroad, Boyaks opened his salon in Bogo in June 2005 and his flair and style immediately got the public’s support, making his little salon with two workers an instant hit.
Just two months after setting up, he moved to a bigger location. Then he moved to an even bigger one in July 2007 to accommodate his increasing legion of customers, who get world-class treatment at affordable prices. Allowing him to expand are loans from the First Agro-Industrial Rural Bank, Inc., that saw his potential for growth. His first loan amounted to just P15,000, which later expanded to P50,000. He has never missed a payment on the loans he used as additional capital.
Such a feat did not go unnoticed, and Boyaks was given a special citation in 2008 during the Citi Microentrepreneur of the Year awards as a model OFW because he was able to establish a successful enterprise using skills that he carefully honed during his long years as an OFW.
Boyaks Salon today grosses P4,000 to P5,000 a day and a net income of at least P35,000 a month. His employees get the half of the fee for haircuts and 40% for other services, and the compensation scheme allows him to keep good people to help service customers.
The rest of his money goes to supporting his nephews and nieces, his mother and the construction of his dream house.
Boyaks has already been able to buy his own car and says he is very grateful for the fact that because of his salon, he can now afford to buy things he used to just wish for. He also relishes the opportunity to give livelihood to others.
http://bit.ly/nCPLAI
Between running his busy Boyaks Malinao Hair Salon, which is always teeming with people who want their hair cut or nails cleaned, and looking for new places to expand to, the former overseas Filipino worker has his hands full.
It was not always this way, and the 43-year-old graduate of the University of Mindanao still can’t believe how much he has already achieved.
Boyaks is actually a broadcast technician by profession, but his passion has always been in beauty.
He remembers how, when he was still in high school, he would go to a beauty parlor near his school to observe how the salon experts cut people’s hair. Later, when he entered the University of Mindanao, he took up formal hairdressing and hairstyling training courses.
It was those skills that enabled him to go to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1993 to work as resident hairstylist for VIP Salon. He stayed there for five years, earning a monthly pay of just $75, which he sent home. He then went to London in 2000 and stayed there for four years, working at the Chelsea Salon.
As the family breadwinner, Boyaks supported his siblings and financed his father’s expensive cirrhosis treatment and hospitalization. His father eventually passed away and that contributed to his decision to come back home for good in January 2005 and set up his own business.
He figured that he should work hard for himself and his family, not for somebody else. With P50,000 in savings accumulated from years of working abroad, Boyaks opened his salon in Bogo in June 2005 and his flair and style immediately got the public’s support, making his little salon with two workers an instant hit.
Just two months after setting up, he moved to a bigger location. Then he moved to an even bigger one in July 2007 to accommodate his increasing legion of customers, who get world-class treatment at affordable prices. Allowing him to expand are loans from the First Agro-Industrial Rural Bank, Inc., that saw his potential for growth. His first loan amounted to just P15,000, which later expanded to P50,000. He has never missed a payment on the loans he used as additional capital.
Such a feat did not go unnoticed, and Boyaks was given a special citation in 2008 during the Citi Microentrepreneur of the Year awards as a model OFW because he was able to establish a successful enterprise using skills that he carefully honed during his long years as an OFW.
Boyaks Salon today grosses P4,000 to P5,000 a day and a net income of at least P35,000 a month. His employees get the half of the fee for haircuts and 40% for other services, and the compensation scheme allows him to keep good people to help service customers.
The rest of his money goes to supporting his nephews and nieces, his mother and the construction of his dream house.
Boyaks has already been able to buy his own car and says he is very grateful for the fact that because of his salon, he can now afford to buy things he used to just wish for. He also relishes the opportunity to give livelihood to others.
http://bit.ly/nCPLAI
Seaman gives up the ocean for the farm
|
 |
| By 2006, Ananias Cuñado was earning from the full potential of his farm and there was no going back for him |
Going back to the farm where he grew up was not part of Ananias R. Cuñado's grand plan.
He had studied to be a seaman and plying the seven seas became his trade, thinking that it was his ticket out of poverty. But after five long, hard years at sea, he decided to stay put on dry land.
With savings from working as a seaman for five years, Cuñado initially tried his hand at rice farming and small scale mining. But because he lacked the knowledge he needed to make his ventures work, they eventually failed.
And so to the sea he returned, but it did not help improve his family's circumstances. Faced with no other option, he decided in 2002 to give farming another chance in Compostella Valley.
But this time, he did not go in blind. Rather, he went into cultivating the five-hectare coconut farm that his father had left him armed with as much knowledge he could get his hands on. Slowly, he rehabilitated the coconut farm.
Ananias added to his traditional farming knowledge by attending the seminar on diversified farming organized by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) in 2003.
He immediately applied the valuable lessons he had earned on his own coconut farm. And he was not out to just make his land more productive. He wanted so much more. Ananias was determined to do his best and turn his farm lot into a multi-crop coconut farm, similar to what he saw during his farm visits.
Ananias lost no time going about his improvements and in just a year, he was able to intercrop with lakatan and cardaba bananas, lanzones, durian, cacao and ginger, thus immediately raising the family’s income.
By 2006, he was earning from the full potential of his farm and there was no going back for him.
He then ventured into processing coconut byproducts upon the suggestion of the PCA. He learned from PCA the profit potential of using an igloo-type charcoal kiln to transform coconut shells into charcoal.
Today, he processes at least 180,000 nuts into charcoal every quarter, which is immediately bought by the community. Not only that, he also makes broom from the coconut fronds and vinegar from coconut water.
Because he stuck it out in the farm, Ananias is now a proud father of three registered nurses and a computer technology graduate. He has also adopted three agriculture experts who help him in the farm.
This is part of his new grand plan to become the best and most productive coconut farmer he can be.
http://bit.ly/p4pXhI
He had studied to be a seaman and plying the seven seas became his trade, thinking that it was his ticket out of poverty. But after five long, hard years at sea, he decided to stay put on dry land.
With savings from working as a seaman for five years, Cuñado initially tried his hand at rice farming and small scale mining. But because he lacked the knowledge he needed to make his ventures work, they eventually failed.
And so to the sea he returned, but it did not help improve his family's circumstances. Faced with no other option, he decided in 2002 to give farming another chance in Compostella Valley.
But this time, he did not go in blind. Rather, he went into cultivating the five-hectare coconut farm that his father had left him armed with as much knowledge he could get his hands on. Slowly, he rehabilitated the coconut farm.
Ananias added to his traditional farming knowledge by attending the seminar on diversified farming organized by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) in 2003.
He immediately applied the valuable lessons he had earned on his own coconut farm. And he was not out to just make his land more productive. He wanted so much more. Ananias was determined to do his best and turn his farm lot into a multi-crop coconut farm, similar to what he saw during his farm visits.
Ananias lost no time going about his improvements and in just a year, he was able to intercrop with lakatan and cardaba bananas, lanzones, durian, cacao and ginger, thus immediately raising the family’s income.
By 2006, he was earning from the full potential of his farm and there was no going back for him.
He then ventured into processing coconut byproducts upon the suggestion of the PCA. He learned from PCA the profit potential of using an igloo-type charcoal kiln to transform coconut shells into charcoal.
Today, he processes at least 180,000 nuts into charcoal every quarter, which is immediately bought by the community. Not only that, he also makes broom from the coconut fronds and vinegar from coconut water.
Because he stuck it out in the farm, Ananias is now a proud father of three registered nurses and a computer technology graduate. He has also adopted three agriculture experts who help him in the farm.
This is part of his new grand plan to become the best and most productive coconut farmer he can be.
http://bit.ly/p4pXhI
Ex-OFW wins big fight vs big C
By GoNegosyo
(philstar.com) Updated September 28, 2011 04:23 PM
 |
| Mang Lino did not let leukemia get in the way of his dreams for his family. |
Being sick is no excuse to just lie down and rely on
others to feed you and provide your other basic needs, even if it is as
serious as leukemia.
Just look at Elino Andres, who was not only able to find ways to keep his rare form of blood cancer at bay, but used his condition as inspiration to establish a business and make it flourish.
Mang Lino, 63, and his wife were working in the Middle East until 2001 when Mang Lino had to come home because he was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer that sapped his strength.
“I really cried because we had little money and I wanted an education for my children,” says Mang Lino in Filipino.
Despite their dire straits, Mang Lino did not lose hope. And he found ways and means to help him cover his considerable medical expenses and get his strength back.
And instead of just relying on his wife, who had a job in Metro Manila, he ventured on businesses of his own, starting with a kariton or cart filled with about P600 worth of food and snack items he parked in between the public elementary and high schools near his home.
“Once I make money in the morning, I would go back to buy more items, then go back and sell again,” shares Mang Lino, who used his income to buy some medicine, help put food on the table and increase his capital for the food cart.
Then
in December 2006, he got much needed help from Bangko Kabayan, which
provided him with a small loan of P5,000 to augment his capital. He
immediately bought more goods to sell, enabling him to pay it back in
three months as stated in the loan agreement.
As he gained more strength, his business became bigger. From a pushcart, he got a small tricycle, which allowed him to sell items not just in front of the school but also around the neighborhood. Eggs, bread, dried fish, noodles, coffee were among the best sellers.
He even participated in the “Business on Wheels” promo of Nestle Corp. He was lent a motorcycle that he used to sell Nestle products around town and in neighboring villages. Later, he did his own version so that he could sell even non-Nestle products.
Such a fast revenue turnover eventually allowed Mang Lino to expand his business and aggressively pursue his “Text Mo, Deliver Ko” service for sarisari store owners, through which they could just text the items they need from the town center that Mang Lino will deliver in a few days.
From his sales, he was able to put the finishing touches to his home and complete the education of his children.
These days, he and one of his daughters who had just finished her nursing course are busy with an eatery in front of their home to service the laborers who are busy with a major real estate development.
“They have around 40 workers and they will stay for about five years, so they will need an eatery,” says Mang Lino, as he points to his carinderia selling bread, rice and viands, soft drinks, as well as cigarettes and snack items.
Many are amazed at how much Mang Lino has been able to achieve despite his sickness that keeps him at less than 100%. He was even named an inspiring entrepreneur during the Citi Microentrepreneur of the Year Awards of 2008.
Mang Lino says all these were made possible by unwavering faith in a higher power that always looks out for him and his family.
“This is what I teach people in Sunday school, that if they look to Him for help and they work hard enough, then blessings will follow,” says Mang Lino.
http://bit.ly/oqFTdp
Just look at Elino Andres, who was not only able to find ways to keep his rare form of blood cancer at bay, but used his condition as inspiration to establish a business and make it flourish.
Mang Lino, 63, and his wife were working in the Middle East until 2001 when Mang Lino had to come home because he was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer that sapped his strength.
“I really cried because we had little money and I wanted an education for my children,” says Mang Lino in Filipino.
Despite their dire straits, Mang Lino did not lose hope. And he found ways and means to help him cover his considerable medical expenses and get his strength back.
And instead of just relying on his wife, who had a job in Metro Manila, he ventured on businesses of his own, starting with a kariton or cart filled with about P600 worth of food and snack items he parked in between the public elementary and high schools near his home.
“Once I make money in the morning, I would go back to buy more items, then go back and sell again,” shares Mang Lino, who used his income to buy some medicine, help put food on the table and increase his capital for the food cart.
Then
in December 2006, he got much needed help from Bangko Kabayan, which
provided him with a small loan of P5,000 to augment his capital. He
immediately bought more goods to sell, enabling him to pay it back in
three months as stated in the loan agreement.As he gained more strength, his business became bigger. From a pushcart, he got a small tricycle, which allowed him to sell items not just in front of the school but also around the neighborhood. Eggs, bread, dried fish, noodles, coffee were among the best sellers.
He even participated in the “Business on Wheels” promo of Nestle Corp. He was lent a motorcycle that he used to sell Nestle products around town and in neighboring villages. Later, he did his own version so that he could sell even non-Nestle products.
Such a fast revenue turnover eventually allowed Mang Lino to expand his business and aggressively pursue his “Text Mo, Deliver Ko” service for sarisari store owners, through which they could just text the items they need from the town center that Mang Lino will deliver in a few days.
From his sales, he was able to put the finishing touches to his home and complete the education of his children.
These days, he and one of his daughters who had just finished her nursing course are busy with an eatery in front of their home to service the laborers who are busy with a major real estate development.
“They have around 40 workers and they will stay for about five years, so they will need an eatery,” says Mang Lino, as he points to his carinderia selling bread, rice and viands, soft drinks, as well as cigarettes and snack items.
Many are amazed at how much Mang Lino has been able to achieve despite his sickness that keeps him at less than 100%. He was even named an inspiring entrepreneur during the Citi Microentrepreneur of the Year Awards of 2008.
Mang Lino says all these were made possible by unwavering faith in a higher power that always looks out for him and his family.
“This is what I teach people in Sunday school, that if they look to Him for help and they work hard enough, then blessings will follow,” says Mang Lino.
http://bit.ly/oqFTdp
Friday, October 14, 2011
Aquino government enhances entrepreneurial skills of OFWs under P2 billion reintegration program
2011-10-12
President
Benigno S. Aquino III said his administration is focusing on enhancing
the entrepreneurial skills of overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs) as well
as their educational abilities to entice them to stay in the country
through the government is P2-billion reintegration program.
“The
state would have to be really focused on those who have the least in our
society. Therefore, there’s heavy emphasis on microfinance to generate
entrepreneurial abilities,” President Aquino said during an open forum
with the members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the
Philippines (Focap) in Makati City on Wednesday.
“But over and above that, we’re also training, investing in the education sector to be able to provide opportunities for even advanced studies present in the country rather than having the experts go to other countries like America or Europe to further their studies,” he said.
The government is reviewing that particular area so that Filipino researchers get the necessary endowments and research facilities to be able to conduct their studies here rather than going abroad for the benefit of foreigners rather than Filipinos.
To make capital available to Filipino entrepreneurs there are proposals to develop a bank for OFWs, the President said. He also mentioned small-scale business such as dairy production in Nueva Ecija using carabao milk that could be suitable for returning OFWs.
Last September, around 10,172 OFWs registered and expressed interest to avail of loans under the P2-billion national reintegration program of the government, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) reported.
According to OWWA, 17 of these loan applications worth P12,184,000 have already been approved and released by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) for various business undertakings.
Businesses funded under the reintegration program include hog fattening, duck egg production, vegetable growing, internet café, Nuat Thai food and body massage; and dental laboratory.
Under the program, OFWs can avail of loans ranging from P300,000 to P2,000,000. Availing loans is easy for OFWs because there are no conduits, no collateral, and loans have only 7.5 percent interest per annum and have also very liberal repayment period of up to seven years.
http://www.president.gov.ph/news/default.aspx?n=1768
“But over and above that, we’re also training, investing in the education sector to be able to provide opportunities for even advanced studies present in the country rather than having the experts go to other countries like America or Europe to further their studies,” he said.
The government is reviewing that particular area so that Filipino researchers get the necessary endowments and research facilities to be able to conduct their studies here rather than going abroad for the benefit of foreigners rather than Filipinos.
To make capital available to Filipino entrepreneurs there are proposals to develop a bank for OFWs, the President said. He also mentioned small-scale business such as dairy production in Nueva Ecija using carabao milk that could be suitable for returning OFWs.
Last September, around 10,172 OFWs registered and expressed interest to avail of loans under the P2-billion national reintegration program of the government, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) reported.
According to OWWA, 17 of these loan applications worth P12,184,000 have already been approved and released by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) for various business undertakings.
Businesses funded under the reintegration program include hog fattening, duck egg production, vegetable growing, internet café, Nuat Thai food and body massage; and dental laboratory.
Under the program, OFWs can avail of loans ranging from P300,000 to P2,000,000. Availing loans is easy for OFWs because there are no conduits, no collateral, and loans have only 7.5 percent interest per annum and have also very liberal repayment period of up to seven years.
http://www.president.gov.ph/news/default.aspx?n=1768
Monday, October 03, 2011
'OFWs are not ATMs'
Posted at 10/01/2011 1:17 PM | Updated as of 10/01/2011 1:17 PM
 |
“Mayroon na din akong naipundar. May farm ako mina-manage ng sister ko. May traktor ako at bumili din ako ng multicab para may service,” said Banados.
Despite having a solid investment, Banados said the idea of retiring hasn’t crossed her mind yet.
“Maliban lang siguro kung pagod na pagod na ako,” she said.
But that is not the case for this OFW who works as a housekeeper in Singapore. She said her employers are almost always away.
“If I want to go out I'm free to do so,” she said.
Although thinking about her children further encourages her to work hard for their future, Banados has nothing else to worry about.
That is why she has taken on a new challenge, a bigger responsibility by writing a book about the bittersweet experiences of fellow OFWs not just in Singapore, but around the world.
Banados, with the help of a good friend who is also her publisher, Sri Lankan Dr. Kalinga Seneviratne, was able to release a book titled “The Path to Remittances: Tales of Pains and Gains of Overseas Filipino Workers”. It is a collection of 20 short stories of OFWs, including her own.
“This book is about the real stories of OFWs,” said Banados. “I wrote this book because I want to bring to the attention of both Filipinos and foreigners some of the hidden issues of experienced by OFWs.
She said the book hopes to bring out three pressing issues that confront Filipino workers around the world—the exorbitant placement fees charged to OFWs by recruitment agencies; the demand by relatives of OFWs for more money; and unwanted pregnancies that seem to be driving women to go overseas to work.
She said recruitment agencies charge OFWs with high fees. They often deduct payment for the placement fees and airfare from the workers’ salaries so that the OFW sometimes doesn’t get paid for about 7 months.
“I don't understand why they charge OFWs with such a large fee especially now we have budget airlines,” she said.
She also complained that while recruitment agencies take advantage of OFWs, they make their presence scarce when it comes to helping workers in distress. She added that she has many friends in Singapore who have experienced this.
“We are hoping someone would help us solve this problem. I hope that by writing this book I could make a contribution to pressure government authorities to do something more practical to stop this exploitation of OFWs by agencies.
Not milking cows
Working overseas, and away from the family, is very difficult. However, working abroad doesn’t mean that they are also paid more.
While their families are proud of them to be working overseas in the hopes of improving their quality of life, many OFWs could not help but feel as though their relatives treat them like ATMs or Automated Teller Machines—where they can withdraw money anytime they please.
“Most of my friends always complain about their mothers, fathers, uncles, sisters, or cousins, because if they have like fiestas, they would call and request their family member who works overseas to send more money. But it’s not easy,” she said.
From the regular remittances an OFW sends home, some relatives still ask for more money to pay for household utilities.
“Many borrow money because they don't want to see that they don’t have money. I am abroad and they are proud of me, so they borrow money from other Filipino overseas workers. Some of them have foreign boyfriends whom they ask money from,” she said.
She hopes that through the book, families would realize the pains they had to go through just to earn money to send home.
“I also like family members of OFWs to read this book for them to realize the difficulties we go through with sending money back home,” she explained.
Her publisher also echoes her sentiments. Seneviratne said, “the family should also realize that OFWs, especially girls who work as maids, don’t earn that much and there are limitation and that they go through a lot of pains to send that money”.
As for unwanted pregnancies, Banados said the book has a number of stories on that topic. Oftentimes, the woman is forced to go abroad to support the growing family.
“I hope President Aquino will be successful in getting a new legislation that would encourage better family planning,” she said.
For Caridad Sri Tharan of the Miriam College, the book is “a very powerful tool for advocacy” because it’s the voices of migrant workers.
“The book is not just about remittance. It’s really the story, the day to day story about the lives of our migrant workers. Hindi naman bago yung mga problems na sinsabi sa libro. There is no end to this so long as migration is with us there will be no end to the stories-the stories of the lives of the migrant workers, their children and their families,” she said.
Andrea Anolin, Executive Director of the Batis Center for Women, said OFWs often say that they want to help their family by working abroad.
“But when we read the book, we realize that having a good quality of life is not an automatic phenomenon. It is something that should be planned,” Anolin said.
Banados urged media to not only focus their reporting on how much remittances they have sent home. She said journalists should also report about the hardships, challenges that they go through to remit money back to their relatives in the Philippines.
“I hope you will give us, OFWs, a voice,” she said.
http://bit.ly/ofws-are-not-atms
Sunday, October 02, 2011
‘Balikbayans’ told: Go beyond song and dance
By Jerry E. Esplanada
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:39 am | Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
The more than 8.5 million overseas Filipinos scattered all over the globe should be proud of themselves for being a “positive force,” if not “masters of the universe,” in their host countries, according to balikbayan philanthropist, civic leader and lawyer Loida Nicolas-Lewis.
“We are good ballroom dancers. We love to share our Filipino food: delicious lumpia and chicken adobo. We love to sing pop hits with the karaoke microphone in our hand,” she said.
Even more, they extend a helping hand to their relatives and friends back in the Philippines by paying the tuition for their schooling, sending money for a baptism or wedding, for hospitalization or a funeral, “even lending money which we know will not be paid to a relative or a close friend,” she said.
But Filipinos in the diaspora need to do more, said Lewis, chairperson of the US Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG), in a speech at the just-concluded “Global Summit: Diaspora to Development” at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).
They could help in the development of their homeland, she said.
“We cannot ignore the abject poverty of nearly 30 million Filipinos, their lack of adequate housing, education, nutrition and other basic human needs,” she said.
This will involve more than just writing a check, she said.
“We Filipinos seem to have a special something that enables us to go beyond the job description, do something sympathetic and compassionate, something natural in us,” said Lewis.
“Either in word or in action, whether in the executive suite as a CEO or as a babysitter in a private home, our being Filipino enables us to anticipate and to feel what the other person in the office or home is feeling. And we would be able to respond positively or to react humanely,” said Lewis who is also an educator, author and motivational speaker.
According to Lewis, Filipinos invariably get along with every ethnic group in the office, without discrimination. A Filipino office worker becomes the favored one “because of our affable and generous personality.”
She believes this character trait springs from Filipinos’ deep-seated spirituality, their deep faith “in God’s grace and that nothing can separate us from the love of God.”
“This also explains why we take leadership in our communities. Our contemplation or our intimacy with God brings us to action. We are masters of the universe in that sense,” said Lewis.
“We should come up with positive and practical solutions that we ourselves would do and actualize with the cooperation of the government. Let us be creative, innovative and resolute. We can bring the change we want to see in our Inang Bayan,” said Lewis.
The USP4GG is one of the summit convenors, along with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), headed by Lewis’ younger sister, Imelda Nicolas; the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations; and YouLead, or Youth Leaders in the Diaspora.
Answer to Aquino’s call
According to Lewis, her group joined the summit to answer the CFO’s call to help President Aquino bring about the alleviation of poverty in the Philippines.
“Before the May 2010 elections, our main goal was to help the Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas tandem win that year’s polls… Today, we’re rooting not just for Noynoy but also the entire Filipino nation,” she said.
Lewis said the USP4GG “still strongly believes in President Aquino’s slogan, ‘Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap’ (no corruption, no poverty). We are convinced that he will be true to his promises. We remain committed to President Noynoy.”
“Our group prefers to be something like a watchdog organization, do oversight. We plan to write him, e-mail him and make suggestions that we believe will help him make the Philippines a better place,” she said.
The USP4GG has been cited by the CFO for its “firm belief and conviction that Filipinos in America can play an important role and make a difference in the lives of Filipinos in the Philippines and all over the world through strong advocacy of good government.”
As to how the USP4GG would assess the first 15 months of the Aquino administration, Lewis observed “it is doing very well. President Aquino is not perfect. Of course, nobody’s perfect.”
“To his critics and faultfinders, I say, during the previous administration, where were your voices. He’s trying to do his best, so stop all the faultfinding,” she said.
Lewis vowed she would “definitely be a balikbayan on a regular basis.”
She comes to the Philippines every two months because of Lewis College, the school she set up in her Sorsogon hometown.
She bought a school called Annunciation College some 10 years ago and renamed it Lewis College.
“We now have around 1,000 students, from preschool all the way to college. And we’re winning various accolades and honors. Lewis College is now the champion in the entire Bicol for computer programming. In the province, we used to be kulelat (perennial losers) in basketball. Now we’re the champion. We also won in the regional of the Miss Bicolandia (beauty pageant),” she said.
Paying back
According to Lewis, her family’s involvement in Lewis College is “just one way of paying back.”
“Sorsogon is one of the country’s poorest provinces. And one of the ways, if not the only way to get out of poverty is education,” she said.
Of the 300-plus tertiary students in Lewis College, “about 100 are on a full scholarship. Add to that the fact that in Sorsogon, we have the lowest tuition,” she said.
“We must never forget that there’s a time to pay back for all the blessings that we’ve gotten in life,” Lewis said.
“Whatever the reason we left the Philippines to seek our livelihood abroad, or to follow the dictates of our heart, we are always connected to our motherland by our family, our culture, our history and our faith,” she said.
http://bit.ly/quNHvC
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:39 am | Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
The more than 8.5 million overseas Filipinos scattered all over the globe should be proud of themselves for being a “positive force,” if not “masters of the universe,” in their host countries, according to balikbayan philanthropist, civic leader and lawyer Loida Nicolas-Lewis.
“We are good ballroom dancers. We love to share our Filipino food: delicious lumpia and chicken adobo. We love to sing pop hits with the karaoke microphone in our hand,” she said.
Even more, they extend a helping hand to their relatives and friends back in the Philippines by paying the tuition for their schooling, sending money for a baptism or wedding, for hospitalization or a funeral, “even lending money which we know will not be paid to a relative or a close friend,” she said.
But Filipinos in the diaspora need to do more, said Lewis, chairperson of the US Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG), in a speech at the just-concluded “Global Summit: Diaspora to Development” at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).
They could help in the development of their homeland, she said.
“We cannot ignore the abject poverty of nearly 30 million Filipinos, their lack of adequate housing, education, nutrition and other basic human needs,” she said.
This will involve more than just writing a check, she said.
“We Filipinos seem to have a special something that enables us to go beyond the job description, do something sympathetic and compassionate, something natural in us,” said Lewis.
“Either in word or in action, whether in the executive suite as a CEO or as a babysitter in a private home, our being Filipino enables us to anticipate and to feel what the other person in the office or home is feeling. And we would be able to respond positively or to react humanely,” said Lewis who is also an educator, author and motivational speaker.
According to Lewis, Filipinos invariably get along with every ethnic group in the office, without discrimination. A Filipino office worker becomes the favored one “because of our affable and generous personality.”
She believes this character trait springs from Filipinos’ deep-seated spirituality, their deep faith “in God’s grace and that nothing can separate us from the love of God.”
“This also explains why we take leadership in our communities. Our contemplation or our intimacy with God brings us to action. We are masters of the universe in that sense,” said Lewis.
“We should come up with positive and practical solutions that we ourselves would do and actualize with the cooperation of the government. Let us be creative, innovative and resolute. We can bring the change we want to see in our Inang Bayan,” said Lewis.
The USP4GG is one of the summit convenors, along with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), headed by Lewis’ younger sister, Imelda Nicolas; the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations; and YouLead, or Youth Leaders in the Diaspora.
Answer to Aquino’s call
According to Lewis, her group joined the summit to answer the CFO’s call to help President Aquino bring about the alleviation of poverty in the Philippines.
“Before the May 2010 elections, our main goal was to help the Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas tandem win that year’s polls… Today, we’re rooting not just for Noynoy but also the entire Filipino nation,” she said.
Lewis said the USP4GG “still strongly believes in President Aquino’s slogan, ‘Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap’ (no corruption, no poverty). We are convinced that he will be true to his promises. We remain committed to President Noynoy.”
“Our group prefers to be something like a watchdog organization, do oversight. We plan to write him, e-mail him and make suggestions that we believe will help him make the Philippines a better place,” she said.
The USP4GG has been cited by the CFO for its “firm belief and conviction that Filipinos in America can play an important role and make a difference in the lives of Filipinos in the Philippines and all over the world through strong advocacy of good government.”
As to how the USP4GG would assess the first 15 months of the Aquino administration, Lewis observed “it is doing very well. President Aquino is not perfect. Of course, nobody’s perfect.”
“To his critics and faultfinders, I say, during the previous administration, where were your voices. He’s trying to do his best, so stop all the faultfinding,” she said.
Lewis vowed she would “definitely be a balikbayan on a regular basis.”
She comes to the Philippines every two months because of Lewis College, the school she set up in her Sorsogon hometown.
She bought a school called Annunciation College some 10 years ago and renamed it Lewis College.
“We now have around 1,000 students, from preschool all the way to college. And we’re winning various accolades and honors. Lewis College is now the champion in the entire Bicol for computer programming. In the province, we used to be kulelat (perennial losers) in basketball. Now we’re the champion. We also won in the regional of the Miss Bicolandia (beauty pageant),” she said.
Paying back
According to Lewis, her family’s involvement in Lewis College is “just one way of paying back.”
“Sorsogon is one of the country’s poorest provinces. And one of the ways, if not the only way to get out of poverty is education,” she said.
Of the 300-plus tertiary students in Lewis College, “about 100 are on a full scholarship. Add to that the fact that in Sorsogon, we have the lowest tuition,” she said.
“We must never forget that there’s a time to pay back for all the blessings that we’ve gotten in life,” Lewis said.
“Whatever the reason we left the Philippines to seek our livelihood abroad, or to follow the dictates of our heart, we are always connected to our motherland by our family, our culture, our history and our faith,” she said.
http://bit.ly/quNHvC
Former OFW finds his niche as techno-preneur
By Myrna Rodriguez Co
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:09 am | Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), especially those working as engineers, technicians and skilled workers, are among the best candidates for entrepreneurship of the innovative type.
In the first place, OFWs manifest their enterprising, risk-taking and hardworking ways by the very act of leaving the comfort of home to try out their luck in a foreign country and a strange culture with no assurance of success.
If they get employed in multinationals, Pinoy engineers and technicians, already skilled at the outset, will likely get their teeth ground on higher technology and applications. They are likely to use cutting-edge tools, equipment and processes.
When they come back here and get re-assimilated, many would be eager to transfer the technology they picked up abroad.
Combine a daring, risk-taking disposition with technical education and experience, blend in business acumen and finally whip in the big bucks earned abroad and we have in an OFW a “recipe” for successful techno-preneurship.
OFW stint
Gamaliel “Jimmy” Itao, president of Industrial Controls Corporation (ICC) is one such techno-preneur. ICC is the first programmable logic control (PLC) systems house in the Philippines, specializing in factory automation and instrumentation projects.
Jimmy finished electrical engineering at the University of San Carlos, Cebu City and passed the Professional Electrical Engineer (PEE) board exam in 1982. As a young engineer, he handled training courses in Factory Automation at the UP Institute for Small-Scale Industries (UP ISSI), after taking specialized studies in UP ISSI and Japan.
Jimmy was happy enough teaching production managers, engineers and technicians to apply automation to modernize local industries when overseas work opportunity beckoned in 1984.
“I was starting a family then; I had a young daughter and I wanted a bigger family and so I thought of looking for greener pastures. Besides as an engineer, I wanted to practice proactively what I have been teaching for years.”
Jimmy worked as an instrumentation engineer at Honeywell Saudi Petrochemical Corporation in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. His wife, the former Girlie Caluya, followed shortly to work as a nurse at the general hospital in Taif, also in Saudi Arabia.
Jubail and Taif were 1000 miles apart. The couple saw each other only once in their four-year stay and their exchange of communication focused very much on the month-old daughter they left behind in the Philippines.
Saudi Arabia was a totally different country with an Arab and Islamic culture. It was a vast expanse of sand and desert where one seldom saw green.
“You can’t practice your Christian religion there. You can’t seek comfort from social drinking. Nor from female companionship,” Jimmy smiles ruefully as he recalls.
He whiled the time away writing letters and waiting for return mails. “Remember, this was the time of snail mail. Cell phones were years away. So were Internet connections. YM, Facebook, Skype—all these were unheard of.”
Despite the hardship, adjustments and long separation, Jimmy never regretted his stint as an OFW. “A trade off,” he calls it. Being away from the family strengthened him psychologically and spiritually. “Absence enhances the love that binds. You realize how important family is,” he quips.
He finds it hard to quantify the benefits from his experience of working in the Middle East. His employer Honeywell was a conglomerate of seven plants which processed black gold into ethylene products for industrial uses. His work assignments in Honeywell involved highly technical work. Starting as an instrumentation technician, he later got involved in more technical aspects of operation, enabling him to hone his craft as a hands-on electrical engineer.
Starting the business
When he came back to the Philippines in 1987, Jimmy went back to teaching factory automation at the UP ISSI. This time around, he taught with more confidence, having acquired solid industrial practice.
Meanwhile, several companies sought him out as an automation and instrumentation consultant. The engagements gave him a glimpse of the world outside employment.
When he finally decided to strike it out on his own, he did not need too big a start-up capital, Jimmy remembers. He began with P32,000 and two staff: a partner and himself.
He was living then in Sikatuna Bliss in Quezon City. In the same building, he found a vacant unit on the fourth floor which became ICC’s first office. The 55-sq.m space was unimpressive.
“So unimpressive that when a Japanese representative of a firm interested to subcontract work to us visited, he never got in touch with us again after seeing our office which we very reluctantly showed him, on his insistence.”
The Technology Business Incubation (TBI) project of the University of the Philippines and the Department of Science and Technology was heaven-sent for Jimmy and his company. The TBI nurtured and “incubated” small, technology-based companies with lower-than-market lease rates; common facilities like conference rooms, a trunkline and state-of-the art equipment; industrial counseling from UP ISSI and DOST; and market exposure via DOST exhibits. “Having a UP address alone gave our company prestige,” Jimmy thinks.
Like in most TBIs, a lessee-company is expected to “graduate” after a three-year incubation. By the time Jimmy’s ICC graduated in 2000, he was ready to relocate to a commercial area and start being a fully independent techno-preneur.
Two units of office space on the 9th floor of Mega Plaza Building at Ortigas Center, Pasig City have been ICC’s headquarters for the past 11 years. It has also a small branch office at the UP ISSI Building in Diliman, Quezon City.
ICC’s range of factory automation and instrumentation services includes: free product selection and specification, turnkey projects on industrial automation and instrumentation systems and systems integration; commissioning and startup; maintenance contracting, troubleshooting and repair and in-house training. Among its clients are San Miguel Corporation, Universal Robina Corporation, Alaska Corporation, and Wyeth Philippines, to name a few.
ICC is a distributor of many product lines such as programmable logic controller, programmable terminal, frequency inverter, PLC networking, control components sensors, switches, relays, timers, counters, and power supply.
The brands ICC carries are well-known: Omron, Siemens, Ametex, Yaskawa, Mitsubishi, IDTECH, Hakko, Intellution.
Testimonial to the growth and market credibility the company has risen to: ICC has spun off its training activities in 2005 to form another company, Mechatronics Technologies Corporation (MTC) which is now a Tesda-accredited training and assessment center for the professional upgrading of OFWs in the electromechanical engineering field. This is required for them to renew their Owwa cards as well as to qualify for promotion in their employment abroad.
Meanwhile, ICC has kept its ties with UP ISSI in the joint conduct of training programs on Scada and productivity systems like Kaizen, total maintenance management, and Just in Time.
In 15 years, not only has ICC graduated from being a company in need of incubation, it has also made the transition from small to medium level of enterprise, having breached the 200-employee size. ICC recently celebrated its 22nd anniversary and is enjoying steady growth in product sales and contracts in engineering and maintenance projects.
Start small, think big, work hard, pray harder
Jimmy agrees that OFWs in the engineering field have strong potential to make it as entrepreneurs. In the Original Equipment Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (OEMAP) where he belongs and once served as president, he reckons that about half of the members have OFW background.
His advice to OFWs who aspire to technopreneurship “Start small, think big, work hard!”
Small is a good way to begin, he says, because it gives you a lot of room to grow. And there’s less risk.
Opportunities in the industry are limitless, so watch out for them, he adds. This is how one grows.
He warns against resting on one’s laurels. “Rather, continue to work hard.”
Study what the industry needs, he advises OFWs looking for their niche. “Use your base competence. Look for a partner if you are afraid to risk your resources.”
Above all, seek help from the Almighty Lord, Jimmy concludes. “As He said ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.’”
For more entrepreneurial success stories, starting and improving a business features, management tips and advice for troubled businessmen, check out the Small Enterprise Research and Development Foundation (Serdef) website at www.serdef.org.
http://bit.ly/q4Mmeh
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:09 am | Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), especially those working as engineers, technicians and skilled workers, are among the best candidates for entrepreneurship of the innovative type.
In the first place, OFWs manifest their enterprising, risk-taking and hardworking ways by the very act of leaving the comfort of home to try out their luck in a foreign country and a strange culture with no assurance of success.
If they get employed in multinationals, Pinoy engineers and technicians, already skilled at the outset, will likely get their teeth ground on higher technology and applications. They are likely to use cutting-edge tools, equipment and processes.
When they come back here and get re-assimilated, many would be eager to transfer the technology they picked up abroad.
Combine a daring, risk-taking disposition with technical education and experience, blend in business acumen and finally whip in the big bucks earned abroad and we have in an OFW a “recipe” for successful techno-preneurship.
OFW stint
Gamaliel “Jimmy” Itao, president of Industrial Controls Corporation (ICC) is one such techno-preneur. ICC is the first programmable logic control (PLC) systems house in the Philippines, specializing in factory automation and instrumentation projects.
Jimmy finished electrical engineering at the University of San Carlos, Cebu City and passed the Professional Electrical Engineer (PEE) board exam in 1982. As a young engineer, he handled training courses in Factory Automation at the UP Institute for Small-Scale Industries (UP ISSI), after taking specialized studies in UP ISSI and Japan.
Jimmy was happy enough teaching production managers, engineers and technicians to apply automation to modernize local industries when overseas work opportunity beckoned in 1984.
“I was starting a family then; I had a young daughter and I wanted a bigger family and so I thought of looking for greener pastures. Besides as an engineer, I wanted to practice proactively what I have been teaching for years.”
Jimmy worked as an instrumentation engineer at Honeywell Saudi Petrochemical Corporation in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. His wife, the former Girlie Caluya, followed shortly to work as a nurse at the general hospital in Taif, also in Saudi Arabia.
Jubail and Taif were 1000 miles apart. The couple saw each other only once in their four-year stay and their exchange of communication focused very much on the month-old daughter they left behind in the Philippines.
Saudi Arabia was a totally different country with an Arab and Islamic culture. It was a vast expanse of sand and desert where one seldom saw green.
“You can’t practice your Christian religion there. You can’t seek comfort from social drinking. Nor from female companionship,” Jimmy smiles ruefully as he recalls.
He whiled the time away writing letters and waiting for return mails. “Remember, this was the time of snail mail. Cell phones were years away. So were Internet connections. YM, Facebook, Skype—all these were unheard of.”
Despite the hardship, adjustments and long separation, Jimmy never regretted his stint as an OFW. “A trade off,” he calls it. Being away from the family strengthened him psychologically and spiritually. “Absence enhances the love that binds. You realize how important family is,” he quips.
He finds it hard to quantify the benefits from his experience of working in the Middle East. His employer Honeywell was a conglomerate of seven plants which processed black gold into ethylene products for industrial uses. His work assignments in Honeywell involved highly technical work. Starting as an instrumentation technician, he later got involved in more technical aspects of operation, enabling him to hone his craft as a hands-on electrical engineer.
Starting the business
When he came back to the Philippines in 1987, Jimmy went back to teaching factory automation at the UP ISSI. This time around, he taught with more confidence, having acquired solid industrial practice.
Meanwhile, several companies sought him out as an automation and instrumentation consultant. The engagements gave him a glimpse of the world outside employment.
When he finally decided to strike it out on his own, he did not need too big a start-up capital, Jimmy remembers. He began with P32,000 and two staff: a partner and himself.
He was living then in Sikatuna Bliss in Quezon City. In the same building, he found a vacant unit on the fourth floor which became ICC’s first office. The 55-sq.m space was unimpressive.
“So unimpressive that when a Japanese representative of a firm interested to subcontract work to us visited, he never got in touch with us again after seeing our office which we very reluctantly showed him, on his insistence.”
The Technology Business Incubation (TBI) project of the University of the Philippines and the Department of Science and Technology was heaven-sent for Jimmy and his company. The TBI nurtured and “incubated” small, technology-based companies with lower-than-market lease rates; common facilities like conference rooms, a trunkline and state-of-the art equipment; industrial counseling from UP ISSI and DOST; and market exposure via DOST exhibits. “Having a UP address alone gave our company prestige,” Jimmy thinks.
Like in most TBIs, a lessee-company is expected to “graduate” after a three-year incubation. By the time Jimmy’s ICC graduated in 2000, he was ready to relocate to a commercial area and start being a fully independent techno-preneur.
Two units of office space on the 9th floor of Mega Plaza Building at Ortigas Center, Pasig City have been ICC’s headquarters for the past 11 years. It has also a small branch office at the UP ISSI Building in Diliman, Quezon City.
ICC’s range of factory automation and instrumentation services includes: free product selection and specification, turnkey projects on industrial automation and instrumentation systems and systems integration; commissioning and startup; maintenance contracting, troubleshooting and repair and in-house training. Among its clients are San Miguel Corporation, Universal Robina Corporation, Alaska Corporation, and Wyeth Philippines, to name a few.
ICC is a distributor of many product lines such as programmable logic controller, programmable terminal, frequency inverter, PLC networking, control components sensors, switches, relays, timers, counters, and power supply.
The brands ICC carries are well-known: Omron, Siemens, Ametex, Yaskawa, Mitsubishi, IDTECH, Hakko, Intellution.
Testimonial to the growth and market credibility the company has risen to: ICC has spun off its training activities in 2005 to form another company, Mechatronics Technologies Corporation (MTC) which is now a Tesda-accredited training and assessment center for the professional upgrading of OFWs in the electromechanical engineering field. This is required for them to renew their Owwa cards as well as to qualify for promotion in their employment abroad.
Meanwhile, ICC has kept its ties with UP ISSI in the joint conduct of training programs on Scada and productivity systems like Kaizen, total maintenance management, and Just in Time.
In 15 years, not only has ICC graduated from being a company in need of incubation, it has also made the transition from small to medium level of enterprise, having breached the 200-employee size. ICC recently celebrated its 22nd anniversary and is enjoying steady growth in product sales and contracts in engineering and maintenance projects.
Start small, think big, work hard, pray harder
Jimmy agrees that OFWs in the engineering field have strong potential to make it as entrepreneurs. In the Original Equipment Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (OEMAP) where he belongs and once served as president, he reckons that about half of the members have OFW background.
His advice to OFWs who aspire to technopreneurship “Start small, think big, work hard!”
Small is a good way to begin, he says, because it gives you a lot of room to grow. And there’s less risk.
Opportunities in the industry are limitless, so watch out for them, he adds. This is how one grows.
He warns against resting on one’s laurels. “Rather, continue to work hard.”
Study what the industry needs, he advises OFWs looking for their niche. “Use your base competence. Look for a partner if you are afraid to risk your resources.”
Above all, seek help from the Almighty Lord, Jimmy concludes. “As He said ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.’”
For more entrepreneurial success stories, starting and improving a business features, management tips and advice for troubled businessmen, check out the Small Enterprise Research and Development Foundation (Serdef) website at www.serdef.org.
http://bit.ly/q4Mmeh
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