(Last week, I emailed Filipinos working all over the world to find out how the US global financial crunch is affecting one of the major sources of the country’s liquidity—the so called OFWs. Some are regular readers of MoneySmarts, while some are friends of another blogger Reyna Elena. They were kind enough to reply and a short version of their emails (in the interest of space) were included in a feature I wrote for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. I am publishing this week in installments the full version of their emails. I hope the series will help us understand how Filipinos all over the world are affected and are responding to the crisis.)
I have just recently quit my job as director of finance in one of the largest housing authorities in the United States with over 3,000 employees. I’ve been unemployed since July 2008; however, I have just accepted a job in Chicago as director for one of the largest development corporation dealing with housing tax credits, asset management and property investments. I expect to start very soon.
My parents, very religious, took the church’s “go and multiply” advice by heart and made parenting an algorithmic Fibonachi, that’s why there’s 11 of us in the family. We lived in the barrio and could not find opportunities in the Philippines because at that time, they’re all reserved for the rich, the powerful and the conios. So, I paddled my boat to the land of apples and honey. I’ve been working in the United States for over 21 years now.
Growing up in the Philippines, I really thought that we have perfected corruption. To my surprise, corrupt officials are populating Wall Street and beyond as well. They could literally bring down a world financial system! That worries the heck out of me because I can’t seem to believe that these crooks could actually shake the entire financial system and make our lives miserable. When I say “our”, I just don’t refer to Americans, rather, world citizens as well. For if America sneezes, the world catches cold.
Given that I worked in the financial, real estate, investment and asset management side, I had the privilege of understanding the complexity of what’s behind the current financial turmoil and so I could fully and truly appreciate its implication on me personally, my family and my fellow overseas Pinoy friends.
My 401-k (read: retirement) is now down 15 percent. Two weeks ago, I felt comfortable because my retirement money is with Wachovia, where it sits at the moment. Suddenly, Wachovia is in the news. It’s bad enough that I have increased my monthly remittance to the Philippines because of certain fixed expenses back home.
As you can see, Filipinos here in the States took a direct hit from the subprime crisis, from our retirement investments to our mortgage that can’t be refinanced, to our rising credit card interest. Loans are now difficult to find. Worse, applying for one is even more difficult. So, we’ve cut down on a lot of unnecessary expenses and travels.
Thing is, I don’t invest in Manila because I am not very familiar about the local investments procedures and I have had lousy experiences as a bank customer there. Since I don’t want to surrender the decision making to investment administrators in Manila, and they have not won my confidence as of yet, I continue to be on the sidelines.
However, I will never let those sick Wall Street people dictate my life. I am being prudent in all of my expenditures and wiser in spending money. My strategies are to stay put, cut down on expenses, find more extra income, and continue to be cute and happy. I was planning to go home and find a job in Manila. When all of these investment houses started tumbling down, I asked myself if it would be better for me to stay here. I’m still thinking. I can’t decide. Help me 
64 Responses to “A Pinoy in the US hit by the credit crisis”
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Pages: [13] 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 … 1 » Show All
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:11 am
wow! it’s been awhile since I’ve been here! grabe palang bakbakan here.
and pobreng obrero? oh! poor guy. you just don’t git it. i think i will just refer you to James explanation below. obviously, you’re not getting the connection.
but, i’ll pick up this discussion again. in my blog not in salve’s hahaha
February 19th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Wow, I’ve read a certain blogger Ms. Reyna Elena has been misquoting my comments here and took the liberty of putting her own spin on my thoughts, devoting hundreds of words and throwing in graphs and figures that she got from “the available information that she has” (i.e. the World Wide Web):
http://reynaelena.com/2008/10/12/in-defense-of-ofws-walang-ganyan-sa-states/
I won’t be provoked into an argument where rational discourse gives way to an emotional contest wherein the one with the loudest instrument wins….but what the heck, for ms. reyna elena’s enjoyment and enlightenment, I will oblige and answer her rather emotional questions at her blog:
pobreng_obrero’s Point 1: He claims that there is no better place to prosper than in your home country.
Reyna elena’s reaction: “But here is my point - in general - there is not that much opportunity for all Filipinos. Where have you been pobreng_obrero? Do you ever see the long lines of job applicants for just one (1) McDonald’s position or Jolibee’s?”
pobreng_obrero’s answer: I’ve been in the Philippines all my life and have actually been part of that long line of job applicants at McDonalds ACT branch circa mid-1990s. I agree with you, there is not much opportunity here, but that’s precisely my point–it’s because we don’t have homegrown development. If only we are not that quick to give up and pack our backs just because we see such long lines, and instead cultivate homegrown products and take advantage of our natural advantages, probably we might need to leave our families as much as frequently as how it’s happening now.
pobreng_obrero’s Point 2: “OFWs always tout themselves as ?major income source for the Phlippines? but in reality they practically don?t pay taxes and most of their remittances go straight to CONSUMPTION instead of investments and savings.”
Reyna elena’s reaction: pobreng_obrero’s point2 “…is practically an economic, finance, taxes and social culture ignorance. (sic)…Second, let me teach you about some basic taxation. Our earnings are already taxed where we work…”
pobreng_obrero’s answer: “After calling me ignorant about many fields of study based on a few words I’ve written that could be very easily mishandled by a “blogger” who needs some polishing up on grammar, you actually validated my point. OFWs pay taxes abroad, not here. And you don’t need to teach me about that, the services we provide under my IT firm are taxed upon invoice by e.g. China (5%) and USA if we don’t file a W-8BEN. My simple point was OFWs pay taxes abroad, and not here in the Philippines–though they may have wished to pay taxes here (which is beside the point), the fact is, their taxes go towards the development of other countries, and not of our homeland.
pobreng_obrero’s Point 3: No real homegrown products are being developed from those billions of dollars of so-called liquidity.
Reyna elena’s reaction: Let me start with the basics once again. Because we send money to the Philippines to the tune of $16 billion:
Banks have a lot of money or “liquidity”, therefore they can make loans.
Who do they loan to? Housing developers.
What do they do? Build condominiums.
When you build condominiums, you provide employment and create orders.
When you create orders, more employment is created because the factory will run.
When factories run, more employment.
Because everybody is productive, more taxes for the government. If they steal it, is another story.
With so many condominiums and houses, OFW who’s got the money buys up more.
The more OFW’s buys these condo’s the cycle of economic activity continues.
People are happy. The malls are busy. The restaurants are busy. The karaoke are blasting like crazy. Even prosties are happy.
pobreng_obrero’s answer: You again validated my point. None of those you mentioned are homegrown products. They are either retail or property instruments that mostly provide casual employment (prostitution?). “Real homegrown products” mean industrial goods and services that were developed here that we could export to contribute to genuine GDP growth. China (world’s number 1 remitter) does not rely on the remittances but rather endeavored to build its own industries. So instead of spending on prostitutes, why don’t we put up efficient shoe factories so we could beat the flood of cheap footwear from China that has practically killed our Marikina shoe industry?
pobreng_obrero’s Point 4: As a Filipino, if you have no participation in our country?s homegrown development, you should at least have the delicadeza not to criticize it.
Reyna elena’s reaction: “I don’t know what to do with your Point number 4. Kainis.”
pobreng_obrero’s answer: I wasn’t expecting any attempt at a good rebuttal to this because in truth, there is none. Thus, “walang ganyan sa states” mentality”. Have you heard about the Citibank scandal? An arrogant OFW who happened to have spent some years working in America kept cursing a poor local call-center Filipino worker in Tagalog for about 10 minutes straight, belittling her country, belittling her lineage, belittling her countrymen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOiPC9WGOQo
What a shameful and disgraceful attitude that I hope at least a handful of OFWs do not have.
pobreng_obrero’s Point 5: OFWs with such an attitude should apologize to the ?pobreng? peso-earning salaried workers who pay taxes every 15th/30th of the month so that they could use our ?bulok? roads and on their way to Duty Free Shops.
Reyna elena’s reaction: The last point is pure ignorance once again on taxes and finance. It’s a very dysfunctional way of thinking. The thinking goes like this: The Filipinos back home are the ones paying for the taxes and so therefore, we as OFW’s should not complain about the current predicament of infrastructures because we don’t pay taxes.
pobreng_obrero’s answer: Cf my answers to 3 and 4 above.
So there. Next time we berate our country and mock others who happen to have differing views than ours and call them ignorant, let’s pause and reflect what can we do so that hopefully in the future, our own homegrown goods and products will be leaving our country for other shores, instead of ourselves leaving our corrupt, divided yet beautiful homeland…
October 24th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I could imagine the pressure that OFWs feel abroad with the world economic crisis.
But I seriously think that whatever happens, Filipinos abroad especially, can and will survive. It may be tougher and harder than usual, but I think we can conquer this financial challenge especially if we’re prudent and wise with our expenditures.
I just hope that layoffs will not happen. And if ever it does, I hope that OFWs won’t be that affected. If ever, I hope that the OFWs will be able to find another job immediately.
It’s great that America seems to be the “land of milk and honey” to a lot of people, but I wish that the world isn’t so affected by the sneezes that America makes.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:59 am
This is a futile exercise, this will lead us to nowhere. Anyway, best wishes to all, wherever you are. This is only a blog… nothing personal. Love, joy & peace to all.
October 18th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
@ Ito_Pinoy,
yeah, since your doing the math, and i presume your good in math, why not help your president gloria do the math to uplift the nation’s economy and stop the never ending graft and corruption.