Photo courtesy of Aladdin Cordero

(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 this will help us understand how Filipinos all over the world are affected and are responding to the crisis.)

By DB, from the USA

I was orphaned at an early age, which may or may not explain why I am always secretly afraid of going hungry.  Even if I have received more education than most, and have worked for some of the most powerful people in business and politics, in the back of my head, I still feel vulnerable in my 30s as the glassy-eyed 7-year-old street urchin who came out under my feet as I was resting from my morning jog at the seawall near CCP several moons ago.

I currently work in the headquarters of a global company with a large business interest in the Philippines. As you know, “global” and “large” no longer mean anything because even as the company continues to acquire other companies, it also shed people not too long ago, and both fledgling and robust businesses can be prime targets for takeover.

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Lovelyn and family

(Last week, I interviewed via email 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 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 this will help us understand how Filipinos all over the world are affected and are responding to the crisis.)

By Norissa Marie “Lovelyn” Dacawi

I’m an Igorota from Tublay Benguet, a town 18 kilometers away from Baguio City. I am 34 years of age and the mother two boys, Lukie and Dylan—six and almost two years old respectively. Make that three as my husband, Boogie, sometimes thinks he is my son. We’ve been here in Italy for seven years now after working two years in Malta.
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Finances On The Edge Photo by DeadAir

For the purposes of analysis and policy-making, there is no escaping the pounding on the table and the endless debates on what caused this crisis, who is to blame, what could have been done to avoid it etc. etc. But at the end of the day, reducing all that talk to doable measures is a process that could end to be as convoluted as the shadow play that caused this crisis in the first place.

Personally, I would rather focus on things that we all can do—now—to deal with what’s happening. After all, crises are part of life, whether financial, emotional, relationship, spiritual. They will happen, again and again. Only the details will change, but the fact that they will railroad our lives and make us shift our priorities will not.

An excellent series in the Philippine Daily Inquirer has been showing readers how different households are dealing with the crisis. Some are moving to condo units near mass transit systems to reduce travel time and stress, some are really cutting down on expenses especially dinners outside the home—even if they are only trips to fast food places.

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So the US government is taking over American International Group. What now, asks one reader. Lines of clients at Philamlife branches, and similar scenes in other Asian countries have many people asking: Is my insurance policy now worthless? What happens to all the money I have paid? Should I withdraw my investments?

I asked several insurance and investments experts and found that there are only five things you need to know:

1. AIG is not directly responsible for the contract that you hold. The responsibility for that lies in the subsidiary whose contracts will have to be respected even by the Fed. It is thus perfectly possible for AIG to be taken over or even to file for bankruptcy, and your policy to be fine. Now even if Philamlife, being one of AIG’s profitable businesses, is sold, the Insurance Commission will require anybody who buys Philamlife to service claims now, or when the contract matures.

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The casualties of the Lehman collapse are popping up, one by one.

First, the Philippine economy. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto now has a worst-case scenario forecast of 4.7 percent to 5.5 percent for gross domestic product for the year, down from an already revised 5.5 percent to 6.4 percent.

You know already that two of the nation’s biggest lenders, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. and Banco De Oro have hits on their portfolio. Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) today also revealed its exposure to Lehman. Together, the three banks have set aside $120 million in provisions—meaning there’s cash made available for any write down in the future.
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