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A Mother’s Hustle: A Day in the Life Across Three Continents

Segment 3 of: “Moving with Purpose” amidst COVID-19 Series

From the Outside Looking In

I mentioned in a previous blog entry that the pandemic and quarantine life has brought us back to a renewed understanding of the importance of family and the home, and as the home has become the center point of life as we now know it, we must continue to nurture relationships with the people under our roof. Harmony and peace are key, and often times, this becomes the responsibility left to the mothers or matriarchs of the household, sometimes the unsung heroes of our generation (Read: Moving with Purpose, Making a Difference).

As mothers here in urban Metro Manila continue to live under infinite lockdown, something that constantly tugs at our heartstrings, in addition to our own personal struggles, is not being able to see our children playing freely anywhere, or being with their friends and other kids, or going to school as they should be. We worry that they are missing out on significant moments and milestones of their childhood.

However, I say all this, with the intent for us to why not instead, draw inspiration and lessons from what other countries are doing, and from what individual people are doing to cope in their own way, rather than to simply grumble and compare our lot here. It is without a doubt there are many nations who have by far, managed the pandemic much better than the Philippines has, but let us also not forget that everyone is undergoing their own personal and silent battles. We are blessed too in many ways, and often times we are merely on the outside looking in, failing to see the beauty and goodness of what we have going on right under our noses. It is all right to look at the somewhat greener grass on the other side, but we have to tend to our own lawns as well.

Bloom Where You are Planted

Do not be too disheartened; bloom where you are planted. This is the mindset we must have in order to keep pushing ourselves and keep going wherever we may be, or whatever we are going through.

The following stories are more excerpts of the lives of some very inspiring and courageous mothers from across three continents and six countries who continue to go above and beyond for their families.

ASIA

TAIWAN; Tata Garcia Long

Taiwan indeed has made headlines this 2020, as a model nation to have had effectively mitigated the spread of COVID-19. Where most countries around the world were caught by surprise, Taiwan proved to be quite prepared, guided by their past experience dealing with the SARs outbreak back in 2003. In fact, except for the more frequent use of masks in public areas, normal living was not disrupted to begin with.

I thought one of the best people to talk about life in Taiwan in the eyes of a Filipino mother, is Tata Garcia Long, as she and her family of five have been living in the serene town of Taichung, Taiwan for three years now, and before Taiwan, they lived in Guam for three years. Their move abroad beginning 2014, was decided, due to Tata’s husband’s job, as they saw brighter career opportunities for him abroad, given his American citizenship. Tata and husband, Kirk, have three beautiful daughters together, Kaliya, Kaire and Koko whom are 6, 4 and 2 years old respectively.

In Tata’s words, “generally, life is great.” She describes how safe Taiwan has been, especially in their town which is not as busy as the nation’s capital of Taipei. She says that citizens and residents of Taiwan, herself included, hold much respect for the government; once something is mandated, everyone is on board.

An easy-going, outdoorsy athlete, just like her husband, Tata describes how she enjoys being able to easily frequent the many scenic parks in their area, and how Taichung has a nice biking culture. She is also appreciative to have extra helping hands in a foreign land, as they have forged ties with other families in their community, and Tata attributes their lasting this long in Taichung because of these very friendships. Over time, it made them become open to accepting people wanting to help them out and watch their kids, as they too have grown to love their three girls as well. It also helps that Kirk’s sister, including her husband and two children also live in Taipei.

The Daily Grind

I found myself chuckling with amusem*nt when I asked Tata to describe what her typical day was like; it was like charming scenes straight out of a movie.

For Tata, her day begins with making breakfast for the family and preparing her eldest daughter, Kaliya’s baon. Six-year-old Kaliya usually walks with her dad to school, as he is a teacher in the school as well, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear that if Kaliya missed her early morning walk with her dad, she could just easily walk to school by herself since the Longs live on-campus. The short walking route is apparently very safe, and Tata can also easily watch Kaliya from their unit balcony as she breezily walks to her classroom. I thought to myself how this is sadly, totally unheard of, in a Third World, urban area like Metro Manila, due to obvious reasons such as crime, pollution and the like. Even if the home was very well in close proximity to the child’s school, one is highly likely to never see a six-year-old walking by him or herself to school.

After Kaliya departs for class, Tata has another hour to get ready to drop off her second daughter, four-year-old Kaire at her school, as she goes to a different school, a local Chinese pre-school within a 5-minute drive. Together with the youngest, 2-year-old Koko, the trio drive Kaire to school and drop her off. Now with both older daughters at school, that leaves Tata and Koko to spend the rest of the morning either going to the market and/or a nearby playground, depending on the needs of that day or week. Tata also has a play group for young kids once a week or get-togethers with other moms in the area. Around lunchtime, Tata and Koko head home for lunch, and then it is Koko’s nap time. Like clockwork, around 3:30 PM, Kaliya and her dad come home from school, and then Kirk picks up Kaire soon after from her school.

Twice a week, Kaliya and Kaire also have gymnastics classes. On other days, the whole family watches sporting events at school. Around 6:00 PM, they start baths, books and homework at home, and by 8:00 PM, the three little girls are tucked into their beds.

The Tres Marias

The three little Long girls do not have wide age gaps, and so, they find much entertainment simply playing amongst each another. In fact, Tata narrates what usually transpires during playtime. She mentions how recently Kaliya and the two girls have been playing “Family.” Kaliya, being the eldest, plays the “Mommy” of the game, while the two younger girls are “her daughters.” You can just imagine what an adorably cute picture this is, and the kids mostly love to imitate Tata herself. It cracks up Tata because she sometimes gets confused when Koko starts calling out “Mommy! Mommy!” and instinctively Tata would turn to her and ask “Yes?,” only for all three to collectively say “Not you, mama…Kaliya!“ The joys of being a mother indeed.

Not Always a Rosy Picture

However, as much as life in Taichung offers these conveniences, community, education and ideal quality of life to raise a young family, Tata explains that there are of course, also bouts of hardship. For one thing, she gets homesick from time to time and misses her family and friends tremendously. Having grown up in Metro Manila her whole life, Tata has sown the seeds of life-long friendships. She says this is different from her husband’s childhood experience. Kirk is originally from the United States and came to the Philippines with his missionary family. He went to school with kids from all over the world, of similar travelling or somewhat nomadic families who moved around quite often, and thus, was accustomed to having his friends come and go. He does not have the same emotional attachment that Tata has about her hometown of Metro Manila.

Apart from Kirk’s job, Tata also knows that living in Taiwan is “what makes the most sense right now,” as returning to Manila is not a viable option for sure, amidst the country’s COVID-19 situation.

Another thing Tata talks about is the availability of help. For lack of a better term, let’s face it; we all know that the Philippines is a “yaya culture.” Most of us have grown up being looked after by yayas, and now as adults, we also employ yayas and housekeepers to help look after our kids and household. It is relatively much more affordable here than in other countries. Having househelpers however, is sometimes frowned upon or contextually misunderstood by the West, but it is certainly nothing to be ashamed about. In fact, it gives us mothers the opportunity to pursue careers, business and/or further education and other interests. This is a whole other realm of discussion in itself.

Yet, Tata says that she has grown accustomed to doing all the domestic work by herself, but there are days that she feels overly exhausted. At one point, she had become so overwhelmed that they decided to hire a cleaning lady to come over every other week to help clean the home. I assured Tata that she need not feel embarrassed about it. What is a few dollars spent in exchange for one’s sanity; I think the trade-off is well worth it.

Ta make the Long story short: Peace and Personal Growth

We also talked about changes that come with becoming a mother and additionally, starting a whole new life when moving abroad. Prior to moving, Tata was an early childhood educator in a progressive school back home, as well as a popular sports, fitness and mom influencer; such that, during their early years living abroad, Tata says that she used to feel bad that she could not work anymore since she had to care for the kids. However, as time went on in Guam and then Taiwan, she found her own sense of peace and fulfillment being a stay-at-home mother, something she surmises, she would not have discovered within her, had she stayed in Manila. Being away from home empowered her beyond ways she knew existed in her.

I was very moved when Tata talked about the importance of finding your own unique strength when planted somewhere beyond your comfort zone because that is when real, personal growth truly happens. I agree with Tata as well that the definition of independence does not mean doing everything on your own; it is also important to ask for help when we need it. In Tata’s very raw, but beautiful words, she says:

“Living abroad has taught me so much about what I am capable of, or whatI can handle. It has shifted from I can’t do this; No way, I need to GO back home… so exhausted, to a more motivated mindset thanks to Kirk’s positive attitude. He constantly reminds me that, You don’t need to do it all by yourself. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. It is all about having the right support and people that encourage you, and then my own negative view becomes a lot more manageable. I have learned that it is perfectly okay to ask for help, whether it is taking a break from cooking and instead opting to order from Uber Eats, to texting a friend and saying, Hey, I need some help, or Hey, need some mama advice, or simply relaying to your husband that I’m really tired today; could you please help me with this or that. Overall, no matter where you are, communication is key. It is also important to have a support system that really encourages you.”

Lately, Tata also talks about a new and exciting, multi-pronged project she has been planning from Taiwan which will also help her stay interconnected with her roots in Manila. She says that she was inspired to start this project from other similar platforms done by friends, and she will be ready to launch it once all details are hashed out. The aim of her project is to cast some light on and open up more avenues of casual conversation on everyday issues, especially in light of the ongoing pandemic.

SINGAPORE; Belli Jalbuena Napa

Singapore is another exemplary Asian nation who has currently been keeping COVID-19 at bay. While it is true that the prosperous city-state was not spared from COVID-19 cases, spikes at one point, and even a number of deaths that transpired in the first half of 2020, they were able to combat and contain the virus immediately before it spun out of control. This was done through swift, decisive action and enforcement based on facts, numbers and science on the government’s part, through their formation of an effective multi-ministry task force. A lot of positive things indeed can be said about Singapore’s vigilance and active prevention, and as life slowly eases back to normal; furthermore, both government and citizens alike, know that they are not out of the woods just yet.

A Day in the Life in Merlion Country

On the lighter side of things, Belli Jalbuena Napa gives us a snapshot of life in Singapore during this pandemic. Belli moved to Singapore in 2015 after she and husband, Karis got married, as Karis has been living in Singapore since 2011 due to his profession as a banker in one of the world’s top financial conglomerates. They have two little, adorable boys together, Emilio who turns three this coming November, and baby Francesco, just 9 months young. Both Belli and Karis’s immediate families live in Metro Manila, Philippines, with the exception of Karis’s younger brother, Marco who had also been living in Singapore since 2014, but left just last month to pursue further studies in London.

Belli muses on how much she loves their life here in Singapore as first, a newly married coupled, and now even more so with two young children.

The hustle and bustle of their weekday mornings begin with she and Karis and dropping off Emilio at school, which is a 5-minute drive away. Emilio being in school, provides Belli the undivided attention to attend to baby Francesco, and the chance to tend to household matters while Karis works full-time. When it is time to pick-up Emilio from school in the afternoon, that’s when Belli says, “the beautiful chaos ensues at home”, and she juggles her time between both kids, as well as cooking dinner, and then later on, getting nighttime routines down. Weekends are usually spent together, just the family of four. They do have a great group of Filipino friends, who they will probably be spending the holidays with this year since flying out to Manila has been ruled out due to the pandemic.

Similar to the Philippines, it is quite common to hire household help in Singapore, and Belli is extremely grateful for this. Nevertheless, even with help at home, she has chosen to stay home with the kids, as before COVID-19, Karis used to be away for work 2-3 nights each week. The idea of going back to work full-time versus being a stay-at-home mom has been a topic of many late-night discussions between husband and wife, but Karis and Belli are on the same page about what they want for their family. As Belli says, “this is the season for raising our young children, and it is temporary and will go by quickly.”

As previously mentioned, I am all for having household help, as each situation is different. Extra help provides mothers like Belli, the freedom to devote some windows of time for themselves, whether it is for leisure or exploring time away from home to do things for the home. Such that, once in a while, she gets to catch up and relax with close friends that she has made there in the last five years. It is no surprise as well that getting around the city to run errands is easy, as public transport is accessible and plenty in Singapore. Places that Belli frequents with the kids are also within walking distance such as parks and recreational places.

Circuit Breaker

Belli describes how they also experienced lockdowns in Singapore, what is referred to as Circuit Breaker measures, beginning April until June this year. It was tough on their part, as many sacrifices had to be made, but the Napas knew it was for the best. They had faith in the government that fixes and solutions were underway while time seemed to have come to a standstill during the Circuit Breaker period. There were also drastic changes in Karis’s working schedule. His last business trip for 2020 was in January, and he worked from home (WFH) for four months beginning in March. Currently, he alternates weeks between working remotely and in the office.

After the Circuit Breaker’s lifting in the form of gradual phases, which were clearly defined and implemented, Emilio returned to school shortly in June. Soon after, almost everything opened up, but with strict social distancing measures put into place. People are allowed to go out, but everyone is likewise also required log-in and out of every place they visit, and social gatherings are limited to five people at a time. For Belli, Singapore feels safe and open, but they make sure to strictly abide by all health protocols and are still very careful.

A Success Story

Singapore is nothing short of a success story, not just with how they are handling COVID-19, but historically overall, on how far they have come. A model island nation, there are many things that the Philippines ought to emulate from them, one of which is discipline and hard work in my opinion. From there, I believe a lot of improvements shall follow.

On this note, one could say that the Napas are examples themselves of success stories, and it was in living in Singapore that furthermore opened Belli’s eyes to the possibilities of tremendous opportunities that lie out there – not just in terms of career or business, but also when it comes to raising a family with the right values and in a nurturing and encouraging environment.

The life that Belli leads in Singapore is indeed a beautiful and quintessential one, but it didn’t happen overnight. It was the product and continued result of years of hard work, perseverance and faith. In fact, I am one to concur that she too had her share of personal struggles, yet the beautiful, smart and resilient Belli chose to keep moving forward and believing that there was more to life. Today as she looks back, she is grateful for everything that has happened because experience is nothing but the best teacher.

Me and her alike, are firm believers that everything happens, exactly how they should and when they should, but you also got to do your part.

Being Present is a Present

That said, I thought it would be interesting to take a little stroll down memory lane and compare life before and now, as both Belli and I, along with a couple of other close friends, used to be part of the financial markets once upon a time. In fact, before the big move to Singapore and before getting married and having children, Belli grew was working in the market for a total of 7.5 years, first as a money broker; then a foreign exchange trader at the country’s top bank. She thought about continuing a career in the banking industry in Singapore, but her instinct told her to use this new and exciting phase in her life to learn and hone other interests and skills, one of which was a certification course on Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). Soon after attaining her certification, she partnered with the company that gave the course to set up a Singapore branch for their NLP corporate training.

Even if Belli takes on a more administrative role in the company now, she emphasizes the value in pursuing interests, other than what is only work-related. By doing such, you get to know more about yourself on a deeper level, including your strengths and weaknesses, and this will aid you in finding lasting inner peace and happiness no matter what life stage you are in. Having some kind of creative outlet as well, helps one cope through unprecedented times, such as now.

In her empowering words, Belli says, “With each new season, there are aspirations that I’ve let go of, but I have no regrets. Life has been changing so quickly and so often, that many personal goals I had all of a sudden feel outdated— like an old life that I barely recognize each time I give birth! I’m sure many new moms can relate to this all too well. Caring for my young family full-time is where we’re at now. It could be different a year from now. Choosing one path doesn’t necessarily close another forever. A simple way I can take care of myself is investing time in my interests. If something sparks, I try to learn more. Many can relate that there’s much guilt attached to doing something that doesn’t directly contribute to the kids or the family, or that doesn’t produce a billion dollars. It’s a stretch to be present and to do something simply because I like it!”

Family Comes First

Belli also talks about how much she misses her family. They are a tight-knit bunch, and with the current situation, it has become painful to be away from them for about a year now. Her parents haven’t even met 9-month old Francesco yet in person, as their plans of visiting Manila in February of this year were thwarted due to COVID-19. As much as they love Singapore and are grateful for their life, they also imagine living in the Philippines and are sure that the boys would be bonding with their grandparents, aunt and uncles all the time.

When asked if she has plans of returning and living in Philippines again, she is hoping to visit again soon and spend some quality time together, but if she had full control over circ*mstances, she would still choose to stay and raise the boys in Singapore. Although with her husband’s line of work, she knows there’s always a possibility of moving back to Manila. She would probably resist the idea at first, but choose to be open to it.

JAPAN, Macky Herrera Uichico

I think another interesting scenario is what is happening in Japan. Definitely, there is much to be learned from the world’s third largest economy. Even more interestingly are the individual and personal stories that comprise Japan’s collective response.

From the Land of the Rising Sun, Macky Herrera Uichico describes the COVID-19 situation in Japan, and relays how her family chooses to make the best out of the circ*mstances. Together with her husband, Jared and 4-year-old son, Gabe, they currently live in Tokyo, going on their 2nd year there. Yet, both Macky and Jared are no strangers to living in a foreign land. Before living in Japan, they also spent two years in Dubai and more than 1 year in Singapore, due to the dynamic nature of Jared’s work in finance. Even before getting married, both Macky and Jared had already lived in the U.S. for a number of years for college and work.

The Flower that Blooms in Adversity

We all know by now how hard COVID-19 has hit home, but there is nothing more tragic than a sudden and unexpected death of a loved one, especially when you are a thousand miles apart. A tale of two cities, Tokyo and Manila, Macky endured her own personal story of grief during this pandemic.

Macky’s turbulent COVID-19 story begins in early February when her family of three left Japan on February 29th for a short vacation and quality family time in Manila. Schools in Tokyo had just began closing and hoarding began, as Japan was one of thefirst countries to be hit by COVID-19. It was good thing that Japan reacted quite quickly and accordingly that as early as the last week of February, all schools were already temporarily suspended. Thus, it was a much-needed reset and change of scenery in Manila. Even though majority of Macky’s trip home was spent on quarantine in their parents’ house, she was grateful to have been able to celebrate her March 12th birthday among family which also included her parents, younger sister, her husband and newborn baby girl, Ava. By March 14th which was only two days shy before Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) was announced in Manila, they were back in Tokyo. Macky recalls how everything seemed back to normal in Tokyo. In the afternoons, there were many kids outside because there was no school, and most companies rolled out working from home.

While the situation in Tokyo seemed to have normalized to a certain extent, in dark contrast, things began to take a turn for the worst back home in Manila when Macky was told that her mother’s health was deteriorating. Macky could not fathom what was happening, as she had just spent time with her, and she was completely healthy. Tragically, seven days after her mother was confined in the hospital, she passed away on March 31, 2020 due to complications brought about by the pandemic. It happened all too fast.

However, despite being stricken with grief these past months, Macky continues to honor her mother by living life purposefully and mindfully. This challenging 2020 has been a journey of sorts indeed for Macky, further growing into the many roles she plays and discovering what the future has in store for her. As the eldest sibling, she remains strong for her father and sister back home in Manila, and as a working mother and wife, she chooses to hold down the fort for her family too in Japan. Not a day goes by without Macky thinking about her mother, but she knows that her mother would have wanted her to continue on living the best life she can.

Living with the Virus

Now in the month of September, Macky looks back at her own continuing personal journey, as well as Japan’s journey in battling COVID-19. Right after her mother’s passing, Macky describes how a state of emergency (similar to the United States shelter-in-place orders) was put into effect fromApril to May 2020 in Japan. It was a struggle for them too at first, as they had to make many changes in their usual daily routines, including lessening their love for outdoor activities in the interim.

Fortunately, since then, the country hasmostly returned to normal, but with many precautions in place. Macky defines the approach that thegovernment is taking right now is to stay open and live with the virus, for as long as infection numbers are in control. Tokyo still hasaround 100-200 cases per day, but everything is open, and people are able to move freely within the country. However, it is discouraged to leave one’s prefecture. With regards to the private sector, although many offices have returned to normal operations, Macky tells us that she and Jared are quite fortunate that their employers continue to allow them to work remotely for the most part.

I think it is also important to highlight the culture of having a genuine regard for the community in Japan, and how this has significantly contributed to controlling the spread of the virus, despite Tokyo being a densely-populated megacity and where life and commerce revolve around their public transportation lines. Luckily, wearing a mask in public for example, in countries like Japan is not difficult to implement. The Japanese, pre-COVID-19 or even during regular times, have the cultural understanding and consideration for others that one must wear a mask if he or she has even the slightest of a cough or cold and has the possibility of spreading germs to others in public areas. More so today, with the onset of COVID-19, it is unthinkable to roam the streets unmasked.

I would also like to quote Jared, as he captured the present situation in Japan vividly. He attributes Japan’s success to have stemmed mostly from the initiatives taken upon by “society and individuals that acted in the absence of clear guidance from leadership.” Jared wrote that:

“Japan has adopted the "Living with the Virus" approach as well, recognizing that infection risk will never be zero, but also that we know so much more about the virus and are more conscious about our behavior than we were earlier in the year. The philosophy here is that as long as you avoid places where all 3Cs (Closed spaces, Crowded places, Close conversations) are present and mask-wearing and 1 – 2 meter social distancing are strictly implemented, then life can move forward. We've had some large spikes over the summer, yet things have improved, not because of government intervention or lockdowns, but with people and businesses taking responsibility in order to continue with daily life in the "new normal".”

All for one; One for All

Schools in Tokyo reopened in mid-May, after the state of emergency was lifted, and remained open inspite of Japan having its second wave. Macky describes how her son, Gabe's preschool has also taken many precautions since reopening. For example, everyone wears a mask, and teachers wear face shields too. There is no more circle time, and instead, individual activities and meals for the kids. There now existsplexiglass dividers in the classrooms as well, and there are frequent temperature checks, staggered drop-off and pick-up times, and a lot more safety measures that everyone keenly and consistently abides by. Before returning toschool after summer break, all teachers and staff also got PCR-tested.

Macky understands that the risk of infection at school is still there, but they have learned to place their trust in the school community they are a part of. They have also learned to trust that other families likewise, do their part to keep healthy and safe.

Career and the Home

As I’ve known Macky since forever, and know the kind of stellar student and brilliant lawyer that she is, another area of conversation that we touched on was the issues of career and motherhood. Even for the most career-oriented mothers, work can be forced to take a backseat for a while when raising young children becomes the priority.

Macky for example, her life went down a new path when they moved abroad, beginning with her having to put her career as an attorney on hold in order to look after Gabe. I certainly agree with Macky that the balancing act of career and raising children is not easy; inevitably, compromises will have to be made to make all these various moving parts meet. When Macky left Manila for instance, she was a new lawyer (and among the top notchers in her batch) on the trajectory to success, working long hours at one of the big firms; however, Macky surmised thatthe move abroad would entail sacrifice and change. She knew that living in another country without help, and having both her and Jared continue on with their demanding careerswould be very tough on all of them. Ultimately, she knew that what was best for Gabe came first and decided to take a step back. However, she does look forward to picking up where she left off in her career back home when the right time comes. She explains that although career breaks like hers tend not to sit well with some employers, she believes the contrary – that parents who do take a little time off, actually have so much more to bring to the table. I also very much agree with this; there is much truth and wisdom in these statements.

Turning Japanese

I’ve also heard many Filipino friends and relatives say that they would love to live in Japan, but as someone who has also lived in Japan for one year back in 2006 – 2007, I often tell them that going on vacation to Japan for a few days is starkly different from actually living there for a more prolonged period. Do not get me wrong though, for I love Japan, and especially Tokyo, holds a special place in my heart. However, I can see how living in Japan can have challenging aspects when it comes to raising a young child, especially in a bustling metropolitan like Tokyo. For one, for non-native Japanese speakers, it begins with a language barrier. In her words, Macky describes how raising Gabe in Tokyo is different from Manila in many ways, but that it has also allowed her a very meaningful quality of life:

“Firstly, we don’t have help, so Jared and I are very hands-on with Gabe. We also do our share in the household chores. A typical day starts with me preparingbreakfast and Gabe’s obento for school.Secondly,we live in Tokyo, so wedon’t need a car. Jared and I take turns walking Gabe to school in the morning. Back in the (pre-COVID) days, we wouldhead to our respective offices by train.Third,I only work part-time. Had we lived in Manila, I think I wouldhave gone back to full-time work after having Gabe. Butbeing abroad without family or full-time help, we’ve found that this set-up worksbest, at least while Gabe is still young. I work from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and after work, I hop back on the train to pick Gabe up from school which ends at 2: 00 PM.Fourth,I think another major difference is that your friends become your family when you live abroad. We are lucky to have a good community here, with friends from work, school, and some Pinoysliving in Tokyoas well. Schoolpick-up is usually followed by playtime at the park with friends from school, while I chat with the other moms. Then we head home forbath time and dinner. Jared is usually home to join us for dinner.”

Despite all the changes, coupled with the emotional challenges of coming to terms with her mother’s abrupt and recent passing, Macky says that she is nevertheless still grateful; it has still been a blessing to have the opportunity to raise Gabe abroad in a wonderful country like Japan. Furthermore, something that she greatly appreciates as well is Gabe’s preschool community in Tokyo. As the community is very international, children are taught early on that may look different from one another, but they are all inherently the same. This has taught Gabe to grow up without preconceived notions about race and color, and Macky’s job as his mom, and as one who has also had the opportunity to go to school and work with diverse nationalities abroad, is to try andpreservethis beautiful mindset.

Day by day, Macky chooses to heal and see the beauty in every little thing. For instance, she says how she finds it so amusing that Gabe believes he is Japanese. They have tried to explain that he isn't, but he won't budge! Indeed, the Land of the Rising Son.

EUROPE

THE NETHERLANDS,Liz Aguirre Ramaker

Another mom who has been living for quite some time abroad is Liz Aguirre Ramaker. Liz has been working and studying in the Netherlands for the past 10 years, even attaining a PhD in Marketing where her focus was on online consumer behavior. An ongoing graduate student myself, I am happy to have had the honor of reading her profound and well-researched 2015 dissertation. I hope I do justice to her work by genuinely saying in addition to it bringing much value to modern-day marketing strategists and professionals, her work also covers relevant social issues that cuts across all generations – How certainly, social media is a double- edged sword, used also to manipulate consumers. I agree with Liz that in spite of the hefty bottom line that social media significantly brings in, decision makers must use these tools responsibly.

On personal learnings as well, Liz muses that, apart from learning technical skills during her PhD journey, such as knowing how to research by finding information and data needed, and how to conduct social experiments with the right and accurate methodologies in place, pursuing higher education has changed the way she thinks about things – which has been the most valuable lesson.

Just last year, she and husband Jos, had their first baby, the beautiful Sophie, now 1 year and 3 months young. Ecstatic as a blooming, new mother, Liz describes how the Netherlands provides the ideal environment to have children. As I listen to her stories, I can’t help but wish the same services to be provided for in the Philippines.

Liz says, “Generally, it is easy to raise a child in the Netherlands. They have the infrastructure in place to give families the help that they need, without the need to rely on (extended) family. For instance, right after birth, the government will send a caregiver to the mother's home (called Kraamzorg) for a week to take care of the family during the day. It is also during this time that the caregiver will teach the family how to take care of the baby. Before birth, this caregiver provides a checklist of everything that is needed to safely raise a child. Additionally, there are readily available daycares that allow parents to return to work. Despite this, it is common for both parents to work part time once the child is newly born. It is typical for a dad to have a "papa dag [day]".

Her usual regimen with baby Sophie involves often frequenting the outdoors. Liz describes how activities like going to parks, the zoo, animal farms, fruit-picking fields and trekking vast forests, visiting the likes of animal farms and fruit- picking fields are the common things to do regardless of where you are residing in the Netherlands. Moreover, often times these activities are free of charge. In fact, the Ramakers live near a park that offers a variety of animals you can visit and feed for free, such as wallabies, deers, goats, alpalcas, etc.

Mini Adults I also found it very interesting the way Liz describes how the Dutch raise their young. She says, “As a society, the Dutch raise children as mini adults. Even at a young age, they give children choices and respect their decisions. They take them to restaurants and they (sometimes) eat what is served. So, at a young age, children are well integrated into society.”

Again, I could not help think to myself how this could be an area of application in the way we Filipinos raise our children. Truth be told, it is no secret that Filipino parents and extended family members tend to very much dote on our young, sometimes to the point of spoiling the child. When it comes to eating habits as well, it is common for young Filipino children to order from a children’s menu or special non-menu dishes when at restaurants. Likewise, is similar when it comes to “giving children choices.” I would say that raising Filipino children as “mini adults with choices” is slowly becoming a way in which perhaps younger-generation parents raise their kids, but generally, we Filipinos are used to abiding by the same way we were raised by our parents – to follow parents’ orders, no questions asked, as it is the usual sign of respect for elders. I do believe though, that there is much to also be learned from European values such as this, that we can somewhat integrate into our Filipino culture.

The Great Equalizer As for the COVID-19 situation, the Netherlands has also experienced their share of challenges, and are still on the road to recovery. There at least has been much progress nevertheless. Liz recounts how back in early March 2020, as her husband Jos, is a doctor, he described how patients with COVID-19 were increasing exponentially in the hospital. Fortunately, as the situation grew more manageable, all day cares opened when May rolled in, and towards the end of May, schools begun to slowly open as well. Many parents indeed welcomed the chance to send their children back to day care and school, for as we all can relate to, it is impossible to work otherwise, if there is no help at home, or options like school or daycare in place. Liz says there was in total of about two months of home schooling before returning to almost normal in the Netherlands.

For mothers with newborns or very young children however, such as Liz, the fear of their babies possibly catching the virus at daycares was a cause of concern. Such that, Liz had to make many sacrifices, including choosing to care for her little one full-time until the dust literally settles from this pandemic. Liz describes how COVID-19 “levelled everyone,” and this is certainly true in many aspects. It can be said that regardless of our educational background or economic status, we are all vulnerable to this virus; we are all affected somehow, and likewise, we all have to make our own personal sacrifices in order to get by.

The overall situation still remains to be manageable however, and the Netherlands trudges on with the mindset to not be caught resting on their laurels. They are for now learning to co-exist with the presence of the virus, but with much vigilance and caution.

Life is Not a Straight Line

I remarked to Liz that she would make a very good business school professor because aside from the fact that she is equipped with a PhD, her personality, intelligence and demeanor makes her a strong candidate in the world of the academe. I also added in playful jest that her dazzling beauty is a plus because she would inspire male students to work harder, to which she good-naturedly replies with a laughing emoji. Trying to unpack what the emoji means, we talk about how life is never a straight line, and we both agree that this includes the fluidity of roles, career and life phases, that all of these can easily change with each passing time.

When asked if she has plans of returning to the Philippines, Liz remarks only if it is to visit family and friends. Other than that, she is happy and content with her life in the Netherlands, and of course, who could blame her. Their beautiful and peaceful life in the Netherlands is what one would only dream and wish for. Of course, this is without saying that Liz too has made many sacrifices on her part to makes things work here. She definitely also misses her family too, and although the COVID-19 situation is managed in the Netherlands, its mismanagement in the Philippines also keeps her from visiting loved ones back home anytime soon.

NORTH AMERICA

USA; Amanda Borlongan Soderberg

The United States is another country close to my heart, as I also lived there for a couple of years for college and work, and from personal experience from living in both Japan and the U.S. from 2004 - 2009, I’ve witnessed a little bit of divergence between these two East and West cultures. While Japan is very much group-centric and more hom*ogeneous, America on the other hand, tends to be more individualistic and diverse. Nonetheless, I don’t say this to undermine the U.S. because self-sufficiency and independence are part of the pillars in which America has successfully built itself on and prides itself for.

I was again lucky enough to catch the time of another extremely busy mom to talk about her experience living in the United States. Among this group of global moms, Amanda Borlongan Soderberg was the first to move abroad and start a new life. Still in high school, she moved to California back in 2003 together with her whole family, and has been living in California for the last 17 years.

Today, Amanda has been married for seven years, and she and her husband Danny have two gorgeous, sweet little girls, Savannah and Stella, 6 and 2 years old respectively. Amanda’s parents live about 10 minutes away, and Amanda’s three other sisters live about an hour or less away.

The Non-Availability of Help

I think the more that I learn about the lives of mothers in other countries with absolutely no extra help, the more I am thankful for household helpers in the Philippines.

For Amanda for instance, having no yaya or extra help is the biggest challenge, as childcare in the U.S. is very expensive. Prior to having children, Amanda was working as a full-time nurse, but when her eldest, Savannah was born, Amanda actually had more guilt relying on her mom for childcare while she was still working full time. Hence, she reduced her work hours to part-time (24-28 hours a week), but years later, after Stella was born, Amanda had no choice but to become a stay-at-home mom.

How Things Have Changed

Prior to the pandemic, like all other moms, naturally Amanda enjoyed the pockets of me-time when her two kids were at school. This workable schedule enabled Amanda to start her own Personal Training and Workout business, and the flexibility of her business allowed her to see clients before and after her “mom duties.”

However, with the onset of COVID-19, things have of course become more challenging. The “time-off” and devolvement of responsibilities she once appreciated when the kids were physically at school have been reduced to her now also having to take charge of distance learning at home. Amanda describes how Savannah is on Zoom everyday from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and she too has to help out on and off. For Stella, she also has to come up with their own learning plan to keep her busy and not just watching TV. Although grateful that her family is well and healthy, it is also no walk in the park. One can just imagine what it is like for full-time working mothers who have lost the option of school and daycare for their young kids during this pandemic. How to juggle all these responsibilities has for sure taken a toll on the health and well-being of many American mothers.

Other changes that COVID-19 has brought forth was of course having to wear masks everywhere, and this alone has caused much controversy and polarized divide in the United States where many deem it a hindrance to their personal freedom.

A lot of places also still remain closed, including playgrounds that they used to frequent. Most schools in California are doing distance learning, but some preschools have actually already opened. However, for the Soderbergs, they opted to keep their kids home for safety. They too are doing their part to not add to the problem. It pains Amanda though to see how her kids miss their friends and usual activities, but they strictly follow stay-at-home orders. They have not travelled, nor had any family or friends over either.

Super Mom Personified

As her husband, Danny, works full-time, Amanda literally does it ALL. Even though her parents live close by, they don’t babysit or help out, and Danny’s family lives out-of-state. They also never had babysitters either.

I asked Amanda to describe what her usual day and week is like, and I found myself truly admiring her relentless tenacity. She wakes up daily at 5:00 AM to make it in time to train her 6:00 AM clients; then she immediately goes home to wake up the girls and get them ready for school. She makes the family breakfast, assists with the girls’ daily activities and online learning, and then makes lunch. After classes, she usually takes the girls out to go hiking, or to the park or store, but this has lessened greatly these past months due to COVID-19. After which, she makes dinner for the whole family, and Danny is usually home by then. She then has to depart again immediately to train her 6:00 PM clients, leaving the girls under Danny’s supervision in the meantime.

After come homing from her 6:00 PM client workouts about an hour or two later, Amanda’s tasks do not end there. She walks the dog and cleans the kitchen; then she does the usual bedtime routine for the girls. This routine is repeated day in and day out. She admits that she is exhausted everyday, but has gotten used to this kind of daily grind. She once was a full-time nurse with a crazy on-call schedule after all. Amanda also does all the other errands, such as planning the family meals, grocery shopping, as well as household chores. Part of her weekly regimen is: Sundays are laundry days and trash days; Wednesdays and Sundays are for cleaning the cat litter boxes, as they have 3 cats, 1 dog, and some lizards and bugs that Savannah loves to collect. For as long as I’ve known Amanda since childhood, she has always been inherently hard-wired to be selfless, caring and an extremely hard worker, but I still had to ask what keeps her going because even human-machines like her need rest and refueling. Amanda says that Danny too often wonders why she just can’t stay put if she is always feeling tired or overwhelmed, to which she just grins and replies, “because I can’t! Everyone always needs something!”

CANADA, Naz Lopez Gacura

North from California, along the same the Western hemisphere of the North American continent lives another super-mom, Naz Lopez Gacura from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She too has many stories of what it is like to live in the West, raising young children without the likes of yayas or helpers. She and Filipino-Canadian husband, Mark have three adorable kids together; three kids at the age of three and below - Rafael Luca, 3years; Maxine Micah, 1 year and newborn baby Lorenzo Rizal, only 2months old.

Naz (which is short for Nastassja) was actually born and raised in Vancouver until she was 7 years old; then she and her family moved to Manila and lived there until she was 18 years old. After graduating from high school in 2004, Naz moved back to Vancouver on her own, while the rest of her family moved 5 years later, once her two younger brothers were older.The plan was always to move back to Vancouver for post-secondary, as she and parents believed it would open up more options for the whole family. Naz also has many relatives in Canada. On her mom’s side, her relatives have been living in Canada since 1970, and her dad and his brothers were sent to Canada and the U.S. for school. They’ve all gone back and forth between here and Manila since then.

The Independent Life

Similar to life in the United States, childcare is not affordable. Likewise, it has also led Naz to become a stay-at-home mom, while husband Mark works 12-hour shifts daily. Yet this still didn’t stop Naz from pursuing business projects of her own, being the stylish and creative entrepreneur that she always has been. In addition to a jewelry business she has been running, Naz also started a very successful, professional calligraphy business back in 2016 where she personally designs wedding invitations, guestbooks, event signages, and the like. However, she found herself having to temporarily shelf many creative projects in the meantime, with the arrival of newborn, Lorenzo, just two months ago. Her hands are literally, very full at the moment, caring for all three children.

Naz says that she misses having these creative outlets and business projects of hers, especially with this pandemic and being so limited with what they all can do at home, but at the same time, she knows it is only temporary, and that she’ll eventually get to them when the right time comes.

Leaders, School, Healthcare..and Giving Birth in the time of COVID-19

When it comes to COVID-19, Naz says that situation in Canada makes her a little nervous. She recalls looking at the numbers in just their province and seeing that they were doing really well in the beginning, but as soon as they opened up the borders, their numbers have been steadily on the rise. At the same time however, Naz also says she has trust in their local leaders, as well as in popular Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and emphasizes the great healthcare they have in Canada. She feels quite fortunate, for she knows there are a lot of people around the world who can’t say the same about their own leaders and healthcare. In fact, Naz narrates her experience having just given birth two months ago. Her initial trepidation gradually eased away by the manner in which the hospital staff handled her, and she felt safe all throughout. Her 3rd birthing experience turned out well fortunately, but she did notice some changes, like how there were less staff coming in and out of the room, and how everyone was dressed from head to toe in PPE gear.

When it comes to schooling, physical, face-to-face classes in Vancouver has actually begun just this week, but many parents are scared and unsure of what to do with their children. Naz and Mark for instance had initially wanted to put Rafa, in preschool since they saw how much he missed playing with the other kids (and he was already going to preschool part-time since he was 2), but decided to hold off from school for now. They decided to play it extra safe side since they have a newborn, and additionally, because Naz’s mother is currently in remission from breast cancer. Having Rafa away at preschool would’ve also certainly helped free off some of Naz’s load at home, but overall, they are just thankful that preschool isn't required, and they have the option and resources to keep Rafa and all their other kids home for now.

Three at Ages Three and Below

Naz remarks however with a smile, “As for my sanity, I’m just working on it day by day.” This single statement packs so much meaning and is completely understandable, given the amount of childcare and domestic tasks Naz faces daily. I asked her to give me a run-down of her usual schedule and list of growing to do’s. It includes everything from being the sole caregiver of a newborn, playmate and teacher of two hyperactive toddlers and being the one-stop-shop handyman of all household chores that include cooking, cleaning, laundry, repairing things if needed, etc. Despite these challenges which entail all sorts of multi-tasking every second, Naz says that she has learned to breathe, have presence of mind and effectively juggle her responsibilities.

On the positive side, Naz says that she is appreciative of husband Mark who is very hands-on and never makes excuses to help out despite his also hectic schedule. Naz’s parents also like to lend a helping hand, and around once a week, Rafa and Maxine get to sleep over at her parents’ place nearby. Once in a while, her mother also comes over to help out. Like all of us though, she just hopes for this pandemic to be over and done with already.

Values and Friendships

Naz says that she and Mark sometimes talk about moving to the Philippines, and while it is a nice dream, it remains a tough leap unless they can find a way to make as much as they can in Vancouver, or start a lucrative business in Manila. In the back of her mind though, Naz knows a move back is doable, as her parents were able to, when they were her age today, with 3 children as well. In fact, among other successful entrepreneurial stints, her parents started the famous, trendy pants line, Boboli, back in the late 1990s to early 2000s. However, she is not sure if she possesses the same courage and faith as they did, or if it is their calling just yet to be in the Philippines.

A big reason for her wanting to go back home someday down the road, is that she would like her children to grow up with the same values and have the same kind of genuine and life-long friendships that she herself gained over her years in Manila.Even with a total of 23 years living in Vancouver vs. the 11 years in Metro Manila, Naz still ever-so-fondly looks back at her past Manila life with sweet nostalgic sentimentality. I can understand her train of thought though because I would agree that is Manila’s unique selling point, in spite of its many other lackluster qualities. I too noticed that every time Naz visits here once a year or once in two years, we always pick up where she left off. It is like she never left, but seems to comes back each time, with an additional little family member.

Parts of a Greater Whole

At the end of the day, and there are indeed some incredibly taxing, long days, Naz is nonetheless grateful and happy for all the opportunities and quality of life she has been able to obtain by living in Canada, especially the very livable city of Vancouver. Naz understands that she would not have been able to accomplish all these, if she never gathered the guts to leave in the first place and make her Mark in the world. Hardships are merely part of a greater whole. Life may not be perfect, but it has darn well been an amazing ride.

Moving with Purpose, Making a Difference

Segment 2 of: “Moving with Purpose” amidst COVID-19 Series

To keep our sanity, it is important to see the beauty in the mundane, as now on our 6th month of lockdown in the Philippines, one can say that COVID-19 has permeated every aspect of our waking and subconscious lives. This pandemic is as gnarly as it gets, and it is tremendously easy to fall prey to despair and anger. One quick tune-in on the news or any social media platform is enough to do the trick. We yearn for normalcy or any semblance of it, especially when we Metro-Manila dwellers take a peek and compare what’s happening in other countries who have flattened the curve and have returned to normal living.

Yes, truly, there are countless things to feel glum and anxious about, but if this pandemic has taught us anything – it is to keep fighting, and to make the most of what we can with the cards we are dealt with. We must not forget that extraordinary times require extraordinary mindsets – which must spillover into action.

This too shall pass. However, at the same time, we all really have to do our part. The truth is, we cannot just hide away and passively wait things out. We have to keep hustling, keep adapting and keep evolving.

Everyday People of Diverse Industries

Something that I’ve said since the beginning of ECQ in March 2020, is that we need not look far to witness heroism. They come in many forms, “the Hero with a thousand faces” (Joseph Campbell). Perhaps we can’t all be at the frontlines during this crisis, but it does not mean that we can’t create an impact within our own spheres of influence. Whatever we do, we must do purposefully, so that our seemingly small acts can create ripple effects, and so on, and so forth.

Thus, in light of National Heroes’ Day, four days ago, it made me think about some admirable and genuine people of various backgrounds who have been making a difference in ways they know how and beyond – whether in their respective industries, chosen career or vocational paths, and/or at home with the family. Here are some highlights of their stories and excerpts of their lives which I believe, deserves introspection and celebration.

At the forefront of the fight: Dr. Jose Maria (“JM”) Villamor, M.D., Pediatric Anesthesiologist, Philippine General Hospital

We always talk about the heroism in the face of surmountable struggles that our doctors and healthcare workers endure collectively as a whole, but it is also important to capture and document their individual stories, for there is much to say that is left unsaid.

Among these medical frontliners is Dr. JM Villamor, an anesthesiologist at Philippine General Hospital (PGH). His main task is to provide anesthesia to all patients who must undergo surgeries or any medical procedure that involve pain or discomfort. For those who know JM personally, he is often described as kind and funny, but he is also a very intelligent, brave and collected person who unconsciously downplays his skills through humor. Nonetheless, this works well for him in his particular field in medicine because it enables him to focus on critical tasks at hand in the hospital, and when needed, able to diffuse tense situations.

JM indeed faces a series of battles everyday. From his own experiences as an anesthesiologist in PGH, he saw how the hospital has gotten extremely busy and packed, as the number of people getting infected with COVID-19 piled up day after day. In fact, in the words of PGH’s Director, Dr. Gerardo Legaspi, M.D. in an open letter, he writes, “communities and hospitals around us are being inundated with patients. The resulting panic and confusion was palpable and paralyzing.” Such that, PGH made the informed decision to step forward and offer their facilities and resources, making PGH one of the three COVID-19 Referral Centers in the country.

Let us also not forget that PGH is a state-run hospital, and it primarily caters to indigent patients – those who cannot afford private hospitals. Thus, one can only imagine the multitudes of people who have flocked to PGH in desperation. We can deduce that JM, like the other doctors at PGH, have been exposed to the whole gamut of patients, of all kinds of diseases and infections, coming in and out of the hospital. Clearly, it is a job not for the faint of heart.

At one point, JM himself contracted COVID-19, but fortunately, he was not severely hit. A man of strong resolve, he recovered quickly within a few weeks of self-imposed quarantine and isolation. After testing negative for the virus three consecutive times, he was back at the hospital doing his usual rounds, donned in his usual full PPE gear.

Where he draws his inspiration

For JM, it is all in a day’s work. When he looks back at his early stages pursuing the medical field, he can’t recall anything or anyone specific that inspired him to choose this vocational path. All he knows is that since he was young, he simply wanted to be of help to other people, and thus, chose to be a doctor.

In JM’s words, “Seeing everyone at work is very inspiringfor me. These people go to work even with the constant fear of gettinginfected by COVID-19, but still go forward, in order to provide hospital care to all patients that come to the hospital. Most of them do not get to go home to see their families for weeks at a time.”

JM himself had to make many sacrifices too. He was not able to see his wife and 1-year-old daughter for two and a half months during the start of the pandemic, as he too feared bringing the virus home and possibly infecting the family. To cap off his ongoing story, JM’s cautionary words are the same things that everyone has been harping: “Always wear your mask. Wash your hands. Stay home as much as possible.”

We heard it right here. This is definitely not a drill.

Role Model in Local Government: Jhana Corona-Villamor, Batangas Board Member

Leadership through example, concrete action and sacrifice does not fall far in JM’s family, as his own wife, Board Member of the 3rd District of Batangas, (former Mayor of Tanauan, Batangas), Jhana Corona-Villamor espouses these very virtues as well. We all know what continues to be said about our government’s response to this pandemic, or lack thereof. However, we must remember not to jumble everyone together in one lot, as there remains, and there will always be, people who will prove us wrong otherwise. One of which is Jhana, a role model in local government.

Like her medical frontliner husband, Jhana too is a frontliner herself. Lest we forget, LGUs and Provincial Governments play a very significant role in the fight against COVID-19. They must ensure that their constituents are abiding by, at the very least, the minimum health standards prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the national government. Such that, most cities and municipalities have utilized their calamity funds and realigned their development funds to counter the impact of the pandemic in their localities. Of course, implementation is easier said than done, but throwing in the towel has never been an option for Jhana.

Jhana’s daily work regimen is likewise a hectic one. As a Provincial Board Member, she forms part of the province’s legislative body, tasked with enacting ordinances, approving resolutions and appropriating funds for the general welfare of the province. She is the chairperson of the Committee on Budget and Appropriation where its main task is to review the annual and supplemental budgets proposed by the Governor. Much of her time has been devoted to conducting public and committee hearings to make sure that each and every centavo is well-spentto address the needs of her constituents. Jhana’s committee is also responsible for the review of the appropriation ordinances of all 34 municipalities and cities in the province. Her work as a Board Member also involves coordination with city, municipal and barangay officials and visiting constituents for consultation.

Whom She Looks Up to When asked whom inspired her to follow this career path, Jhana speaks of how her father was her main source of inspiration to enter public service. Growing up, she saw how he was able to help others, and she in turn, decided to choose this path because she also wanted to make a difference and be given the same opportunity to effect change in their community.

Resilience in 2020, beginning with Taal Volcano’s Eruption To say the least, 2020 has been a terrible year for most of us. For the Philippines, the year began quite literally with bang, when Taal Volcano began erupting in January 2020. For those who had businesses and social plans that involved Batangas, Tagaytay and nearby areas, the eruption caused much disruptions and stress. However, for those who lived within the volcano’s immediate radius, it meant far worse – death, sickness, relocations, evacuations and a prolonged loss of livelihood. The economic impact was and continues to be great. In the spirit of resilience, affected business owners tried to shrug off these worries in hopes of making up for losses in the preceding months to come, and then COVID-19 happened. These back-to-back unforeseen and debilitating events has made recovery seem close to impossible.

Indeed, for Jhana, 2020 has been a baptism of fire. Beginning in January, right off the bat after her happy Christmas holidays with the family, she was forced to immediately snap back to reality, as her world revolved around the survival, livelihood and welfare of her constituents in Batangas.

In Jhana’s words, “the past few months have been very challenging for most Batangueños. It started when Taal volcano erupted in January 2020, destroying livelihood and properties, leading to the forced evacuation of thousands and the declaration of a lockdown in 12 municipalities and cities in Batangas. These cities and municipalities still haven’t fully recovered from the eruption, and then to make matters worse, COVID-19 hit. Hundreds of families are still staying at evacuation facilities. These events highlighted the resilience of the Batangueños. Despite the repercussions of the Taal eruption and COVID-19, there are a lot of inspiring stories that make me feel hopeful and optimistic.”

If there is anything that Jhana clings onto during these trying times, it is her faith, her empowered attitude and the support of her family that uplifts her, day in and day out. She remains strong, so that the many Batangueños who look up to her can also remain strong. She continues to hold out for everyone counting on her, including her beautiful baby daughter, Bella who takes after her mother.

Where Technology and Education Converge: Michelle Pastelero, Education Manager, IT Software/Cloud Services

Something close to my heart as well, is the pandemic’s effect on the education sector, especially for young children. For instance, I have seen how my now, three-year-old daughter has grown in leaps in bounds when we enrolled her in a progressive ‘big preschool” called Bankstreet Summit School when she had just turned two last year. One year later, I can genuinely say that she learned so much in various aspects through schooling alongside other children, and I am all the more a believer of early childhood education. I have nothing but admiration and gratitude towards the very patient, caring and hardworking educators and staff. I can say without a doubt, that members of the education sector everywhere are truly heroes.

It was painful to accept that physical and face-to-face- classes would not be possible when COVID-19 set in, but like other parents, I settled for the next most feasible and safest option for now, which is online classes or what is called distance learning via platforms like Zoom and Google Meet. Of course, I am not alone when I say that this is not the most optimal way to learn, especially for young children. The social benefits of traditional classroom-learning are immeasurable; however, this is what needs to be done, in order not to compromise health and safety.

Just like adult Work From Home (WFH) situations however, children also experience the usual technical glitches and obstacles with these learning platforms. That said, it also makes me thankful for he people behind the scenes who do their best to assure smooth implementation of the current distance learning platforms.

This is where people like Michelle come in; she represents innovation that bridges such gaps between distance learning and the reality of our country’s sub-par infrastructures. At a first glance, one would think that she stepped out of a high fashion magazine, with her modelesque beauty and physique. Yet, there is more that meet the eye when it comes to Michelle. A veteran in the IT industry and an advocate of education, she is currently an Education Manager for IT Software/Cloud Services for a leading global tech company. Her scope of tasks includes having to ensure that distance learning platforms here in the Philippines are running smoothly. This means making sure that their cloud services are running well, and that all students and teacher-users have access.

Information Technology (IT) is among the industries which has certainly taken off, its growth catalyzed by the pandemic. As previously mentioned, Michelle talks about how schools far and wide, private and public alike, across all levels, have been forced to temporarily suspend physical classes; others, sadly, have permanently shut down. The words synchronous and asynchronous are terminologies often used to describe school curriculum these days.

On the flip side, a bright spot that has come out of this is that, in Michelle’s words, “it has really pushed projects to happen sooner. For example, because education must continue online, internet connectivity in remote areas has become the main priority for continued education this year. In the last two to three months, digital transformation has finally begun, where it originally was pegged to happen in over a 10-year time frame. Philippine education seems to have changed overnight, virtually. It has been a busy time, migrating printed curriculum e-books, training teachers how to be able to teach virtually, all of this to create a hybrid online learning platform where students nationwide can access education. Education ultimately, must be accessible, physically and financially for everyone.“

The Road Towards Industry 4.0

When asked what drew Michelle to the IT business, she talks about how she was working in IT since 2009 and witnessed firsthand how the industry drastically improved various businesses in a short period of time. She realized that IT was a good industry to be in, if one wanted to truly see change happen.

Education, Economy and Global Competitiveness

Michelle also talks about a former mentor who saw how she possessed a genuine passion for change, so he introduced her to many government agencies whom they could help through IT solutions that would concretely capacitate transparency and efficiency for its citizens services.

However, it was only when Michelle was working in education when she was able to see which service area of IT she was most drawn to, to truly make an impact.The urgent need to improve the country’s education spoke out to her. For example, she saw how the Philippines fared against the whole world based on results of a global, standardized achievement test called Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). To give a short background, PISA is an international study launched by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED) in 1997, but the Philippines had only joined PISA for the first time in 2018, as part of their reform plans on improving quality basic education. PISA’s methodology and objective, respectively, is to survey its 79 member and partner countries every 3 years for comparative data on 15-year-olds’ performance in reading, math and science. It measures and benchmarks their ability to apply such skills and knowledge of subject areas, to meet real-world challenges.

The results were extremely alarming. The Philippines ranked one of the lowest in the world across all three subjects.Michelle explains that what these results mean for us, is that the average Filipino is not well-equipped for the ever-evolving job market; they may not have the best odds of securing quality jobs, other than perhaps, sadly, low-income or minimum wage jobs that will not be sufficient to get them by. This poses as a vicious cycle, detrimental to the economy.

The lack of access and means to quality education, and how it translates to job security has always been a lingering problem in the country, but it has become all the more vividly real today because unemployment has hit at an all-time low, due to COVID-19. Furthermore, most jobs that have been let go are those from within the service industry which make up more than half of the country’s GDP.

Equip Yourself

Michelle firmly espouses that “if we can improve education for children, we can equip them with future, with ready skills that they would need for future,” and this is exactly what she has set out to do.

I cannot agree more with her closing words that: “It is true when they say education is the best investment you can make for yourself, so never stop learning. Especially in a time like this, seek out more ways to learn, like taking free online courses. For instance, K-12 education in the Philippines is free, so I highly encourage continuing schooling. That’s really the only weapon we have when faced with the problems of the future.”

Staying Able to Enable Oneself: Nick Daez, Co-founder & Director of Seabiscuit Films and Kundalini Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Sound Healer

For some, when they hear the term Wellness, they have the impression that one has to be “unwell” in order to explore this industry. However, this is not necessarily the case; the wellness industry caters to everyone in all spectrums of health and wellness. Although I do understand how practices under this umbrella can especially have a huge and profound impact on those going through dark times.

Rude Awakening

Nick Daez for instance, is no stranger to dark times, to grief and loss. Among his many life experiences to choose from, one that drastically molded him into the person he is today, was when his marriage came to an abrupt end in 2014. He was only 28 years old. Numb, lost as he was dazed, his search for answers brought him all over the world. This is what pushed him back then, to explore the wellness industry, and which had subsequently made him a credible and compelling voice on its healing capabilities. In contrast, during that rough time, his other world, in Film making and Production was flourishing. Seabiscuit Films, Inc., the company he organically created with the collaboration of high school friends back in 2012, had grown into a successful video production company.

To take a quick stroll down memory lane, according to Nicky, he fell in love with Film making back in Ateneo when he was taking up a Production Design elective under the late national artist, Salvador Bernal. His class had just finished watching foreign and art films the whole semester, and for their final project, they had to make a short film. For Nicky, he just absolutely loved the process and obsessed over every part of it. From then on, he started helping out in shoots and apprenticing under directors which eventually led him to create Sea Biscuit Films, Inc. However today in 2020, Nicky is not active in its day-to-day operations anymore, but remains involved in making the big decisions, in checking on the company’s finances and having a bird’s eye view of the on-going projects.

Fast forward to present day; His new passion is now Yoga and Meditation since getting into it six years ago when his marriage had just ended. In Nicky’s words, that time, “he was desperate for anything to help him find inner peace.” Through referrals from a trusted cousin, Nicky joined a Hindu meditation gathering which eventually led him to Kundalini Yoga. Nicky can still recall his very first Kundalini Yoga class, as it was, “such an intense and visceral experience.”

Nicky was hooked instantly. He became obsessed with it the next four years and decided that he wanted to deepen his practice by joining a teacher training course in New Mexico, USA two years ago. At first, he had no intention of becoming a teacher, as his pursuits began for purely self-healing. However, when he got back to Manila, much to his surprise, he suddenly became awash with a strong urge and calling to teach. He has been teaching full-time ever since.

The Synergy of Two Industries

As it turns out, there is a burgeoning market for Yoga and Meditation in the Phillpines, even more so now due to the pandemic, as people search for ways to cope and find inner peace. Thus, as his classes began gaining traction, Nicky’s scope of work expanded into also being responsible for the scheduling, PR, marketing, and accounting of his yoga and meditation classes. For him, it is reminiscent of his younger days when he was still starting up Seabiscuit Films. It seems that Nicky will always have a hand at business and production, but this time, it has evolved to include his yoga practice as the main point of engagement.

In fact, Nicky highlights how video production and teaching yoga have a lot of similarities in terms of trusting the process and being patient with oneself and other people.

For example, he talks about how, “as a director and as a teacher, you have to lead by example and learn the intricacies of holding space for other people. There are a lot of highs and lows during this pandemic and I just try to view every moment as lesson and an opportunity to grow and help other people. I think selfless service is one of the big themes of this pandemic for me.”

Indeed, Nicky is one of those creatives who found a way to seamlessly mesh production and wellness through his online classes. Additionally, he, together with longtime friend, Snap Lopa, also created a Podcast aptly entitled, Paliwanag where the duo strikes casual conversations with various people of different industries. The aim of the podcast is to create an inspirational medium for the exchange of ideas and the discussion on spirituality and alternative living in relation to the current times.

Acceptance and Adapting: What’s Next for Production and Wellness?

Many questions remain as to the future of these two industries, but right now especially, during a time when mental health should not be taken for granted, more emphasis is now being placed on nurturing our well-being. It is not taboo anymore. In his closing statements, Nicky relays his thoughts:

“The video production industry was hit pretty badly, especially during the first three months of the lockdown. A lot of people were out of work. Fortunately, the recent last two months have been busier, but the safety protocols have forced everyone to adjust and shorten work hours. I think is a big improvement, since most shoots would go passed sixteen hours on a regular basis. I think the people in the industry all worked together to come up with fair and safe protocols for the new normal. I’d like to believe that by humanizing the industry even more, it’ll make the environment a lot healthier and beneficial for the people working as well.”

“On the other hand, the wellness industry has been thriving since the pandemic started. I think it just goes to show how important it is to focus on your health and well-being. Although we all had to adjust to teaching online, in my experience, everyone just helped one another more by creating more workshops and gatherings to work together. I think it’s always been like that since I entered the wellness industry, but it just got highlighted even more during this challenging time. For me, I think we just need to continue to collaborate and create that sense of community strong for things to keep going and thriving.”

Lastly, as the Sound Healer that he is, Nicky says:

“Life is short so we need to just embrace every moment as if it were last. We should always be kind to people and move through life slowly and with intention.“

A Test of Faith: Father Edwin L. Soliva sdb, Catholic Priest belonging to the Salesians of Don Bosco

Part and parcel to nourishing our well-being, I’d like to think, is being in touch with our spirituality and faith, regardless of whichever religious sect we belong to. This pandemic has truly been a test for everyone, and for sure, we have all by now come across times when we question the meaning and sense of everything, including God’s hand in all of this. I don’t consider myself a religious person, but I’ve experienced and seen what good can come out of real introspection and reflection, especially when guided by someone you can trust.

I think I speak for most schoolmates of my generation when I say that Father Edwin Soliva is the best person for this kind of spiritual guidance. He has been a Catholic priest for the close to 30 years, belonging to the Salesians of Don Bosco, and presently, he has been assigned in Don Bosco Batulao, as the Rector and youth in-charge. His apostolate is to facilitate retreats and provide good accommodations for retreat groups, and I am certain that he conducts them with much heart and enthusiasm, for among all the many apostolates for Salesian priests, he finds himself most comfortable in giving homilies, recollections and retreats. There are times of course that he feels physically exhausted after giving retreats to young people, but it nonetheless, does not outweigh the spiritual and emotional fulfillment that also accompanies it.

As the Rector of Don Bosco Batulao, his role is to keep the life of the Salesians in his community healthy. He is looked upon like the Father-figure of his flock, and thus, also makes that everyone regularly prays together and does their apostolate well. He oversees that the retreat house functions well, and that they are overall providing a good experience for the retreatants.

As my close friend and confidante for more than 15 years, I can personally attest to the effectivity of his homilies, retreats and personal advice. For me, his words can move mountains. They can truly move one to dig down deep and trigger that need and want for change. I can truly say that Fr. Edwin is a great example of what Catholic priests ought to be. He is not preachy or self-righteous; he is down-to-earth, kalog and in touch with reality and the changing world. He’s like that cool kabarkada who never gives up on you. Above all, he is real Man of God with a heart of gold.

Getting By During Hard Times

However, even those with a direct line to God see hard times. Having had zero mass gatherings, any sort of group, face-to-face gatherings and retreats since March 2020, the retreat house has really been struggling financially due to the pandemic. Moreover, their main source of income is handling retreat groups from schools whom all have cancelled or indefinitely postponed accommodations as well. Let us also not forget that the retreat house also experienced disruptions caused by Taal’s eruption.

To mitigate losses and adapt to these times, the retreat house, spearheaded by Fr. Edwin, invested in faster internet connectivity, webcams and a sound system for their online masses, recollections and retreats. Fr. Edwin describes how this shift has not been easy, since they of course, have been accustomed to handling retreats with the physical presence of the retreatants. Yet, they continue to simply do their best to persevere and survive during this struggle. Like other industries who are barely making it, Fr. Edwin remains steadfast in making the best of the situation, as this is also the field of work that they have prepared for.

Disseminating God’s Message online

As we are all human, Fr. Edwin too has some apprehensions about the future. He ponders about how effective online recollections and retreats will continue to be. Prior to the pandemic, his usual retreats were typically 3-days long, filled with lots of activities, talks, film showings and the like. Now, it has been reduced to a few hours online. He too, really started to question himself.

His continued inspiration comes from this thought and conviction, that “Edwin, if ever the young find your retreat effective or meaningful, it is due to a small part on your efforts and preparations, but remember that the real inspiration and power behind is God. You just scattered the seeds, but the seeds come from God and it will bear fruits beyond your efforts. Now, it is the same God who will work His power and wisdom when you give the young the online retreat. It is the same God who will give you the wisdom and the words to speak and inspire. Don’t worry. Let God give his ‘retreat.’”

The Serenity Prayer; let go; let God

When asked for a few words that he can impart, Fr. Edwin says genuinely:

“What is happening now with this pandemic is something that caught the world really by surprise. We were not prepared at all for this, and it changed everything in our life. There is a lot of fears and anxiety about how life will be. But life will go on and with resiliency, creativity, and flexibility. We will find a way to cope with all these.”

“For years we have been living a normal life and everything has always been in our control; that’s why God has been pushed aside because we feel we don’t need Him. Now we don’t know what to do. Now we are not sure anymore, and things seem to be out of control. This is the best time now to put God back into our life. Now is the time to get down on our knees and recognize again our creator. The God who created the world, can create life and make us live a meaningful life in spite of this pandemic. Let us find comfort in what Jesus said “remember, I will always be with you until the end”.”

The Home and the Online Marketplace

Definitely, another trend these days is the renewed understanding in the importance of home life. As the home has now become the center point of life as we now know it, what has emerged is the online buying and selling of artifacts that are made to make the home a better and more conducive place for living and working. In addition to medical and sanitation supplies, the common things we see sprouting online are the likes of plants and gardening materials, wifi boosters, laptops, homecooked or homebaked food, homemade crafts, big-item children’s play things and even sports and exercise equipment. This is not entirely surprising. As all sorts of livelihoods and jobs have been disrupted or lost, many have turned to alternative or added sources of income, or have revamped their old ways of doing business. The key platform of engagement and marketing across all these shifts is of course the digital world, whether through social media or community messenger apps and what not. The good side about this shift is that it has allowed people to hone their more creative side, coupled with business acumen.

I would go as far to say that the overall theme of today’s online marketplace points towards going back to the simpler life, or taking a pause to be more attuned with the beauty of everyday. As much as this can pose a threat to industries who offer an experiential type of product, this does not mean they cannot thrive as well.

Going back and Giving Back: Rosa Farms, Zambales

Take Rosa Farms for instance who is in the business and advocacy of Agri-Tourism. Rosa Farms, named after the clan’s matriarch, Lola Rosa, is a family-run, 12.5-hectare mango-orchard in the breath-taking coastal province of Zambales. The farm is home to the “Philippine Carabao Mango” and is “open to walk-in guests who want to experience the ambiance of a real functional farm.” At the same time, the sprawling farm provides countless jobs to workers in the area.

Rosa Farms is also open to exclusive events, usually booked in advance by both local and foreign farm-goer tourists which include, sightseeing, family gatherings, reunions or corporate events which are complete with buffet-style meals and unlimited mangoes. According to their website as well, “Rosa Farms is certified by the Department of Agriculture as a GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) compliant farm, belonging to an exclusive roster in the country. They advocate the principles of GAP in their trainings and workshops to fellow stakeholders in agriculture, highlighting the value of these principles in operating an agritourism (farm tourism) site.”

Farm activities also include the annual Farm Fiesta and Mango Pick & Pay. In fact, since the farm’s opening in 2011, “the Pick-&-Pay program has been one of the most sought-after activities ofthe patrons of Rosa Farms.”

Modern-day Agri-Tourism: Chamz Cayabyab-Zulueta, Sales and Marketing Head for Rosa Farms/Clearvision (Quezon City) and General Manager of Make IT Work, Makati City

Rosa Farms, including its café called Rosa Café, located inside the farm, have become household names in the Zambales vicinity However, like most industries, Rosa Farms was not spared from the repercussions of the pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns. They too were forced to get more creative, push the envelope and come up with alternative strategies.

Meet Chamz Cayabyab-Zulueta who is a pivotal figure in Rosa Farm’s marketing strategies. She wears many hats – she is the Sales and Marketing Head for Rosa Farms/Clearvision (Quezon City), General Manager of Make IT Work, Makati City, a wife and a hands-on mother to a very active toddler. Yet, no matter how busy she can get, she makes sure to attend to all her responsibilities. In fact, her expertise and knowledge in various industries is what helps her do her job well for all positions. Her professional career began with spending more than 10 years in Broadcast Television and Advertising, but she has always dreamed of managing her own business. Thus, she took her MBA back in her mid-20′s to shed light on what she would like to pursue into fruition.

Fruition indeed, as this has led her to Rosa Farms. Chamz tells us how Rosa Cafe operates usually from January until June every year, and the concept of the Cafe is "dine under the Mango Trees." This resonates especially well with the Café’s senior citizen customers because they love the ambiance and tell stories of childhood past, on living the simple life in the province. Yet of course, it has been a challenging time for Rosa Farms this year. Chamz tells us how peak season is usually around April and May, but due to the lockdown, they were forced to suspend operations. Furthermore, their annual Farm Fiesta with the Mango Picking event was scheduled around April, but it likewise also did not push through.

Bringing back the joys of childhood

To keep things going and to make up for months of forced closure, Chamz and Rosa Farm’s Management thought of launching Rosa Café’s menu online, but they also had to revised the menu in order to cater to a now broader market – to include the Metro Manila market as well. They found that this proved a little daunting at first, having to compete with an already saturated market, compared to formerly serving only the Zambales market. Moreover, it was also a struggle to bring in Rosa Café’s Head Chef into Manila; lots of permits had to be processed. Finally, she was eventually able to go back to Manila in mid-May, and through perseverance and determination, Rosa Café continues to operate from Chamz’s home. To remain top of mind, they are constantly innovating with new dishes to add to the menu.

Chamz also spearheads Rosa Cafe's product development, as well as coming up with marketing campaigns for its online platforms. To augment Rosa Café’s persona as a brand that “brings back the joys of childhood”, Chamz launched new products beyond food, that would promote this theme, such as customized potted plants. It was a hit; many customers, also known as Plantitas, rushed to buy these beauties.

From here, the idea to launch a by-product came to mind, inspired by her adventurous three-year-old son. As her son loves to look for new things to do, she thought, “why not teach these urban kids early on about going back to basics, such as planting?” Thus, the creation of the Kiddie Plant Grow Kit, or simply, “KP” which is intentionally named after her son's nickname. The concept of the KP Grow Kit is that customers can purchase a beginner’s planting kit, complete with soil, seeds and a canvass-like blank pot that can be designed through simple art materials. Not surprisingly, it was another hit.

A Meaningful Advocacy

For Chamz, inspiration can literally be found in every little thing. She simply has to take a look around for her to draw inspiration for new product launches. She says that, “We bank on the things that keep people sane these days – food and new hobbies like planting. After all, Rosa Farms' advocacy is to bring people back to their simple lives and happy childhood memories. She adds, “It is a good thing too that my husband supports all these crazy ideas that I have in my head to keep the business going.”

When it comes to innovation and taking risks, Chamz says,

“There will be a lot of times when things don't go your way, don't be afraid to innovate and try new things because you can only manage the things you can control”

On Grit, Passion and Family: Carmela S. Juban, former banker, Mother of 3, Entrepreneur

Last but not the least, let us also not forget the importance of nurturing relationships with the people in our homes, as we continue to spend most of our time within its confines. Harmony and peace are key. Often times, this becomes the responsibility left to the mothers of the household, sometimes the unsung heroes of our generation.

Carmela for instance, is a selfless mother personified. A successful, former banker for 7 years at the Treasury Department of one of the country’s upper tier commercial banks, Carmela eventually left the financial market in 2017 to focus on raising her three sons, Matias, Amancio and Augustus; 4 years, 2 years and 7 months old respectively. Her husband’s work required him to be away in regional areas often times, so Carmela knew that one of them had stay home and man the house. Carmela recalls how she was on bed rest during the pregnancy of their first baby. She remembers how the first trigger in her early contractions was caused by walking back to the office after visiting a client.For her, it was a tell-tale sign.

It was a sacrifice on Carmela’s part, as she truly loved her job, but at the same time, she knew she was giving so much of herself at work, that she decided it best to recalibrate her energies to being a wife and a mother. She has no regrets, as she knows that the time will come when her kids are older, that she herself will have a “rebirth,” so to speak, and have the opportunity to reinvent herself, as she muses that, “life, growth, motherhood, business is not a straight line.”

It Takes Two to Tango; It takes a Village to Raise a Family

Something that Carmela says a lot is that she appreciates her husband’s support, whether in business or when it comes to the responsibilities at home. For instance, upon resigning, she set up a side business to manage with her husband. It would help marry two situations - Carmela would have the convenience of working from home where she could watch over her kids, at the same time, augment their finances and put her knowledge of banking & finance into good use. In the beginning, it was something new for her, after being a corporate employee for so long, but she has since trained herself to think like an entrepreneur. She likes that she and her husband get to work together. They brainstorm for new ideas, and this also hones her ability to trust her gut and make things happen.

As her confidence in this side hustle grew, Carmela also began an entrepreneurial stint running a food kiosk in a nearby mall. Her business was thriving until COVID-19 hit. Like all mothers, she had many worries about possibly bringing the virus home; thus, she decided to cut her losses and close it down. For now, she and her husband are focused on venturing into other opportunities, not just in food, but possibly in clothing as well, and likewise, utilizing social media to effect change.

In Carmela’s words, “at this time when a lot of entrepreneurs are on survival mode, we just really need to keep trying; keep pushing. We can never think that a market is too saturated because there is always opportunity somewhere. Although, sometimes there is doubt, just taking the plunge without over-analyzing is the first step...I also think about having three young boys to take care of. The fact that we are all safe and healthy, is already a win for us.”

Indeed, her family is always her shining source of inspiration and motivation, “to act based on the scope we can control, and hopefully, in our next emerging steps, we can do our part in shaping a better generation.” The next question she throws out, which I agree posits reflection and action is, “is this the country we want to leave our children?”

Personal LearningsWhen asked if she has some insights to share. Carmela says, “This time has shown more the importance of family, how we are connected to each other, and the success to get through this pandemic highly depends on our relationship with one another. Be kind. Be extra patient. Everyone has a cross to carry even if they do not talk about it.”

“You can sulk, but pray and have faith. Who knows? It might lead you to what you are really meant to be doing.”

Too Late the Hero

It was Harvey Dent who uttered the famous lines, “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” A foreshadowing statement, as Dent later on personifies his very words when he goes on to become Two Face in the “The Dark Knight” Batman movies.

This statement cannot be any truer, and we all can recount both real-life and fictional characters who easily represent this notion. The true-to-life “villains” we know of today may have actually started out as idealists, heroes, or savior-like archetypes that we used to looked up to – and looked past whatever side blemishes they also possessed in order to justify their actions. I think the best contemporary example of this – is the person whom Filipinos notoriously love to discuss nowadays – the person that needs no introduction, President Duterte.

About to Croak?

President Duterte has recently been the talk of the town all the more when rumors circulated that he may have contracted COVID-19, while other rumors pointedly said that he was already on his deathbed. To augment such rumors, it was said that he may have allegedly even flown to Singapore to have himself checked. His office was quick to quash any such news by posting proof of life photos of the President, where he is seen to be eating a meal with the first family in Davao. Well, one thing we can all agree on however, is that he did not look his best.

The more significant and underlying message in this recent raucous is that, the general consensus on social media is that many had their fingers crossed for a new President. It looks like Duterte’s star power is quickly fading.

RUDY and RODY

I was reminded of a conversation that a friend and I had around three weeks ago. During our usual, light political banter, I suddenly remembered how my parents used to compare President Duterte to American political icon, “Rudy” Giuliani. Quite serendipitously (and as though Netflix read my phone messages or possibly my mind), minutes later, I came across a new Netflix documentary entitled “Fear City: New York vs. The Mafia” where Giuliani is documented to have played a significant role in.

This true crime documentary examines the rise and fall of organized crime in New York in the 1970s to early 1980s. It narrates the dark tale of how the Big Apple once transformed into the playground of underbelly operations of The Mafia – composed of the five major Italian-American crime families and their sophisticated network of ruthless henchmen. Law enforcers could not put a stop to their rings of crime, or even implicate them, and others that dared come close, found themselves or their loved ones in a rather, messy situation. These crime families of Italian descent were basically your true-to-life gangsters from which The Godfather Trilogy was based on.

Batman, Robin and Commissioner Gordon in Gotham City

Bringing down the Mob back then was a feat everyone thought impossible. Nevertheless, joint forces between the FBI and Giuliani (then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York; 1983 -1989), and his handpicked team of prosecutors were able to do so – and with much required grit and tenacity. Giuliani especially, was credited to be the single piece of rice that tipped the scale in this momentous moment in the history of criminal justice. After which, Giuliani’s political career began to skyrocket. Despite losing his first election in 1989, he eventually gets elected Mayor of New York in 1993, and then reelected in 1997 to hold the position until 2001.

During his term as Mayor of New York, Giuliani’s most popular platform was his “toughness on crime.” Such that, the gentrification, revitalization and “clean-up” of New York and significant decrease in crime rates during those heyday years are largely attributed to him. His appointment of NYPD Chief of Police, Bill Bratton also proved effective, and is often the popular topic of business case studies today. Bratton did not resort to brute force alone. In fact, he was said to be data-driven, resourceful and efficient. His non-traditional, out-of-the-box thinking, many would agree, had indeed brought about real, lasting positive change in New York.

Giuliani was also known for making popular what is known as the “perp walk”, wherein he would orchestrate public arrests, worthy of media frenzies and major headlines, of high-profile suspects, usually of white-collar crimes. The nature of these arrests garnered some criticism of course, but it was not enough then to tarnish his image and push him far away from the good graces of the American people, especially New Yorkers. He is also highly commended for his post-9/11 (2001) disaster responses and was even knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for these tremendous efforts. He was even named TIME magazine's Person of the Year in 2001.

Fall from Grace

However, fast forward years later to now 2020, many of Giuliani’s constituents and longtime supporters who once held “America’s Mayor” of the highest esteem, often say that the Rudy Giuliani of the past is long gone. Embroiled in various controversies and investigations, not to mention issues that involve being President Trump’s current legal adviser, he has said to have become the very type of white-collar “perps” he used to round up and arrest. It is quite unfortunate, isn’t it, these kind of tragic hero to zero stories. Time is not on his side now, but who knows if there is still a chance for a comeback.

Rudy Giuliani’s story sounds very familiar.

Rody

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, in Davao, Philippines to be exact, during the same time that Rudy Giuliani was rising to fame, there lived and breathed another Mayor with a very similar tough guy image – Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte. An attorney as well, he also began his career in the prosecutor’s office.

Photo taken from The New York Times: Rodrigo Duterte posing with an Uzi submachine gun in 1994, when he was mayor of Davao City in the Philippines.

Duterte Harry

Duterte “made his bones” by allegedly taking crime into his own hands. Before assuming the Presidency, he was known as the gun-toting, smart-talkin’, fearless and tough Mayor who cleaned up Davao which back then, was supposedly a war-torn region due to the emergence of the New People’s Army (NPA) post Marcos-regime. People nodded in approval because he produced “quick” results.

If Rudy Giuliani had his Chief of Police, Bill Bratton and the NYPD, Rody Duterte had a comparable squad as well. With the help of his elite unit of police enforcers, coined as the “Davao Death Squad” (DDS), they were able to arrest crime suspects, such as alleged (but non-convicted) drug dealers and petty thieves and parade them throughout the streets, for behold, all to know and see. This sounds like the Filipino version of a perp walk. In extreme cases, sometimes suspects were allegedly found dead in alleys or eskinitas, their bloody bodies mutilated.

Yet, it could be said that quite a number of Davaoenos, as well as Filipinos beyond the Mindanao region, supported this kind of vigilante method because they felt safer, and they felt that finally, the wheels of justice were turning. To simplify this narrative by using a fictional analogy again, it is the same train of thought on why we have a great admiration for Batman and the like.

Many believed this was what the Philippines truly needed - a “strongman” to discipline the country, which to be fair, is an idea that can understandably seem like the right and sound solution, given the Philippines’s web of problems. Not many are willing to further dissect, assess and accept what is truly needed to lead the Philippines. Duterte’s notoriety thus gained much popularity, and his savior persona spread like wildfire throughout the country, propelling him to the Presidential seat in 2016.

One-Trick Pony in a Small Pond

Four years later, come 2020, and here we are, amidst a terrible pandemic with no signs of turning the tide in favor of a victory. I’ve heard one too many times, friends and colleagues say how they despise being a Filipino, and are looking for opportunities to leave and start a new life elsewhere immediately. I can’t say I blame them.

The once highly respected and beloved Davao Mayor has become the Philippines’s Public enemy number one, for reasons we all know today such as, but not limited to:

Militaristic and shotgun approaches instead of “comprehensive, scientific and systematic policies” to mitigate the pandemic (Read: Lives vs Livelihood Tradeoff?, August 5, 2020)

Lack of economic and fiscal planning and No transparency on stimulus packages and foreign loans (Read: A Perfect Storm, May 22, 2020)

Preferential treatment towards those in positions of power and unequal application of the law (Read: On lockdown and pushed over the edge, April 30, 2020)

Playing Russian Roulette on community quarantine implementations

Deflecting faults and shortcomings through the “Pasaway citizen” narrative

Demeaning local government leaders/efforts when they come up with their own local initiatives

Putting China’s interests ahead of the Philippines (Read: From Ugly Duckling to Black Swan, April 3, 2020)

And some of the more specific controversies that we can’t help but feel overwhelming emotions for:

Trial of Maria Ressa and his attack on free press and journalism

Shutdown of ABS-CBN which includes 11,000 employees to lose their jobs during a time like this

Inaction of recent PhilHealth scandal

Perhaps si Mayor should have stayed as Mayor, or perhaps evolved to a different role beyond public service, instead of eyeing gargantuan tasks too big for him to handle. He may have been “effective” as Davao’s Mayor, but running a country is a whole different ballgame.

It was in fact, the late Miriam Santiago, during the final 2016 Presidential debate held in Dagupan, Pangasinan (April 24, 2016) who pointed out, “We are not choosing a manager, administrator, etc. We are choosing the next President of the Philippines for the next 6 years.“ She even went on to enumerate three minimum criteria that a President must have in his or her arsenal in order to effectively lead, such as “1) Academic Excellence; 2) Professional Excellence, and 3) Moral Integrity” – all of which majority Filipinos flippantly shrugged off as useless qualities. I agreed with her which is why I voted for Mar Roxas. Maybe those who voted for Duterte regret this decision now, and hopefully see the wisdom behind Santiago’s statements.

As I’ve said many times over, Duterte peddled a dream that the Philippines can only be great again with an “iron-fisted” leader, and sadly but quite expectedly, our misinformed voters ate it all up - hook, line and sinker. (Read: ORAS NA, April 26, 2016).

I’d like to believe that Duterte perhaps started out as an idealist, with the genuine desire to carve out change where he thought he could. However, somewhere along the way, he lost himself and what he stood for when he let his ego get in the way. I think he himself now knows, but cannot admit to the public, that a one-trick pony has no business leading a highly complex, difficult and problematic country such as the Philippines.

More Analogies in 2020: The Year of the Rat led by the Pied Piper

Other than Duterte, three other political personalities that will forever be remembered as the shameful faces of the COVID-19 situation in the Philippines are Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, Speaker of the House Allan Peter Cayetano and the ever-infamous, Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque. I surmise history will not be so kind to them, and their roles and decisions in this crisis will continue to be told on, even when “this is all over.”

Infestation of Rats

These three loyal lackeys of Duterte can be likened to the rats in the children’s fairy tale of the Pied Piper who is no less than Duterte. Roque, Cayetano and Duque seem like educated and smart people, leaving no other explanation for their horrible decisions, except that they have long sold their souls to Duterte, and are in too deep to back out now. They’ve let themselves fall under some kind of spell. A consolation in the story of the Pied Piper, is that the entranced rats follow the Pied Piper’s hypnotizing music to their eventual demise and drown at sea. The Pied Piper however, just leaves them there and walks on. Seems like a foreboding scenario, figuratively speaking.

It would be best if the story ended there. However, we find that the Pied Piper, like our very own version, is a vengeful one, and will stop at nothing until he has accomplished a personal vendetta towards whomever crosses him. In our Pied Pier’s skewed view, he feels that his opponents have gravely wronged him, or have been incredibly ungrateful for all the “work” he has achieved. His next plan of action is to hit them where it hurts the most – by getting to the children or those “most vulnerable and without a voice”. Seizing the power of his position, he is able to demonize multitudes through his filthy words, terrorizing laws and drug wars. (Read: Dead Kids, February 20, 2020).

In so many dark metaphors, in the dead of the night, while everyone cluelessly sleeps, the Pied Piper plays his hypnotizing song that “vulnerable communities” are uncontrollably drawn to, forced to follow, or fooled into blindly following, until they all disappear without a trace, possibly never to be found again.

Light at the end of a Long Tunnel

However, I think our Pied Piper may have made a costly miscalculation. He may have robbed the country blind and killed countless lives (directly and indirectly), while we ignorantly slept, but he has ignited a fire. He has seemed to awoken a sleeping giant – a sleeping giant, unified in anger against this administration and what it stands for. Is Change Coming?

Lives vs Livelihood Tradeoff?

#SOanoNA?

Just a few Mondays ago on July 27, 2020, President Duterte delivered his 5th SONA, and to no one’s surprise, it was composed of nothing but his usual angry tirades, off-tangent, incomprehensible ramblings and violent threats. His SONA has confirmed again – that apart from lockdowns, he still has no clear, feasible battleplan to counter this crippling pandemic.

Much can tirelessly be said about his SONA, but one statement that I found satirically amusing was when he admonished the telco industry to strengthen their connectivity so that he jokingly, would be able to call Jesus in Bethlehem. I found myself actually wondering humorously, would Jesus even take his call?

Perhaps Digong wants to make an attempt at a lifeline call because where he knows he is eventually headed, I doubt there is reception down there, nor is there any broadcasted television shows, by his own special request.

On the 5th Month of Lockdown

Less than a week after Duterte’s SONA, on August 1, 2020, the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP), through a signed letter, expressed their clamor for a revert to ECQ for the whole “Mega Manila for a period of two weeks, from August 1 to 15,” the same measures that were imposed beginning March 17, 2020 which was extended to May 15, 2020.

Well-intentioned as these pleas were, and indeed, a validated cry for help, due to hospital over-congestion and the government’s weak response; I could not agree with the recommendation of another blanket ECQ, for we’ve already witnessed how the national government has made a mess of things. We all know what improvements happened during the first ECQ – absolutely nothing. I am no expert, but it seems that a better scenario would be for Manila to stay at the most, a GCQ environment and isolate specific at-risk areas.

Let me start by first saying that do not get me wrong; I have the utmost respect and gratitude towards our doctors and members of the medical field. Enough cannot be said about what our medical frontliners have been doing for the country – the bouts of hardships they undergo everyday – physical and emotional battles that we as members of the non-medical sector would never truly understand. They are indeed heroes, and they are dealing with the ugliness of this pandemic on a whole other level. It would also be hypocritical for me to say that truly I understand what they are going through because I am not a medical frontliner, or even any kind of frontliner.

However, as much as I stand with our medical frontliners, I also stand for an optimal mix of health/medical and economic initiatives, led by fact-based, scientific approaches to combat our relentless problems. Of course, we all know this is easier said than done.

In the words of another Filipino physician, “Whatever type of lockdown we impose – ECQ, MECQ, GCQ – we will not beat the pandemic without a comprehensive, scientific and systematic policy” (Alliance of Health Workers, National President, Taken from ANC, August 3, 2020).

NO to ECQ, but a resounding YES to a better Health response by the National Government

I agree that COVID-19 began as first and foremost a health problem and should have been dealt with as such, but now on our 5th month of community quarantine and entering a recession, the problem has snowballed into a socio-economic and political fiasco. In my Facebook feed, I read a post by the honorable Congressman Toff de Venecia who, in the context of the Lower House proposing a comprehensive Php1.3 Trillion stimulus package, stated that:

“Cong. Stella Quimbo, one of our fiercest lady legislators and a top economist in the country, has estimated that the Philippine economy will be losing 12 billion pesos a day for every day that we're on a two-week lockdown. That's a cumulative amount of 168 billion lost to our economy.”

The post was referring to the country’s current state, as the government has reimplemented stricter lockdown measures: MECQ from the previous GCQ, beginning August 4, 2020.

Yet, imagine, what will be further lost if an actual ECQ is imposed? These frightening numbers represent industries, companies, SMEs, employees, daily wage earners, sole breadwinners, etc directly and indirectly connected to businesses and counterparties that will not be allowed to operate during ECQ. Whatever was salvaged by easing restrictions, will be killed off or reduced to morsels by a second ECQ. Tip of the iceberg scenarios are: Life-savings of smaller-time entrepreneurs (who make up more than 90% of the country) will be wiped out, and they will have no means of financing, as banks and microlenders are understandably practicing austere and conservative lending measures right now. With continuous rock-bottom revenues, mass layoffs will increase and companies could default on their existing loans, and as a result, smaller banks may shutdown. Many could literally die before COVID-19 even finds its way to them, and as we know, ECQ does not allow for family members or loved ones to be present at their burial.

To impose ECQ at this point in time with NO other moving parts or ongoing strategies in place to supplement it, is a futile attempt. It is a jab in the dark, band-aid and short-term solution at the cost of staggering resources and lives. We will have both rising COVID-19 cases and a dead economy.

Furthermore, strict lockdowns, such as ECQ, are convenient tools that the administration utilizes to divert attention away from the real problems and boost their own agendas, through authoritarian and militaristic approaches.

In an article from The Economist (July 11th-17th 2020), entitled “Four months and counting, A ferocious lockdown lingers on, despite uncertain benefits,” the author writes: “On July 3rd [Duterte] signed into law a sweeping anti-terrorism bill which, among other things, allows suspects to be detained without a judge’s approval for up to 14 days. How this will help the Philippines through its current trauma is anyone’s guess” (The Economist, July 2020).

“WE are in a losing battle against COVID-19, and we need to come up with a consolidated plan”

These were the words written in the PCP’s letter. To supplement their ECQ recommendation, they have proposed seven (7) points in the letter. Below is the copy of the letter:

Multi-dimensional Problems

Nobody in the right mind would disagree that there is a case for this letter; these are reasonable points that truly warrant immediate and swift action, but I also wonder if the physician writers of this letter consulted with experts or consultants from the economic sector and related fields? It is not my intention to pit industries against each other. In fact, how I wish these points would be granted. Yet these lofty recommendations sound more idealistic than feasible, and may possibly further handicap the health sector.

I DO agree that this letter identifies specific gaps and presents a guiding framework on what needs to be prioritized pronto. I however have comments pertaining to numbers 4, 6 and 7:

#4. On Transportation safety

But how about Public Transportation?

In the event of another ECQ, one concerning aspect is that all modes of public transportation are to be firmly suspended. Again, how will commuting medical frontliners, not to mention employees of “essential services” get to work? In a Manila Times article written last April 4, 2010, which was during ECQ, business columnist Robert Siy wrote:

“Frontline workers are suffering from the shortage of public transport services. My estimate is that 2/3 of these workers are seriously affected — they are either unable to get to work or experience serious difficulty in reaching their destinations (e.g. having to walk over an hour each way). In supermarkets and groceries, lines at checkout lanes are long because many cashiers have not made it to work. Those who do are already weary by the time they get to their posts then they have to carry the load of those unable to get to work. A similar story is playing out in hospitals and clinics” (Siy, April 4, 2020).

It must be highlighted that government departments such as DOTr and the AFP during ECQ made some commendable initiatives too like by chartering over 100 vehicles to transport medical frontliners to and from work. However, this number, including other factors such as, the way our roads are built, limited bus routes and strategic drop-off/pick-up points, “are reaching only a small fraction of those in need.”

“As of March 24, when there were 72 buses fielded on 14 routes, only 1,113 workers were served. On March 27, the DoTr and other agencies fielded 106 buses on 18 routes; these buses collectively carried only 1,402 health workers that day — an average of just 13 passengers per bus for the entire day” (Siy, April 4, 2020).

Since no tricycles or jeepneys will be allowed to operate during ECQ, this leaves medical frontliners still having to walk great distances to get to and from drop-off/pick-up points, and of course feeling exhausted and fatigued by the time they get to work and thus, further increasing their likelihood of getting sick.

This type of free shuttling service is also not economically sustainable, unless the private sector gets more heavily involved. For them to be able to stay involved, is that they need revenues – which they will not be able to achieve with ECQ.

#6: On Public compliance with self-protection

But how about the revival of the economy, Mental Health and well…Hope?

I somewhat agree with the PCP’s statement that “The progressive lifting of quarantine has sent a public message that the pandemic is getting better. It is not.”

However, I’d also like to think that there are many well-informed Filipinos who know that the number of COVID-19 cases have escalated (now more than 119,000), and perhaps it was not the intention of (at least some officials) to convey this message of false hope. The rationale behind easing community quarantine restrictions was to slowly resuscitate the dying economy.

Under GCQ for instance, I recognize that while some are able to practice “voluntary ECQ” or strict social-distancing and stay-at-home measures because they can afford to, many more cannot afford this luxury. I can see why a direct and definitive ECQ proclamation seems like the only way to really enforce these critical daily practices. However, like earlier mentioned, at destructive socio-economic costs.

Moreover, let us not forget that the Philippines holds the record for having the longest lockdown in the world, but we as a sociable and gregarious culture, also have the strong need to be with other people. Naturally, nobody can really withstand being alone and forever cooped up, and indeed, a social facet of a prolonged lockdown are detrimental effects on mental health. Mental health problems are very real and present, and should not be taken lightly. All of us have been directly affected in one way or the other, and we all by now have felt the pangs of hopelessness and anxiety creeping up from time to time. Some days are better or worse than others.

#7 On Social Amelioration

But what are to become of the deemed “non-essential” industries and the services sector?

The PCP letter also sought to “ask your good offices to reconsider the pronouncement of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) regarding the approval to reopen businesses such as gyms, fitness centers, tutorial services, review centers, internet cafes, pet grooming services, drive-in cinemas previously closed.

Again, I am of mixed feelings about this statement. The Philippines can be described as a consumption-driven economy, and as such, it only follows that the Services sector makes up 56.2% of the Philippines’s GDP, well at least as of FY 2018. Prior COVID-19, services consistently posted an average growth of 6%-7%, leading the pack among the other economic sectors

Indeed, “Healthy people to reinvigorate the economy” are of course needed to win this battle, but the country also needs the wheels of business and commerce to keep going on, in order to keep healthy people healthy and pump monetary fuel into the economy.

Recalibration

In no disrespect, perhaps the medical industry can recalibrate their efforts to collectively clamor for such above (7) points, together with a meeting of minds from the economic sector and related fields, but remove ECQ from the equation. It is a hard reality that the loss of lives and livelihood is tragically inevitable, but it does not have to boil down to a stark “lives vs livelihood” tradeoff.

Our health sector have their countrymen’s support, and only a tyrant would dismiss this alarming distress call.

And indeed, after above PCP letter was made public, President Duterte was again all over the news lambasting our health workers and goading them to indeed start a revolution, even if none of that was remotely articulated in the letter. However, now that I think about it, perhaps his pre-emptive taunts for one may be what needs to be done, at least in our own way for now.

Clear and present Terror

An episode from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Back in the early 1990s, it was during my grade school years that my siblings and I enjoyed watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, starring none other than Will Smith (whom I was lucky enough to have seen in person around 5 years ago and was immensely star-struck). There was a particular Fresh Prince episode that I never forgot – the one where Carlton Banks (the Bel-Air born-and-raised, naïve-and-sheltered son of Will’s successful attorney, Uncle Phil), encounters his first brush at racism. I did not fully understand the context of the episode, but for some reason it stuck in my head and heart as a kid.

Many years later, this episode resurfaced just last May 2020 when The Fresh Prince became available on Netflix. When that particular episode came out, I sat up in familiar surprise, as it triggered flashbacks of my childhood. I now understood it on a deeper level, watching it with the eyes of a thirty-three-year-old.

The episode entitled “Mistaken Identity,” starts off with Carlton borrowing a Mercedes-Benz from one of his father’s wealthy White colleagues and drives off to Palm Springs. Unknown to him, Will has snuck inside the car and suddenly surprises him during the drive. The two African-American male teen cousins are driving at night and are not familiar with the area, and thus, drive at a slow pace to check directions. They are eventually made to pullover by two White policemen, and then asked to step out of the car.

Immediately, Will knows what is happening while Carlton remains totally clueless and makes one blunder after another. They are accused of not only stealing the luxury car, but accused of being the perpetrators behind a whole series of car thefts in that area. The police officers put the two behind bars in the county jail.

Uncle Phil and Aunt Vivian eventually come to their rescue due to Will’s witty and street-smart quick-thinking and get them out of jail, but the episode ends with Carlton and Will arguing about what transpired. Back in the comforts of the Banks estate in posh Bel-Air, Carlton remains adamant in his belief (or denial) that the cops were merely doing their job because they were driving “below the speed limit.” Will retorts that Carlton should open his eyes to reality and leaves the room exasperated. Wizened Uncle Phil ends the episode by admonishing Carlton that he had a similar experience when he was much younger, also being stopped by White cops on the road. He has always asked himself if they were really “just doing their job.”

It has been more than 25 years since I last saw that particular episode, and I realized, what has really changed since then?

The #BlackLivesMatter Movement (BLM)

The ultra-sensitive and once-tabooed subject of racism has exploded into our immediate line of sight, due to snowballing economic repercussions and unravelling anxieties from COVID-19 and the worldwide lockdowns. During these dark times, certain people like Chinese nationals, including Chinese-Americans and Asians with Chinese features have been the target of hatred and racism. For instance, a close Filipina friend of mine living in a European country, was recently shouted at by someone driving a motorbike as she walking on the street. The motorist angrily shouted at her repeatedly to “close her mouth” in the language of that country. I’ve also heard of stories of Asian immigrants in Europe being thrown bottles in their direction by the locals of that country, and there continues to be many other similar, saddening stories across the globe.

Still, the Black American struggle has specifically been put at the forefront of the United States and the world today, as the homicide of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police during this pandemic, sparked the resurgence of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement. This anti-Black racism (and “anti state-sanctioned violence against Blacks”) movement, has since then spread like wildfire to many states all over the U.S thanks to social media platforms. Other countries and prominent individuals have also rallied to the cause and expressed their solidarity through social media. The message rings loud: It is not to diminish the experiences of other marginalized peoples and groups, but aims to cast the bright spotlight on the distinct and continuing struggles of African Americans and people of African descent. African Americans wish to speak their hard truths in front of a global stage, and we certainly can’t blame them.

The Innocence Files

It would be hypocritical of me to talk about struggle and experiences of African Americans, but I would like to reference my insights from a Netflix true crime docu-series, The Innocence Files that in my opinion, gave much context to their centuries-long discrimination. The Innocence Files was a tremendous and tragic eye- opener. It is about the Innocence Project, co-founded by attorneys, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld who challenge the U.S. legal and criminal justice system to overturn wrongful convictions against minorities, particularly African Americans. Due to issues of police coercion, misguided eyewitness accounts and ridiculous, terribly inaccurate and “leading evidence,” the wrongfully convicted are put away on death row in maximum security prisons for decades. Furthermore, when White prosecutors, as well as judges, are found to be in the wrong after convictions are overturned, do not receive any form of punishment. There is no personal accountability, nor retribution. In fact, most of them go on to have stellar careers.

As a non-American, it helped me better understand the situation of the Black community in United States, and my heart really went out to them. It infuriated me, and I found myself cursing at the TV. It is clear that slavery is not dead in America – but exists in modern-day, in the forms of marginalizing practices, systemic discrimination and prejudiced people in positions of authority. African Americans are still very much caught up in vicious cycles that continue to cripple them and the generations to come.

In the words of my friend, a Chinese-American, true-blue, born and raised New Yorker: “it starts all the way back during the slavery years…and how the government would red line certain neighborhoods to decide on which neighborhoods get more funding. This results in many domino effects…social infrastructure is built on the economics of how funding gets allocated. So, if African Americans are stuck in a bad neighborhood, they get less financial help from the get-go. It becomes a vicious cycle, and even if they do get a good education which is hard enough growing up in a poor neighborhood with little resources, they still face the reality of racism in corporate society that is dominated by the Whites. It starts even with your resume.”

Yet, I still must say that in my opinion, I condemn opportunists (who are not all African American even) who used the BLM to their advantage and justification to murder, loot, engage in arson and cause unnecessary damages to neighborhoods and livelihoods. I get they are pushed to their wits end - but we got to draw the line somewhere. I believe there are still boundaries as to the way we express ourselves. There are even celebrities and common people alike getting onboard to further their own public image. They aren’t making things better but instead, muddling the urgent and important message of this cause. Nakikiepal at nakikiuso lang.

Fear, Ignorance, Prejudice and Racism

Let’s admit it though. All of us in this world have bits of prejudice inside of us. Some are unfortunately, more pronounced than others, while those on the extreme end of the spectrum, let it dictate their life mantras; thus, taking things too far. However, this is also not to say that “a little” or “subconscious” prejudice is okay either because these ideologies can also be manifested in small yet oppressive ways if we are not careful. Such network of beliefs is rooted from or formed in our upbringing, especially from beliefs handed down by our families or through experiences. This includes single or limited encounters that can cause us to generalize and stereotype all people in a particular culture, sub-culture and group. This is another deadly train of thought that we ought to regularly keep in check. Self-awareness and admitting one’s shortcomings are the first steps.

Re-examination as a Non-American from the Philippines

Again, I am not in the best position to talk about the subject matter of racism, especially in the context of the Black American struggle, but if I may so, share some of my experiences from living in the United States for five years (2004-2009), and how the recent fiery current events have gotten me to take a step back too and assess my own thoughts.

To give a short background, before living in the U.S. (as well as Japan), I had only lived in the Philippines my whole life. Fortunately, as a college student in the U.S., in the melting-pot and liberal state of Massachusetts, I met all kinds of people of diverse backgrounds, heritages, ethnicities and nationalities that finally opened my eyes to a whole new world beyond the sheltered Metro Manila bubble. I had a number of African-American friends and classmates, and in my experience, I can easily say they were smart, kind, warm-hearted and tremendously multi-talented. I graduated from college in May 2008 – the same year that Barrack Obama won his first Presidential election. Like most people from the largely- democratic states in the East Coast, I was ecstatic and celebrated the much anticipated “Change is Coming.”

However (please read on first that I may qualify…), after graduation and seeking employment in 2008 – during what were also the bleak years of the Financial Crisis, I experienced different kinds of encounters with African-Americans when I moved to New York City. I must admit that these encounters initially caused me to irrationally adjust my overall rosy view of them. Looking back, I admit that I failed to factor in that I was encountering strangers in a big city, on the streets and subways and was not in the vicinity of school anymore, so of course things will be starkly different. These were also hard times. Among the encounters that I remember were the following.

The stories I have just narrated are also examples of limited negative encounters that pushed me to initially engage in stereotyping. Often times, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. However, like I said, I failed back then, to piece together the whole context of my encounters – that I was living in a bustling American city, the Big Apple no less, with all kinds of characters in existence. This has has taught me to be try to be bigger than my biases and fears and resist from making sweeping statements. I know for one that given different situations, I do not hold the same fears and notions against African Americans, or all kinds of peoples for that matter. If you get down to it really, all nationalities and races are of course, capable of anything – whether it is trouble and crime, and likewise, capable of good just the same.

I do question myself if I was wrong to react in those ways? This can be subject to debate. You tell me, as I myself am unsure. I can say however, that regardless of race, I would have been scared by any male figure that approached me during those tense situations. It just so happened that all those situations I recall, involved African American men – this is something I have later on reexamined as well. Why were they more often than not, African American? Today, I realize it says something more about the United States’ unequal systems and cultures, rather than about African Americans themselves.

Color-blind?

Things brings me to ask myself as well, am I truly color-blind? I would give the honest answer of No I am not. However, I know I wouldn’t deliberately hurt or oppress anyone because of the color of their skin, heritage or background – this may be the case for most of us, but the times of today are telling us that this is still not enough for change to happen. Turns out we have to be more in touch with our thoughts and emotions because they turn into actions. We have to make conscious efforts to re-work our thoughts if they detour towards that prejudiced lane, and if we do witness any form of oppression, it is our obligation to be vocal or concretely do something.

For us Filipinos, I also just have to say that it shouldn’t be about joining the BLM or related bandwagons just for the sake of, or to feel like we have done our part by simply posting black squares and hashtags. For me, this is a total cop-out if we aren’t making deliberate choices everyday to do right by our immediate community.

Terror is Everywhere

It is important to understand the true narrative of the BLM and related riots in the United States, and although they may not directly apply to the Philippines, there are tons of relevant issues that hit close to home.

It is easy to not get involved or to judge situations from the confines of our homes, but something my dad used to, and still always says is that, if we don’t do our part in speaking out, or showing protests through our own ways against injustices done to our neighbors – then we might as well be accessories to the crime. One day similar injustices will be hurled against us, and because we didn’t speak out, there will be nobody left to speak out on our behalf.

A brighter side: The Movement towards Industry 4.0

Segment 1 of: “Moving with Purpose” amidst COVID-19 Series

Last year, in November of 2019, I attended a “Disruption Seminar” held at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business where keynote speaker Mr. Francis Del Val of Cobena Business Analytics & Strategy, Inc., described that the urgent goal of every business today must be – to go beyond just digitization and automation – but Digital Transformation.

It was a new business buzzword for me to hear, but he described it as: “the strategic, thoughtful approach geared towards the increasingly digital customer.” The “customer” must include everyone directly or indirectly serviced by the business – stakeholders, counterparties, suppliers and end-users. Businesses must move towards what is known as Industry 4.0, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, if they wish to survive, succeed and thrive in today’s competitive landscape. As consumers are becoming more sophisticated and tech-savvy, they will in turn, respond to businesses who are the same, and businesses who do not adapt and relish in antiquated methods will be left behind in the dust of the past. Harsh as it sounds, history has shown this to be true. Fast forward to present day 2020, amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, these words could not be any truer.

What does this mean for us in the Philippines? It is relevant at so many levels. For one, our jobs and livelihood are integral parts of our lives. As we gaze upon today’s modern and hyper-connected world, successful businesses who are looked up to, are those who have trailblazed into digital transformation, and are still continuing to innovate. However, it didn’t happen overnight for them, nor did it occur instantaneously in the world. An evolution took place over a period of time – and I think that is the important aspect to be highlighted. It is also about the journey and constant growth towards this change – to think of the possibilities of the future, make them your own and put your plan into action. Hence, this kind of transformation entails not only an upgrade of technologies, but as well as an upgrade of mindsets and values to go with it.

COVID-19, also the disruptive catalyst

These buzzwords – while it is nothing sort of new in first world countries, is still a budding theme in developing nations such as the Philippines. In addition to improving our subpar infrastructures, (particularly internet connectivity!) that must support this movement towards digital transformation, I used to think that a mindset shift would be the biggest hurdle for us Filipinos. However, it seems that this COVID-19 pandemic was the disruptive catalyst in convincing everyone alike, of the extreme urgency of an efficient digital ecosystem. Especially for SMEs, these times of uncertainty have caused them to really push the envelope of creativity and technological innovation in order to survive.

Leisure Industries: Supporting our Filipino Entrepreneurs, Professionals and Daily Wage Earners

With that said, we are witnessing much economic turmoil unfold during these times. For instance, industries defined as “leisure” by the government have been especially hit hard - gyms & fitness studios, travel & tourism, amusem*nt parks & indoor children’s playgrounds, museums, many restaurants and the like. Perhaps because leisure is considered a “non-essential” industry, businesses under this classification seem to get less sympathy, yet we have to also remember that behind the scenes, are still business owners, professionals and daily wage earners struggling as well.

A big problem they face is that leisure industries really capitalize on their physical, brick-and-mortar facilities, equipment and/or tangible products. Part of their marketing is the “overall experience” of actually being at their establishments; so bringing their services online is not an easy task. Nevertheless, many Filipino entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals in these fields have demonstrated the grit and innovation to weather this turbulent storm. Below are some inspiring stories particularly in Fitness.

The Fitness Industry in the Philippines

I think it is important to highlight the growing fitness industry in the Philippines which has been gaining steam in the last 10 years, in tandem with the increasing purchasing power of Filipinos. Activities relating to health and fitness, particularly the new breed of alternative fitness studios have become a way of life or part of the daily regimens of many today, regardless of age.

Although I would say that it is still an up-and-coming industry in the context of the Philippines because in many ways, fitness as a serious business is sometimes taken for granted, given less importance or likewise overlooked by certain demographic markets. However, during this months-long community quarantine, we have seen that many Filipinos wistfully longed for their regular workouts when studios across the country were forced to abruptly (some only temporaily at least), cease operations.

To put it simply - exercising, especially in groups (for sustained motivation), keeps people sane and productive. It is therapeutic; it gives people Hope and enables them to feel better about themselves. Turns out, there is a great need for the existence of fitness studios in the country after all.

The Movement Studio (TMS): Business and physical agility personified

The Movement Studio (TMS) is the first of its kind in the Philippines, founded by brothers Ave & Nenso Cruz and Ida Paras, all of whom have strong backgrounds in sports, athletics and fitness. TMS is the first to incorporate a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), full-body workout in a setting that their clientele, or “Movers” as they call it, will enjoy the exercises and not feel like they are working out, but rather “clubbing or dancing.” It is the first studio to have these type of top-end workout equipment and modern, non-electrical treadmills, accompanied by an exhilarating audio-visual system. Many among the Movement Coaches “MCs” themselves, as well as some of the Movers, come from other fitness studios and are also micro and medium influencers on social media. Their combined presence on social media and in the fitness industry, garners them a strong following that can easily fill up classes. TMS’s first branch opened just last July 2019 in BGC, and they had plans of eventually opening more branches in Metro Manila.

And then COVID-19 and ECQ happened.

The TMS following was gaining much traction from the time it opened, up to the nearing summer season of early 2020, but come March 16, 2020, TMS had no choice but temporarily suspend operations. It was a very difficult situation, and several new problems arose – having to refund numerous workout packages (although thankfully, no one really complained or demanded for refunds; most just asked to have their packages frozen), worry about rent payments and support the health and welfare of the MCs and maintenance staff, despite zero to minimal revenues. Management felt crippled at first and confused on what to do.

Fortunately, around the first week of April 2020, tech-savvy management led by the founders, were able to devise an innovative way to bring TMS classes online through Zoom webinars dubbed “SweatHome XStream.”

The webinars feature a pre-recorded series of “moves” (exercises) done by MCs in their own homes. The MCs incorporated everyday household furniture and tools to use as weights and dumbbells. Although seemingly rhetorical, these simple acts actually resonated well with young Movers who took to the online classes as a means of escape from the everyday drudgery of the quarantine. As an added bonus, since the moves were already pre-recorded, that freed up the host MCs to be able to interact with the Movers and thoroughly observe everyone and correct their form as needed be. This was a great value-added to the online workout, as Movers are also able to gauge themselves depending on the sequence of moves that have been laid out. Having the moves pre-recorded also helped mitigate inconveniences caused by our country’s extremely slow internet connectivity and other related technical glitches. Moreover, each move in the entire series has a clear, showing timer that counts down the remaining seconds that the Mover has to accomplish the move. This provides for proper pacing. All class bookings and payments are done of course digitally and seamlessly through the TMS website. TMS also bundled their classes with specific fitness equipment through tie-ups with other brands that could be purchased together and has also put up their state-of-the-art treadmills for rent.

During the first three weeks of online class roll-outs, an average of around only 2-4 Movers would join the classes, but by May 2020, that number would jump to around 12 consistent Movers. Now on its 9th-10th week, a consistent number of more or less 20 Movers (Max capacity: 25 Movers) join each class, and TMS classes are now conducted twice a day, daily (except for Sundays). This came as a pleasant surprise. It also signaled that there exists indeed a market for online paid workouts during this time, and there is something about the TMS SweatHome XStream formula that is working.

Of course, the road ahead is still paved with much uncertainty, TMS has so far, displayed much agility – literally, as well as in the business sense, to be able to adapt to various situations. As what is splashed all over their BGC studio: Find Your Momentum, this also translates to their real-life maxim, to keep Moving forward.

Fitness Professionals and Trailblazers

Celine Encarnacion for Plana FORMA and Ultra Lagree

Other fitness professionals also went through some difficulties dealing with this strange new normal, as was the case for instance, with veteran professional fitness motivator and wellness adviser Celine Encarnacion. Trained internationally and locally, Celine has more than 10 years’ worth of fitness-teaching experience in the barre method, yoga, dance and intelligent movement. She is one of the three founding teachers of premiere barre studio, Plana FORMA which was one and of the first among the longest running boutique fitness studios in the Philippines. For those who are not familiar with Plana FORMA – it is a strength-training workout that uses the ballet barre to help class-takers lengthen, sculpt and tone the entire body. Using one’s bodyweight as resistance, Plana FORMA gives class-goers 55 minutes of sweat and that fiery, signature Plana FORMA burn. The result is leaner muscles, faster metabolism, heightened body awareness, and lower stress levels without realizing it.

Celine is likewise, a trainer at Ultra Lagree as well – which is an efficient 45-minute, low impact high intensity full-body endurance workout. It is an intense mix of body weight and strength training, all performed on the revolutionary Megaformer™, a machine built to meet workout demands across all fitness levels, ages, and body types. The Megaformer™ helps balance muscles which are slowly activated, stretched, lengthened and contracted at the same time.

When ECQ was announced, what she thought would be a two-week lockdown turned into a quarantine of three months and counting. Her feelings and emotions came in various stages too – I think this is something many of us can relate to. At first, she fully embraced the much-needed downtime from her hectic schedule. She reveled in the mandatory reset and spent time on binge-worthy Netflix picks (and yes, also admits that she went down the KDrama rabbit hole). She began reading and cooking more, doing more Pilates, bodyweight circuit, dance, yoga TMS classes as well, and overall spent quality time bonding with her family and boyfriend, all of whom were living in one house during this time. She felt that having the whole family at home was a blessing.

… And then days turned into weeks and into months. A month and a half into the quarantine, like all of us, she started feeling anxious due to the looming uncertainty of everything – from lost work opportunities and projects that fell through due to the pandemic, to a loss and uncertainty of her own personal finances. There was a feeling of helplessness as well about the staff at the studios she worked in, who rely on daily wages, but now could not earn a living. It also hit her hard when fellow fitness studios were forced to permanently close up shop. She had many friends in the industry (professionals and daily wage earners) who lost their jobs. The future of fitness seemed dark.

Fortunately, both Plana FORMA and Ultra Lagree started offering online classes as well which was a constructive business decision. Aptly called FORMA AT HOME, it afforded the trainers an opportunity to earn modestly and helped keep clients and trainers alike stay productive and distracted from global and local issues happening. Per Celine, apparently, Plana FORMA had the strategic foresight to go virtual 4 years ago, but perhaps the population at the time was not ready for that platform just yet, in the same way that most Filipinos still use cash when doing business transactions. This is of course changing right now. Little did FORMA know that they were ahead of the times, especially these COVID-19 times.

As for Ultra Lagree – they rely heavily on the Megaformer™ machines when customers work out. Hence, as trainers who carry an internationally recognized Lagree certification, they were quick to adjust and customize their workouts to adapt to a home setting by creating Lagree-inspired, bodyweight at home workouts called LAGREE OFF THE STUDIO, which included Lagree™-style + class complementary classes that trainers were already seasoned in teaching. In Celine’s case, she likewise offers YOGA Flow+ and another class offering called Release and Restore or simply, R&R.

During this ongoing pandemic-ECQ, Celine also found that it paved the way for her to have other private corporate gigs and brand collaborations – she was surprised to have clients from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Australia, and New York join in her classes. Also a certified integrative nutrition health coach, Celine found herself being more frequently sought out for consultations during the lockdown. She was able to really mentor customers to deal with the anxieties engulfing them, starting with advice on food intake – and then empowering them to make other sustainable lifestyle changes that best work for them. In her own way, she was enabling her clients to stay strong physically and mentally.

Vicky Velasco for Polecats Manila

As mentioned, a challenge that these alternative fitness studios face during this move to online classes, is having the choice of either renting out significant apparatuses in order for class-takers to follow their online workouts at home, or improvising with other close alternatives. This was exactly the challenge that Polecats Manila faced. Polecats Manila is the country’s first organized Pole and Aerial studio. They offer Pole Dancing and Aerial fitness classes, as well as classes that supplement these activities, like Body weight conditioning, Flexibility, Dance, Gymnastics etc.

To adapt to the current situation, Vicky Velasco, a senior Polecats instructor and trailblazer in her fitness field, talked about how Polecats is currently offering online classes for anything related to Pole and Aerial that actually does not require an apparatus. A couple of instructors (Vicky included), as well as students, actually have had poles installed at their homes even before the onset of COVID-19, so they are able to teach pole online, but this is still to a limited few.

Right now, they are unable to rent out such equipment like what other studios have been able to do because certain classes like Pole, Aerial Hoop, Aerial Silks, etc, cannot be easily set up at home. These types of equipment are very specific to their studio’s space.Instead, they are trying to adjust in a manner that would be a typical Body weight or Flexibility class that is relevant to an aerialist or pole dancer. For example, they offer Dance, Conditioning, Flexibility, Gymnastics classes and other variations such as, Bodyweight classes with a dance twist to it, and Dance classes with a fitness slant.

Despite all these challenges, Vicky has expressed her gratitude towards their students and the community at large. She says that a lot of them were open and excited to have online classes. Their very first online class was full, and class-takers wanted to continue learning even in this different setting. The class-takers have continuously mused that it is their way of keeping sane, and for instructors like Vicky, she says that the same holds true for them teachers. She loves how she can have this one hour in a day to do what she and the other love, feel the community spirit, and suddenly, life makes sense.Another bright spot during these dark times is that they don’t have the hurdle of transport time or traffic - now their hurdle is good WiFi service.

The Future of Fitness

These adaptive initiatives are not the ideal, but fitness studios like The Movement Studio, Plana FORMA, Ultra Lagree and Polecats Manila, continue to hustle, march on and make the best out of the situation. In their own way, they have embarked on their personal journey towards digital transformation, beginning with technological initiatives and a mindset and values shift.

On another positive note, fitness professionals like Celine, have talked about how these new online set-ups, despite its confined and restrictive nature, have “allowed for fitness instructors to become more efficient and creative in sequencing classes to ensure clients are getting the most optimal calorie torching workout. Creating each class and planning each move and sequence became more intentional and deliberate.”

The next question looming on their minds now is if or when the times comes for their business/industry to finally be allowed to open and operate…What will the result be? Will people be flocking towards these studios right away, or will there be a prolonged period of caution and fear? It seems that there is a mixed consensus among those in the fitness industry. Some think that even with social distancing and strict hygiene measures, they feel doubtful that people will brave the studios for a workout, should there be no vaccine in place by then. However, others believe that there will definitely be some students and teachers that will return to the studio in a heartbeat because well, many have actually voiced it out to instructors like Vicky.

There also many fitness enthusiasts who feel that fitness studios should be allowed to reopen sooner because they are also in the business that promotes health, both physically and mentally – something everyone also needs now. Food as an “essential” is not the only source of nourishment.

For the most part, it seems that fitness studios will probably do a mix of online and physical classes in the meantime. Nonetheless, who knows, there have been many positive surprises along the way, and there could yet still be many more. For now, the goal is to simply survive – health-wise and business-wise, and do whatever it takes.

Profit, Planet and People

The Philippines has a long way before it can obtain digital transformation, but we can be a little optimistic that the journey has begun – and hastened because of this pandemic. A microcosmic example of this are our innovative fitness studios. The downside of resisting the move towards an Industry 4.0 is enormous – it will result to the irrelevance, bankruptcy or dissolution of a business. Jobs, livelihoods and lives are at stake. COVID-19 is the frighteningly-real litmus test that will gauge all of this.

Another significant lesson that COVID-19 (and all its humanitarian and economic repercussions worldwide) is teaching us is that, the motivation behind our business endeavors cannot be profit alone. As the world is drastically changing before our eyes, businesses must have the welfare of the community in mind, as supply chains and people are also involved. These objectives go hand in hand in the transformation towards Industry 4.0. The survival of one entails the survival of others, not just in the Philippines, but in the world economy.

A Perfect Storm

In the context of the Philippine situation particularly, the COVID-19 Pandemic is a Perfect Storm epitomized. Everything that could go wrong – has, and in synchronous, epic proportions. As this storm rages on in torrential rains, we are nearing neck-deep in water in an extremely problematic situation, rooted from, or exacerbated by other bad decisions (or the lack of thereof). For others who are worse off, they are already drowning – and desperately reaching out for something to cling onto, even for a while. This pandemic has also further exposed and brought out into the light, the country’s vast and decades-long web of entangled and interwoven complex problems – poverty, the inaccessibility and lack of education, as well as miseducation, the government’s abuse of authority, incompetency and corruption, poor infrastructure (including internet connectivity to allow us to work optimally at home), insufficient public and private health resources, bureaucracy, crisis management and crisis communication – you name it, we got it all.

We do not even know if we are in the eye of the storm, or if the storm is merely a-brewing. Could it be true according to experts in medical and economic fields that the worst is actually yet to come? I would like to be hopeful in my personal belief that a vaccine is on the way and will be ready by the third or fourth quarter of 2020, as finding a cure for this nasty virus is the only way the world can regain any semblance of normalcy. As for the cures of our other problems – I do not know if they can be cured, at least not in my lifetime.

As I have mentioned in a previous post and can’ t help but say again - is that many things to mitigate the spread of the virus could have been done by the Philippine government early this year such as, by already banning flights to and from China since January 2020. This is not a recommendation made in 20/20 hindsight, as this was the vehement clamor from members of the private and public sector back then already. Tragically, it has been one bungle after another since then. It always makes me wonder just what kind of sweetheart propositions that the President must receive from the Chinese government in exchange for his pro-China decisions. They must be quite the fat paychecks for him to constantly sacrifice the welfare of his own countrymen. Kapwa niyang Pilipino.

I doubt there will be any sort of reckoning for as long as Duterte is in power. It pushes me allude instead to Dante’s Divine Comedy, where Dante describes how traitors end up in the lowest layer of the Inferno in the after-life, along with souls like Judas.

As for the Chinese government, still no accountability at all from their end, and they furthermore have the audacity to point fingers at other nations like the United States.

Pasa Load

Another recent and very bothersome update in this unfolding, bleak COVID-19 saga was Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s pronouncement last Monday, May 18, 2020. He said “that the government still has no plans to carry out mass testing to detect COVID-19 infections in the country, adding that authorities will leave such efforts in the hands of private businesses” (CNN Philippines).

We’ve all known how unreliable our government has always been. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the government is placing the burden of ensuring health and safety of employees (disinfection, proper training, protective gear, etc) onto the private sector. However, the portion where they also pass on the colossal and costly responsibility of mass testing to the private sector is the point of concern and major frustration.

With President Duterte at the captain’s helm during this Perfect Storm, steering through unchartered waters as it is, it seems as though he has chosen to just abandon ship. It is statements such as [above] which confirm some of our worst fears – that he still has not, and does not seem to have any plans whatsoever of constructing a concrete battleplan to fight COVID-19. His only “plan” is to lockdown identified high-risk communities, enforce social distancing though the police and military, and then for everyone to passively wait for a vaccine from a developed country to emerge. Whatever happened to the hundreds of billions PHP “War Chest” that his administration has long been discussing and even boasting about? Is it to be assumed that this Fund has also mysteriously been depleted? Couldn’t his administration at least consider structuring a somewhat shared collaboration with the private sector for these testing costs?

I was stunned with disbelief and anger as I read this full article. Moreover, to add insult to injury, the DOLE has the nerve to spew out incredibly hypocritical lines like “for the sake of our economy we encourage them (businesses) to dig deeper into their vast reserve of charity and benevolence so that their workers and the communities can continue to further weather this crisis…” The DOLE need not solicit such a phony appeal to the private sector’s conscience and integrity. What do they think businesses have been doing this all time? Many private corporations including SMEs, have shown much compassion and a value for human life during this time – for instance, by releasing full salaries regardless of days worked and zero to minimal revenues, but they are also not invincible.

DOLE instead should take a long and hard look into the mirror, so they can actually practice by example what it is to really “dig deep.” I surmise, they have only scratched the surface.

Certain Uncertainties

Now on the nth day of Metro Manila’s ECQ and all modifications (I have also heard of the term MMECQ – Matirang Matibay ECQ), I have received various messages from weary friends saying that after all of this, they are seriously considering uprooting their families and moving to a more progressive country. This pandemic and the subsequent meek efforts to contain infections and address its consequences has convinced them that the Philippines is, and perhaps will not ever be, a liveable country in the next couple of years. Myself, being the usual the optimist and patriot, found myself sadly agreeing on some points.

Another big problem close to my heart is the future of our children’s education. As much as I applaud and deeply admire our relentless and kind-hearted educators for doing their best to continue online classroom learning, this educational BCP should only be a temporary solution. Children deserve to be learning with other children in classrooms. Yet, our schools too are in a tough spot, as education or any concrete back-to-school initiatives do not seem to be a priority right now by this administration. They are not given much guidance or support.

It is during these days that I get flashbacks of the time when President Duterte and his lackeys won the 2016 Elections. Exasperated by the results, including when Bong Bong Marcos closely trailed behind VP Leni Robredo, I became convinced that we Filipinos, across all generations and walks of life, just do not learn. I took a break from writing until 2019. I let Duterte supporters all around me say their ridiculous pieces, and I didn’t attempt to engage in debate. What for? I thought. A part of me was hoping though that Duterte would prove me wrong.

Sadly, he has never proved me wrong or others who voted otherwise wrong. In fact, his administration is gradually unravelling by the day. It is a clear “I told you so moment;” however, at the expense of the Philippines. It took this pandemic to finally open the eyes of many to see just how literally fatal it was to elect someone like Duterte into the highest position in the land. I still ask myself though – will we all really learn from this experience? History has shown us just how ignorant and stubborn we Filipinos can be. I am also not surprised that there still remains a large number of Duterte supporters who still go to great lengths to justify all his actions and express their undying loyalty.

Search for the Silver Lining

Many nights, I ponder on the fate of the Philippines and the rest of the world, and like everyone else, all these uncertainties keep my anxieties running high. Last night however, I felt an air of comfort to hear senior-aged family members talk about how they have lived to withstand greater crises throughout their lives such as, Martial Law and the economic meltdown and nationwide bankruptcies that erupted during the years after Senator Ninoy Aquino’s assassination in 1983 up to post EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986. The peace that followed was short-lived as well, as coup d’ etats further rocked Metro Manila in the early 1990s. These wise boomers also discussed the global problems of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, and over a decade later, the Financial Crisis in 2007-2008. Yet here they are today, driven with the same determination to weather another storm, this COVID-19 pandemic. Certainly, these boomers still have a lot to teach us Millennials and GenZs.

It felt good to hear from wizened, older minds that there is Hope.

So, I thought to remind myself today and everyday moving forward, not to get too troubled about these times. Yes, there is much to worry about, but many things are beyond our control. We must keep our mindsets in check everyday if we are to get through all of this. Prayer and faith must also never be taken out of the equation, as well as counting our blessings and paying them forward. As I’ve also said in a previous post, acts of kindness (and humor) during these dark times happen everyday – we need not look far to witness or feel it.

As I began to reflect more, I remembered that rainbows appear after a storm – the more disastrous a storm, the brighter and more vivid is the rainbow. I am holding out for that rainbow to emerge (hopefully soon) after this vicious Perfect Storm.

In Sickness and In Health

Confined for 39 days at St. Luke’s Hospital, Bonifacio Global City, Alonzo Ancheta and his wife, Bella Caridad Ancheta, aged 87 years old and 86 years respectively, battled COVID-19 – and together emerged victorious. The beloved patriarch and matriarch of the Ancheta clan, of 4 surviving children, 12 grand children and 7 great-grandchildren, let us refer to them as what they are fondly called – Opa and Oma. Just last April 29, 2020, overcoming a series of seemingly endless physical and emotional struggles, they were finally discharged and sent home, deserving indeed of a hero’s welcome.

A beautiful testament of the power of faith, unwavering love and what it means to be stronger together, they have also exemplified that age has no limitations, as the risk of dying from COVID-19 for elderly seniors 85 years old and older is 10%-27%.Their heroic story stands as a beacon of hope to everyone all over the world, and makes us believe that miracles still happen. Perhaps, love truly does conquer all.

Their journey battling COVID-19, like everyone else who has endured it, was nothing short of grueling. It began with Oma wanting to be hospitalized because of flu-like symptoms and weakness. Normally very healthy, tough and active, it was an ominous tell-tale sign that she might have contracted the deadly virus. In the exercise of prudence, Oma, together with Opa as well, were brought to the ER on March 21, 2020 by their eldest daughter, who is also a dermatologist at St. Luke’s.

The hospital’s policy is isolation – one room per patient for this infectious viral disease.While waiting a tediously long 10-days to find out their results, Opa and Oma were first confined in separate rooms and immediately treated already as patients with COVID-19. We also know that this pandemic does not allow visitors for those confined. Most attending physicians are instructed to comply with tele-medicine if physical contact can be avoidedas much as possible. The most human contact that patients experience are the bedside nurses whom they must rely on for monitoring of vitals and other caregiving regimens.As such, with hardly any outside interaction,Opa and Oma began to truly feel isolated and depressed. Furthermore, after the 10-day wait, results confirmed that they were indeed both positive with COVID-19. It was during this period that the attending medical team noticed how incredibly lonely and frail they had become, and so were eventually granted to share one room.

It was a stroke of compassion and kindness. It must also be commended that it is not only patients who undergo tremendous adversity, but our medical frontliners as well, risk their lives and must carry the burden of having to make life-altering decisions to care for those who are sick and confined. Likewise, they must make their rounds, donned in what is truly a cumbersome, astronaut-like, but necessary personal protective equipment (PPE). Let us also not forget that they too practice self-quarantine measures, and are thus, also forced to be away from their families and loved ones.

This was the kind of selfless dedication seen at St. Luke’s. Coupled with their initiative and foresight to treat Opa and Oma as COVID-19 patients early on and right away, was what we believe, spelled the fine line of a difference between victory and defeat, of life and death.

‘Til Death Do Us Part

A very inspiring twist in this story is what transpired when Oma recovered ahead of husband, Opa. Days after receiving their COVID-19 positive results, Oma’s next COVID-19 test then resulted to have no more virus detected; in short, she was now negative for COVID-19. Meanwhile, Opa’s next test was still positive, and remained positive still in the succeeding test given later on after. On the other hand, it was the opposite scenario for Oma. Her two succeeding tests produced negative results.

It was at this point that concerned doctors and other hospital officials insisted that Oma leave Opa, so that she will not get reinfected.She was advised to go home, but she adamantly chose to stay with Opa. She knew that she could not leave him alone, especially at a time like this. Strong-willed as she is, she stood her ground that she would only be discharged when her husbandis discharged.What is even more inspiring and cannot be overemphasized, is that defying all odds such as, her old age, co-morbidities of diabetes and being a breast cancer survivor, Oma was able to beat COVID-19, and furthermore, able to stay in the same hospital room with Opa without ever getting reinfected.

As for Opa, it was a long and slow process, as inflammation caused water in his lungs to accumulate to more than half a liter. Nonetheless, Oma’s decision to stay by his side proved to be on point, as her presence gave him the bouts of strength to carry on. However, 21 days into the couple’s confinement, during hospital rounds of the medical staff, including a close resident physician of Opa, they found him not to be as lucid anymore. On their mobile phones, they showed him family photos and recorded videos prepared by his grandchildren and great grandchildren to uplift his spirits. Instead, it was heart-breaking for them to see, the once, very jovial and active Opa who is also presently, a practicing, successful and extremely sharp attorney – as one who was now bedridden, could barely speak, and so dazed that he could no longer recognize his own family from the photos and videos.

As the trying days trudged on, Opa’s body and mind further deteriorated. It must also be noted that Opa, in his old age, had a pacemaker in his heart and diabetes as his co-morbids. Eventually, it came to a point where it seemed that he was not going to make it. His eldest daughter, the recipient of all direct updates from the hospital, could not help but cry many times at home due to the state of her parents and began to mentally prepare herself with the possibility of Opa’s death. As his health worsened, family members and professional colleagues all over the world fervently prayed hard for divine intervention.

Finally, after doctors performed thoracentesis, a procedure where water was drained out of Opa’s lungs through a small puncturing, his downhill battle suddenly began a progressive upwards trajectory. Days went by slowly yet surely where he gradually returned to his normal self. He eventually tested negative for COVID-19 for three consecutive times, and was finally cleared for discharge.

A Tribute to our Medical Frontliner Heroes

They are now back in their home, getting better by the day and trying to recover the 50 pounds and 30 pounds that Opa and Oma respectively shed, in this difficult 39-day period. They are finally both COVID19-free, but it will still take some time before their overall health improves. Nevertheless, they are happy and smiling again and have expressed their gratitude towards the selfless and wonderful care bestowed upon them by the medical staff of St. Luke’s. According to them, there was not a day where they felt neglected or treated as mere statistics. When they themselves lost hope, the medical team did not lose faith in them. Once they are 100% better, Opa and Oma wish to payback their gratitude and to also pay forward this second chance at life miraculously given to them.

On lockdown and pushed over the edge

As much as I wanted to, I could not easily shake off the altercation that transpired between Mr. Javier Salvador Parra and Makati policeman Senior Master Sergeant Roland Von Madrona inside the gated, private village of Dasmariñas, Makat last April 26, 2020. While I understand both sides, it is clear as day that policeman Madrona was more in the wrong. Sadly, the more popular stance is to be against Mr. Parra. I will get to that in a moment.

Desperate times call for desperate measures?

What I don’t understand and would like to know more about are the real intentions and motivations behind Dasmariñas village officials justifying the need to invite the Makati police into the gated village in the first place. Unless there are confirmed COVID-19 cases and/or widespread chaos, this is not a common practice among private baranggays. According to a statement released by Dasmariñas Baranggay Captain Rossana Hwang after the altercation, she said: “Since ECQ…the baranggay sought assistance from PNP to implement with baranggay tanods, Operation Bandillo. Operation Bandillo is conducted to educate and eliminate violators such as loitering in the streets, walking and jogging and recently wearing masks.” Her use of strong words like “eliminate violators” already gives you a sense of where her head is at.

Is the situation in Dasmariñas village that uncontrollable that it requires PNP involvement? I can understand that everyone of course wants to keep the COVID-19 situation at bay and enforce ECQ protocols, but having the police patrol the closed village certainly increases tension, paranoia and evokes fear – this does not necessarily equate to solving the problem. In fact, it escalates situations, as seen in this recent incident, and it creates a hostile, witch hunt-like environment. It seems like the police are specifically summoned to homes of pre-identified residents who have been subjectively handpicked as violators of ECQ protocols. Last I heard, Dasmariñas residents have supposedly become extra jittery and have resorted to reporting and taking photos of fellow residents deemed to be violating ECQ. So much for Bayanihan.

Witch Hunt

It makes me wonder about what sort of reports Dasmariñas has been receiving about “disobedient” residents anyhow, and if such reports are embellished, accurate or even worth addressing by the PNP. Actions that come to mind are for example, residents taking a quick call outside their door without a mask (due to weak reception), or if they quickly receive deliveries outside. If they are suddenly “caught in the act” by the Makati police, are they to be punished, assaulted, arrested, or worse, shot at, if arrests are resisted?

If anything, I think April 26th incident actually says a lot more about Dasmariñas – its leaders and Baranggay Captain. I wonder if another recent issue where Dasmariñas resident, Senator Manny Pacquiao was shown, through circulating photos around social media, to be hobnobbing with government officials who have come to contract COVID-19, has anything to do with these extreme measures. The gathering happened on March 4, 2020, but without checking the timeline, as a kneejerk response to these photos, Hwang and her office sent a letter to the Pacquiao household on March 27, 2020 (23 days after the said event), informing them to practice self-quarantine and that nobody was allowed to come out for the whole 14-day duration. This letter was suspiciously leaked and splashed all over social media again, causing more anxiety in the village and arousing animosity and ostracism towards the Senator and his family. One can say that Hwang has a knack for vexing residents. The following day, March 28, 2020, Sen. Pacquiao wrote back. In his letter response, “addressed to Barangay Dasmariñas chief Rossana Hwang, Pacquiao…asked her to "refrain from making assertions" based on unverified news items and malicious social media posts” (Rappler 2020). He and his household have all tested negative for COVID-19, and he is seeking a probe to this leaked private letter from the village. Below is the full letter taken from Rappler (2020):

The decision of Dasmarinas officials’ to grant the Makati police access into the village does not seem have the residents’ welfare at heart. Moreover, they come off so gung-ho to crucify their own residents. In my opinion, their agenda seems politically-motivated. I believe this is the bigger story in this incident.

ECQ: Short fuses; Tempers ablaze, and Reason thrown out the window

Hence, it is no surprise that Dasmariñas village officials have sided with baranggay tanod Gaan and Makati policeman Madrona over the April 26, 2020 incident. This was made clear in Ms. Hwang’s released statement which to me, paints an incomplete picture of what really happened and puts Parra in a worse light, especially since the statement is coming from the Baranggay Captain herself.

I do not agree with her, and to me it is very simple. No matter how the story is framed, it was still assault, trespassing and attempted arrest without a warrant.

To piece everything together, the very first event that set off this chain of events begins with househelper Cherelyn Escalante, simply watering the plants at the front lawn of the Parra residence which extends into the sidewalk, as their residence has no gate. She was not wearing a face mask, and there were no other people within the immediate vicinity. The whole street was practically empty. Then comes along Makati policeman Madrona and Dasmariñas baranggay tanod Bantay Bayan personnel Esteban Gaan. They admonish her for not wearing a mask while outdoors, in accordance with the Makati ordinance requiring the use of a face mask “in public.” However, there is no regulation that stipulates in verbatim having to wear a mask in your home. Yet, their interpretation is that by virtue of her being by the sidewalk, constitutes as public space already, and therefore, tell her that the household must be fined Php1,000 for this violation. On this accusation alone, I could already understand how it could annoy anyone. Firstly, the Makati ordinance was written without specificity, and secondly, law enforcers must understand what regulations such as the Makati ordinance aims to achieve. If they had just sensibly assessed the situation, they would have rationally made the obvious conclusion that Ms. Escalante was not violating the law, nor putting anyone in harm’s way. It pushes me to make the generalization that I guess many policemen in the Philippines are programmed to follow orders by the book, without discernment. In Madrona’s eyes, he was upholding the law.

Ms. Escalante goes inside the house, and we can assume that she informs the Parras about what is happening because Mr. Parra immediately comes out of the house. This is where the viral video begins.

Topless and clad in what looks like jogging pants and house slippers, we can surmise that Mr. Parra was probably relaxing inside his house, but then immediately rushes outside without a care at all for his appearance, to nip the situation in the bud. Mind you, this was a Sunday. He is angry to begin with to find Madrona and company outside his house over a matter so trivial, and the situation is exacerbated by the fact that he being videoed at his own home. It is quite the goading and provocation. This eventually leads him to step onto the sidewalk of his house without a mask where later on, the police are able to cite and flag Mr. Parra for also not wearing a mask “in public.” During the confrontation, it is also revealed that Mr. Parra has been drinking inside his home when Madrona asks him if he is intoxicated. Again, later on, I’ve read how netizens actually said he should be arrested on the grounds of violating the liquor ban for dinking inside his home. The man just can’t catch a break.

Yet even before Mr. Parra goes to dropping the slew of expletives towards policeman Madrona, he also makes some very good points, if you listened carefully. He said that the police should make better use of their time and resources to “solve the problem in the Philippines” – in countering real criminals or monitoring, helping congested locations such as Tondo where there is widespread news of people in numbers who are intentionally or unable to practice social distancing and ECQ measures. He also says that he is doing his part as a “decent citizen” by employing and supporting 80 Filipino employees during ECQ, and can’t fathom why he is being treated like some kind of common criminal being picked up at his own home. I agree with all of this, as well as with what he says after – that this kind of policing disgraces the actions of genuine frontliners who are doing their part for the country. “They [police] should be ashamed of themselves.”

His anger rising, Mr. Parra continues to tell Madrona and company to leave. They instead tell him that they can bring him to the barangay office where he can voice out his concerns, to which of course he refuses. The standoff and confrontations carry on to a boiling point that sets Mr. Parra off on an antagonistic tirade. Yes, I agree that Mr. Parra should not have used inappropriate language towards Madrona, as to be objective, Madrona was addressing him at first in an orderly manner and patiently taking everything in. However, we can’t completely fault Parra’s spontaneous angry outburst too. Does it not strike you as incredibly petty and unnecessary indeed to have a Makati policeman confront a househelper for not wearing a mask (with nobody around) while tending to the lawn which is within their property? There are so much bigger problems that need to be prioritized with the insufficient resources and manpower that the Philippines has at its disposal. Moreover, wouldn’t one feel betrayed that it was no less than your own baranggay tanod who has accompanied the policeman to your home, and more so, the one taking the video?

Mr. Parra may have said some disrespectful things, but ultimately, it was policeman Madrona who laid the first hand on Mr. Parra.

As seen in the video, he loses his cool, eventually charges onto their gateless property and brutally tackles Mr. Parra on their driveway, only a few steps from their front door. Perhaps it was also provoked, but it is fair to say that policeman Madrona’s violent response towards Mr. Parra went over and beyond, and anyone who thinks this is okay must truly think long and hard.

Abuse of Power

Another thing that must be noted is Madrona’s continuous announcements, saying, “I will arrest you in my presence.” This type of flexible interpretation of the law is exactly what I was gunning at in my most previous post regarding RA 11332 or Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases Act where last March 17, 2020, the DOJ made it clear “that if you are found outside your house and you are not among the narrow exemptions of the lockdown, then you can be arrested even without a warrant.”

This Act is easily prone to abuse whether intentionally or unconsciously. Law enforcers are able to twist the meaning of this law as they see fit, depending on the situation or the alleged perpetrator of the crime. Actions become very subjective, and this is definitely something to be fearful about. Mr. Parra is just one of many. It easily could be any of us. Yet when personalities of clout such as Senator Koko Pimental brazenly violate these regulations, they are given preferential treatment.

I’ve read on social media that many have said Mr. Parra should have just simply acknowledged Madrona’s admonishments and payed the Php1,000 fine to keep things from escalating. However, we must ask ourselves too; if we were in Mr. Parra’s position, would this alternate decision be the most fair choice? I also agree with what he said at the start, that he was expressing his right as a citizen, but I do agree that he let his temper get the better of him. He should have handled it better, or simply returned inside his house and should have just let his wife handle the situation. Then again, it’s easy to point fingers and lay down judgement in hindsight when we are mere spectators. It is hard to know what we would’ve really done, caught in a heated situation such as this.

Forgotten Humanity

I was very sad to find out that many people did not share my sentiments. More people believed that Mr. Parra deserved to get assaulted, or at least arrested because of his behavior. Instead of empathizing with someone (who was actually minding his own business at home) who dared to question a gray area of the law and its unequal application, and as one who was ganged up on and further provoked to anger, all people zeroed in on was his use of profanity, and immediately identified him as an arrogant foreigner who thought himself above the law. The facts and context of the situation had been terribly muddled with emotion. I’m not saying he is a hero; I am saying he is human like the rest of us. There are also posts all over social media calling for him, a Spanish expat, to be deported, and these reactions come from people whom I thought would be sensible and level-headed. It seems as though COVID-19 and ECQ has gotten the better of everyone that we have forgotten our humanity.

I also wondered if Mr. Parra’s Spanish nationality and affluent economic status played a role in convincing many that he was at fault. If he were Filipino, much more so, someone underprivileged, would people have reacted differently? Filipinos always claim that only the poor are subjected to unequal and unjust treatment, but as I had just discussed about Sen. Pacquiao and Mr. Parra, this is not entirely true.

Worse reality beyond gated walls

If this incident is saddening and scary as it is, one can just imagine what is occurring beyond the affluent gated communities. It is all over the news on police brutality in their efforts to enforce ECQ and social distancing. I am not saying all policemen act this way, but these surfacing news gives us a reason to feel distrustful towards them. In recent news, is the tragic death of retired Corporal Winston Ragos who was shot dead by a policeman at a checkpoint in Quezon City last April 21, 2020. Ragos was supposedly suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as his last assignment was at war-torn Marawi. Fortunately, he was at the least given a hero’s burial and ceremony at Libingan ng mga Bayani. The details are yet to be uncovered through an investigation, but according to news, shots were fired because policemen thought Ragos was reaching for his gun.

Another recent news describes how a mask-less fish vendor (without a quarantine pass) was mauled and beaten up by the police in Quezon City just last April 27, 2020,

The New Normal

We’ve seen and heard it everywhere – this nasty pandemic has forever changed the landscape of the world. Even when ECQ is eventually lifted, things will never be as they once were. Yet, the “new normal” doesn’t mean or give us license to be horrible people. It is imprinting a lesson for humanity to be kinder, more compassionate and tolerant towards all. Many uncertainties lie ahead. Perhaps the best way to approach these uncertainties is with caution, reason and an open mind – not with violence and a disregard for human rights and life.

From Ugly Duckling to Black Swan

The COVID-19 Pandemic

During times of crisis and chaos, it brings out the best and worst in people. So far, during these COVID-19 dark times, it has brought out the best in our heroic frontliners – people like ourdoctors, medical personnel, and among some in the LGUs and the private sector. Sadly, in contrast, we have seen the worst from most of our government leaders. We citizens are also not excused from some of our displays of bad behavior.

I have tried to be as objective as I can in assessing the actions of the government. To be fair, this Black Swan of events has caught many nations around the world off-guard as well. While news of COVID-19 (then still called nCov) began to emerge in December 2019 in China, the Chinese government failed to immediately reveal the truths about the virus. If only they had come forward much earlier on.

However, as early as January 2020 in the Philippines, many saw an impending pandemic coming already, due to the escalating number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in China. Many believed that these numbers were not even wholly representative, that were actually much more cases. There were growing clamors from citizens and members of the private and public sector alike, for the Philippine government to take preventive action right away, such as at the very least, to temporarily ban entry of all flights to and from China (including Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore). Another big issue was the clamor to also suspend POGO operations (where additionally, reports already showed their connections to many illegal activities anyhow). However, our President Duterte refused to make these calls, as he is known to be, for lack of a better term, Tuta ng China.

He finally ordered a ban of all incoming China flights on February 2, 2020, but then lifted the ban on March 12, 2020, (but only for returning OFWs and Filipino passport holders to come into Philippines). I believe he should not have lifted the ban anymore and left it as status quo. Then on March 16, 2020, the bans were reinstated with the pronouncement of the issuances. It caused quite the confusion.

As expected, crap hit the fan, and our government has responded in a reactive, rather than proactive fashion. To be fair, they initially cannot completely be faulted because no one can really foresee what is to happen, but it seems that these issuances arise, as the needs arise, without officials clearly thinking things through (details, details, details!). This breeds more anxiety and anger among citizens. Directives, especially from Duterte on TV are unclear and contradicting, leaving everyone confused and clueless on what to do exactly. At times, his people also come off vague, and their announcements become open to varying interpretations.

The Flip-flopping March Issuances

Now on the 3rd week of ECQ, so much has happened, such as accelerating confirmed cases and deaths to name a few. Many of whom we know personally have either contracted the virus and are battling it out alone in hospitals without family and loved ones to help them through, or worst, others have already succumbed to COVID-19. Indeed, this vius has hit us hard, and it has hit home. There is a pervading aura of despair and helplessness, as there remains no signs of the virus on the decrease just yet, nor a cure. On some level, I do think that some tragic chain of events are indeed inevitable, due to the gravity of COVID-19 and the world’s unpreparedness. However, a lot of things still could have been mitigated and handled tons better such as, firstly, the way our government communicates and disseminates information and instructions. For example, below were the March issuances relating to COVID-19 and ECQ measures:

March 8, 2020, Sunday- Proclamation No. 922 (Declaring a public health emergency):

No guidelines nor directives; but just a general message of something to the effect of: let us help each other during this time. Public transport is also still operating, so people were still easily going about their regular days. There was no urgency communicated just yet.

March 12, 2020, Thursday late afternoon Code Red Sub-Level 2:

As COVID-19 cases started to rise and reported throughout social media, suddenly there was a partial lockdown on Metro Manila (restricted movement in and out of Metro Manila via land, sea, air) – But people still didn’t know what this meant exactly, or how it was going to be enforced.

The confusion was evident because the following day there were huge bottleneck of motorists coming from different points of entry/exit into Metro Manila, and government authorities were vastly unsure how to handle it. So much for social distancing…

March 16, 2020, Monday late afternoon: Proclamation No. 929 (Declaring a state of calamity throughout the Philippines; thus, putting the entire Luzon region in an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) beginning 17 March 2020 until 12 April 2020):

It stipulated that all school classes (all levels) are suspended, mass gatherings prohibited, and only establishments providing “basic necessities” may operate such as – essential industries/business specified as: supermarkets, pharmacies clinics, food prep centers, food delivery, water refilling stations, banks, telcos, utilities. However, within the same thread, it also declared a suspension of public transportation facilities, and now, travel by land, sea, air was “restricted” in the whole Philippines.

This alarmed OFWs, Filipino passports holders abroad and foreigners on how they could leave/or return to the country. It was also unsure how essential staff could report to work without public transportation. Compensation and hazard precautions was also a looming uncertainty. Most importantly it posed the question: How about the medical frontliners who take public transportation? How will they be able to get to the hospitals?

By March 18, Wednesday, as my family and I drove up to Quezon City “to seek higher ground,” we saw many people dressed in scrubs – they were our doctors and medical frontliners, walking along EDSA. It was a very sad and troubling sight to see. They are our first line of defense, so why isn’t the government providing better support?

In a Philippine Star article (dated March 25, 2020) entitled, SMEs are a ticking time bomb, columnist Masigan, captured the on-the-ground confusion during the many issuances this month. To quote a line from his article, he wrote that: “We can forgive the authorities for frequently adjusting policies considering the fluidity of the situation. What is unforgivable is their propensity for making sweeping pronouncements without preparing clear implementing guidelines.”

Regarding the series of events that transpired after the March 16 Issuance, Masigan further on wrote below:

“Four days later, government doubled-down on its policy by declaring the entire Luzon under lockdown. Again, government committed the mistake of not providing us with a complete set of rules. With all non-essential commercial establishments ordered to close, merchants agonized over how they could meet payroll and rental obligations with no sales to back it up. We were unclear on who could continue operating on a skeletal basis and who could not. We asked what permits were necessary to deploy delivery trucks on the streets. Making matters worse was that there was no single spokesman with the authority (and credibility) to speak on behalf of government. We were bombarded with policy directives from the Department of Health, DOLE, the MMDA and the DTI, many of which were in conflict with the other. Local government units added to the confusion.

For instance, we were advised by the DTI that restaurants were not allowed to operate. Later on, we’re told that we could continue operating provided we limit our commercial activities to take out and delivery services. To our surprise, restaurants that opened their kitchens in Mandaluyong, Marikina, Manila and Rizal were charged a P20,000 fine.

For those of us who have commissaries and manufacturing plants, the office of the President ordered that before we could be allowed to operate, we needed to provide dormitories within our factory premises to serve as dwellings for our employees. The following day, we were advised by the Philippine Export Zone Authority that having dormitories was not a requirement.” (Masigan 2019).

March 18, 2020, Wednesday, Proclamation by Executive Secretary:

There were more clarifications on who is allowed to leave the country, such as OFWs and foreigners. It was also stated that hotels were not allowed to operate except with existing guests (so I guess this in turn, meant they had to operate because most still had guests?). The government also finally declared a shutdown of POGOS, but it was still confusing because PAGCOR had made a statement before this that allowed POGOs to operate. All I could think of was, why did it take so long before they stopped POGO operations in the first place?

RA 11332 or Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases Act

On March 17, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) made it clear “that if you are found outside your house and you are not among the narrow exemptions of the lockdown, then you can be arrested even without a warrant” (Rappler 2020). Duterte was also quick to reinforce this statement in a televised address to the nation.

…And then lo and behold, on March 25, 2020, Senator Koko Pimentel pulls that infamous and incredibly selfish and arrogant stunt in Makati Medical Center. In addition to a number of doctors and medical staff having to go on 14-day self-quarantines due to his presence at the hospital as a COVID-19 PUI, and therefore, further depleting the already skeletal staff, he had furthermore, ignited fears of possible transmission onto other patients (which include pregnant women and newborns). Actions such as this, diminish the already diminishing credibility of our government leaders. It exposed the preferential treatment given to people of power. What happened to DOJ’s strict pronouncements only a week prior that they will jail people who violate quarantine guidelines? With the case of Senator Koko, they quickly changed their tune saying, the rigors of law should be balanced by “human compassion.” However, we read all over the news how there are cases of the common Juans, found on the street, have been arrested in a snap.

This kind of decision, where the law is altered depending on the person who has committed a “violation,” makes people doubt the integrity of other related laws. For example, a recently added sanction clause to the Bayanihan Act is that “messengers” deemed to be propagating fake news can also be punished (arrested or made to pay a fine) without a warrant. How do we know that everyone will be treated fairly and equally on this Act? The answer is we don’t know. I believe that this added clause, as well as the RA 11332 or Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases Act is a foreshadowing of worse things to come.

Not in 20/20 Hindsight: The Many Preventive Measures that should have been clearly implemented:

Firstly, as earlier mentioned above, the ban on China flights was decided around three weeks too late. I think this was truly one huge mistake. It would have at least given the Philippines, a kind of head start with the precautionary measures, and for this, I truly blame the President. He was clearly acting on self-interest. Secondly, I think the Department of Health (DOH) should have had the urgency to act earlier (budget, hospitals, procurement of medical supplies, concrete plan for the frontliners and so forth), as early as January 2020, instead of waiting for cases to explode. Thirdly, it was also disheartening to find out that when certain empowered LGU leaders took initiatives to help people within their jurisdiction, for example, by activating local transport for the sick and elderly (Vico Sotto of Pasig, Teodoro of Marikina, Nieto of Rizal), they were discouraged by the national government. They were told that they are not free to do what they want and should listen only to them. I would like to gather more information on this issue to know both sides, but it seems that the national government is in need to decentralize more of its power. It will allow LGUs to become nimbler to address local matters right away and leapfrog above all the unnecessary red tape at the national level.

Lastly, before I go on to my fourth example, I wish to highlight first what private entities in other countries are doing, and what the Philippines’s private sector is doing to emphasize a point.

Private companies in other countries are using their own resources to come up with tools that can directly help diffuse the COVID-19 situation:

New Balance, Nike – Materials used to make their athletic shoes are being used to make face masks

Dyson, Tesla – Manufacture of ventilators

Bosch – Made automated testing machines to quickly read testing kits

Other companies have converted their factories in order to manufacture medical supplies needed

China: Actually, it also seems that China is the only country to have the capability to make three new temporary hospitals in a span of 2-3 weeks (of course, this also may be an insight to how long they have really known about COVID-19…)

Efforts of the Private sector and individuals in the Philippines:

Ayala Corporation – Spearheaded a Php 1 Billion package to pay employees during this time

Ginebra San Miguel, Emperador – Converted their factories that produce drinking alcohol into sanitizing alcohol

Private groups, Schools, Alumni groups – Have been soliciting donations and making actual purchase of PPEs, medical supplies and finding nearby dorms for medical staff

Renowned individuals like fashion-designers, Michael Leyva and Rajo Laurel are donating PPEs that they themselves have designed and created

University of the Philippines – A very significant contribution: They produced testing kits (but there are still bottlenecks because only the RITM can read results)

I brought up these efforts because it signifies that there is truly a need for the private sector and private individuals to step-in and join the fight. Definitely, it cannot rest on government shoulders alone. It has been clear that the Philippines collectively does not have the resources and capacity (human capital, technology, political will, cooperation from citizens) to solve the COVID-19 problems, but what we really need right now is hope. We need to feel hopeful that we can weather the storm and flatten the curve until realistically, a developed country finds a cure/vaccine and shares this with us.

The Importance and Skill of Crisis Communication

So far this is one critical area kung saan talagang kulang. For example, whenever President Duterte goes on national TV to give updates, he simply rambles off. The worst is when he adlibs because he says all sorts of random and unrelated things that exacerbates our growing fears by the day. He and his staff also make general, sweeping statements such as for example, that they have purchased medical supplies to combat this deadly virus, but absolutely no details are discussed. His office always just gives a general idea of the battle plan; then to differ and have the knowledgeable departments like DOH take charge.

How can we feel hopeful and comforted when we see that our leader has no battle plan and not able to disseminate much-needed information and directives? He and most of his people lack what you call Crisis Communication. During a crisis, it is highly important that the leader and messenger: Stays calm, listens hard, Be extremely visible, Get the terrible but real truth out, and very importantly, Communicate a vision for the future. I can’t say that Duterte has ticked these boxes. It would be better for everyone if his office would just come clean and articulately relay what is really happening, but at the same time, give us hope (but not false hope) of some aspired brighter vision of the future. As for government leaders like Senator Koko, he should come down from his high horse, take a big bite of humble pie and set the example.

Should you juxtapose a respectable leader like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo against President Duterte, you will truly see a magnified difference in crisis communication and management. Yes, perhaps it is given that the United States, especially the state of New York has more funding, infrastructure and public health resources to support Cuomo’s plans, but it is also in the manner of how Cuomo responds and communicates to his constituents. Cuomo makes regular TV appearances (almost everyday and on time) and goes straight to the point. He is able to reassure people through science and fact-based updates and plans. He relays his masterplan which is to flatten the curve, and then the important short-term and long-term action plans that will achieve the masterplan. For instance, he has articulated the following:

· Increase hospital capacity (hospitals to increase capacity by 50%-100%)

· Converting army hospitals, dorms, hotels to COVID-19 hospitals

· Increase testing sites in every New York borough

· Purchase and source medical equipment such as beds, testing kits, ventilators, PPEs, N-95 masks, medical gloves, anesthesia machines etc. where he includes details on procurement: (manufacturers, cost, quantity, logistics)

· Create a stockpile of these equipment to be prepared when cases hit the apex

· Mobilizing the army to enforce social distancing and other regulations

…And the list of concrete implementations goes on. If he has to adlib a little, he effectively chooses his words and anecdotes to keep things concise, light, relevant and motivational.

Resilience and Pushing Back

Nevertheless, this too shall pass, including what remains to be seen in the rubble of the aftermath. We Filipinos have gone through so much already and have seen the light at the end of each tunnel. Sadly, we have learned through the years not to rely on our government; hence, I believe we have that fighting spirit in all of us. It is also nice to see that despite the gravity of what is happening, we still know how to pray, find humor in situations and be happy.

We also need not look far to see acts of kindness and heroic deeds. It comes in many forms and in simple everyday acts. Within our homes during ECQ for instance, we see how family members brave supermarkets and take the time to prepare our daily meals; we see how family members help take care of our children when we need extra hands; we see how friends continue to offer helping hands and listening ears to help us get by; we see how members of the fitness community offer online public classes to keep us all active; we see how private individuals come together and are able to solicit significant monetary amounts to help and speed up purchase of much-needed medical supplies like PPEs… These acts remind us that despite the darkness we feel to be engulfing us, humanity is still very much present. We are all in this together.

Lastly, to quote Yolanda Ong, former spokesperson for various administrations, she says: “Our collective voices have resulted in major “PUSHBACKS.” She composed below message, circulating now on Viber:

YOUR VOICE IS MAKING A DIFFERENCESome people will tell you, “Tigilan mo na ang pagbatikos. Bakit hindi ka na lang sumunod?” Don’t believe them. Our collective voices have resulted in major PUSHBACKS.1. The emergency powers given to Duterte were clipped; Also, some provisions for safeguards were added.2. Abuses of high government officials (like the Koko MMC incident) are widely condemned3. Priority testing for VIPs was exposed and now reduced4. RITM Director Dr. Carlos was fired by Duque at the behest of politicians; Duque forced to reinstate her due to public outcry5. Requirement for health workers to show IDs at checkpoints was waived6. Attempt by a POGO operator to convert a unit in a Mandaluyong condo to a workplace was blocked7. Government was forced to provide transport to health workers and frontliners8. Government pressured to declare ban on incoming China flights earlier than they planned to9. Duterte now forced to stay on script (fewer adlibs now); He can no longer get away with cursing or his sick sex jokes. People demand serious solutions now10. AND… Bong Go has stopped saying “Sabi ni Presidente…” because really, nobody cares anymore what he has to say.

Equally significant is how we have pushed backed the trolls. The government’s first response to a crisis is ALWAYS propaganda – it unleashes its troll army to support a bumbling President or a widely unpopular action. Either that, or bash a critic.Their campaigns to defend Duterte’s vacillation in banning Chinese mainlanders: “sympathy to Chinese neighbor”, and “playing the racist card” failed. And now that we’re in this escalating crisis, these campaigns are haunting them.They tried to bash VP Leni, but her leadership, intelligent and focused response to the crisis speaks louder. It is a sharp contrast to the government’s incompetent handling of the crisis. Even DDS fanatic TP acknowledged this, although reluctantly.Next, they targeted Vico. But we countered with #ProtectVico and simply drowned out their attacks.And after Duterte’s uninspiring, incoherent, and confusing presscons, they launched the “kawawa naman si Tatay Duts” and “blame the bad citizens for the problem” campaigns. Both failed, miserably at that.We even managed to bring down, even if only temporarily, the mother site of Fake News. And we celebrated it with #MochaUsonIsOverParty. We are gaining much headway here, in the battle against Fake News and contrived campaigns. And we are beginning to reach, and win over those outside our echo chambers.Make no mistake. We are at war. Not just against COVID-19. But also against Fake News and incompetence.Our WORDS are our ammunition. Our Post, Tweet, Likes, Shares and RTs – our weapons. And the social media platforms we are in – our assigned battlefields.Let us not tire of SPEAKING UP. Let us EXPOSE incompetence, arrogance, and the sense of entitlement by some of our leaders, at every opportunity. At the same time, let us LAUD those who step up, some beyond the call of duty, in these extraordinary times. Our CONCERTED VOICES magnify them, and pushes our government to move in the RIGHT direction.NO. SILENCE is not the answer. YES. SPEAKING UP is part of the solution. (Yolanda Ong)

I could not agree any more. For as long as we avoid the follies of uncritical thinking, such as by succumbing to the wrong assumptions and fake news, we must continue to speak out against injustices and push back. We can’t all be frontliners, but let us not be part of the problem, and do our part in our current roles and spheres of influence. We should let times like this bring out the best in us, not the worst.

Dead Kids

Filipino indie film, Dead Kids is more than your stereotypical coming-of-aged type of movie. The film centralizes around a group of middle to upper class, private high school students who conspire together and hatch an amateur plan to kidnap the resident school bully. By kidnapping him and holding him for ransom for Php 30 Million, they will be able to kill two birds with one stone – get even and teach their tormentor a lasting lesson, and secondly, get their hands on a hefty sum of money for personal reasons.

In this respect, only one of the kidnappers seemed to have “the most valid reason” because unlike the other students in the private school, he is the only scholar and in “real” need of money to pay for college and other basic necessities. In fact, he resorts to various “rackets” just to keep financially afloat. He is constantly marginalized and unaccepted by his peers at school. This aspect of the movie also highlights social divides that plagues the Philippines as well, and is exacerbated by growing issues of entitlement among the wealthy and privileged.

As the movie unfolds, as expected, the group collectively bungle the kidnapping operations; they destroy families, dreams and lives. The movie is both comedic and tragic – which is why it really resonated with me. It is very real.

What struck me the most was the formulation and execution of the whole plan – the scenes and dialogue hit close to home. I recalled my younger school-kid self, as well as my peers back in the day. We conversed very similarly, in a mix of Tagalog and English and used slang words. We also had the same, typical encompassing adolescent problems, the usual things like – school, grades, barkada, relationships, peer pressure, gimikan and yes, vices.

The dark and stark difference however is that these kids are beyond your average group; they are quite scary. They are made of different stuff – they are very much alive, but at a young age, already seem dead inside, devoid of morals and values. To even think about kidnapping a classmate is one thing, but to actually have the resolve to execute the plan is really frightening. At one point, you will feel sorry for the kidnapped bully, despite what he has done to them individually in the past scenes. Adults are also hardly present in the movie. It is as though these kids live in a warped world with no authority and supervision. Mind you, this movie is based on actual events that transpired in 2018 among university students in Manila. The movie will really make you think about then and now, and the factors which are pushing our youth over the edge.

The Age of the Internet of things: Anxiety, Depression, Violence and Envy

Dead Kids touched on many prevailing themes faced by our generation today – specifically by Millennials and now the Generation Z (Gen Z). Over and over again in the movie, social media was shown to play a disastrous effect on the psyche of these kids, mirroring what is happening in real life today. At a click of a button and swipe of fingertips, everyone knows what everyone else is doing because of social media, and that makes people compare themselves to others. This continuous, 24/7 exposure breeds anxiety, depression and envy – especially for young people who are unable to compartmentalize or differentiate social media lives from reality. Affected young people feel like they are just not good enough, as compared with for example: a classmate who has topped the class with the highest grades, or their athletic friend who has won a championship title, or another colleague who possesses the latest designer clothes, or an affluent friend who recently took a trip to Europe over summer vacation. They want to achieve or get their hands on the same things as quickly as they could, so that they too can post and boast about it online. Social media encourages instant gratification, and many of our young people forget the value of hard work and replace it with what they will call “passion” – in the form of unsteady and capricious whims. As a business professor of mine said, this generation is concerned “with reaching only the summit, but forget about the climb.” This could not be any truer.

Cyber-Bullying and Disconnection

Let us also not forget the issue of cyber-bullying. As shown in Dead Kids, one of the kidnappers recalls how the resident bully is able to bully him in all mediums – physically in school, as well as online, in front of everyone, and get away with it. Those on the posting-end, who receive numerous likes, views and comments, feel as though their online taunts are encouraged and justified, and those as the object of cyber-bullying, feel as though they deserve this treatment. What makes it even worse is that nobody is really held accountable. You can easily see how this can make one spiral downwards in self-loathing and anger. It does not come as a surprise that the recent literature today speaks of significantly increasing rates of depression, aggression, anxiety – and even suicide among the youth. Another matter hand-in-hand with this are issues on personal connections, or the lack thereof. Why does it seem that young people today feel like they have no safe space or outlet to talk about what they are really going through? We have heard this before: that the more we are connected through the cyber world and technology, the more we have become disconnected in our actual and personal relationships.

Narcissism and Materialism

There was also a memorable scene in Dead Kids during the drop-off of the ransom money at the agreed location. (The location happens to be real-life bar called 2020, in Pasong Tamo where I have been to a couple of time before, and coincidentally today is 02.20.2020). The ransom money is put together by the victim’s father, an alleged drug lord, and he places the money in a designer bag. The moment the bag is plopped in the center of the dance floor, amidst the blazing trap music and flashing neon lights, many girls race for it, not knowing its contents. The scene was done really well, and you just think to yourself, “Wow, have we really become this materialistic and shallow, that we would physically fight over a designer bag?” In turn, the raucous compromises the whole operation, and one of the girls is held at gunpoint.

The Death of a Nation

I would go so far to say that I believe there is a breakdown of values in the Philippines and in the world today. We can blame social media, but ultimately, we also have to look inwards at ourselves. Sometimes, we too propagate social injustices with our simple, unconscious actions.

Our leaders as well have a responsibility. Unfortunately, the highest leader of the land, our incumbent President has not personified anything substantial to be emulated, but we are either gripped with fear, indifference or blind loyalty and let things be. Regarding his character alone, on TV for instance, our children watch our President curse and drop profanity in every statement likes there’s no tomorrow. They will grow up thinking that this is totally okay and cool, and then we wonder why we have dead kids. It is because we are becoming a Dead nation.

Moreover, he has made rape jokes, sexist and sordid comments against women, demeaning statements against Pope Francis and the Church, but his supporters continue to make unfounded excuses for this behavior. Our journalists and media as well are being silenced with real threats – to livelihood and life. Those who attempt to speak out are punished without due process and are ridiculed in a dehumanizing manner – Senator Leila de Lima being the biggest example of this. Most importantly, he continues to justify his drug war and extra judicial killings through conjured up data and convoluted truths. Have we lost our sights on human rights, life and God? These scenarios seem all too familiar.

Parallelisms to Martial Law of the Marcos Regime

We can draw many softer parallelisms of what is happening today to the atrocities of Martial Law under the 20-year Marcos dictatorship. Filipinos are truly quick to forget or love to choose to be ignorant. What I find truly unacceptable, that in this age where information is abundant and easily accessible, turns out many Filipinos, not just among the younger Millennials and Gen Z groups, but actually older people too, have a skewed version of Martial Law. They think it was a Golden Era of discipline and crime-free streets, not knowing about the countless and undocumented people who were imprisoned, murdered and tortured. To say the least, some do not even know Martial Law once existed in the Philippines. This ignorance and lack of information is not limited to just the uneducated, but persists even among private school educated Filipinos. Apparently, this part of Philippine history – Ninoy Aquino, Martial Law and the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution is not really taught or emphasized in our education system. It is truly a tragedy because we Filipinos were the victors of this miraculous, peaceful revolt which ultimately toppled Marcos, and yet we have not been able write history as it should be.

President Duterte was elected because he sold the idea that the Philippines can only be great again with an “iron-fisted” leader, the same dream that Marcos peddled to the Philippines. Today with President Duterte at the helm, the myth of the iron-fisted leader is again debunked, and now is an unfolding tragedy.

The Importance of Real, Personal Relationships

The movie’s title, I’d like to believe, is a comment on the actual reality of extra judicial killings happening in the Philippines today, but the movie also tells us that being a Dead Kid means more than the literal sense. Perhaps we’ve all felt like a dead kid at some point in life. I personally know what it felt like to be one; I can say that I have felt it twice in my youth. I had lost my way, my purpose and felt dead inside. But what helped me conquer my demons? It was my support system composed of my family and various groups of friends. During my most vulnerable and weak moments, they had been there all along and instilled the strength I needed to bounce back. Very importantly as well, they were real friends who had the courage to intervene and tell me to my face when I was becoming the worst version of myself. You need these types of people – or you will really go through life thinking, either that you are completely alone or completely invincible.

Many years later, now that I have a daughter, I know that I cannot shield her completely from the problems of the world, but I hope I can truly imbibe one of the most important qualities – and that is resilience. I know that like me, she will fail at things. She will get hurt. She will be rejected, at times, for no good reason. However, I want her to be tough, to be brave and rise to the occasion when needed. Giving up is not the answer. She must also remember to always be kind, fair and have integrity despite how unbelievable people can be. We are all dealt with a different deck of cards in life, but to be able to achieve that winning hand lies in you.

Generation Alpha

Analysts have dubbed the Generation Alpha (Gen Alpha) as the generation that will succeed the Gen Zs. They are those born in 2010 up until the year 2025, supposedly the “children of the Millennials,” our children. I think about this movie Dead Kids, and then I think to myself that I do not want my daughter and our generation’s children to grow up with fractured values and distorted principles. Don’t you want to handover to your children, a world that you can be proud of?

I am no expert, and I am no Mother Teresa, but I do know that as early as their formative years, we must be conscious and deliberate about the things we say and do – because they will mimic what they see. We must teach them what is morally wrong, even if it is deemed okay by society. The family unit is the very first thing that a child knows – so us as parents, or as older people wizened by life experiences, truly have that responsibility to set a good example. Education is also key for political consciousness and value formation.

Like I said earlier, when I was going through tough times in my youth, what made all the difference were my family and friends. I was lucky enough to have grown up with the right group of friends – those that had a positive influence throughout my entire life. It was never about material things, but rather what was intangible and essential.

We have to be very present and visible in our children’s lives – but to also give them sufficient space to grow and make mistakes. Of course, it is easier said than done – but the growing demographic of dead kids, both literally and figuratively, is today’s reality. I do not want to wake up one day and find that we have turned our children into Dead Kids.

Treading Unchartered Waters: The Philippine Water Crisis Goes On

The Water Crisis of the 1990s

To shed some light on how the water crisis of the Philippines had escalated to staggering proportions in the 1990s, one must dig a little deeper into history. The 20-year Marcos dictatorship had set the climate for water problems and system inefficiencies to prevail when cronies and monopolies in almost every industry, commanded the private and public sectors. Its aftermath left the country in shambles. Despite the initial victory of the 1986 People Power Revolution, it was an uphill battle for succeeding President “Cory” Aquino, having to maneuver around and dissolve long-standing political factions, opponents and corrupt protocols within the government, military and private sector. She also had to deal with a number of coup d’etats, a turbulent power crisis and basically trying to right the grave mistakes of her predecessor, that fixing water problems was not on her immediate list of priorities.

Prior to the 1997 Water Concession Agreements, government-controlled Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) both regulated and distributed water in Metro Manila. Inefficiencies, incompetence and corruption in management pervaded the MWSS. [1]Non-revenue water was at a high of more than 60% due to leaks in pipes and widespread water theft. Metro Manila was experiencing constant water shortages; some areas had no water at all. MWSS’s other problem was financing. They were “deeply indebted to foreign creditors—the debts estimated at almost $900 million” (ADB 2008). Come 1994, it was during the Ramos administration (1992-1998) where President Fidel V. Ramos (FVR) sought to kill two birds with one stone by engaging the private sector to participate in a competitive bidding process which would privatize water, at the same time, resuscitate MWSS from its debts. Winners would handle water distribution, while the MWSS would be reduced to just the regulatory body.

Preparations for Water Privatization

According to a book written by senior civil servant in charge of the privatization, Mark Dumol (2000): After consultation and thorough research on successful water concession agreements done in foreign countries such as in Paris, France and Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Ramos administration patterned the water privatization and bidding process after such successful examples. They also sought technical assistance from multilateral agencies, such as, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and The International Finance Corporation (IFC) which is part of the World Bank, to help draft the terms of reference and budget.

Firstly, the Ramos administration began the tedious process of revamping MWSS’s leadership and employees and fixing internal operations to make MWSS efficient, and thus, attractive to bidders. Secondly, they also carefully designed the criteria and qualifications of the bidders that would be of the highest standards, and once they procured these pre-qualified bidders, they then proceeded with a transparent, fair and highly-publicized competitive bidding process. Below are excerpts from Dumol (2000):

Change in leadership and reduction of employees at MWSS

“In 1995, because of certain controversies, President Ramos decided to relieve the current MWSS Administrator. The President also asked the entire Board to submit their courtesy resignations.” FVR was then able to convince the highly respected and competent Angel Lazaro III to take on the role of Administrator (Dumol 2000). Moreover, “based ADB data, MWSS was, in fact, one of the most overstaffed water utilities in the region…Ordinarily, civil service rules would have made it difficult for to reduce the labor force. Fortunately, the [2]Water Crisis Act was the godsend. The Act provided MWSS with the legal basis to reduce its workforce. MWSS worked with labor and came out with an attractive compensation package. The package was so appealing that more than 30% of the employees accepted it” (Dumol 2000).

Splitting the Franchise Area into Two Zones

The idea to split the franchise area of Metro Manila into two zones – the East and West Zones, was supposedly inspired by what transpired in Paris. “It was explained to [the Ramos administration] that Paris was split into two zones: the left and right banks of the Seine River. The two concessionaires were the two large French water companies, Compagnie Generale des Eaux and Lyonnaise des Eaux. Intuitively, this model was appealing because of the quasi-competition that it fostered. Consumers could compare service quality of the two concessionaires. Each company would try to outdo the other. There would also be some benchmarks or comparisons between the two zones” (Dumol 2000). However, the differences between the two zones, in terms of residents’ demographics, population and other socio-economic factors, also resulted in differences in water tariffs. This too gave way to some difficulties later on.

The East Zone comprises 23 cities and municipalities. “They are Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasig, Pateros, San Juan, Taguig, Marikina, most parts of Quezon City, portions of Manila, and 14 areas in the province of Rizal” (Rivas 2019). The West Zone comprises 17 cities and municipalities. “It covers most of Manila, areas in Quezon City, areas in Makati, Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas, and Malabon, as well as Bacoor, Imus, Kawit, Noveleta, and Rosario, which are in Cavite province” (Rivas 2019).

Figure 1. Source: ADB 2008

Pre-Qualified Bidders

The final roster was composed of international water operators and local lead firms, but the Ramos administration “made it clear to all the bidders that the winning concessionaires need to be 60% Filipino-owned and that management of the firm had to be in Filipino hands” (Dumol 2000). They are as follows:

1. International Water (composed of United Utilities of the United Kingdom and Bechtel Corporation of the United States) and Ayala Corporation

2. Lyonnaise des Eaux (France) and Benpres Holdings (The Lopez Group)

3. Compagnie Generale des Eaux (France) and Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV)

4. Anglian Water International (United Kingdom) and Metro Pacific Corporation.

The Winners

The actual bidding day was held on January 23, 1997. “Ayala and Lopez-led Benpres both won the bidding and formed Manila Water and Maynilad Water Services, respectively. They got not only contracts, but also absorbed MWSS's debts. Manila Water took the East Zone, and Maynilad got hold of the West Zone” (Rivas 2019).

The 1997 Water Concession Agreements

“The 1997 Water Concession Agreements and the MWSS were mandated to enter into PPP arrangements under Republic Act No. 8041. It entered into two concessions for water, wastewater and sanitation services, one for West Zone (Manila Water) and one for East Zone (Maynilad). Each concession was for 25 years with ambitious performance targets.” Firstly, “the concession agreement called for the two concessionaires to provide 24-hour water supply that meets water quality standards and maintains certain pressure levels” as stipulated in the contract. It also bound the “concessionaires to the following service connection targets (Figure 2):” (ADB 2008)

Figure 2. East and West Zone: service connection targets. Source: ADB 2008

Below are other related main points of the contract with regards to services and tasks to be rendered:

A. To undertake nationwide consultations on the water crisis and in depth and detailed study and review of the entire water supply and distribution structure;”

- To establish the foundation of the water supply

B. To enhance and facilitate cooperation and coordination between Congress and the executive department in formulating and implementing the government's water crisis management policy and strategy;”

- To make it clear the responsibility and who is going to execute

C. To recommend measures that will ensure continuous and effective monitoring of the entire water supply and distribution system of the country;”

- To set up Q&A and monitoring rules for the system

D. To conduct continuing studies and researches on policy options, strategies and approaches to the water crisis including experiences of other countries similarly situated, and to recommend such remedial and legislative measures as may be required to address the problem.”

- To expand the learning and strategy for the act

Secondly, another important provision in the contract that has become a primary point of debate through the years is what is known as [3]rate-rebasing. It is the process by which the private concessionaires can increase or change water tariffs based on certain circ*mstances, such as, but not limited to, “adjustments based on inflation (CPI) and price adjustment covering extraordinary events” (ADB 2008). According to a political and economic blog by Padilla (2009), “the concessionaires are entitled to adjust their basic rates every five years throughout the contract to achieve a guaranteed rate of return. During the rate rebasing exercise, the concessionaires submit their previous five-year performance, their new five-year business plans and their proposed tariffs to implement it, which the [4]MWSS-Regulatory Office (MWSS-RO) reviews and approves” (Padilla 2009).

As a result, revenue assumptions and efficiencies to be achieved in the short-term were overly optimistic and ambitious. In the months and years that followed, unprecedented events such as the Asian Financial Crisis which caused foreign exchange issues, caused both conglomerates and the MWSS to eventually agree to tariff increases. This will be discussed shortly.

Thirdly, the concessionaires also “had to service MWSS’s foreign debt through annual payments of concession fees and the posting of a USD 120 million performance bond. Given that the West Zone had the more developed infrastructure and larger customer base…[they] were assumed to require less capital infusion. Maynilad was made responsible for paying back 90% of MWSS’s debts (approximately USD 800 million).” History will later show us that “this skewed division of foreign debt service responsibilities was a major contributor to Maynilad’s downfall” (ADB 2008).

Issues that emerged in the years that followed

The 1997 Asian Financial crisis (1997-1998)

The tail-end of the Ramos administration was plagued with complications brought about by the advent of the [3]Asian Financial crisis in July 1997. Also known as the “Asian Contagion”, the Philippine Peso (Php), along with the Thai Baht (THB) and several other Asian currencies, suffered a tremendous devaluation against the USD. The USD/Php went from Php 26 to Php 41 in a single year, a 57.69% change, and then to Php 50 the following year, for a total of a 100% change in two years. Actually, compared to our counterparts in the region, the Philippines was already little better off, yet one disastrous effect was that entities who had borrowed heavily in USD, experienced rates soaring to almost 20%. Most found themselves unable to repay their foreign debt, especially if they were not USD-earning firms. Among these firms in deep financial trouble due to their inherited USD debt, coupled with the wrong management decisions, was the Lopez contingent of Maynilad.

According to an excerpt from a book appropriately entitled, A Tale of Two Concessionaires: A Natural Experiment of Water Privatisation in Metro Manila, Wu & Nepomoceno (2008) wrote, “Maynilad incurred high costs, in part because it awarded contracts to affiliates of Suez without competitive bidding. It also brought in new staff from its mother-company Benpres, who were inexperienced in water supply…Maynilad thus invested in expanding access in the Western zone, but due to its business model and the heavy load of inherited foreign-currency debt, it soon ran into financial difficulties” (Wu & Nepomoceno 2008).

Figure 3. USD/Php rates, 1950-2009. Source: The Coffee Blogspot

The Estrada Administration (1998-2001)

Sure enough, Maynilad found themselves in trouble. “In an effort to recover from foreign exchange losses, Maynilad petitioned for tariff increases and was granted an extraordinary price adjustment in 2000” (ADB 2008). However, increased water tariffs still could not cover their losses. “By April 2001, Maynilad stopped paying the concession fee to the government altogether. To avoid bankruptcy, the government had to provide financing from state-owned Filipino banks to MWSS. International banks were unwilling to lend to Maynilad after the Financial Crisis, and the owners were not willing to inject more equity” (Wu & Nepomoceno 2008). Investors, globally and domestically alike, were also naturally jittery and risk-averse during these years due to the instabilities brought about by the administration’s controversies such as, the [4]1999 BW Resources stock manipulation scandal and the double homicide case of Emmanuel Corbito and Bubby Dacer. All of which the President “Erap” Estrada was allegedly involved with, ultimately leading to his Impeachment Trial in 2000. These events had further undermined the credibility and integrity of the Philippine economy.

In contrast, Ayala-led Manila Water engaged in the complete opposite of what the Lopez Group had done, and their success was said to have been achieved and sustained through innovation, “corporate governance practices and prudent financial management” (Wu & Nepomoceno 2008). They were able to “reduce their non-revenue water significantly from 58% to 35%, whereas in the West Zone non-revenue water increased from 64% to 69%. Manila Water initially did not invest in system expansion in its Eastern Zone. It focused on reducing non-revenue water and initially borrowed only small amounts in local currency. It bid out works competitively and gained the trust of former MWSS employees who were trained in relevant fields. Only a few top positions were filled with outsiders seconded from its mother-company, Ayala, or its foreign partners. Manila Water used a "territory management" approach to reduce non-revenue water, under which decentralized operating units were responsible for decisions about appropriate actions. Staff evaluation and compensation were linked to their performance” (Wu & Nepomoceno 2008).

Figure 4. Non-revenue water (NRW), Manila Water and Maynilad. Source: MWSS Regulatory Office

Arroyo Administration (2001-2010)

“In the first 5 years of the concession agreement, water tariffs remained low, until the first actual rate-rebasing took place in 2002” (Freedom from debt Coalition 2008). Maynilad’s rate hike was substantially higher than that of Manila Water (Figure 5). This stark discrepancy was already the foreshadowing of what was to happen next. To make the long story short, Maynilad eventually went bankrupt in 2003, and in 2006 (finalized in January 2017), 84% of their stake was acquired by (through competitive re-bidding) to the consortium of DM Consunji Holdings, Inc (DMCI) and Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC). The “new Maynilad” also then underwent a grueling corporate restructuring. (ADB 2008)

Figure 5. Historical average tariffs of Maynilad and Manila Water, 1997-2012

It was also during this term that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) extended the water concession agreements to the year 2037. The 25-year contracts were supposed to end by 2022, but GMA believed that her foresight to foster continuity would push both conglomerates to make better long-term investment plans and inject more capital into their businesses. The effects of this decision will be discussed below.

Aquino Administration (2010-2016)

Again, another round of disagreements on water tariffs emerged between the conglomerates and the Philippine government during the Aquino administration, and thus, they went into arbitration in Singapore to settle the dispute. However, it was only in 2019, during the Duterte administration where the Tribunal of Singapore had ruled in favor of both Maynilad and Manila Water. This will also be further discussed in depth below.

Current Issues in the Duterte Administration (2016-Present)

The 2019 Water Crisis

It was in March 2019, when another water crisis struck Metro Manila. Water services were suddenly cut off last March 7, 2019, and homes almost everywhere did not have water for an extended period. These water interruptions brought into question the efforts of the 1997 Concession Agreements of Manila Water and Maynilad, and where we are today in terms of the state of the country’s water services. An article from Rappler aimed to explain the reasons behind the recent water shortages. Rivas (2019) wrote, “Both Maynilad and Manila Water draw the water they supply from the Angat Dam, which is located in Norzagaray, Bulacan. Angat Dam supplies 96% of the water demands of Metro Manila. The dam lets out 4,000 million liters per day (MLD) for both Maynilad and Manila Water, where 2,400 MLD is allocated to Maynilad, while Manila Water gets 1,600 MLD. From Angat Dam, water flows to Ipo Dam, then to La Mesa Dam in Quezon City” (Rivas 2019). However, Manila Water is experiencing difficulty keeping up with the demand, as demand has gone up to an average of 1,740 MLD, higher than the company’s Angat Dam allocation of 1,600 MLD. This said deficit was then supplied by water from the La Mesa Dam, but the country then experienced El Niño in March as well which further exacerbated the situation. (Rivas 2019) While Angat Dam’s water level is still normal at over 200 meters, La Mesa dam’s level is already very problematic” (Rivas 2019). Because of the low water level of La Mesa Dam, water can no longer reach the gates of the aqueducts, as illustrated below:

Figure 6. La Mesa Dam. Source: Rappler

During that critical period, Manila Water deployed floating pumps to draw out water from the dam. They also said that they planned network adjustments to balance water supply allocation across distribution areas. However, they also admitted that they assumed customers would collect water only during regular hours, but when the advisories were sent out, the demand surged even from areas not covered in the announcements. The demand surge greatly reduced water pressure and supply levels across the distribution network. Consequently, reservoir volume in several areas dropped below minimum level, preventing water supply from reaching elevated communities. These events, per Manila Water, had caused the service interruptions – particularly in communities that did not get advisories.

The facts on increased demand are also supported by MWSS Chief Regulator, Atty. Patrick Ty, in a statement where he said, “the population keeps increasing, and [Manila Water] can’t reduce their non-revenue water below 12% anymore (international standard is 20%).” According to Manila Water, they had already predicted as early as 2010 that water supply would be insufficient, given the population boom in the capital. In fact, they said that the crisis could have happened in early 2018, but a typhoon somewhat "saved" the city and filled up the dams with much-needed water. Manila Water also indicated that they had proposed several projects and potential water sources, but these were not green-lighted by government One of these projects is the Kaliwa Dam which will be discussed shortly.

As an immediate solution to above-mentioned water shortage crisis, President Duterte ordered the MWSS and water concessionaires to “release” water from Angat Dam good to for 150 days. It was reported that water services improved since these government interventions and also with help of Maynilad. Maynilad also gave an additional 10 MLD of their raw water allocation from Angat Dam, but Maynilad cannot keep allotting their allocations to Manila Water. They also “need their allocation or else there might be water interruptions in the western side…Their non-revenue water is at 40%, but they need to reduce it to 20%, and they are safe” (excerpt from Atty. Patrick Ty, MWSS Chief Regulator).

Manila Water has also since then, activated its new water facility in Cardona, Rizal. The facility will eventually provide a total of 100 MLD once fully operational. Additionally, San Miguel Corporation’s Bulacan Bulk Water has also stepped in by providing potable water from its untapped 140 MLD through trucks and in coordination with local government units and MWSS. (Rivas 2019)

Arbitration Award that angered President Duterte

Months after the March 2019 water interruptions, on November 29, 2019, Manila Water made a public disclosure through the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) regarding the arbitration proceedings they (as well as Maynilad) underwent during the Aquino administration:

“Please be informed that Manila Water Company, Inc. (“Manila Water” or the “Company”) has received from its legal counsel the Award (the “Award”) rendered by the Arbitral Tribunal (“Tribunal”) in the arbitration proceedings between the Company and the Republic of the Philippines (the “Republic”) constituted under the Permanent Court of Arbitration (“PCA”), with proceedings held in Singapore.

As it turned out, the Tribunal in Singapore had ruled in favor of Manila Water that they have a “right to indemnification for actual losses suffered by it on account of the [Philippine government’s] breach of its obligation. The Tribunal ordered the [Philippine government] to indemnify Manila Water the amount of Php 7,390,000,000, representing the actual losses it suffered from June 1, 2015 to November 22, 2019, and to pay 100% of the amounts paid by Manila Water to the PCA and 85% of Manila Water’s other claimed costs” (Romero 2019).

The timing of Manila Water’s announcement could not have been worse, as people were still somewhat reeling from the effects of the March 2019 water interruptions. Their pronouncement also called attention to the 1997 water concession agreement. A few days after the above disclosure, a very furious President Duterte lashed out at the media, threatening to file charges of “economic sabotage” against, not just Manila Water, but Maynilad as well, citing that the concession contracts of the two companies are disadvantageous to the public because they prohibit the government from adjusting water rates. (Romero 2019)

In a separate news article, as reported by Business Mirror in December 5, 2019, Manila Water released a statement to hash out the details of the arbitration results, as it seemed to be not well-understood by the general public and the Duterte administration. They explained that the 1997 Concession Agreement contained a procedure for the adjustment of water rates in accordance with the MWSS Charter because “MWSS decided to pay our services and reimburse our costs with the water tariff that we collect…The arbitral award issued in our favor is for acts in breach of the procedure committed by officials of the previous administration, not the Duterte administration.” Manila Water also said that they “wish to reiterate that [they] are more than willing and has started to work with the incumbent administration to come up with a workable solution to the arbitration decision” (BusinessMirror 2019).

However, what came as a shock only a few days later, in a calculated move to appease President Duterte and perhaps maintain good public image, Manila Water made a stunning announcement. They waived their right to collect the amount rewarded to them from the Arbitral Tribunal of Singapore. They released another disclosure dated December 11, 2019:

1. The Company will no longer collect the Php 7.39 Billion Award rendered by the Arbitral Tribunal in the arbitration proceedings between the Company and the Republic of the Philippines constituted under the Permanent Court of Arbitration.;

2. The Company will defer the implementation of the Approved Rate Adjustment effective 1 January 2020 and has signified its intention to establish a suitable arrangement with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS).

3. The Company has agreed to and started discussions with the MWSS on the provisions of the Concession Agreement identified for renegotiation and amendment.

Nevertheless, the President was still dissatisfied. He was on a witch hunt of sorts and still gave out marching orders to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to look into the 1997 concession contracts, and if they still indeed took hold. Valente (2019) of The Manila Times reported that [9]MWSS Administrator (Ret) Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Salamat stated that, “The MWSS and the concessionaires will exert all necessary efforts to comply with the directive of the President to execute a new water concession agreement after 2022 which is currently being drafted by the Department of Justice” (Valente 2019). After which, the MWSS revoked a board resolution created during the Arroyo administration that extended the contracts of the two firms from 2022 to 2037. It still remains to be seen if this is the final ruling. However, it is important to note that Salamat, made it clear that the 25-year concession agreements with Manila Water and Maynilad remained “valid and subsisting contracts.” He added that “this particular action of the board does not result in the rescission or outright cancellation of the said contracts, which requires a separate and distinct act to be legally effective” (Valente 2019).

“Onerous” Provisions?

The MWSS as the regulatory body, had also been given the directive to renegotiate the concession agreements with Manila Water and Maynilad to remove the supposed “illegal and onerous provisions” which were determined by the DOJ. Other provisions that are to be beneficial to the consumers and the entire nation should be added as well. The alleged seven onerous provisions are as follows:

1. Water concessionaires were called “agents” instead of “public utility companies” when they are managing “public water”. This interpretation allows them to pass on to consumers their business expenses, including corporate income taxes. Unfortunately, the “legal interpretation” is still pending today in the Supreme Court.

2. The “mere agents” explanation allows these companies to increase their return on investment to more than 12 percent (an imposition on public utility companies such as Meralco).

3. Extension of the concession agreement even before the lapse of the original term. Water concession contracts extended in 2009 by 15 years by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo or exactly 13 years before these were set to expire in 2022.

4. In the concession agreement, the national government or even Congress can’t interfere in water rate increases or the “yearly rate rebasing”

5. Concession agreement assign exclusively to the MWSS Regulatory Office the burden of overseeing the concessionaires’ operations. The regulatory office is purely recommendatory and unable to impose fines and penalties on erring concessionaires.

6. Both water companies fail to build adequate “sewerage facilities” in the last 22 years. In fact, the Supreme Court, by a 14-0 vote, fined each of them P921,464,184, on top of a daily fine of almost P322,102 subject to a 10-percent increase every two years.

7. The original and extended concession agreements allow “government guarantees” for both Maynilad and Manila Water.

Maynilad and Manila Water, being called as “agents” rather than “public utility companies” had certain implications on various areas such as taxation and revenue generation. Looking further into the ability of the water concessionaires’ ability to pass on their corporate income tax obligations to water consumers, while it is not illegal to do so, it is highly unusual for an entity dealing with public utility such as water to have this kind of ability. Furthermore, since they were dubbed as mere “agents”, they were allowed to establish more than 12% returns, as compared to other public utility entities like Meralco.

In the Concession Agreement, an applied discount rate (ADR) was included which basically granted the water concessionaires a guaranteed rate of return on their expenses. It was even stipulated that rates should be “set at a level that will permit the Concessionaire to recover over the 25-year term of the concession operating, capital maintenance and investment expenditures efficiently and prudently incurred, Philippine business taxes and payments corresponding to debt service on the MWSS loans and concessionaire loans incurred to finance such expenditures, and to earn a rate of return on these expenditures for the remaining term of the concession.”.

Political Motivations and Tactics

President Duterte’s threats to outright cancel the contracts of Manila Water and Maynilad, and instead, either open the field to new entrants or re-nationalize water are highly questionable and politically-charged. His ulterior motives must be assessed. There are many sides circulating about this. One opinion is that Duterte again, seems to be playing the populist; he wishes to appear to the public that he wants to lower water prices. However, the real case is that he is just really extorting money from the Ayalas in the guise of a pro-poor crusade. Secondly, another likely theory is that he is resorting to these tactics to divert public interest from another recent controversy – where the United States has canceled the visas of officials responsible in the alleged rigged proceedings and detention of Senator Leila de Lima.

Nonetheless, both scenarios: maintaining the privatization of water concessions or re-nationalizing water in Metro Manila are issues that should be open to discussion.

Maintaining the privatization of water concessions

The Advantages

The privatization of the MWSS’s water distribution leg was considered the solution to the then government-corporation’s poor service delivery performance of supplying water in Metro Manila, as well as the answer to the country’s huge foreign debt. The Ramos administration opened the water system to the concessions that offered distribution expansion, new water supply sources and a water system with reduced leaks (Dumol 2000).

To end the privatization of water in the Philippines means the country will revert to what it was prior to the 1997 Water Concession agreements. To delve into history again, before the privatization, MWSS maintained 825,000 water connections serving a total population of 7.21mio with 66.5% coverage, but billed only about 42.7% of its 3,000 million liters daily water production. Water availability averaged 17 hours daily, while non-revenue water stood at more than 60%. Back then, around 1.27 million or 11% of the population belonged to the poverty threshold of income. Of the low-income households, 80% had no legal water connections because they have no legal claims over the land they occupy. In the absence of legal piped water connection, people resort to buying from vendors or from those with legal water connection. Some drew water from wells, others even waited for the rain, but most resorted to illegal connections (Yu 2002). The reasons for its incompetence can be explained by its internal management. It was inefficient, overstaffed and suffering from very high water losses. According to the ADB, non-revenue water was more than 60% (McIntosh & Iniguez 1997). Tariffs were also low, and MWSS depended on government subsidies that were to be to abolished. Furthermore, they were burdened with a debt of USD 800 million owed to three major international banks: ADB, the World Bank and the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (Freedom from Debt Coaltion, 2009).

The competitive bidding process of 1997 which produced the winners: Ayala-led Manila Water and Lopez-led Maynilad was essentially deemed a success. However, five years after the concession agreement, improvements in terms of access were still limited and water losses even increased in West Manila. It was only around 2009, almost 12 years later, that performance improved in both the East and West Zones. In 2009, access had increased substantially, and efficiency and service quality had also improved significantly. Both companies also made efforts to reach the poor in the slums. However, tariffs also increased significantly, and said improvements still supposedly remain below the contractual obligations. (Marin 2009)

Today, the Philippines has come a long way since its pre-concession years. Despite some hiccups along the way, it is evident that privatizing water was the right decision. Below are the advantages of maintaining the water concession, based on what it has brought into improving the water systems in Metro Manila.

Improving Access

One of the most important advantage of maintaining the concession agreement is that it would sustain the access that the citizens of Metro Manila to clean water despite the surge in demand, limited resources and the El Nino Crisis. In East Manila between 1997 to 2009, the population that was served by the concessionaires doubled from 3 million to 6.1 million and the share with access to piped water increased from 49% to 94% (Marin 2009). While in West Manila, Maynilad claims to have connected 600,000 people to the water supply including many poor in the slums (Grefe 2003), the share of customers with 24-hour water supply increased from from 32% to 71% in early 2011, while the share of the population with access to piped water increased from 67% to 86% in 2006 (Marin 2009). Maintaining the concession is preserving the water access that the concession has already established over the years. It will not promise a water-crisis-free Metro Manila given that the demand will continuously increase, but it will ensure that the access will not be discontinued.

Sanitation and Waste Management

Another advantage of maintaining the concession is that it allows continuous innovations on wastewater management. Sanitation remains to be a key priority for the concessionaires. They are obliged to empty the 2.2 million septic tanks of Metro Manila by operating 60 desludging trucks that empty septic tanks for free (Manila Water 2012). As of 2012, Manila Water operates 36 small wastewater treatment plants designed to keep costs low with a total capacity of 0.135 million cubic meters per day. This is part of Manila Water’s “innovative and unconventional solution”. Manila Water is also licensed to package bio-solids or treated sewage sludges from its wastewater treatment plants as soil conditioners. Moreover, Manila Water has further plans on improving wastewater treatment capacity in its service area to 0.5 million cubic meters per day (Manila Water 2012).

Perhaps it can be argued that the sanitation efforts of both Maynilad and Manila Water, still remain to not be wholly sufficient after more than 20 years of service, but there is continuous development and improvement of wastewater management. Innovations to further improve the wastewater treatment will only be possible by maintaining the concession agreement because the concessionaires have already invested and initiated the projects.

Employment

Maintaining the concession agreement will also continuously contribute to the employment rate of the Philippines. Before the concession was awarded, government-controlled MWSS “had been one of the most overstaffed utilities in Asia with four times more employees per connection that other neighboring countries” (Dumol, 2000). Further improvements in labor productivity were achieved during the concession by increasing the number of connections without hiring new employees. In 2011, Manila Water was the first Filipino company to win the Asian Human Capital Award because of their improvement in employee management in terms of modernizing its management practices (ABS-CBN News 2011). Both concessionaries have contributed to the improvement of employment rate in the Philippines, while discontinuation of the concession agreement will displace numerous Filipino workers.

Connecting the Poor

Another advantage is of maintaining the concession is the continuous projects for the urban poor. Innovative solutions have also made its way to many poor Filipino citizens who do not have access to piped water supply because the land where they live is occupied illegally. In the East Zone for example, Manila Water’s approach to connect poor communities usually involved no pipes inside communities, but they have included a single bulk meter for up to 100 households. The community is then responsible to connect its members, and any losses beyond the bulk meter will not be incurred by the utility (Xun & Nepomuceno 2008). In the West Zone, Maynilad has initiated early attempts to connect the underprivileged in slum areas through the construction of piped networks via a small local company called Inpart Waterworks and Development Company (IWADCO), using its own funds and buying water in bulk for utilities. This was in partnership with the NGO, Streams of Knowledge, and together they were able to set up a discounted bulk rate for the less fortunate in those areas. The process is like this: Users pay their bills to water coordinators from the respective communities, which in turn pay Streams, which in turn pays a salary to the coordinator, pays the bulk water bill and returns part of the funds to the community (Yolanda & Mejia 2008). Piped networks were also installed in narrow alleys by Maynilad. Residents then distribute it among themselves with a rubber hose. This costs Php5,000, and can be paid via installment by the whole community, which is approximately Php 200 per month per household. This is about four times less than the underprivileged had to pay to water vendors pre-privatization (Grefe 2003).

Expertise, Efficiency and Economic Impact

To contrast the main advantages of maintaining the privatization of water versus to re-nationalize, according to a 2007 article on Water Privatization in Manila, Chia said it best when he wrote, “It is highly unlikely that the government can be more successful in the future in infrastructural provision, as they are encumbered by:

· irrational pricing policies to please voters;

· lack of arm’s length accountability;

· use of these public companies for political and self-interested motives;

· lack of fiscal resources and

· lack of know-how, efficiency and profit-seeking inclination”

The above points could not be any truer, especially for a country like the Philippines where so many issues have surfaced throughout history when projects are left to the machinations of the government alone. It is true that the private sector may have the motive of profit, but we know that they will still serve the Filipino people with more efficiency and competency than the government.

According to Filipovic (2005), “privatization plays an important role in economic growth because it may induce productivity, improve efficiency, provide fiscal relief and increase the availability of credit for the private sector.” It fosters competition and progress. As we can recall, the Ramos administration studied successful examples of foreign countries who privatized water, and then patterned the privatization process and 1997 Water Concession Agreement after such. As the Philippines aspires to one day become a developed nation, the importance of sustaining the water supply should always be a priority. For example, one of the United Nation’s developmental goals is ensuring environmental sustainability which includes reducing the number of people living without sustainable access to safe water. (UN 2008) This can serve as a guide to the Philippines that “for any [nation] or city, long-term sustainability of water services depends on, to a large extent, on the success of appropriate tariff policy and tariff revenue collection to cover costs, loans, and new developments to meet new demands. Non-revenue water must be constantly managed, as it affects revenue collection; thus, it can reduce net revenue and undermine project sustainability. Other factors that affect sustainability include the role of the regulatory office; maintenance of water production; financing of additional supply; timely tariff adjustment; responsible management of the concessionaires; and other sources of water supply (ADB 2008).

The Disadvantages

Continuous Increases in Water Tariffs

Maintaining the privatization of water has its downsides, specifically in how our two water concessionaires are perceived to have opportunistic tendencies. For example, earlier, it was already discussed how “in the first 5 years of the concession agreement, water tariffs remained in low levels until the first rate-rebasing took place in 2002. The significant increase continued and reached up to 89% higher than the pre-privatization tariff” (Freedom from debt Coalition 2008). Realistically though, perhaps such continuous adjustments are inevitable and will occur anyhow, whether water is privatized or nationalized, due to changes and fluctuations in the market and economy, such as inflation, interest rates and exchange rates. We understand however, that affordability remains the critical issue for impoverished communities and the underserved. With limited supply options and low bargaining power, unconnected urban poor households pay high prices monthly. Tariffs will continuously increase, as the two concessionaires charge higher water rates each year. This is a burden on the citizens of Metro Manila, especially the poor, but it is something that perhaps can be monitored or mitigated, but not entirely eliminated. (Chia, et al., 2007)

Water Monopolies and the Pursuit of Profit

As Maynilad and Manila Water are private companies, we cannot discard the fact that ultimately, their priority is to generate profit from the water concession. These private conglomerates control the timelines in implementing improvement plans and may not necessarily have the urgency to meet the needs of the growing population. Improving water connection for the poor is also not their priority, and they have the power to delay such, if deemed not profitable or important. When it also comes to environmental or sanitation concerns, the importance of these issues may come last versus profit when it comes to the concessionaires’ discretion where to park or construct related projects. Such decisions can compromise the safety of water and quality of life overall, in Metro Manila and surrounding communities. For example, the recent heated topic is the Kaliwa Dam project which has long been delayed because it is embroiled in various social, political and environmental issues. Some of the issues are that indigenous peoples in the area like the Dumagats and Remontados will be displaced. Moreover, the construction of the dam can also endanger the ecosystem, habitats and natural wildlife living amidst the Sierra Madre which is located at the heart of the project. Protesters say that this project will only really benefit our water companies if pushed forward to fruition. However, entities among the water concessionaires say that actually, Chinese companies are being favored by the President to spearhead the Kaliwa Dam project, without supposedly undergoing any kind of bidding process.

Figure 7. Kaliwa Dam Project. Source: MWSS

Lastly and most importantly, Maynilad and Manila Water has long been criticized because they are water monopolies in their separate franchise areas. One can argue that the existence of two water companies in Metro Manila overall will foster competition – and thus will produce optimal rates and services. However, consumers in their respective East or West zones are still left with no choice or preference as to who will service them. Ultimately, we know what happens with monopolies: they are the product; they dictate the prices and everything that goes with it. How can the public truly ascertain that the water rates are fair and just? Even if for instance the government does open the field to other water players, do they really stand a chance?

Nationalizing the water concessions

The Advantages

When it comes to the nationalization of water and other public goods, it has seen growing support in advanced economies around the world. Democrats in the United States and Labor Party members in the United Kingdom have called for anti-capitalist approaches to public goods, whose private firms have earned profits at the expense of the public. There are greater calls for public goods to be returned to the government, or to face heavier regulation under privatization. In an economics reference website, British economics professor Geoff Riley (N.D.) argued that the immediate positive effect of water nationalization would be lower prices. The reality of the water industry is that it would be too difficult for several water companies to compete given the fixed underground waterworks and sewage system. Because of the infrastructure and investment requirements involved, water companies are natural monopolies that meet the economies of scale or providing water to everybody by themselves. Unfortunately, this also means that as monopolies, these water companies can control the water output and prices. Riley argued that a state-owned utility company would operate with public welfare in mind instead of profits. It could price water distribution rates closer to its marginal cost, which would reduce both marginal revenue and overall price level. Lower prices would encourage the income effect among households, who would have more excess income to save or spend on other goods. This is important to a country like the Philippines where household consumption accounts for more than 70% of its Gross Domestic Product (Trading Economics 2016). The government must enact policies to ensure that Filipino households continue to spend their disposable income and keep money circulating in the economy.

The government’s ability to spend on water distribution is another advantage of nationalization. One of the arguments against privatization is that firms justified charging higher prices because it required a high rate of return for working with the Philippine government. Lower Philippine economic standing when the concession agreements were entered into meant that these companies had to borrow at much higher interest rates, which it had to offset through revenues. Compared to private firms, the government can issue debt at relatively lower interest rates in order to fund continuous improvement of Manila’s water system (Riley N.D.).

Another major criticism against the private firms is that the profits are not being reinvested into the improvement of Manila’s water system. Manila Water in particular recorded Php 6.5 Billion and Php 6.8 Billion in net income in 2017 and 2018 respectively (Quismorio 2019). The concessionaires argue that those profits are the returns due to the investors who spent the same billions of pesos in the past to make the water concession agreement happen. However, politicians and leftist groups have exacerbated the crisis by making it an issue of capitalist greed versus government’s well intentions (CNN Philippines 2019).

The Disadvantages

Naturally, the main argument against water nationalization is that the Philippines had already done it before. The water concession agreement was entered into precisely because the Philippine government could not competently manage Manila’s water system (Santiago 2019). The current administration has called for re-nationalization but it has not shown any concrete plans on how it can improve on the concession model. The water shortage might just be aggravated even more and return to pre-water concession levels. President Duterte will be ending his term in 2022, which is coincidentally when the water concession will be ending. Calls for re-nationalization would be met with skepticism if there is no long-term plan for government to continue managing Manila’s water system after the Duterte administration. This indecisiveness would also affect the country’s reputation to foreign investors. It would give foreign investors the impression that the Philippines does not honor previously established contracts and agreements (Lee-Tan 2019).

According to a working paper by Ayn Torres and Dean Ronald Mendoza, PhD of the Ateneo School of Government, it is the MWSS that has failed to regulate the water rates and activities of the concessionaires. (Kho 2019). Yes, water distribution improved greatly but the prices being charged do not match the actual level of service rendered. It is the MWSS’ responsibility to ensure that Manila Water and Maynilad are continuously improving water distribution and looking for new water sources. Ironically, while the concession agreement states that it is the concessionaire’s responsibility to look for new water sources, MWSS’ website says that job belongs to the government.

Finally, several private sector groups have called for the water concession to be respected. The Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines & Philippine Business Groups and the Makati Business Club released statements that the concession has helped improve Manila’s water system in the last two decades (Kho 2019). There were barely 800,000 water service connections under nationalized water in 1994, compared to around 2.4 Million connections today. Non-revenue water has also improved from more than 60% to 12% for Manila Water and within the range of 27%-40% for Maynilad (Santiago 2019). It is highly possible that the private firms are correct that a combination of the climate crisis and overpopulation in Metro Manila have greatly strained the existing water sources. Even if the government intervenes, it would be forced to collect water from the same dams. Given the facts stated, the water concession has clearly improved access among Filipino households, but with scarce water resources and growing demand, the households may be forced to adjust.

Our water problems run deep

When it comes to the Philippines’s water situation, the obstacles that Manila Water and Maynilad face lie in: providing adequate and constant distribution of water and finding sustainable and feasible water sources and alternatives – all these things at aspired, “fair” rates to the eyes of consumers, but still at levels where they can be profitable. It is not as glamorous as people think. It is also a tough job, but that is what they signed up for, and thus, must continuously rise to the occasion.

We surmise that for the most part, large corporations, especially utility companies, will always be criticized on being supposedly greedy or having a disregard for public welfare when huge profits are dangled in their faces. However, today, and with the help of social media, information is more easily cascaded and accessible; such that, there is mounting pressure from the public for such corporations to be responsible and be guided by a moral compass. To be fair, what also often happens is that during times of problems like the said water interruptions or rate hikes, the public is quick to point fingers at our two concessionaires without fully understanding the underlying problems (political, environmental, social, economics– you name it). The multi-faceted issues are also further exacerbated by the current administration’s unreasonable antics.

Figure 8. Source: RigobertoTiglao.com

Liquidity Issues?

From the perspective of the consumer, yes, it is definitely arguable whether our current water rates are indeed “fair” and proportionate to their large revenues. Most, if not all Filipinos, will be quick to say that water rates are seem excessive. The provisions from the 1997 Water Concessions seemed to have favored the concessionaires, as they were made during a time when perhaps we can say the Philippine government was a little desperate. Today, what is the basis or reference really for water tariffs, if they are water monopolies in their own franchise area? This is an area where all stakeholders, the MWSS and Filipino citizens included, must be vigilant about. Yet to be realistic, rate hikes are pretty much expected over the years; it cannot be stopped, but it definitely can be mitigated and regulated.

Figure 9. Source: Pinoymoneytalk.com

Privatize or Nationalize?

This brings us now to the question: to privatize, or nationalize? To answer with a quote from a Forbes article by Worstall (2013), it was written, “Either of these could be great ideas or either of them could be terrible. At the end of the day, it all just comes down to the quality of the governance.” With this in mind, we can only truly conclude that the concrete advantages to maintain the privatization of water largely outweigh, what remains as mere potential opportunities to re-nationalize water, in the context of the Philippine landscape. The present water concessions are far from perfect, but the private sector will always outperform the Philippine government when it comes to such matters. Therefore, we do not agree with President Duterte’s stance to nationalize water in the Philippines, as this move will make the country truly vulnerable to a multitude of social and economic problems. In fact, his retorts and threats to cancel both Manila Water and Maynilad’s contracts are without basis, but only seems to fulfill a somewhat immature, personal vendetta. In effect, he is extorting these two conglomerates to give in to his whims. That is not democracy, and if they do bend over backwards, it will further undermine the country’s stability and integrity in the world arena and cause detrimental domino economic effects.

The government seems to be propagating this decision in the guise that it will keep water rates low and be seemingly beneficial to all. It is possible that the short-term effect is lower water rates; however, overtime, the whole country will just eventually experience again a shortage of water. Hence, nationalizing water is not sustainable, nor it is the answer. We cannot trust that this proposition of the Duterte administration has the best interest of the public in mind. As we have seen prior to the 1997 Water Concession agreements, government-controlled MWSS, engulfed in corruption and incompetency, were not able to adequately distribute water to Metro Manila. The Philippines will revert to the same circ*mstances – and worse, if water is to be nationalized.

Long-water: “Dr Michael Burry is focusing all his trading on one commodity: water," says a caption just before the credits roll in "The Big Short."

Written by:

Aguirre, Encarnacion, Qichao, Marcial, Sayson

Footnotes:

[1]Non-revenue water: Water that is lost due to leakages, illegal connections and used for public use (Taken from current MWSS Chief Regulator, Atty. Patrick Ty)

[2]The Water Crisis Act (WCA) gave the President the authority to privatize MWSS. This authority was strong because it did not prescribe any particular procedure for privatization. [The government] was free to create their own procedure” (Dumol 2000).

[3]Rate-rebasing or rate hikes refer to the basic charge only. If one were to “look at your water bill, there are other items that will also increase when the basic charge is raised. The environmental charge, for example, is 20% of the basic charge. Then, there is the foreign currency differential adjustment (FCDA), which accounts for the quarterly fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate (USD/Php). The FCDA is negative when the peso gains against the dollar and is positive when the peso weakens” (Padilla 2009)

[4]The 1997–98 Asian Financial Crisis began in Thailand and then quickly spread to neighboring economies. It began as a currency crisis when Bangkok unpegged the Thai baht from the U.S. dollar, setting off a series of currency devaluations and massive flights of capital… [The] crisis revealed the dangers of premature financial liberalization in the absence of established regulatory regimes, the inadequacy of exchange rate regimes, the problems with IMF prescriptions, and the general absence of social safety nets in East Asia.” (Britannica.com).

[5]The Best World (BW) Resources “stock price rose a staggering 18,025% in one year — from P0.80 in October 1998 to P145.00 in October 1999 — and its consequent crash that almost put the Philippine stock market into collapse. The PSE then stepped in and investigated the company. It uncovered several stock price manipulation strategies supposedly conducted by Dante Tan, a close ally of the President, and his cohorts” (PinoyMoneyTalk.com)

[6]Kaliwa Dam: Can provide “600 million-liters-a-day (MLD) capacity and its water supply tunnel has a 2,400-MLD capacity. It is expected to ease the demand on the Angat Dam, Manila’s sole water storage facility. When the project did not move forward by the time Aquino administration ended, the succeeding Duterte administration decided not to pursue the Japanese-proposed Kaliwa Low Dam plan and instead pursued a bigger, China-funded dam project.” The Kaliwa Dam project contains also various social, political and environmental issues.

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http://ro.mwss.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Manila-Water-Term-Extension-Agreement-with-Annexes.pdf

https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2019/12/13/manila-water-maynilad-contract-extension-still-stands.html

Digging Deeper into Mining – Is it Worth It?

The Mining Industry in the Philippines: A Brief Timeline and History

Taken from an article from Corporate Watch, The Matrix of the Philippine Mining Industry (2010), below is a brief timeline of the history of mining in the Philippinea. The pre-colonial period portrays a prosperous time when mining brought forth civilizations to interact and trade (barter) with one another. After which, each era is broken down by the different colonial rules in the Philippines, but one common theme encompasses all eras: As history has shown us, mining became a form of subjugation of weaker peoples, in this case, the Filipinos, against foreign rule, including formal world institutions. Mining became a tool to exploit mineral resources, natural landscapes, as well as human capital.

Pre-colonial Period

Mining in the Philippines started in the pre-colonial period. In a number of regions, indigenous communities mined for gold, copper and many other minerals. Natives from all over the Philippines used gold, pearls, agate, and so on, for body ornaments. Gold was also bartered, through the Arab world, with merchants all over Asia and Europe in the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. It is noted that many merchants from Brunei, Luzon and Jolo in the Philippines, traveled continually all throughout Mindanao in search of gold.

Spanish Colonization

The first commercial mine in the Philippines was in Benguet, Central Luzon, established by the Benguet Mining Corporation. The Spanish colonizers took advantage of mineral resources they could get. In fact, gold, in the guise of religion, is said to be the main, real reason why Spain colonized the Philippines. A law called Inspeccion de Minas was made in order to inspect the existence of minerals in the archipelago.

American Colonization

It was the Americans, however, who made strategic steps to exploit the minerals of the Philippines. They did a geological survey which validated the Philippines as a mineral-rich country, and they issued Act 468, a law that basically gave the government the right to reserve mineral lands for its own purposes. They claimed a number of areas as “reserved areas” for future mining; hence, the commercialization of the Benguet Gold Mining. In 1914, in the south, Surigao and other parts of the Caraga region were declared as an “iron-reserved” area for future mining. By then, the mining industry in the Philippines was booming, and the Commonwealth U.S. government took more hold of it, forming a Mining Bureau to regulate all potential. Up until 1921, there were no large-scale mining operations just yet, but many were making a living from small-scale gold mining. Between 1933-1941, gold was the dominant and most important mineral in the mining industry.

Japanese Occupation

Under the Japanese occupation, Filipinos were coerced into mining for metals to be used for weapons of war. This supposedly paved the way for further commercialization, exploitation and degeneration of the Philippines. Large-scale copper mining reached its peak in the 1960s and 1970s. By the late 1980s, world demand for copper decreased in favor of gold. Many gold mining companies closed down in that period because of law violations, and thus, gold mining went into decline.

Post-Colonial Rule Onwards

In the guise of economic progress, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, supposedly coerced the Philippines to adjust its economic policies to adhere to their policies. By 1994, pro-development politicians, such as then-Senator Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, lobbied for a Mining Bill which would later become the Republic Act 7942 or the infamous Philippine Mining Act of 1995 under the Ramos administration which will discussed further in this paper.

The Contribution of the Mining Industry to Philippine Economic Growth Today

According to a 2017 Manila Times article, Quintans (2017) indicated that, “in 2016, there were 236,000 workers in the mining industry, and the mining industry’s contribution to the country’s GDP was at 0.6% of the same year. The contribution of minerals and by-products to the country’s total exports is at 4% and 0.3% for non-metallic mineral manufacturers. Based on numbers taken from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), the mining industry’s gross production value declined in the last two years. From Php 208.2 billion (USD 4.2 billion) in 2014, to only Php100.6 billion (USD 2 billion) in 2016” (Quintans, 2017). To give a snapshot of today, “as of September 2016, there are about 40 metallic mines and 62 non-metallic mines operating in the country, and there is a total of 1,473 mining applications under process in the country. Today, 20 large-scale mining operations, 10 medium-scale and more than 2,000 non-metallic small-scale mining operations exist in the Philippines” (Quintans 2017).

Mining’s contribution to GDP may seem negligible at < 1%, but this is because mining as a form of primary subsistence exists in only a number of specific regions in the Philippines. However, as shown by Figure 2 below, contributions from mining regions like CARAGA and MIMAROPA actually exceed 20% each. Figure 3 also illustrates that the mining industry in the Philippines continues to grow in an upward trend over the years despite what seems like a small contribution to GDP relative to the whole economy. This suggests that the mining industry still has much potential to grow, given a healthy economic and political climate, or depending on an administration’s stance on mining. (Miraflor, 2017)

Figure 1. 2015 GVA in Mining & Quarrying by region.Source: Mining and the Philippine Economy: Some Facts and Figures (Miraflor, 2017)

Figure 2. GVA in Mining & Quarrying from the years of 1981-2016 by administration. Source: Mining and the Philippine Economy: Some Facts and Figures (Miraflor, 2017)

Figure 3. Share of Total Mining & Quarrying to GDP/GNI from the years of 1981-2016 by administration. Source: Mining and the Philippine Economy: Some Facts and Figures (Miraflor, 2017)

Philippine Regulations on Mining

In relation the growth or decline of the mining industry, below are important Philippine regulations on mining, based on a research paper by Israel & Asirot (2002) of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies. However, the landmark regulation on mining is said to be the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 under the Ramos administration.

Commonwealth Act 137 of 1936

The earliest mining law in the Philippines was the Commonwealth Act 137 promulgated in 1936. This legislation had no separate provision for small-scale mining since it was not practiced extensively then.

Presidential Decree 463 (known as the Mineral Resources Decree of 1974)

Like its predecessor, this legislation did not have separate provisions for small-scale mining.

Presidential Decree 899 of 1984

This PD established small-scale mining as a new dimension in mineral development and defined it as a specific activity. Succeeding orders based on this law stipulated, among others, the rules and regulations governing the granting of small-scale mining permits and ordered the selling of the gold recovered through the activity only to the Central Bank and its authorized representatives.

Republic Act (RA) 7076 or the People’s Small-Scale Mining Act of 1991

Among its important provisions, this law established the People’s Small-Scale Mining Program and described the small-scale mining areas that can be opened under it.

Philippine Mining Act of 1995 of the Ramos administration

This is an important law integral to Philippine mining as we know it to be today that has become the bone of contention among various opposing factions. Those against mining would argue that it was this law that opened up Pandora’s Box of the mining problems that plague the Philippines up to present day. “The Mining Act of 1995 allowed for foreign ownership of mining assets and exploration permits. Thus, by 1996, the Philippine mining industry got back on track, allowing offshore companies to operate fully in the ‘reserved areas” (Corporate Watch, 2010). Below is an excerpt taken from The Environment and Society Portal:

“Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos signed “An Act Instituting a New System of Mineral Resources Exploration, Development, Utilization, and Conservation”—the Philippine Mining Act—into law in 1995. The pro-mining law was a clear attempt to spur foreign direct investment and boost the economy. It provided many incentives to prospective companies, including political rights, full ownership of land, and tax holidays. As a result, from 1994 to 1996, the country hosted a 400% increase of foreign mining companies. However, many of the mineral-rich areas in the Philippines overlapped with its indigenous population. Thus, court battles ensued between the Philippine government and indigenous people—some of whom were displaced. The latter challenged the constitutionality of the law, citing provisions in the 1987 Constitution that protected indigenous people and restricted foreign involvement in natural resource extraction; the government argued that outsourcing mining would increase foreign investment, create jobs, and be worth up to USD 840 Billion. In 2004, the Supreme Court of the Philippines initially ruled on behalf of the anti-mining crowd. However, under immense pressure, it soon overruled its decision and sided strongly on behalf of the pro-mining government, supporting economic growth over ethical and environmental matters” (Schmitt). According to Baggo (2015), the Act’s salient points follows below:

- 100% foreign ownership of mining projects;

- Foreign company can lay claim to 81,000 hectares onshore or 324,000 hectares offshore;

- Companies can repatriate all profits, equipment and investment; Companies are guaranteed against expropriation by the state;

- Excise duties are cut from 5% to 2%, and tax holidays and deferred payment are allowed until all costs are recovered;

- Losses can be carried forward against income tax;

- The government commits itself to ensuring the removal of all obstacles to mining, including settlements and farms;

- Companies are promised priority access to water resources within their concession;

- Companies are given the right to sell gold directly to the international market without Central Bank intervention;

- Mining leases last 25 years with an option of a 25-year extension

❖ Executive Order 79 of 2012 of the Aquino Administration

Many years after the 1995 Mining Act, the Aquino administration “imposed a moratorium on new mining permits until a legislation rationalizing existing revenue-sharing schemes and mechanisms shall have taken effect” (De Guzman, 2018). The EO “banned mining in tourism areas, critical ecosystems, prime agricultural lands and fisheries zone, among others. By 2013, however, the ban was lifted — which caused a new round of growth in 2013” (Miraflor, 2017).

The Pitfalls of Mining in the Philippine Context

To begin with the disadvantages of the mining industry in the Philippines, the most adverse disadvantage is that it can breed grave social injustices and environmental degradation on a magnified scale, without contributing significant economic output because of the difficulty of implementing regulations. In an article from the Cordillera Peoples Alliance Post, Baggo (2015) captured exactly such disadvantages when he discussed how the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 liberalized mining, and thus opened the floodgates for all these very detriments to befall the surrounding Cordillera communities of Mankayan, Itogon and other nearby municipalities He wrote, “the Mining Act paved way for massive plunder and destruction of natural resources, displacement of communities, and violations of the collective rights of indigenous peoples over our ancestral domains and natural resources as experienced by the Igorot communities in the Cordillera from decades of large-scale mining operations” (Baggo 2015). He then mentioned these large-scale mining corporations such as the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company and Philex and Benguet Corporation who in his opinion, have disastrously mismanaged their mining operations in said communities. In this piece, he describes how corporate greed prevailed at the expense of life, people and the environment, where “mountains have been flattened, excavated and hollowed; rivers and creeks contaminated; and people’s livelihood lost,” and that tragically, he sees these effects to be irreversible and only barren land left to pass on to the next generations. Furthermore, Baggo (2015) describes how The Mining Act and the mining industry in general, has achieved the opposite of what it has set out to do. The Mining Act may have been made with genuine intention to boost economic growth; however, Baggo claims that “a 2012 study conducted by IBON revealed that the gross-value added (GVA) of the mining industry registered an average of 1% in 2000-2011… and only peaked in 2007 at 1.63%” (Baggo 2015).

Other tragedies that occurred following the 1995 Mining Act according to Corporate Watch (2010) were:

“In March 1996, the Marcopper tunnel in Marinduque collapsed. In rough estimation, 1.6 million cubic meters of mine tailings flowed from the mine pit to the Makulapnit and Boac river, trapping 4,400 people in 20 villages. The government declared the Boac river officially dead. The disaster also caused massive siltation in downstream communities and coastal areas. Another tragedy happened in 1998 which was the Malangas Coal Corporation case in Zamboanga Del Sur, Mindanao, where an explosion occurred in the mine site, killing almost a hundred workers and injuring 35 people. In 2004 as well, another disaster took place in Surigao Del Norte, Mindanao. This time it was caused by one of the largest and longest-standing mining corporations in the Philippines, the Manila Mining Corporation (MMC). Three disastrous incidents occurred, where approximately five million cubic meters of waste materials containing high levels of mercury were released, damaging local people’s agricultural lands and temporarily poisoning the adjacent Placer Bay” (Corporate Watch 2010).

Another dark example of the vast socio-economic problems and environmental hazards brought about by mining is best captured by the controversial Diwalwal, Compostela Valley in the years of 1997-2000. Back then, Diwalwal was the mining mecca of gold in the Philippines, the home of the Gold Rush, and migrants from all nearby provinces in the Philippines flocked towards Diwalwal to get a piece of the action. Diwalwal became the epitome of Goons, Guns and Gold, as it became crowded and dangerous with the presence of numerous illegal small-scale miners estimated at 40,000, as well as medium and large-scale miners all trying to assert dominance over their supposed territories and newly discovered gold. These kinds of circ*mstances of course erupted into violence, crime, armed warfare, murder, and often times, death by the numbers. According to a source, social unrest and conflict were escalating to a horrific extent in Diwalwal, that the Department of National Defense (DND) ordered a battalion (500 – 1,000) of armed forces to counter the violence. What happened ironically instead was that half of the battalion ended up choosing to stay in Diwalwal to join in the mining activities.

Figure 4. Below Table of collated articles dated in 1999 – 2000. Source: Israel, Danilo & Asirot, Jasminda of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (2002).

Furthermore, according to a 2002 research paper conducted by Israel, Danilo & Asirot, Jasminda of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, if not due to violence, lives were also being lost due to frequent accidents occurring during mining activities because of unsafe and antiquated technologies used in small-scale mining, “such as poor timbering support, poor ventilation, and other practices have resulted to cave-ins and other accidents that disabled or took away the lives of miners” (Israel & Asirot, 2002). Deeply-embedded social problems also emerged in Diwalwal through the years such as breakdown of families, alcoholism, gambling, health problems caused by insufficient supply of basic resources and poor sanitation, and even the exploitation of women and children in small-scale mining. Health-related problems and environmental problems also surfaced due to the use of mercury (through mercury spills into the ground or disposal into bodies of water, vaporized mercury released into the atmosphere) to separate gold from rocks. The effects of such mercury contact whether directly or indirectly were serious and damaging; Mercury “triggers neurological disturbances as well as problems in the reproductive and other body organs. The likely symptoms are visual constriction, numbness of the extremities and the impairment of hearing, speech and gait. Other visible symptoms are the exhibition of exaggerated emotional responses and muscular tremors and gingivitis.” Up to today, a number of men and women struggle from such disease and disability brought upon by mercury usage. (Israel & Asirot, 2002). Other environmental problems that occurred hand-in-hand with mercury usage and the gold mining activities in Diwalwal were cyanide pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, siltation and sedimentation of downstream waterways (Israel & Asirot, 2002).

Figure 5. Mining accidents in Diwalwal. Source: Israel, Danilo & Asirot, Jasminda of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (2002).

Israel & Asirot (2002) also provide explanations behind why mining contributes such an insignificant portion to the Philippine economy, at the same time, is also not able to uplift the lives of the miners. For example, perhaps due to either distrust in the government or the great inconvenience and accessibility to transact with the government, small-scale miners “sell their gold to the tunnel owners, processors or to other traders and buyers instead of directly selling to the Central Bank or its representatives. The national government loses great amounts of gold to the detriment of the entire economy. Key informants also reported that underpricing of gold often occurs in these marketing channels, and this contributes to the poor economic conditions the miners are in” (Israel & Asirot, 2002). Moreover, miners are not able to alleviate their lives because “there is lack of formal sources of credit for small-scale miners in times of need or for starting an alternative occupation. This forces them to borrow from the tunnel owners, processors, traders and unscrupulous money lenders who exploit them by charging higher interest rates or buying their gold at low prices” (Israel & Asirot, 2002). The lack of options available to the poverty-stricken miners in their respective communities allows them to continue to be enslaved by the mining industry, and the vicious cycle goes on. It is also difficult to stop small-scale miners from operating because many of the local governments units themselves are involved.

Lastly, there are also disadvantages in mining from the business perspective of the private mining corporations. Mining is a tremendously high-risk enterprise with many uncertainties, and the capital required to even begin explorations and to set up shop entails a great volume.

What Mining Brings to the table

The obvious advantage of mining is that it is a source of mineral commodities that nations all over the world find essential for maintaining and improving society’s standard of living. Materials acquired through mining such as metals, limestones, rock salt, gemstone, coal, oil, gravel, gold and clay are needed to construct roads and infrastructures, automobiles and houses, to make computers and satellites, to generate electricity and other goods and services for consumers to utilize, such as for example, the mobile phone. An average mobile phone contains about 24 milligrams of gold, 250 milligrams of silver, 3,800 milligrams of cobalt and 9 milligrams of palladium. These are some examples of elements that come from mining or mineral extraction. End-products like computers, television sets, radios, spectacles, cameras, cars, planes and ships, as well as necessities found at home like pans, spoons, forks, cups, microwave oven and refrigerators that we take for granted, all are composed of minerals and elements from mining. “Mining is the source of raw materials for the things that we use every day that cannot be produced through agricultural activities or manufactured artificially in factories and laboratories” (Taocio, 2018).

Secondly, mining is economically important because it provides employment, dividends, taxes and spurs various other economic activities. The mining industry produces a trained workforce, not limited to miners, but also the likes of engineers, geologists, mechanics, medical technicians, pharmacists and environmentalists. The mining industry also contributes to the creation of other businesses as well that can service communities. “Mining also yields foreign exchange activities and accounts for a significant portion of gross domestic product (GDP)” (The Importance of Mining, 2020). In an article where writer Taocio (2018) discusses the immense advantages of mining, he quotes Manuel V. Pangilinan (MVP), the highly respected Chief Executive of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), PLDT and Philex Mining Corporation. It is a well-known fact that MVP is a staunch supporter of mining and believes in the economic opportunities mining can bring the Philippines, saying that, “mining has been a driver for economic development. Mining in Australia contributes $142 billion each year, $37.5 billion in Canada and $1.9 trillion in the United States. Moreover, the Philippines is among the world’s richly endowed countries in terms of mineral resources; thus, we have a big opportunity in mining” (Taocio, 2018).

Thirdly, to refute earlier above-mentioned disadvantages of past mining atrocities, mining corporations today are taking the steps in the right direction to right the wrongs of the past. For example, “as of August 2016, mining companies have already committed Php 13.1 billion for the development of their host and neighboring communities under their Social Development and Management Programs” (Quintans, 2017). To add to these initiatives, according to a 2012 article in Rappler written by Gerardo Brimo, esteemed President of Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC) and Director of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, mining corporations are “required to now spend 1.5% of operating costs to social development programs, and this is done in consultation with the host communities. The funds go to sustainable projects such as infrastructure, livelihood programs, water projects, cooperatives, training, medical care, and schools” (Brimo, 2012). Brimo also discussed their compliance with the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 where consent and compensation for the indigenous communities are strictly mandatory if a mining corporation intends to do any sort of mining-related activity on their ancestral lands. Brimo cited an actual example that in 2010, “the members of the Chamber of Mines (note: not all operating mines are members) paid close to Php 300 million in royalties to the Indigenous Peoples, undoubtedly the most marginalized sector of our society” (Brimo, 2012). Brimo also gave the example where Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corporation (RTNMC), a subsidiary of NAC, has offered housing, in coordination with the Gawad Kalinga Foundation, for the 13,000 members of the Palawan tribe despite the tribe not having an ancestral land title. He wrote, “since then, 6 clusters with a total of 210 housing units have been built and we have committed to building up to 1,000 houses to accommodate them all. They get free medical care in the company hospital, a number of livelihood projects and an Indigenous Learning System, accredited by the Department of Education, which educates about 800 IP children and adults” (Brimo, 2012). NAC indeed represents one of the more responsible mining corporations, as just last November 2019, another subsidiary of NAC, The Cagdianao Mining Corp. (CMC), based in Dinagat Islands province, took home the “most coveted” Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Award (PMIEA) in the recently-concluded 66th Annual National Mine Safety and Environment Conference (ANMSEC), in coordination with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Baguio City. (Philippine News Agency, 2019).

Lastly, the mining industry possesses still so many untapped opportunities for wealth creation in capital markets, and allows us to remain competitive and relevant in the global market. To illustrate this advantage with an actual example, back in 2014, there was a ban on unprocessed nickel ore exports from Indonesia, the world’s biggest nickel producer. This was due to Indonesia requiring their nickel mining corporations to also have processing plants and refineries (instead of other countries doing the processing) because of the big value added in nickel processing. This ban greatly benefited the Philippines, especially the likes of nickel mining and processing companies such as NAC. With Indonesia out of the picture in the interim, countries like China and Japan flocked towards the Philippines for processed nickel exports. Thus of course, nickel prices and exports from the Philippines surged, and you can say the rest is history. According to a 2015 Forbes article, “In 2014, the Philippines became the top nickel producer, accounting for 18% of global supply.” Other than the mining industry and NAC, many entities stood to receive the economic benefits, such as the government, all related businesses and services and indirectly, also the average Filipino investor who had invested in NAC, either through stocks or equity funds. For instance, NAC’s stock price grew about 50% in that year alone.

Figure 6. Nickel Mining Growth in Philippines in the years of 2008-2014. Source: CEIC Data

Figure 7. Mining & Oil Growth relative to PSEi in the years of 2007-2016. Source: Mining and the Philippine Economy: Some Facts and Figures (Miraflor, 2017)

The Economics of Mining: Supply and Demand

The economics of mining is similar to the perfect competition model because the metals drawn from mining are hom*ogenous commodities. Buyers in the market set specific measurements and quality standards before sellers are deemed eligible to sell their refined metals. A market price is set where at the equilibrium point, eligible sellers are able to sell their products. The supply and demand curves of these metals shift in response to new trends in the uses of these metals. Copper, for example, is one the Philippines’ primary metals (Hernandez et al. 2020). According to Geoscience News and Information website Geology.com, copper is widely demanded because it is used as an input factor in several industries. Its electrical conductivity properties allows it to be an important component in electronics and machines. Since copper does not corrode as fast as other metals, it is used in construction, particularly in roofing and plumbing (N.D.).

Figure 8. The Copper Market

Market volatility can still occur in metal commodity markets as surplus and shortage of certain metals can bring about wild swings in the prevailing prices. Commodities futures contracts also allow buyers and sellers to hedge against commodity price risk by fixing a buying or selling price in advance. However, even after entering into a commodities futures contract, there is still always the risk that the buyer or seller had the wrong view on prices. If prevailing prices go against the contract price, there is an opportunity loss on settlement date. Had the entity not hedged, it could have bought or sold metals at much better prices. However, the main benefit of hedging commodities is the cash flow certainty, which will help participants in the market determine their costs in advance.

Figure 9. Hedging Commodities such as Copper

Another important metal that is mined in the Philippines is gold (Chavez 2017). Unlike copper, gold does not have as many industrial uses. Despite this, gold is the more valuable metal, similar to the diamond-water paradox. Gold prices are driven by several factors. For millennia, civilizations have mined gold and used it as expensive ornaments and jewelry. It is an input factor in jewelry and therefore influenced by demand in the jewelry market (Mining Global 2015). Even to this day, gold is still being stocked by central banks around the world as reserves. Global investors see it as a “safe haven” to invest in during times of financial uncertainty because of the faith that people put in the value of gold. Gold also happens to be inversely correlated to the value of the U.S. Dollar. Because gold is priced in USD per troy ounce, when the U.S. Dollar is weak, global investors take the opportunity to purchase more gold (Folder 2019).

Figures 10&11. The following screenshots from Bloomberg show the index of gold against the U.S. Dollar and its prevailing price as of January 13, 2020.

Gold prices have been increasing significantly in recent years, not just because of the previously mentioned factors but also because of its scarcity. It is becoming more difficult to mine gold because the “easy gold” has already been mined from surfaces of mines. Mining companies must undertake even greater drilling to extract gold (Folder 2019). This means that the marginal costs have been increasing for every unit of gold extracted. Since mining companies must cover these costs with their revenues, they have all been pricing gold higher. With no cheaper offers in the market, buyers are then forced to buy at the higher prices, which drives global prices up.

Figure 12. The MC, ATC and AVC from a Mining Company perspective

Another interesting fact about the economics behind gold mining is that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) developed a gold buying program for small-scale mining companies with no access to the global gold commodity markets. Like a commodities buyer, the BSP requires gold sellers to abide by specific measurements and quality standards. Gold sellers must also declare that the gold was sourced in a sustainable manner to encourage environmental responsibility and ethical business. The BSP’s buying price for gold is based on the prevailing Gold/USD and USD/PHP rates.

Figure 13. BSP Table of Prices

The BSP represents itself as the single largest buyer for these small mining companies; hence, it can be considered a monopsony. From the Greek words mono for “one” and opsonein for “many,” a monopsony is a single buyer that dominates a market. Whereas a monopoly sets the output amount and selling price, a monopsony dictates the input amount and buying price (Young 2019).

Figure 14. Graph of BSP as a Monopsony

The BSP as a monopsony has bargaining power because small mining companies depend on it as a source of profit. At its set gold buying price, small mining companies can sell as much gold as they want to the BSP. It is the BSP’s risk, whether it wants to hold onto the gold as reserves or sell it to the global gold commodity markets. However, according to a former government official interviewed for this paper, what sometimes occurs is, because of the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) regulations on taxing the sale of gold, some gold sellers do not sell to BSP and instead sell gold in the black market to Malaysia and Indonesia. These have other implications on gold prices.

We Therefore Conclude..

The advocates for both sides present good points as to the pros and cons of the mining industry in the Philippines. As to the clear advantages of mining, it presents many opportunities to create more wealth with our abundant supply of natural wealth – meaning our combination of human capital and natural resources. It is a well-known fact that the Philippines is rich with natural resources and minerals, and it indeed would be an enormous opportunity cost if these resources are not harnessed to produce significant economic output for the country in the form of exports, various employment and increased sources of livelihood and rural development in mining communities. However, history has shown us over and over that our nation’s resources has always been easily prone to exploitation because the forces at work – the government, the private sector and even world institutions on a global scale, are not able to effectively manage the mining industry. This is where the problem lies. It would be ignorant to simply pinpoint the illegal small-scale miners in the Philippines as the culprit when it comes to the detrimental effects of mining, but in truth, all entities involved, from small-scale to large scale miners, as well as the government, local and national, all play a hand. On one hand, the government is not able to implement regulations that are sworn to protect the very stakeholders and communities that mining continue to harm, and at times, it is the local government units themselves who are at the center of corruption and abuse in the mining industry because local mining business permits pass through them. There are also cases where local governments do not abide by regulations set by the national government.

As for the private sector, though it is reported that medium and large-scale mining corporations have become more socially and environmentally aware and espouse various corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities today as stipulated by Philippine law, such as support for indigenous people’s livelihoods, support for education and environmental sustainability and rehabilitation programs in affected communities, there is still a clamor for them to go above and beyond mere compliance. There are also the questions of motive and transparency – how accurate and up-to-date are the private sector’s efforts in these CSR activities, and who (entities who are unbiased and without a hidden agenda) can truly verify and attest to them? There may be the existence of mining awards today that should encourage responsible mining, but many still look upon these awards as highly politicized.

Moreover, it also must be noted that many of the published works presenting mining’s advantages are written by those with well, a vested interest. Many of the pro-mining advocates are executives and major personalities running the major mining corporations in the Philippines, and thus of course, stand to gain from mining laws which promote more ease of doing business. On the other hand, those representing the anti-mining sentiment, are mostly religious, pro-social welfare personalities and environmentalists, such as the likes of the well-known, late Gina Lopez. Their motives emanate from a more genuine and pro-humanity stand point which many Filipinos appreciate and view with more credibility.

Ultimately, it boils down to poverty and corruption. Many of the country’s mining problems are both rooted in, and caused by poverty. Among most Filipinos, when asked if pro or against mining, the collective answer remains to be: “pro-mining, but responsible mining.” Sadly, that is the caveat. How can the Philippines ensure responsible mining? The regulations on mining were created with the intent to promote inclusive economic growth, the important word being inclusive; however, in the Philippines, the problems have always been law enforcement and execution. It is not true for all mining corporations, but what seems to keep happening is that substantial output coming directly from mining operations ends up benefiting mining executives, or specific government entities, while the actual miners and laborers who do the dirty work, as well as the affected communities, are left with scraps. Simply put, the rich get richer, and the poor remain poor. This is not inclusive growth, but activities which conversely widen the economic gap.

Nevertheless, based on the vast literature on mining, it seems that the Philippines has generally become more aware today about the negative trade-offs brought by mining, and mining corporations too have been doing their part. In the end, despite mining’s less than lackluster contribution to the overall economy, it does not mean it is insignificant. It is an industry that we cannot do without. There are many regional economies in the Philippines that are highly reliant to the mining industry. Moreover, end-products from mining are materials that we use everyday, and for one to say he is completely against mining is to say he is against progress. Again, the main obstacles lie in monitoring and regulating all mining activities in the country; hence it is highly important for the government and all concerned entities to have regular, constructive, fair and transparent conversations and discussions.

Written by:

Aguirre, Encarnacion, Lichang, Marcial, Sayson

List of References:

Baggo, Jude. 03 March 2015.

Philippine Mining Act of 1995: A curse to the environment andcommunities. Retrieved from https://cpaphils.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/philippine-mining-act-of-1995-a-curse-to-the-environment-and-communities/

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (N.D.) BSP Gold Buying Program. Retrieved January 13, 2020, from http://www.bsp.gov.ph/bspnotes/bspgold.asp

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (2020, January 10). BSP Financial Market Operations Sub-Sector Reference Exchange Rate Bulletin January 10, 2020. Retrieved January 13, 2020, from http://www.bsp.gov.ph/statistics/sdds/exchrate.htm

Brimo, Gerardo. 08 March 2012. Correcting lies and disinformation. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/2241-correcting-lies-and-disinformation

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The Evolution and Revolution of Bitcoin

Global markets, currencies, stocks, securities, funds, economic trends, geo-politics... As the world continues to evolve, the hunt for yield and investment landscapes are also transforming before our eyes. Everyday, new technologies are sprouting about and changing the game altogether. There is that banker part of me that will always deviate towards, and be excited by these topics because they are also very relevant to our social issues of today. For example, in the past decade, the talk of the town has been about the meteoric rise of Bitcoin since its somewhat obscure origins in 2007-2008. Fast forward to present, as of this today’s close, Bitcoin is at: USD/BTC: USD 7,202.84. Here are some of our thoughts on Bitcoin, from the lens of non-experts and non-Bitcoin traders…

Bitcoin, the crypto of all cryptocurrencies?

It is no coincidence that only after two months since the notoriously infamous Lehman Brothers bankruptcy back in 2008, Bitcoin suddenly began gaining attention. Amidst the rubble and disaster left behind by the 2008 Financial Crisis, brought about by the non-transparency of these Big Banks, regulators, as well as international credit agencies in the United States, the general public welcomed this revolutionary technology which was Bitcoin, because of its decentralized and unregulated nature. Bitcoin could not have had better timing, as people lost trust in the formal financial world and were seeking other mediums in which to transact their money.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is adigital currencyor “cryptocurrency” that was created in 2009 by unknown creator/s under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto.” It is digital, meaning that it has no physical form like paper money, but like other global currencies and modes of payment, Bitcoin can be used as a means of exchange for goods and services (Frankenfield 2019). Compared to those other currencies, Bitcoin is not issued or regulated by any state government, or central bank. According to Bloomenthal (2019), because Bitcoin is not issued by a central bank orbacked by a government, therefore, monetary policy, inflation rates, and economic growth measurements that typically influence the value of currencies, do not apply to bitcoin. Contrarily, Bitcoin prices are influenced by the following factors:

- The supply of bitcoin and market demand for it

- The cost of producing a bitcoin through the mining process

- The number of competing cryptocurrencies

- The exchanges it trades on

- Regulations governing its sale

- Its internal governance

Blockchain: The Backbone of Bitcoin

Blockchain is what has allowed Bitcoin to thrive for so long. It is a public ledger where all Bitcoin transactions are recorded by the Bitcoin mining community. Anyone with an internet connection is able to view all historical Bitcoin transactions. Records of the blockchain are copied on every user’s computer, which makes the system difficult to hack and alter. This is what gives Bitcoin its security, which improves confidence among Bitcoin transacting parties.

Because the source code of blockchain was made open to the public, other information technology developers started applying blockchain to other industries. Some examples of blockchain technology is AlipayHK and GCash in the Philippines, developed by Chinese conglomerate, Alibaba. For example, more than 120,000 OFWs in Hong Kong use AlipayHK or GCash to make easy and quick overseas transactions to the Philippines. Moreover, AlipayHK and GCash also announced the launch of a cross-border remittance service through their e-wallet platforms, powered by blockchain technology developed by Alipay. Through the blockchain platform, the sender and receiver are also able to track their money with every step of the way. All information stored, shared or uploaded through the blockchain remittance platform is further encrypted with advanced protocols to protect the user’s privacy.

How does one transact using Bitcoin?

Step 1：Announce

Once someone announces a transaction, this means that the transaction is signed.

Step 2：Validation

The network of miners validates the transaction, paying the customers first. It takes around 10 minutes and costs $10. A verified transaction can include other information, such as smart contracts and records or links to other currencies.

Step 3：Create a new block of data: Blockchain

Once verified, the transaction is combined with other transactions to create a new block of data for the ledger. The new block is added to the existing blockchain in a way that is permanent and unalterable. Successful miners are compensated in newly created bitcoins and the transaction fees.

Step 4：Trace

The transaction is now on the blockchain, a historical record of every transaction ever made, right back to the first coins ever created.

The Rise of Bitcoin

Below is a short timeline on the origin and history of Bitcoin according to historyofbitcoin.org. What Bitcoin’s evolution has shown us is that there definitely is a demand for Bitcoin today, in our rapidly changing technological landscape. However, as Bitcoin, the first-of-its-kind cryptocurrency prototype gradually gets refined through the years, it also sets the stage for other improved cryptocurrency exchanges to come into play. Bitcoin has also been gaining significant momentum, traction and purpose as it becomes more integrated in real-world transactions, but the pitfalls are that it also opens up avenues for online illicit transactions. Nevertheless, despite it being decentralized and unregulated, legal and formal bodies such as international currency exchanges, acknowledge it, further legitimizing and creating value for Bitcoin in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Bitcoin’s timeline has also showed us how external events, whether positive or negative, as well as government intervention, has the ability to dictate market sentiment; thus causing volatility and price fluctuations.

1998 – 2009: The pre-Bitcoin years

Although Bitcoin was the first established cryptocurrency, there had been previous attempts at creating online currencies with ledgers secured by encryption. Two examples of these were B-Money and Bit Gold, which were formulated but never fully developed.

2007: Satoshi Nakamoto, the legend

According to legend, Satoshi Nakamoto began working on the Bitcoin concept in 2007. While he is on record as living in Japan, it is speculated that Nakamoto may be a collective pseudonym for more than one person.

2008: Bitcoin begins

On August 15, 2008, Neal Kin, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry file an application for an encryption patent application. All three individuals deny a connection to Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged originator of the Bitcoin concept.

The domain Bitcoin.org was registered on August 18, 2008 at anonymousspeech.com, a site that allows users to anonymously register domain names and currently accepts Bitcoins.

Nakamoto publishes a design paper on October 31, 2008 through a metzdowd.com cryptography mailing list that describes the Bitcoin currency and solves the problem of double spending so as to prevent the currency from being copied.

On November 9, 2008, The Bitcoin project is registered on SourceForge.net, a community collaboration website focused on the development and distribution of open source software.

2009: The Genesis Block is mined, first Bitcoin transaction happens

The Bitcoin software is made available to the public for the first time and mining – the process through which new Bitcoins are created and transactions are recorded and verified on the blockchain – begins. Block 0, the genesis block, is established on January 3, 2009 at 18:15:05 GMT.

On January 9, 2009, version 0.1 of Bitcoin is released. Compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio for Windows, it lacks a command line interface and is so complete that it furthers speculation that it was developed by more than one person (or by an academic with little programming experience and a great deal of theoretical know-how). It includes a Bitcoin generation system that would create a total of 21 million Bitcoins through the year 2040. Version 0.2 was eventually released on December 16, 2009.

The first transaction of Bitcoin currency, in block 170, takes place between Satoshi and Hal Finney, a developer and cryptographic activist, on January 12, 2009.

On October 5, 2009, New Liberty Standard publishes a Bitcoin exchange rate that establishes the value of a Bitcoin at US$1 = 1,309.03 BTC, using an equation that includes the cost of electricity to run a computer that generated Bitcoins.

The #bitcoin-dev channel is registered on freenode IRC, a discussion network for free and open source development communities on October 12, 2009.

2010: Bitcoin is valued for the first time

On February 18, 2010, the encryption patent application that was filed on August 15, 2008 by Neal Kin, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry was published.

As it had never been traded, only mined, it was impossible to assign a monetary value to the units of the emerging cryptocurrency. The first, real-world transaction using Bitcoins takes place on May 22, 2010 when a Jacksonville, Florida programmer, Laszlo Hanyecz, offers to pay 10,000 Bitcoins for a pizza on the Bitcoin Forum. At the time, the exchange rate put the purchase price for the pizza at around U$ 25.

Over a five-day period beginning on July 12, 2010, the exchange value of Bitcoin increases ten times from U$ 0.008/BTC to U$ 0.080/BTC.

On August 15, 2010, a vulnerability in the Bitcoin system that causes Bitcoins to be improperly verified is discovered and exploited, resulting in the generation of 184 billion Bitcoins. On September 29, 2010, another microtransactions exploit was discovered by kermit, precipitating the release of Version 0.3.13 of Bitcoin.

In October 2010, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental group that develops and promotes policies to prevent money laundering and funding of terrorists, publishes Money Laundering Using New Payment Methods, to warn about the use of digital currencies to finance terrorist groups.

Calculated by multiplying the number of Bitcoins in circulation by the last trade on MtGox, the Bitcoin economy exceeds US$1 million. The price on MtGox reached US$0.50/BTC.

2011: Silk Road opens; Rival cryptocurrencies emerge

In 2011, Silk Road, a Bitcoin marketplace, launches an illicit marketplace for drug deals, called the eBay for drugs.

With the generation of Block 105000, 5.25 million Bitcoins have been generated, totaling more than 25% of the projected total of almost 21 million.

On June 19, 2011, Mt.Gox suffers a significant breach of security that results in fraudulent trading and requires the site to be shut down for seven days. The breach compromises the Mt.Gox database with a leak of the user table that contains user names, email addresses, and password hashes of 60,000 accounts.

An admin account was accessed from which sell orders were issued for hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins, which forced the Mt.Gox price down to U$ 17.51 to U$ 0.01 per Bitcoin

As Bitcoin increases in popularity and the idea of decentralized and encrypted currencies catch on, the first alternative cryptocurrencies appear. These are sometimes known as altcoin and generally try to improve on the original Bitcoin design by offering greater speed, anonymity or some other advantage. Among the first to emerge were Namecoin and Litecoin. Currently there are over 1,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation with new ones frequently appearing.

2013: Bitcoin price crashes

Shortly after the price of one Bitcoin reaches $1,000 for the first time, the price quickly begins to decline. Many who invested money at this point will have suffered losses as the price plummeted to around $300 – it would be more than two years before it reached $1,000 again.

On October 2, 2013, the FBI shuts down infamous online drug marketplace Silk Road, seizing U$ 3.6 million worth of bitcoins.

China's Central Bank bans Bitcoin transactions on December17, 2013. Bitcoin crashes to nearly U$ 500 after further is banned from accepting deposits in yuan

2014: Scams and theft

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a currency designed with anonymity and lack of control in mind, Bitcoin has proven to be an attractive and lucrative target for criminals. In January 2014, the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox went offline, and the owners of 850,000 Bitcoins never saw them again. Investigations are still trying to get to the bottom of exactly what happened but whatever the story, someone or some entity has dishonestly gotten their hands on a haul which at the time, was valued at $ 450 million. At today’s prices, those missing coins would be worth $ 4.4 billion.

2017 to present: Bitcoin reaches $10,000 and continues to grow

A gradual increase in the places where Bitcoin could be spent contributed to its continued growth and popularity. Gradually as more and more uses of Bitcoin emerges, more money continues to flow into the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ecosystem. During this period, the market cap of all cryptocurrencies rose from $11Billion to its current height of over $ 300 Billion. Banks including Barclays, Citi Bank, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas have said they are investigating ways to work with Bitcoin. Meanwhile the technology behind Blockchain, has sparked a revolution in the Fintech industry (and beyond), and this is only just getting started.

Bitcoin’s Presence in the Philippines and other related activities

In the Philippines, the two major regulators that are keeping an eye on this new technology are the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The BSP released its first advisory on virtual currencies in 2014 which informed the public about the features and risks in dealing with cryptocurrencies. After three years, on February 6, 2017, BSP then released a circular concerning virtual currency exchanges that are more favorable towards cryptocurrencies. This circular is called BSP Circular 944 where licensed companies are allowed to legally exchange fiat to cryptocurrencies and vice versa.

The SEC is also busy giving out advisories to the public about entities that use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies being employed for investment schemes. The SEC is also developing draft rules on virtual currency exchanges. It noted that the BSP’s Virtual Currency Exchange (VCE) license does not include acting as a trading platform, but is more on cryptocurrencies to fiat transactions. It is also finalizing its rules on 1ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings). As of October 2019, there are ten registered Cryptocurrency Exchanges in the Philippines which support Bitcoin related transactions.

Mobile wallets in the Philippines: Also a market for the underserved

One of the more popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the Philippines is Coins.ph. It is interesting to highlight that Coins.ph started out as a cryptocurrency exchange and eventually evolved into a mobile wallet. It also provides access to Bitcoin trading, and it also offers cashing out through its partner banks online, through ATMs, or over the counter. Through ATMs however, these come with the usual bank charges. Coins.ph also offers courier service via LBC. It was founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ron Hose in 2014, and is a blockchain-based mobile payments startup that recentlysold a majority stake to Indonesia’s ride-hailing behemoth Go-Jek. It is backed by Sequoia Capital, KKR, JD.com, Tencent and Google. Coins.ph remains as part of the top three mobile wallets in the Philippines, coming in third to GCash and Paymaya.

Coins.ph’s evolution into a mobile wallet in the Philippines was brought about the need to enable Filipinos, especially those without bank accounts and credit cards, to make cashless transactions. In the Philippine mobile wallets space: GCash has a subscriber base with more than 26 million as of July 2019, but accounts only for 3.7 Million Active Users (MAU). PayMaya has 8 million registered users, based on the company’s latest data as of December 2017, and coming in third, Coins.ph has 5 million as of May 2018. It is very interesting to note as well that the sum of these figures translate into a little over 30% of the total Philippine population, which is quite low compared to our neighboring countries, like Indonesia, indicating that the Philippines has the greatest potential to grow in the region and possibly the world not just in the cryptocurrency sphere but in the e-wallet space.

Cashing in on Bitcoin

Bitcoin is now being increasingly accepted as a payment method. It is becoming possible to buy virtually any physical item using Bitcoin because hundreds of merchants are starting to accept Bitcoin payments. The following points are some of the advantages of Bitcoins. Firstly, international transactions are supposedly easier and incur less cost with Bitcoin than regular currencies, or if done through the traditional banking system. The Bitcoin user is more at ease because there aren’t international transaction fees, nor red tape to navigate through, as is often the case with credit card payments, ATM cash withdrawals, and international money transfers which usually range from 3%-15% in transaction fees. There are also no minimal payment amounts; micropayments are allowed. Bitcoin also eliminates middlemen or intermediaries that incur more hidden costs when making cross-border remittances. A Bitcoin user can pay anyone all over the world, any amount of value of Bitcoin, by simply transferring ownership of the corresponding slot in the ledger. They simply put value in, transfer it, then the recipient gets value out, authorization required, but in many cases, no fees. This makes Bitcoin transactions very attractive. It is relatively easy and cheap.

Another advantage of Bitcoin is that there is anonymity and privacy, as compared to traditional currencies and again, if done through banks. Bitcoin’s built-in privacy protections allow users to completely separate their Bitcoin accounts from their public personas. Holding actual cash in a bank, whether a physical account or online, or executing online transactions through credit card or platforms like PayPal for instance, does not necessarily protect one’s privacy anymore, and in today’s hyper-connected world, a very relevant issue is intrusion to data privacy. Thus, Bitcoin allows consumers to freely and privately purchase anything on the web market.

Thirdly, Bitcoin is independent from political agents and creators. It is not controlled by any state entity; thus, it is not supposed to be obliged to political influence. Since it exists outside any political system, it is also more difficult for any government to freeze or seize bitcoin units. Bitcoin’s completely decentralized nature, popularity and liquidity, allows it not be beholden to its creators, unlike other cryptocurrencies where their creators manipulate the supply, and to an extent, manipulate its value which negatively impacts other holders. However, this advantage has its draw backs as well which will be explained momentarily.

Lastly, only 21million Bitcoins will ever exist. This is another beauty of Bitcoin – its built-in scarcity: Its built-in scarcity is likely to support its long-term value against traditional currencies, as well as non-scarce cryptocurrencies. Somehow, Bitcoins’ scarcity pegs the currency with intrinsic value like gold and other precious metals.

The Dangers of Bitcoin

As with many emerging technologies, there are drawbacks still being uncovered. As discussed earlier, Bitcoin is decentralized and unregulated by legal and formal bodies; hence these characteristics serve doubled-edged purposes. For example, Bitcoin is vulnerable to money-laundering, scams, fraud, theft and hacking. As the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has experienced small-time fraud schemes, to massive hack attacks. As the system lacks regulations and is decentralized, it also makes it difficult to prosecute Bitcoin- related crimes due to that lack of regulatory framework and procedure.

In relation to this, Bitcoin can also be an avenue for online exchange of illegal items. There is a high degree of anonymity, making Bitcoin very attractive and lucrative to criminals. Case in point, is the example of The Silk Road website which was uncovered in 2014, to be an online marketplace to transact illegal drugs, p*rnography, weapons and other illegal items. We still don’t know if this was the intent from the start when The Silk Road was created, but the fact of the matter is, it snowballed into that kind of illegal platform, and other websites can and have been following suite. This has damaged Bitcoin’s reputation and usefulness. If these dubious uses of Bitcoin outweigh the legitimate purposes over time, and authorities are not effectively able to put a stop to the mischiefs, then the entire system faces marginalization, and possibly obsolescence.

Another disadvantage of Bitcoin is that it consumes vast amounts of electricity. Bitcoin emits over 22 megatons of carbon dioxide annually, and this is comparable to the total emissions of Las Vegas and Vienna(Business Line 2019). Furthermore, some of the biggest Bitcoin mining companies are based in Chile, where most power comes from dirty coal plants. The emitted horrific smog makes the environment unsafe, even for healthy adults. The questions on sustainability and environmental hazards definitely come into question with regards to Bitcoin.

Lastly, another big drawback of Bitcoin is its lack of standardized policy for charge-backs and refunds, unlike credit card and online payments. Bitcoin’s decentralized structure makes it impossible for any consumer to dispute another user, nor can they conveniently request any refund if goods are not delivered. There have also been reported cases wherein Bitcoin users simply forgot their passwords and were unable to ever reset their access. Up to today, they have not been able to monetize their Bitcoin holdings because they cannot obtain their password because they have no central body to go to regarding their problem.

We think that since Bitcoin is the innovator, it is most likely to be potentially replaced by newer cryptocurrencies. Newer cryptocurrencies of today have quite similar structures, but with notable improvements. Over time, and as history has shown us, one or more of these alternatives could potentially replace Bitcoin as the world’s most dominant cryptocurrency. This will of course negatively impact Bitcoin’s value.

The Economics of Bitcoin: Supply and Demand

The alleged creator/s of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, designed the cryptocurrency to have a maximum supply of only 21 Million bitcoins. As discussed in earlier parts of this paper, new bitcoins are created during the mining process. This involves several computers validating bitcoin transactions and then adding them to the blockchain. Miners are paid newly created bitcoins, as well as existing bitcoins arising from transaction fees. The number of new bitcoins created is halved after every 210,000 new blocks added. In the beginning, the reward was 50 bitcoins, then 25 bitcoins, and now 12.50 bitcoins. The reward is expected to decrease to 6.25 bitcoins by May 2020. The 21 Millionth bitcoin is expected to be mined in the year 2140 (Barone 2019). This finite number of bitcoins gives the cryptocurrency real scarcity. Even now, with new bitcoins still being mined, the effects of scarcity are already felt. People are buying bitcoin faster than miners are able to supply.

Although bitcoin is supposed to act like a medium of exchange for goods and services, the cryptocurrency’s value is based on real world global currencies. As of this writing, the value of one bitcoin is trading at around USD 7,200- USD 7,300. However, it was previously as high as around USD 19,000 on December 11, 2017. Because of its appreciating value in the last few years, portfolio investors bought Bitcoin to trade and profit from capital gains instead of using it as a medium of exchange (Business Insider 2019). Bitcoin in itself has become a normal good; demand increases / supply decreases when price is low, and demand decreases / supply increases when price is high.

The graph below shows the supply and demand curves of Bitcoin over the years. The supply curve is constantly shifting to the right as new bitcoins are mined. The demand curve also follows, but not always by the same degree. Equilibrium price at each year is always different due to price volatility. Bitcoin prices started to pick up in early 2017, eventually hitting its highest prices in late 2017 to early 2018. By 2019, Bitcoin prices have gone down, but still higher than where it started. In reality, Bitcoin prices are fluctuating every second. The fluctuation in price is brought about by several factors: Faith in Bitcoin as the currency of the future and changes in Bitcoin’s perceived value have helped support demand, which increases equilibrium price. However, the entry of other substitute cryptocurrencies and government intervention may have influenced previous holders to sell off their Bitcoin holdings, which decreases equilibrium price.

The next graph shows Bitcoin’s expected supply and demand curves after all 21 Million bitcoins are mined in 2140. Supply will be an almost vertical line at the quantity of 21 Million and the demand curve will be the only one shifting, still under the same factors (Iwamura et al. 2014). While this supply curve is inelastic, it is not perfectly inelastic because sellers of Bitcoin will still choose to hold onto their Bitcoins rather than sell at low prices. This also has to do with Bitcoin’s artificial “price floor” set by the miners.

Assuming perfect competition where there are no opportunities to make a profit, a selling firm will price its product equal to the marginal cost of creating one additional unit. Similarly, Bitcoin miners account for the energy costs incurred when mining Bitcoins. Their minimum or “floor” price for selling Bitcoins should at least cover the energy cost per unit of Bitcoin. This marginal cost curve is the basis of Bitcoin’s supply curve. When Bitcoin started, average costs for mining were lower because Proof of Work problems were easier, and the Bitcoin reward was larger. Over time, Proof of Work problems became more complicated, which required more computers to solve. The Bitcoin reward also started to decrease, which resulted in increasing costs per unit of Bitcoin. Miners would rather shutdown than sell their Bitcoins below average variable cost. New owners of Bitcoin who buy them from miners are then forced to hold onto their Bitcoins until prices go even higher, before they can sell them at a profit.

New developments in Bitcoin mining technology may help in reducing the energy costs associated in mining. A Forbes article talks about how researchers from various organizations and universities are looking into the use of photonic-chips, optical computers, and new encryption protocols to replace existing mining methods (Bambrough 2019). If these new technologies will be successfully adopted by miners, it will reduce average costs and allow miners to sell their Bitcoins at lower prices, at the same time, allow new buyers to enter, driving down equilibrium price.

What lies ahead for Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a definitely a breakthrough in technology and has opened the world to infinite possibilities; however, the problem always has been in the general execution of a great idea or invention. Bitcoin has blazed the trail for cryptocurrencies to find their place in the financial world, but Bitcoin, as what it presents itself to be today, remains inadequate in so many aspects. As mentioned earlier, it is still prone to many problems, and some problems are even yet to be determined. In other words, Bitcoin is a prototype that will constantly be refined, and we have seen since its emergence that more and more advanced versions of Bitcoin-like prototypes have come to compete in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

If one were to compare Bitcoin to an actual currency, Bitcoin has no intrinsic value and physical use, and its price moves in reality, based on speculation. We would go as far as to say it is a form of an emperor’s new clothes – influenced and hyped by many “experts” in the field and also because it is a trailblazer of its kind, however again, having no real value. It may not be long before someone calls its bluff, as there is much debate on how long Bitcoin shall remain relevant. We do not think it will become something ubiquitous, such as the internet. Perhaps Bitcoin’s backbone, Blockchain, holds more potential and can be studied further for applications in various industries. We think this should be more of the focus. As written previously, there are many other technologies born out from Blockchain, like e-wallet apps that may hold more relevance and purpose.

Bitcoin will only continue to thrive if a considerable and sustained number of people accept and use it, or if Bitcoin one day truly becomes intertwined and part of society’s daily transactions on a global scale. It is highly possible that it may eventually just die a natural death. If, or when the time comes that Bitcoin becomes obsolete, Bitcoin holders may find themselves selling their positions at significantly low prices at a major loss, or may not be able to take any profit at all; thus, not realizing any monetary gains. That is actually another foreshadowing socio-economic problem – Bitcoin trading and arbitrage has become accessible to everyone, but the reality is that not everyone who trades Bitcoin truly understand its complexities. Even mom-and-pop investors have jumped onto the bandwagon, possibly signaling an imminent Bitcoin bubble economy. Some economists and technocrats warn that Bitcoin is on the brink of disaster. When the bubble does burst, who will be left carrying the bag?

Moreover, while advocates of Bitcoin say that Bitcoin in today’s world will benefit those in the “bottom of the pyramid,” or “help the world’s unbanked enter the financial system”, Bitcoin is still prone to many flaws and opens up a Pandora’s Box of money laundering, fraud, theft, hacking, intrusion to data privacy and creates a market place for illegal transactions. This is indeed is what has happened since Bitcoin’s birth. The very people it was intended to help may end up being the victims in the end. Nevertheless, like all new technologies, Bitcoin is inevitable. Currently, it is something that cannot be completely stopped, but it should be regulated and monitored. There should be meticulous laws and anticipated laws that cut across international borders, specifically catering to Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies and related financial activities. However, it is Bitcoin’s unregulated nature that makes it so attractive, and more regulation may veer users away from Bitcoin. We suppose that is the direction in which some governments are going.

Recently, another crypto controversy has been making a big buzz. Facebook has come up with the latest cryptocurrency called Libra that like Bitcoin and other cryptos, also makes use of Blockchain. It is supposedly different from Bitcoin because Libra is not an alternative legal tender or currency. It is a means of payment backed up by physical currency, as in backed up by money in the bank. Also, if one would like to monetize their earnings, they can simply withdraw the money. Unlike in Bitcoin where a Bitcoin holder will still have to sell his Bitcoin. The Libra Association is also composed of 100 companies; thus, the ledger cannot be changed. However, this again is yet to be seen. Like the early origins of Bitcoin, it was initially met with skepticism at first, but has come a long way since then (Finley & Barbet 2019).

Written by:

Aguirre, Encarnacion, Qichao, Marcial and Sayson

List of References

Bambrough, Billy. (2019, November 26). Bitcoin’s Ultimate Price Floor Could Soon Be Destroyed. Retrieved December 3, 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2019/11/26/bitcoins-price-floor-could-soon-be-destroyed/#49955b2e6ecd.

Barone, A. (2019, October 22). What Happens to Bitcoin After All 21 Million Are Mined? Retrieved October 22, 2019, from https://www.investopedia.com/tech/what-happens-bitcoin-after-21-million-mined/.

Business Insider. (2019, December 3). Markets Insider – Bitcoin Price (BTC – USD). Retrieved December 3, 2019, from https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/btc-usd.

Frankenfield, J. (2019, October 26). What is Bitcoin? Retrieved December 4, 2019, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bitcoin.asp.

Finley, K. & Barber, G. (2019, September 07). The WIRED Guide to Blockchain. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/guide-blockchain/

Saleem, Shaikh (2018, September 13). The 2008 global meltdown and the birth of Bitcoin. Retrieved from https://www.livemint.com/Money/YTYMYUD7dytGK5PGSpdRTN/The-2008-global-meltdown-and-the-birth-of-Bitcoin.html

Iwamura, M. & Kitamura, Y. & Matsumoto, T. & Saito, K. (2014, October 25). Can We Stabilize the Price of a Cryptocurrency?: Understanding the Design of Bitcoin and Its Potential to Compete with Central Bank Money. SSRN Electronic Journal. 10.2139/ssrn.2519367.

Andreessen, Marc. (2014, January 22). Why Bitcoin Matters. Retrieved from http://blog.pmarca.com/2014/01/22/why-bitcoin-matters/

What is Bitcoin – History, How It Works, Pros & Cons. www.moneycrashers.com. Accessed December 1, 2019

Bitcoin usage creates over 22 megatones of CO2 emissions. Business Ethic 17 July 2019. www.theindubusinesslines.com. Accessed December 1, 2019.

https://thepaypers.com/online-payments/alipayhk-gcash-launch-blockchain-powered-cross-border-remittance-service/773709-3

Our Reason for Being

We were asked to ponder on the reason for our existence and the nature of man without resorting to academic or philosophical explanations. I simply wrote down organically what came to mind. In the last ten years of my life, I would say that the most pivotal encounters I have gone through were the products of three simple things, namely: kindness, profound literary pieces, and faith in a Higher Being. There have been many life lessons I’ve learned, but I distinctly remember the following events that had the power to change the way I viewed people and the purpose of our existence.

My first story is about an act of kindness by a total stranger that convinced me that the innate nature of people is goodness. There are many people I hold dear whose kindness has made all the difference, but when a random stranger is genuinely nice to you, it is an experience to treasure. This happened when I was still living in New York City in 2008, and I had just graduated from college. To make the long story short, I found myself in the middle of nowhere – somewhere between the outskirts of New York and New Jersey because I had missed my stop on this interstate bus. I had no mobile phone, and to my horror, had only $5 in my wallet. There were no cars or taxicabs in sight. To make matters worse, night was setting in, and it started to snow heavily. I walked over to this elementary school nearby, hoping to use their phone to call my aunt to come pick me up. Sadly, the school was closed already for the day. I looked around and saw there was a town across some streets away which I walked over to. I was getting quite scared, but I was hoping a kind soul from one of the houses would let me use their phone. The first home that I knocked on, an elderly woman opened the door. I politely tried to explain my situation. She simply looked at me from head to toe, gave a quick sorry and closed the door shut. I knocked or rang the doorbell at three more houses, but the doors were not even opened. I knew there must be people inside because the lights indoors were turned on. At that point, I started to feel panicky. I started thinking that “okay, I will have to spend the night outside in the snow.” As I walked on, thinking about my battle plan, a white minivan drove by and suddenly stopped. My instinct was to run, but the driver’s window rolled down, and a very kind looking woman called out to me. She asked me if I was okay and what was the matter. I peered into the van through the opened window and saw there were two young children inside. I quickly concluded in my head that she was some suburban mother and most probably not someone who had plans of hurting me. I took a leap of faith. I told her what happened and just started crying. I’ll never forget what happened next. She told me to come inside the van, and she brought me back to New York City. When I got out of her van, I thanked her profusely. I wanted to get her name and address so I can send her a thank you gift, but I thought she might find it inappropriate to give such details to a stranger. What a wonderful Good Samaritan woman. Without any agenda, perhaps a little fear especially since her children were present, but mostly compassion, she reached out to me, a total stranger in need. Ever since that kind act, I told myself that I would do the same when the time came, like the movie, Pay It Forward. With regards to the people who mistrusted or did not help me, I think it is just a testament that we don’t live in a utopian society. The survival instinct of the human being is evolutionary, one of self-preservation. We can’t fault their actions because we live in a world full of crime. If I were in their situation, I am unsure if I would have helped out myself. However, I realized that sometimes you have to have faith in people, and they can surprise you in positive ways. At the same time, we must never lose our sensitivity chip and discern when people truly need our help. I believe that for every bunch of people that are not kind or indifferent, there will always be one person who will help you. Despite the evils in the world, people are born naturally good. However they change along the way is a product of nurture, surroundings and experiences. I am forever grateful for that mystery American mother and always wonder what would have happened to me if she had not been driving by at that very moment.

Fast forward to 2011, and I was back in Manila working as a banker. I was going through a tough phase in my life then and felt like a failure. A coworker of mine recommended the book “The Purpose Driven Life.” I am a not religious, but I love to read so I gave it a go. I would read one out of the forty chapters a day. To my surprise, my faith and hope gradually grew with each passing chapter. I was feeling at the end of my rope, but after reading the book, I was enlightened. I realized that I just had to hold onto my faith no matter what troubles came my way and to never stop believing that God has a plan for each of us. The key take home message for me was that our lives are meant to serve the Lord. When we learn to become selfless and put God at the center of our lives, there we find the real purpose of our existence, and everything else becomes trivial. I believe the best way we can serve God is by helping uplift the lives of others in our own way, in our everyday lives even during the most mundane of situations. It is not easy, but I tried my best to really be there for my family and friends, to be kind to the household help, my coworkers, strangers, and most importantly I willed myself to forgive enemies. I never re-read the book, but as time went on, I would revert to the book in my mind during struggles and big decisions and remember that despite whatever consequences, we should continue living out our purpose. A purpose driven life is a life lived for God and others. A hedonistic, self-serving life is no life at all.

My third story had truly changed my life and its result has given me an even deeper purpose. As I mentioned previously, I am not a religious person, but though the years, I’d like to think my spirituality has strengthened. By the time 2015 rolled in, more than half of mybarkadawas already married, and most had kids. I was 29 years old, single, angry, betrayed and extremely distrustful of the opposite sex, although in my heart I still always wanted a family. I had lost my way, but I continued to fervently pray each day for guidance and healing, even doing novenas. Once again I thought of the book,The Purpose Driven Life,and it inspired me to recalibrate the energy I was devoting to useless things to the Man Upstairs. I also learned to let go and shut away my demons. The culminating point of my journey to self-discovery was when a friend told me about the miracles of Quiapo Church, and so we went together. My prayer that day was that I asked God, if it was His Will, for me to meet a man of His choice. I knew that I could not go wrong if it was He who chose. Three days later, I was out with friends, and there was another group in the same place. One of the guys there was a long-time acquaintance of mine and a good friend of my older brother. We reconnected, and I can happily say, the rest is history. We got married in 2017 and now have a daughter. I truly believe that my Faith had saved me, not only because I met the right person, but I had become molded into a better person by the time I met him. Despite its occasional hardships, motherhood has been the greatest gift and has truly deepened my sense of purpose. Today, everything I do is for my husband and daughter’s well-being, happiness and future. I hope to have more children and shower them with all the love I can give. I cannot think of a more meaningful and purposeful life.

Tales from the Trading Floor

“The Dark Days” – is the term of sardonic endearment that a close mom friend coined to describe the first 100 days with a newborn for a first-time mom. Sure, having a baby is exciting and wonderful, but what people don’t really drill down to you is the exhaustion that comes with it. I can still vividly recall the sleepless nights when our baby girl was only a couple of weeks old. She breast fed round the clock every two hours during the day and every hour at night. She would also suddenly wake up or cry in the dead of the night, and we’d try everything to soother her – breastfeed, change her diaper, check her temperature, sing made-up lullabies, play or rock her to sleep. By the time the sun rose, I had turned into a sleepless zombie. It was the same pattern day after day after day. It came to a point that I didn’t shower for days because I’d opt to sleep instead of choosing to shower when our baby slept. Coupled with haywire hormones and all the changes your body is undergoing, it is enough to make one feel off kilter. I’m glad my husband intervened; took me out from time to time until I eventually got the pep back in my step. The good news is, around the 4th month onward, it noticeably gets better. I remember our baby started sleeping through the night, and at the same time, me and my husband as new parents were getting the hang of things. We are very hands on, and on her first year, we had traveled everywhere together. I’ve never felt more fulfilled and looking forward to having more kids again soon.

The trials and turmoil are all part of having children, but what I did not expect was the treatment I was to experience at work as now a working mother. Perhaps those were the real Dark Days. I gave birth via emergency C-Section in August 2017, and so by Philippine law, I had 78 calendar days of paid maternity leave from work (60 calendar days for normal delivery). I was anxious about returning to work, but as D-Day drew near, I had to get it together and make the necessary preparations at home (breast milk supply, Yaya, baby paraphernalia, CCTV, etc).

By November 2017, I was back at work now armed with my daily breast milk pumping gear (Medela electric pump, charger, funnels, Medela bottles, haaka, ice pack, ice bag, zip lock bags). Since the nature of my work required us to be taking multiple calls from our clients and executing their orders in a matter of seconds, it was understood that there would be no breast milk pumping at our desks during these hours. On some occasions, I had no time to go to the restroom, especially during busy mornings, but I actually liked the fast-paced, hustle and bustle environment. Time went by quickly. Only during off-market hours, the other new moms and I would gather in the conference room with the makeshift curtains hung, pump away and share stories. When I had long client calls in the provincial areas, I learned the art of pumping in the car with a nursing cover. Pretty soon, I adapted to my new routine of work, mom life and round the clock pumping. It was tough, but I was determined to make everything work out.

New Mom in the Corporate Jungle

For first time moms who have experienced returning to the corporate world full time after having a baby, one would know that your world gets turned upside down. You find yourself juggling many responsibilities. As a new mom, you are fatigued everyday, still navigating through motherhood and the needs of your family. At the same time, you are expected to prioritize work too, no excuses.

I am grateful that my boss, teammates and actually many co-workers were understanding and supportive, but not everyone in the office showed the same bit of courtesy. There was some camaraderie, yet the pervading office culture was one of crab mentality and gossip. The best solution I found was to simply go about my own business, work smart and not participate in office drama, but let’s just say there will always be people who choose to get into your business and make things unnecessarily difficult for everyone.

In the Western world, especially in the United States where I used to study and work, people are cautious about the things they say and do because they can be held liable for harassment, discrimination or what not. In the Philippines, it is typical Filipino culture for people to simply blurt out what’s on their mind, and those on the receiving end are expected to not be pikon or sensitive. Thus my early months, I got unsolicited comments and advice about my postpartum body and how to be a new mom. Luckily, I returned to work with a relatively thin framework. I wasn’t exercising or dieting, but it was probably because I had a good and active pregnancy prior, plus all the hundreds of calories naturally burned from breast milk pumping. Many comments were accusatory though- that I was too thin and only concerned about myself because I was presumed to be crash dieting and not making breastmilk production a priority for my baby. Then conversely, there were also comments that I was fat. I’ve been told by a senior officer more than once that my hips were still wide; I had bilbil, and that I should be doing crunches. So ano ba talaga? It was strange. Damned for being thin; damned for being big. Accused of pumping too much; accused of not pumping enough. It was annoying, but what else can you do but shrug it all off. I also refrained from talking about my baby much, for fear of being perceived as incompetent or not focused at work. It is different for new fathers however.

There also were comments and actions by senior officers themselves that were so petty, to the point of bullying. At work, they made rude and parinig comments directed at the new moms that “pumping past 3 months was a waste of time.” There were also instances that while us moms were inside the curtained conference room in the middle of pumping, they would knock and tell us to leave because they needed to use the room, even if there were other rooms available. We didn’t budge though. Sometimes they would announce loudly that the pumped breast milk stored in the pantry refrigerator was taking up all the space, even when they really just wanted to store something bulky like a whole cake or slabs of packed meat. There was a fellow new mom who was even prohibited by her female boss to stop pumping during breaks because she’d rather have her do work. I wonder if they knew about Republic Act 10028 – that allows and supports breast feeding moms to pump during work. Well that officemate eventually resigned and transferred to a new company.

There were two specific comments by senior officers I also could not forget. The first was, upon her hearing that a mutual friend of ours recently gave birth via normal delivery, a senior officer said to me tactlessly, “talo ka pala e, Cesarian ka lang!” I replied in a quiet tone to mask my surprise, “I didn’t choose to be CS. It was an emergency.” After saying this, I realized that I wasn’t even supposed to defend myself. Every birthing story is different, sacred and special. The other memorable comment said to me happened on the second week of December 2017 which was my second month back from maternity leave. Another senior officer passed my workstation and said to me condescendingly and loud enough for everyone nearby to hear: “You have been reduced to just baby production.” It wasn’t said as a joke at all, and my first reaction was to take offense. I used to think I was on his favorable side, but ever since I got pregnant, I noticed everything changed.

Too Much

I swallowed my pride each time, and didn’t talk about these comments at work, except to my husband and close friends. I knew it was most prudent to just let many things pass. It is part of working in a high pressure job with many clashing alpha personalities. However, the time came when I knew enough was enough, that comments were not just harmless comments, but proof that I was in a workplace where there was no growth for me any longer.

The tipping point came in March 2018 when my boss, my teammates and I were completely disrespected by that same senior officer. Now this senior officer is known to be quite a character with a temper, but he had blown things out of proportion with our team. It began when he got angry at one of my teammates because of miscommunications during their 4-day business trip. When they returned to the office, he lashed out at all of us. I am unsure where his misplaced rage was coming from, but that day, he made it his personal mission to humiliate us and make us say out loud, verbatim, one-by-one what he wanted us to say, as though we were children. It was disturbing, and I was shocked because none of us performed poorly to receive that kind of thrashing. I defended that teammate whom he insulted, called names and belittled the most, and as a result, he retorted that I was worse than him. I tried to stand up for myself, and instead he said I was lying and that I haven’t been doing my job anyhow. I was deeply offended because I know how much I take work seriously. His accusations were also not timely accurate. Had he forgotten that I had given birth in August and was on maternity leave until November with one month left to go for 2017? He also could not fault my work ethic prior to giving birth. When I was pregnant, I didn’t make excuses. I didn’t ask for special treatment. I came to work during declared holidays as part of the skeletal team because it was my turn. I have the numbers, attendance and clients call reports to prove how I continued working the best I could despite morning sickness and the other pregnancy challenges – things that most of the male population find trivial. This was the first time I had been so unjustly disrespected at work. I can say my teammates felt the same way. It was a really horrible experience that our boss had to report the incident up to the Group Department Head.

I guess our Group Head reprimanded this senior officer, as days later he apologized to my teammates. As for me, his form of apology was to tell me that I received good feedback from the other departments we work with, and I was to “keep up the good work.” Yet that was it. I wasn’t surprised. I thought about filing an official HR report, but who would corroborate my story? For everyone, there was too much at stake to rock the boat.

Negativity is Contagious

Months went on before I came to fully realize that I didn’t want to be in a work environment with so much negativity and pettiness. Negativity is highly contagious, and I didn’t want that kind of energy around my new family. Why stay when these senior officers are not whom I aspire to be at all, years down the road. I have been employed with different companies before and have been working in the corporate world for 10 years, but it was only in that institution where unprofessional and disrespectful behavior was not only tolerated but spearheaded by upper management itself. I also knew that it would take a very long time to move up the corporate ladder if management had irrevocable set prejudices. It was sad because I liked the work and many coworkers, but I knew it was time to move on. All the hard work, all the time spent away from my child– working there was just not worth it.

As courtesy to my boss, I let him know ahead of time of my plans of resigning, so that he can find a replacement I can train before Ieaving. I had planned my timeline accordingly so that I would be eligible for the annual increase. To my dismay however, my last day was pushed earlier by the same senior officer who berated us. I found myself suddenly ineligible for the annual increase by (coincidentally?) – just one day. I thought to myself that if I had simply tendered my resignation without any due notice, I would have gotten my annual increase. Instead I tried to be the bigger person, and even that was taken away from me. My costly mistake.

I left the company when my daughter was a year old. My boss, teammates, coworker friends and the Group Head who all made my years at the company meaningful despite the troubles, were present at my despidida. In a span of 2 months, six other female employees, including the mother who was not allowed to pump, resigned as well. From what I've heard, the mass exodus continues on today.

In my previous company before this one, I felt valued. Even the Chairman and President from the previous company spoke to me one-on-one, asking me to stay on and explained why. I wanted to stay indeed, but I knew I would regret it more if I never tried exploring this new opportunity. Now, after everything has been said and done, I look back in hindsight and appreciate the advice that was given. I was a little depressed afterwards and carried cynicism in my heart but to no regrets. If this experience has taught me anything – it is that discrimination, sexism and bullying in the workplace is very real, but we shouldn’t deem it as normal. It should not be tolerated or instigated, especially from those in positions of power. We should speak up if it is done to us or others. To mitigate this, there should be stricter labor laws on harassment and more open, convenient and protected avenues or lines of communication between employees and management. I wonder about other employees and working mothers all over the country and the the world who have it worse and have no options. They remain voiceless, and discrimination remains the status quo.

The Bottom Line

From a bottom line and productivity stand point, I get it. An employer does not favor their female employees getting pregnant because in simple terms, it means paid maternity leaves and less focus and priority on work to care for the baby and household. That’s why such a thing as a glass ceiling for female employees exists in the work place, but it does not mean it is not possible for a woman to keep both a career and a family. There will always be sacrifices and comprises that have to be made, but institutions, especially big corporations and those in highly professional industries can do their part and encourage this through their own internal policies and culture.In the long run, if an employer adequately takes care of their employees, they end up staying. Less attrition equates to less people having to be hired and trained over and over again.

Take a step back to hopefully take 2 steps forward

I could have moved to another company, but I chose to work for the family business first. I also took the time to take further certifications related to my industry and started taking my masters in business administration. I'd like to still have a career and may eventually return to the corporate world, but I am a little bit traumatized that I will be treated as I had been before when I have more children.

I have more time for my family now- my old and new family. In half a year, my daughter will be turning 2 years. Ever since I resigned then, I can truly say that she has blossomed. I can’t describe it, but she just has this glow and seems happier and more confident overall. I’d like to believe there is a direct correlation with my having more time with her versus before, leaving her with the Yaya everyday. Studies have shown that the ages of 0-3 are the most crucial phases of development in children. I don’t want those years to quickly pass me by, only for me to feel regretful that I wasn’t participative. Well, only time will tell how our children turn out. We can only do our best and pray for the best.

The Day I layed down my political pen

It has been a month since the votes have been cast, and the ballots have been canvassed. It is now official that the new President of the Philippines is Mr. Rodrigo Duterte.

It is with a heavy heart that I accept and must welcome this new administration. I believe it is a great tragedy for the country, but the Filipino people elected him, and so be it. We will have to learn the hard way again to see that it was a grave mistake.

Below message was sent to me by a colleague. It was written by his former professor in Ateneo de Manila, Mr. Ron Capinding, as follows below. It pretty much sums up what is also in my heart.

With that, I have nothing left to say, but to lay down my political pen for now.

***Butihing Mar Roxas,Salamat! Itong laban mo ang bumuhay sa nananamlay kong kagitingan at pagmamahal sa bayan. Sa dami ng mga ninais at pangarap ko, walang halong pagkamakasarili itong pagmithi kong ikaw ang magwagi.Baka sa 2022, mas handa na sa iyo ang bansa. Tutal, bata ka pa, kung ikukumpara ngayon sa inyong lima.Kailangan ko ring magtiwala na baka nga mabuti na rin itong si Meyor muna, dahil kailangan na talagang masubok at masulit itong hakang ang tulad niya ang maaaring magdulot ng pagbabago,na kung ikaw ang nanalo at hindi pa nasusubok ang hakang ito, buong termino mong bubunuin ang multo ng posibleng hatid niyang pagbabago. Baka hindi mo rin matamisin ang iyong pagkapanalo.Naiisip ko rin noon, kung sakaling manalo ka, mapapagod ka talaga sa pagpapatahan sa mga tagahanga ng iba. Maaawa rin ako sa ‘yo dahil parang hinding-hindi ka mapapalakpakan o sasabayan anuman ang ‘yong mapatunayan.Kaya tanggapin na lamang natin nang matiwasay ang resulta nitong halalan. Palagay ko, para na rin ito sa iyong kapakanan. Sa taong marangal, mayroon lamang tagumpay o natutuhan, wala talagang kabiguan.Darating ang araw na kakandidato kang muli. Sana naman at ipangako mo sana. Nakikinita kong mas magiging matamis sa iyo ang pagkakataong ‘yondahil wala ka nang mga paratang na bubunuin,dahil hindi mo na tungkulin ang lahat mong kabutihang gagawin,dahil nangungulila na ang lahat sa tulad mong magaling,at kaginoohan at kadalubhasaan na ang talagang hahanap-hanapin.Marami-rami rin kaming naantig mo; huwag mo sanang panghinayangan ang paglalakbay mong ito. Hindi man pagkapangulo ang hinantungan, sa kalaunang pamumuno mo pa rin ka namumuhunan. Ginoong Mar,huwag ka sanang magbabagotulad ng pananalig ko sa iyo,at naniniwala akong mananatili kang makabayan at disenteng taosa kabila nitong napipintong pagbabago at paninibago.Mabuhay ka, Mar Roxas! Maraming maraming salamat!At mabuhay ang Pilipinas!