Bob Martin

It’s July 4th here in the Philippines.  Or, as most Americans would say “the 4th of July.”  The 4th of July is an important day for Americans, it is Independence Day, the anniversary of the day that the Colonists in the New World declared Independence from the United Kingdom, in 1776.  True Independence was not achieved until 1789 after a war was faught against the British, but it is the date that Independence was declared that is remembered and commemorated each and every year.

In the Philippines, there is a very similar scenario.  The Philippines really became an Independent Republic on Jully 4th, 1946 when the United States gave Independence to the country, following World War II.  However, the Philippines does not celebrate Independence on July 4th.  Instead, they celebrate their Independence on June 12.  June 12, 1898 is the date that Filipino Revolutionaries declared their Independence from Spain.  At the same time, the Spanish were involved in a War with the USA (the Spanish American War), and as part of the treaty ending that war, the United States purchased the Philippines from Spain for the sum of $20 Million.  Thus, after the purchase, the USA began colonizing the Philippines, and the Philippines was in for nearly 50 years of American Rule, after enduring around 400 years of rule by the Spaniards.

So you see the similarities?  Both of our country’s celebrate Independence on a date other than when the became Independent!

Originally, the Philippines celebrated Independence on July 4, but in the 1960’s they changed their Independence day to June 12.  The person who made the change officially was Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal, the father of current Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.  After changing Independence Day, July 4th was still retained as a National Holiday, it was called “Philippine American Friendship Day” although that holiday was abandoned years later.  Today, it is not a holiday, but many Filipinos do tend to keep that in mind in July the 4th, and I find that people will often greet me “Happy Independence” on July the 4th.  I doubt that many Americans know the dates of such special occasions in other countries like that, so I consider such a greeting to be quite special.

There is certainly a lot of history between the Philippines and the USA.  Not all of it is happy, but in general, I would say that most Filipinos have a love in their hearts for the USA and for American people too.

Happy 4th of July to all of my fellow Americans!

photo credit: Nick Humphries

I got an e-mail today from a reader of this blog. He had several questions about living here in the Philippines. One question kind of got me thinking, though. He asked - “Do you get bored?” Hmm…

Have you ever talked to a person who retired after years of work? A lot of times, what I have heard from retired people is that they don’t have much spare time - they are always busy doing things. It doesn’t make sense. For years they worked 40, 50 even 60 hours per week. Going to the office or the factory filled their lives for years on end. But, when they reached the age when they could retire, instead of having all those hours for leisure, they find that they are busier than ever! Like I said, it makes no sense - however, it happens very often!

That is sort of the way it is for me living here. No, I am not retired. When I moved to the Philippines, I was only 38 years old, so I was really too young to retire. I don’t have what many people would call a “regular” job. So, the question was - are you bored? No, not at all! The truth is, I find myself a lot like that retired guy who doesn’t have enough time to accomplish everything that he has on his mind. I am on the go all the time! I have started up a number of online businesses that put food on the table, keep my kids in school, etc. I have to earn money, because I didn’t move here with a retirement check every month, social security, etc. But, I don’t go to an office, as a matter of fact, I don’t sit down and work that much either. I have employees who work for me, and I also earn 100% of my money online. Doing things like posting on blogs and other online activities is how I earn my living.

I find time for a lot of things that I didn’t have time for when I was working. One of my favorite things to do is go swimming. I have a close friend who is in a similar type of business as I am. We swim together every weekday at a nice local swimming pool. We generally swim for an hour or up to two hours. After we swim we get out of the pool and talk for another hour or two. You know what? That time that I go swimming every day is the most productive money making time of the day for me. My friend and I bounce ideas off of each other, come up with new business strategies, etc. With these new ideas, I make money.

I do other things though, that aren’t business related (not directly anyway). Today, I went shopping at the mall with my wife for a couple of hours, after which we ate lunch at a nice restaurant. Later in the afternoon, my wife and I met some friends for coffee at a local coffee house. We sat and talked for a couple of hours, and had a nice time. During the conversation, we started talking about a beach resort that we wanted to visit. Well, the conversation about that got us going, and we made plans to visit the resort for some relaxtion and good times with friends. So, I know what I’ll do for at least part of the day tomorrow. Funny thing is that I’ve been so busy lately that I decided that I needed to spend one day this weekend just resting. Looks like that will have to wait!

So, no… I am not bored! I am busier than ever!

Two weeks ago, I made a visit to the Davao City 911 Center with a group that I belong to called “Friends of Mindanao.”  The group visit to the 911 Center was arranged by my friend, Rick Bowden.  Rick is a neighbor or Mario Monsanto, who is the Chief Operating Officer of the Davao City 911 Center.  Mario reports directly to Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

I can’t describe how impressed I was with the 911 Center, it is so modern, well staffed, and the personell are very efficient.  The training that they 911 people recieve is very thorough and up to date, and their professionalism was very clear to see.

At this time, Davao is one of only a handful of Cities in the Philippines that have 911 Emergency Services.  Currently other such centers are operated by Makati City (part of Metro Manila) and by Cebu City.  Iligan City is currently working with Davao to learn the ins and outs of setting up such a system there.

Have a look at the video of our visit to Davao City 911:

The 911 Center in Davao is in charge of dispatching all of the emergency services in Davao, everything from Police to Medical Services.  The people at 911 own and operate 10 Ambulances and they have paramedics to handle services while en-route to the hospital facility.  One thing that was quite impressive is that all services offered by 911 are free for the public.  911 can also be accessed through any land line telephone, and also through each of the cellular networks in Davao City.

I would like to thank Mario Monsanto for offering such a great tour of the facility, and also to Rick Bowden for arranging the visit!

It’s been almost a year since I first met Bebe Metillo.  I was introduced to Bebe by a reader of this column too, a young lady named Shannon.  I had mentioned in a column last year that I was looking for a good language teacher, because I wanted to learn to speak Bisaya.  Shannon contacted me, and put me in touch with Bebe, and I have been studying Bisaya with Bebe ever since.

To me, though, Bebe is much more than a language teacher.  I told Bebe the other day that I actually think of her as family, pretty much, I consider her as a sister.  Bebe teaches me a lot more than just how to speak a language, too.  I feel that my time with Bebe is a time when I learn a lot about Philippine culture in addition to language.  I consider the learning of culture to be even more important than the language part of it, although I feel that both are indispensible.

The other day, Feyma and I took Bebe with us on a little road trip that we took for the day.  It really was a nice opportunity to spend some non-study time with Bebe and get to know her even better than I already did.  We had really a nice day, enjoyed a wonderful lunch, and just some quiet time on the beach talking about all kinds of different topics together.

In the time that I have lived in the Philippines, this is the third time that I have attempted to learn to speak Bisaya.  On each of the first two attempts, I only studied for a couple of months, and for one reason or another, the lessons came to an end.  I learned a little bit, some words, etc., but I never learned as much as I have this time.  I have now been studying with Bebe for about 10 1/2 months, and in another 6 months or so, I will have completed the language course.  In addition to this being the longest amount of time I have studied with a single teacher, this is also the first time that I have felt that I made a deep personal connection with my teacher.  And, I’m so happy that I made this connection with Bebe, because she means a lot to me.

When I was talking with Bebe the other day, I told her than in many ways, it makes me sad to think that after another 6 months I will be finished with the course, because it will mean that I will also miss my weekly meetings with her.  She told me that she has some students who, even after completing the full course, continue getting together with her each week for companionship and also for more advanced language learning.  At this point, I think that I will continue to do that myself too.

For anybody living in the Davao area, if you are interested in learning the local langauge, I would highly recommend Bebe.  Don’t consider this a commercial or advertisement, because it is not.  I get nothing for recommending her, except for the satisfaction of helping her make a living, and knowing that the people that I refer will get a quality service as well.

I would really like to extend my deep appreciation to Bebe, and wish her continued success in what she does.

Remember, a while back I speculated that the worst of the US Dollar/Philippine Peso exchange had already passed?  I mean, I felt like the Dollar had already bottomed out.  I wrote that piece back in May, and indeed, the Dollar has been steadily gaining since that time.  These days, the Dollar is standing between 44.5 to the Peso and up to nearly 45 already.

I got a little backup from a major financial source this week.  Bloomberg Financial News is reporting that HSBC Bank is now projecting that the Peso could stand at P52:$1 by the second quarter of 2009.  Before coming out with this latest projection, HSBC had predicted that the Peso would be at P42.80:$1 at that time, so this is a major turn-around in HSBC’s forecast.

What is happening to turn HSBC around like this?  Well, a number of financial factors are at play.  Firstly, the Philippine economy is changing drastically compared to where it was a year ago.  At that time, the national budget was very close to being balanced.  Now, the government has basically tossed the goal of balancing the budget aside, mostly because of things like the food crisis and the oil crisis that the world is facing.

HSBC is reporting that since the beginning of 2008, the Peso has lost 7.5% against the US Dollar, and they are projecting further losses amounting to another 14% in the next year.  The Peso has gone from being the best performing Asian currency to being the second worst performing currency in Asia in May.  That’s a huge turn-around.

For me, I would welcome a turn-around of this magnitude.  Seeing the Dollar buying 52 Pesos on the horizon would be very good for me, and for other American ex-pats living here, or planning to.  Many will argue that this will be terrible for poor Filipinos, but actually there is a good side for them too.  The strong Peso has devastated the export industry here in the Philippines, and a weakening Peso will help them, and provide more jobs for Filipinos too.  In addition, this would be very good news for families of Overseas Filipino Workers.  The weaker the Peso is, the more Pesos they get for every dollar that their OFW family member remits per month.  Many of these people have been suffering over the past year or two as the Peso has continued to strengthen.

I will personally be a little surprised if the Dollar strengthens this much in only a year, but if it does, I will be happy to see it.  I, personally would project more like a P48:$1 rate a year from now.  We’ll see.

What do you think?