Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE Philippines bagged the golden award for excellence of quality and innovation for its pavilion in the Expo Zaragoza in Spain.

The Gold Prize, the highest award given to a participating country, cited the quality of the Philippine pavilion’s internal and external décor and its functionality that has high relevance to the exposition’s theme of “Water and Sustainable Development.”

More than 100 countries participated in the Expo Zaragoza which attracted six million visitors, making it the year’s most important exhibition.

The country’s delegation included the Department of Tourism (DoT), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Tourism Secretary Ace Durano said “this recognition is truly well-deserved as our country’s wealthy aquatic life has been captured by the equally rich imagination of our fellowmen.”

The design theme of the pavilion presented several unique grassroots perspectives on harnessing aquatic resources for a country’s sustainability.

“While other countries utilized ultra modern technology, we chose to highlight more community-involved practices as well as natural land irrigation, aquatic recreation and marine resources preservation,” he said.

This concept was expressed in the design of the pavilion, which consisted of almost a thousand crystal-like bubbles, which contained artifacts about the Philippines’ aquatic culture and history.

Durano highlighted one of those artifacts, saying “we have the whale shark sanctuary in Donsol which has propelled a simple village into a global tourism destination.”

Reef preservation in Leyte and Palawan, pawikan conservation project in Bataan and coastal management in Bohol, Camarines Sur, Pangasinan, Negros and Zambales, are the other projects they chose to highlight in the event, Durano added.

Eduardo Jarque, Jr., DoT Undersecretary for Planning and Promotions, added: “We knew we had a winner when we walked in the pavilion. It was a very cerebral and unique design that offered a fresh perspective of the Philippines.”

Jarque commended the design team composed of Architect Ed Calma, museum curator Marian Roces, Baby Imperial and Coco Anne of B&C Design, and Shoku Matsumoto for the cool lighting.

“The three-month Expo was also a very successful tourism exchange for the country with almost 8,000 guests visiting our pavilion daily,” said Domingo Ramon Enerio, Tourism Attache for London and Deputy Commissioner General of the Philippine delegation.

Enerio said that several highlights of the event included a travel exchange, which featured a number of Spain’s top travel wholesalers; raffle draws that gave away trips to the Philippines’ top destinations.

Other activities in the pavilion that created media frenzy were the meeting of the two mascots, Fluvi and Filippo, and the series of marketing events dubbed “Filipinas Te Esperra Nights,” where top travel agents and operators were invited.

ABS-CBN News

Tina Akerly doesn’t hide the fact that she and her family used to live in a squatter’s area in Carmona, Cavite.

That was 20 years ago.

Now, Akerly has made it big in the real estate business in Melbourne, Australia.

“Kasi nga tatay ko namatay ng maaga, napunta kami sa squatter and during martial law giniba kami doon at na-relocate kami sa Carmona, Cavite,” she said.

Akerley said she had little in life and had to walk to school since her family could not afford money for transportation.

Amid the hardships, Akerly struggled. And so during in the 1980s, she went to Australia on a tourist visa. Luckily, she landed a job as an electronics technician.

With her $500 savings, Akerly was able to open a store and later on put up a restaurant, a video store and a travel agency. Unfortunately, the businesses she put up did not succeed.

“Siguro binigyan din ako ni Lord ng mga mali noon para one day maituro ko rin sa tao hindi lang ‘yung success ko kundi pati kung saan ako nagkamali,” said Akerly.

She found her luck when she entered the real estate business. Even without formal training on selling properties, she succeeded.

Now, Akerly owns more than 20 houses in Victoria state.

Despite her success, Akerly has managed to remain with her feet on the ground. She has also imparted her knowledge to other Filipinos wanting to start a business.

She said this is her way of repaying the blessings that God has given her.

ABS-CBN News

So who says working at McDonald’s is all about flipping burger patties and serving French fries?

Certainly not Filipino Mary Margaret Yu of Davao City and Fil-Canadian Candido Revilles, two McDonald’s employees who won in the second ‘Voice of McDonald’s’ singing competition, an “American Idol”-inspired extravaganza that was opened by the multinational fastfood company to its 1.6 million employees in 118 countries worldwide.

They may not have won the grand prize–that honor went to Natercia Pintor, a McDonald’s employee from Portugal–but their victories were impressive enough to win the hearts of Filipinos worldwide.

The Filipinos’ victory was announced in a press release from McDonalds posted at the PR Newswire website (http://media.netpr.pl).

Yu won second place, bagging the $10,000 cash prize while third placer Revilles pocketted $5,000. It was a well-deserved triumph for all three winners, who each had to compete against nearly 3,000 rivals from 53,000 countries.

14 ‘Voice of McDonald’s’ finalists earlier went on an all-expense paid trip to Orlando, Florida in the United States for a week of preparation, coaching and competition. On Monday, April 14, the finalists were trimmed down to the final three-way showdown between Pintor, Yu and Revilles.

Pintor wowed the jurors, along with 13,000 people in the audience with her rousing rendition of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls”.

She received the grand prize of $25,000 in cash as well as a trip for two to the “American Idol” Season 7 finale in Los Angeles next month. Then, in a surprise announcement, Grammy Award-winning songwriter and producer Rodney “Darkchld” Jerkins said that Pinor would get the chance to record a demo tape in his Los Angeles music studio at Interscope Records.

“I have such strong emotions right now — so grateful to McDonald’s, so proud to represent Portugal, and very happy,” said Pintor. “This is a dream come true.”

Pintor, Yu and Revilles sang before an audience of McDonald’s restaurant owners from around the world. The panel of celebrity judges included multi-platinum and Grammy Award-winning artist and songwriter Ne-Yo; Jody Gerson, co-president, Sony/ATV Music Publishing; and Ken Hertz, senior partner, Goldring, Hertz and Lichtenstein, LLP.

“I was blown away by the talent. They brought the house down,” said Ne-Yo. “It was really, really difficult to chose the winner. I applaud McDonald’s for doing this,” said Ne-Yo.

According to the official McDonald’s website, http://www.mcdonalds.com, it is the leading global foodservice retailer with more than 30,000 local restaurants in more than 100 countries. More than 75% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by franchisees and affiliates.

For more information on Pintor, Yu and Revilles, as well as the other contestants, go to https://mcdonalds.com/usa/voice.html

ABS-CBN News

These days, Lady Luck is probably smiling from ear to ear on businessman Sebastian “Steve” Tamayo.

Managing several outlets of his famous chain of restaurants–Tamayo’s and other businesses, including a consultancy firm, a flower shop and catering services, Steve considers himself as one of the luckiest people in the world.

But life was not all a bed of roses for this self-styled restaurant owner. He, like, many of us, had been knocked down and hit rock bottom a couple of times.

Humble beginnings

Steve was brought up by the Tamayo couple of Hagonoy, Bulacan to be a hard working lad. Coming from a middle-class family, at an early age, he was taught by his parents, particularly his mother, to help in household chores.

“I was only in grade six when I helped in the chores in the house. I mostly helped my mother in the preparation and cooking native delicacies for our small carinderia (eatery) in Bulacan then,” he recalled.

Being the 11th child of a brood of 12, Steve said his father was paralyzed then so he had to help with the chores, along with his other siblings.

Along with some of his older brothers, Steve would fish at a nearby lake at night. Proceeds from the sale of any fish caught made up his allowance the next day. He promised himself that the hardships he had experienced that day would all change someday with hard work, and determination.

When he reached adolescence, Steve decided to stay with his relatives while attending Marcelo H. del Pilar High School in Malolos, Bulacan. Some of his brothers and sisters had families of their own at that time.

In exchange for the free board and lodging, he helped in the cooking and other household chores.

“I was attending school and surviving with only P5 a week,” he said, noting the money came from what he earned from fishing.

To make matters worse, the Tamayo patriarch died while Steve was in second year high school. But that tragic event did not diminish the perseverance of the Bulakenyo.

After finishing high school, he immediately went to Manila to pursue a college degree, taking up Commerce, major in accounting, at the University of the East in Recto, Manila at the same time took up typing course.

While studying, he got a job as a janitor at then Hong Kong-Shanghai Bank in PAL building on Ayala Avenue, Makati.

“I was assigned at the midnight shift there. We were assigned to clean eight floors,” he said, being assigned to different chores every week. He was even tasked to scrub the dirty toilet bowls, a job he was not embarrassed to admit.

“I would really make sure that the toilet bowls were cleaned,” he said.

Steve also managed to land a job as a part time waiter at former Silahis Hotel-Playboy Club Manila through the help of co-bed spacer in P. Campa, Manila.

At 16, Steve was taking up Commerce and typing and maintaining two odd jobs at the same time.

His routine, which only afforded him four hours of decent sleep a day, lasted for several months until he was made a regular bus boy at the hotel and he resigned as janitor from the bank.

The Break

Steve was a natural public relations man. The ability to entertain guests was a talent innate to him.

One day, an Arab guest who became his friend, offered Steve work at his hotel in Saudi Arabia. So as soon as he graduated from college in 1981, he grabbed the opportunity and flew to the Middle Eastern country.

“In that hotel, I worked not only as a waiter but sidelined as a butler and house cleaner and a cook,” Steve recounted, as his network of friends, both business and personal, steadily grew.

Only after two years in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he had earned enough to build his own house. There, he also met his wife, Mila, who had been very active in the Church.

After four years in Saudi Arabia, Steve decided to move on to Kuwait where his abilities and business acumen would be fully realized.

And as he predicted, the Tamayo business empire even grew in Kuwait, where he ventured into selling T-shirts and other items to his kababayans who would be sending gifts to their relatives in the Philippines.

But his clientele was not only Filipinos but also other foreigners, who craved his famous “ube.”

Tamayo also joined the choir of a Catholic Church in Kuwait and continued his religious service.

“I was high in business and at the same time I was high in God,” he said, while working as manager in Mary Jane Hotel in Kuwait and became active in Church with Mila.

Steve also befriended and served as a household help for a Swiss couple staying at the penthouse of the hotel.

After three months of cleaning the penthouse, he was invited again by the Swiss couple to a party. He was now being introduced by the couple not as a helper but a family member to the guests in the party, where he rubbed elbows with sheiks.

Steve Tamayo, the Entrepreneur

When he earned enough, he resigned from work at the hotel and established his own business, SM (which stand for Steve, Mila) Fashion Wear at one of the prestigious hotel/commercial buildings at a financial district in Kuwait.

“I was very successful at that time and I felt very blessed… I considered myself as the biggest Filipino businessman in Kuwait that time,” he said.

After two years, he went back to the Philippines and married Mila. He returned to Kuwait to continue his business.

In July 25, 1990, the ribbon cutting ceremony of his shop was covered by the local media in Kuwait with a Philippine ambassador doing the honors. The next day the event landed on the front pages of two big newspapers—Arab Times and Kuwait Times—with screaming headlines “Steve Tamayo, Filipino Entrepreneur.”

The first 15 days of its operation, Tamayo’s business venture earned almost P1 million.

Leap of faith

In July 31, 1990, although tired, Steve called up his wife in the Philippines to share the good news—that the shop in Kuwait was doing very well.

“She was crying that time because the news in the Philippines was that there was already war in the Middle East and Kuwait,” he said.

Steve called one of his brothers, who was with Mila that time, to calm her down. After the call, he and his other brothers prepared the orders for ube to be delivered the following day to their clients.

His brothers turned in around midnight, while Steve stayed up until 2 a.m. All of them stayed at the penthouse at 17th floor of the residential/commercial building.

Around 4 a.m. he was roused by noises outside the establishment. He got up and saw from the sea, countless speedboats speeding towards the shore. Not contented, Steve decided to investigate the noise and look down from his suite.

He saw on the streets just below his penthouse were several battle tanks with red flags. Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait.

Fearing for their lives, Steve hurriedly woke up his brothers to leave the building.

“I knew then that it was not safe for us to stay in that building because it would be the first ones to be ransacked by the soldiers,” Steve said.

He tried calling his wife on the phone inside the building but the lines were cut off by the invaders.

Steve managed to get his relatives to the Mary Jane hotel where he used to work. But he was left alone in the streets where gunfights were starting between the Kuwaiti troops and Saddam’s Red Guards.

“That time, I made a pact and prayed to God that if He will spare my life and bring me back to the Philippines alive, I will leave all my investments in Kuwait,” he said, with the lingering feeling that he might get killed during the invasion.

Just as the tanks and the firefights were getting closer, Steve felt some force that made him leap into a large open trash bin.

“I was like Lito Lapid and hurriedly jumped into the bin to elude the crossfire. My ears hurt because of the volley of gunfire around me while I’m in the garbage bin,” he said.

A few hours passed and when he emerged from the bin, Kuwait already surrendered to Iraq.

Under the Iraqi government, Steve and his relatives stayed for 15 days in Kuwait until Saddam, known as Butcher of Baghdad, agreed to repatriate all the foreigners on the condition that they would pass through Baghdad then to Jordan.

Rebuilding

“I had nothing when I got home to the Philippines,” he said, leaving behind his million peso investment in Kuwait.

The Tamayos were among those who left Kuwait on the first flight out of the then Iraqi-controlled country.

Steve, not losing his knack for going into business, started anew with small capital, selling fruits and other stuff in front of his wife’s beauty parlor. He also supplied the pack lunches of a private school in Manila at the same time.

Little by little, Steve got back on his feet and used his network to his advantage.

“I still had offers to be a hotel manager here and abroad. So I grabbed it and flew back to Kuwait and became a manager at the Hilton Kuwait,” he said but he opted not to start a business there.

Steve eventually resigned from the hotel and just stayed in the Philippines to be part of the opening team of the Heritage Hotel in Manila. And the rest, as they say, is history.

He got his investments back through his hard work and determination, opened a restaurant which he named Tamayo’s, and which now has 13 outlets.

Steve will be officially opening his newest restaurant- Ozeano Fusion Restaurant in the newly-opened Manila Ocean Park on March 31.

“I consider this (new restaurant) as my contribution to the Filipinos. This is a very good blessing from the Lord,” he said.

Steve never forgets to remind his employees, whom he treats as family, to give importance to their jobs as he does to his work.

“From person who had lost it all, I have learned to love the opportunities and the blessings He has given me and this lesson I want to impart to my employees,” he said.

Steve said he also owes his being a former overseas Filipino worker (OFW) to the success has right now.

“My personality has improved further and I became strong with the experiences I had during my stay abroad,” he said, encouraging the thousands of OFWs to start a small business of their own.

“I consider myself one of the luckiest, blessed in the world. Considering my humble beginnings but I’m now one of the biggest companies in the Philippines,” Steve said.

ABS-CBN News

Four Filipino businessmen have been included in the list of Asia’s “Heroes of Philanthropy” by the business magazine Forbes Asia in its latest issue, ABS-CBN News reported Thursday.

The four Filipinos in the list are Lopez Group of Companies’ Oscar Lopez, Phinma Group’s Ramon Del Rosario, Ayala Corporation’s Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and Summit Holdings’ John Gokongwei Jr.

The four Filipinos are part of a pioneering list of 48 Asians cited in the magazine’s March 10 issue for their acts of charity – four each from 12 countries in the continent.

“Great fortunes are being made in Asia, and those fortunes are increasingly earmarked for philanthropy,” Forbes, in their special report, said.

Forbes also said that the list “aimed to identify not only some of the largest donors but also some of the most interesting–generous folks who may not make one of our rich lists but who put a hefty share of their money into much-needed, and sometimes unusual, projects.”

Microfinance, education, environment and culture
The four Filipinos included in the list are patrons of a diverse list of advocacies.

Del Rosario was cited as a “longtime patron of De La Salle schools” and for “launching a campaign for the Philippine Business for Social Progress to raise $25 million for the Pinoy Micro-Enterprise Social Investment Fund, which aims to help microfinance institutions to extend loans to poorer customers.”

Zobel de Ayala, who sits as co-chairman of the Ayala Foundation, was cited for helping improve the education sector, as well as the foundation’s involvement in “developing young leaders, boosting environmental protection, increasing access to technology, and supporting arts and culture.”

Forbes said Zobel de Ayala “argues that businesses must work aggressively to solve the country’s immense problems of poverty.”

Gokongwei was cited for giving half of his shares in JG Summit Holdings to the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation back in August 2006, during his 80th birthday. The donation, worth $200 million then, is “the [Philippines'] largest ever” and is now funding scholarships for Filipino students to study Chinese language and culture in China.

Lopez ‘surprised’ by citation
Lopez said he was “quite surprised” by the citation.

“I was quite surprised myself. I don’t think I really deserve the praise that [was] given me. But I represent a family that’s trying to do it’s share of corporate responsibility work,” Lopez said.

Lopez, meanwhile, was cited for donating 37 acres of the Lopez family land in Iloilo to fishermen affected by the Guimaras oil spill, where the Lopez Group Foundation is setting up a cooperative farming venture to help the former fishermen become farmers.

“This would be just a sample of what we can do to help on other areas that may need our help along these lines. I’m willing to donate… more land,” he said.

Lopez was also cited by Forbes for starting First Philippine Conservation in 1999, which works to protect the country’s largest remaining block of old-growth rain forest in Luzon’s Sierra Madre.

Recently, Lopez also raised P25 million to build a lecture hall for around 700 cadets of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in Baguio City.

And at age 77, Lopez said he wants to help more people.

Forbes said they hope that “by spotlighting these 48 and their achievements, we’ll encourage even more giving.”

“The money is certainly there, and so is the need,” the magazine added.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos working overseas sent an unprecedented amount of money home last December, taking 2007 inflows to a record $14.45 billion, and exceeding the central bank’s target by $100 million, data showed on Friday.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank, said $1.396 billion was sent in December, the highest for any single month and the 20th straight month that inflows topped $1 billion. The December figure was up 5.8 percent year-on-year.

For the full year, remittances increased 13.2 percent over 2006 and exceeded the $14 billion target.

Remittances in 2006 totaled $12.8 billion.

The central bank figures do not include remittances sent through non-banking channels.

Remittances accounted for about 10 percent of nominal gross domestic product in 2007, central bank governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said in a statement.

These inflows are propping up domestic demand, fueling GDP growth to 7.3 percent in 2007 — the best growth in 31 years. They are also providing strong support for the peso, which gained nearly 19 percent against the US dollar last year.

“Robust remittance flows in 2007 were due to continued demand abroad for
Filipino workers and enhanced remittance services provided by banks and non-bank
remittance agents,” Tetangco said.

A total of 1.07 million Filipinos found jobs abroad last year, representing a 1.0 percent increase from the previous year.

The inflows, equivalent to around 10 percent of gross domestic product, are crucial for the domestic economy, fuelling a local spending boom.

They helped drive the peso up over 19 percent against the US dollar in 2007.

But this currency surge means that overseas’ workers foreign currency salaries are translating into less pesos. Authorities are offering hedging facilities to some overseas workers to help lessen the impact from the currency’s rise.

Over eight million Filipinos, around 10 percent of the population, work abroad as nurses, doctors, maids, sailors, musicians, IT professionals and in other roles.

“The significant rise in remittances in 2007 also resulted from the increased presence of commercial banks and local money transfer agents in countries with high concentrations of Filipino manpower,” Tetangco said.

The bulk of remittances come from the United States, the UK, Italy, the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia.

Local banks have said that double-digit growth in remittances is not sustainable.

Previous surges have been led by lenders encouraging overseas Filipinos to send money home officially rather than with friends and relatives but the proportion of inflows coming in through unofficial channels has dropped to around 5 percent of total inflows compared with 20 percent in 2005. (Compiled from reports of Thomson Financial, Reuters and Associated Press)
USEFUL REFERENCE:
http://www.bsp.gov.ph/publications/media.asp?id=1757

GMA News

SEOUL, Korea – Any Filipino migrant worker knows the difficulty of living and working abroad, while sending hard-earned money to his family back home.

Once his contract is over, the worker goes back home to find that he has no savings. In other cases, a migrant worker might use his savings to invest in “fad” businesses or spend it recklessly.

After a few months, the money runs out and there is no choice for the migrant worker leave his family and find another job abroad.

Fr. Eugene Docoy, SVD has seen these kinds of situations repeated over and over again in his 19 years working in Korea. He was the head of the Galilea Migrant Workers Pastoral Center in Ansan City, Gyeonggi province, 50 kilometers from Seoul.

“Many workers send money back home, and their families spend it. Then the workers go home after 10 or 15 years, and they realize walang ipon (there’s no savings), so they have to leave again. It’s a vicious cycle of migration,” he said.

Seeing this problem, Fr. Eugene invited a speaker from the Asian Migrant Center in Hong Kong to talk about the Migrant Savings for Alternative Investments (MSAI). The AMC had initiated the savings program for migrant workers in 1996.

“The basic concept is to teach the workers to save and invest and re-invest their money,” Fr. Eugene said.

The MSAI program “identifies the enormous economic potential of migrant labor, and fights to transform this into actual social power to be harnessed for a just and people-centered development.”

The program was introduced at the Galilea center in 1998, but failed to take off.

In 2005, Fr. Eugene said the program was re-introduced, and resulted in the formation of two groups, “Balikatan Para sa Kinabukasan” and “Vision for a Better Tomorrow.”

Balikatan Para sa Kinabukasan raised P650,000 in savings from 25 migrant workers, which was invested in an existing venture Matin-ao Rice Center in Surigao del Sur.

The center, which was previously owned by another group of migrant workers from Taiwan, is involved in rice milling, rice trading, micro-lending and agri-vet businesses.

Buoyed by the first group’s success, another group of migrant workers in Ansan City formed Vision for a Better Tomorrow. The group invested in a resort in Panglao Island, Bohol.

“Bohol was chosen as the venue of investment because of its booming tourism industry and the prices of land and construction are still relatively cheap. The site of the land is very close to the soon-to-be constructed international airport and a 19-hole golf course,” Fr. Eugene said.

Fr. Eugene said migrant workers committed to invest at least 2 million won (approximately $2,000), which was collected in installments of 170,000 won ($170) a month. The group already has 45 migrant workers as members.

The goal is to achieve P10 million in capitalization. Korean investors and support groups have invested P3 million, which was mainly used to buy the property and build structures.

Last December, the resort named Galilea Center for Education and Development had its soft opening.

Fr. Eugene said the resort is envisioned as an educational center, to take advantage of the strong Korean demand for English-learning camps. There are plans to invite Koreans to stay at the resort to study English language, and at the same time, enjoy the beaches of Panglao island.

Once the resort starts its full operations, the profits for the first three years will be re-invested for the further development of the resort, the establishment of a non-government organization (NGO) for poverty alleviation and scholarships for children of migrant workers.

In the future, dividends will be distributed to the investors.

While the goal is to earn profits, Fr. Eugene said there is a more important social dimension to the program. He hopes the project would become profitable so that the workers would have no need to go back abroad.

“The families have suffered enough, being separated for a long time. We also want to reunite the families… This isn’t just a purely capitalist approach,” he said.

Reuters

It takes one whole month to create one meter (yard) of pineapple cloth, an exotic fabric spun from the tropical fruit by weavers in the central Philippine province of Aklan.

But the paper-thin cloth that was first worn during the 17th century Spanish colonial era is worth the painstaking process, say weavers whose prints are being scooped up by designers from Japan, France, and the U.S.

Fashion giant Calvin Klein is one of the clients importing pineapple cloth from weavers and ateliers that specialize in manufacturing pineapple fabric.

While the cloth sells at 2,500 pesos ($61) per meter, spinning pineapples into fabric is no get-rich quick scheme, said Susima dela Cruz, one of the oldest weavers in Kalibo town in Aklan.

The labor-intensive process sees fibers first scraped from the leaves, then dried, parted into threads thinner than hair strands, knotted together, and inserted into a loom, she explained.

Only then does the weaving begin.

Most women in the town start weaving as a rite of passage, rather than a business venture, she said.

“It was really my ambition to become a weaver. I enjoyed it a lot. In the afternoons when my mother would step off the loom, I took her place. And when the threads broke, I put them back together,” dela Cruz said.

But with patience, Aklan’s weaving export market, worth only $105,000 in 2006, has potential, said the weaver who now employs fellow housewives as weavers for her business making dinner sets for American clients.

While underselling machine-made fabrics that dominate the market is impossible, weavers hope that the global trend for organics will perk up demand for their niche, fruity, fabric.

“If you compete with synthetics… it cannot be done…it won’t flourish,” she said.
“The trend now is on organic. No chemical is being used, even the dyes are safe. Now, it should be globally safer for everyone”.

ABS-CBN News

Another Filipino achiever has been added to the growing list of Filipino experts who got their expertise not only from working in the Philippines but also from studying abroad.

Veronica Bayangos was so greatly affected by the economic problems that beset the Philippines that she made it her goal to study laboriously and bring back to her country whatever knowledge she gained.

To achieve this, she set aside six years of her life to become an expert in the field of economics.

Bayangos was one of the 80 Filipino scholars who came to The Netherlands to take up advanced studies in either masteral degrees or doctorates in philosophy.

Dubbed an “ISS baby,” Bayangos finished her Masters in Economic Development at the Institute of Social Studies in 1999 and just last November, earned her Doctorate in Philosophy after four grueling years of hard work at the same school.

She worked at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Asian Development Bank before embarking on a journey to The Hague, to hunt for answers that continue to plague the Philippine economy, in particular, the exchange rate uncertainty.

Her thesis on “Exchange Rate Uncertainty and Inflation Target,” now published as a book, scored her enough points to earn the title of Doctor in Philosophy.

“Ang ginawa ko, nag-build ako ng isang macro-economic model for the Philippines that will take care of exchange rate uncertainty and its impact on inflation targeting,” Bayangos told ABS-CBN’s Balitang Europe.

For Bayangos, it was worth burning the midnight oil because she succeeded in defending her thesis in front of a more-experienced and knowledgeable panel of international experts, who looked like they were not easy to get.

Several times during the defense of her dissertation, she looked as if she couldn’t find an answer and just responded that the question asked was not in the scope of her research.

Despite having a Filipino — Dr. Josef Yap of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies — as one of the panelists, Bayangos was rattled in front of the other examiners, Dr. Hans Visser of the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and Dr. Mansoob Murshed of ISS.
Balangos answers difficult questions from panel.

During her defense, Bayangos answered a question that was asked by the panel on what was the impact of the overseas Filipino workers’ remittances to her thesis.

“Oo nakakapaekto ang workers’ remittances sa behavior ng peso-dollar rate natin but not on the exchange rate uncertainty. Sa model ko wala siyang impact. Hindi siya kinonsider at all dahil ang exchange rate uncertainty na sinasabi ko eh ‘yung uncertainty na nanggagaling sa international investors,” Bayangos said.

The examiners were so impressed by the research paper of Bayangos because of the complicated relationship of the exchange rate vis-à-vis monetary policy especially in the Philippines.

“She finds that the exchange rate is rather unstable. You can’t predict it rather easily. It may suddenly change and that gives a problem to policy makers. How can they handle those uncertainty, the volatility of the exchange rate so that they can achieve the objectives that they have,” Visser said.

The Dutch professor said that Bayangos is bent on finding the right formula to help improve the economy.

“The Philippine economy can grow, the Philippine economy has low inflation. That’s what she’s working on,” Visser added.
Veronica Balangos during the defense of her dissertation.

Visser also predicts that the smart Pinay will be able to help shape policy research at the BSP.

“They have to decide what policy they have to make. First of all they want to keep inflation low and secondly they want to keep the exchange rate at the proper level because if the exchange rate is too strong then the Philippine companies cannot compete in the export market,” Visser said.

In the middle of the seemingly unstoppable brain drain in the country, Bayangos becomes one of those successful Filipinos who continue to believe that if they pool their intellectual resources together, hope remains for a better Philippines.