Vanishing Act

It’s just not possible. Where did it all go? How could this be?

No, I’m not referring to one of those television ads talking about hair loss. I’m talking about how many small business owners find themselves in situations where they become dangerously short on funds.

It happens a lot more often than you might think. Small business owners face pressures on their pocketbook just like everyone else. Rapidly depleting financial resources can result in disaster for many small businesses in the Philippines, even to the point where they just might they have to close their doors for good. While small businesses can run into financial trouble for a number of reasons, this column will focus on the more stealthy ways one’s resources come under attack. Many small business owners concentrate on the more obvious problems when trying to figure out why their cash position is worsening, like looking out for employee pilferage and ‘leakage’, any misuse of inventory, and searching for mismatches between real costs and actual pricing. But there are a number of more insidious threats that can often be overlooked. Listed below are eight such threats and some suggestions on how to side step these potential financial landmines.

Blindsided by inevitable surprises. Just when you think everything is fine . . . wham! You get blindsided by a surprise of one sort or another. A sick relative needs help with a big medical bill. Your key piece of business equipment suddenly stops working. Your vehicle gets in a wreck. You get the idea. No matter what the circumstance, you’re facing a big problem that requires a large chunk of money. Perhaps it was money you needed for expansion, or was earmarked for travel to a trade show or convention. The fact is you need to divert funds away from your core business activities to deal with such an inevitable surprise. What can you do about this? Surely you can’t anticipate every surprise situation. That is true, but you can take certain precautions to make sure you limit any potential downside. For example, you could make sure all your employees and relatives are on PhilHealth (the national health care plan). Or you could budget at the very beginning to have a back-up piece of equipment that you feel is critical to operations. And you just might want to make sure your insurance coverage is up to date on your vehicles and business premises. In other words, you really ought to plan ahead and make an effort to limit any possible disaster scenarios that could happen.

Not wanting to miss out. Sometimes your business may come across what appears to be a great deal or opportunity, but it is a deal or opportunity that you really didn’t consider or make allowances for in your business plan. Lots of small business owners face this dilemma, and it can be agonizing. Should you purchase that building that is a steal of a deal even though you’re happy with your current location and rental agreement? An equipment supplier is going out of business and having a sale – should you upgrade all of your operations equipment at bargain basement prices? These are tough calls. Sometimes you really need to go out on a limb, but if your cash reserves aren’t that deep, you better think twice and decline. There will always be other opportunities down the road.

Falling for fads. Did you just come back from a trip somewhere new and find yourself brimming with excitement over introducing a new product or service in your own market that was all the rage in the place you just came from? If it was a hit over there, it will surely be a hit here, right? Now before you go overboard, remember that fads come and go. If it will be easy introducing the product or service into you current product mix, maybe it is easy to adopt and test out on a trial basis. But if it is a product or service that will require a re-tooling of your overall business operations, you should probably douse a cold bucket of water on the idea and let it pass. Trying to latch onto the success of a fad is not a good idea. You waste precious resources on something that will fizzle out with time, and the overall experience will distract you from your main business priorities.

Wanting instant gratification. OK, your business is showing a pretty good profit after 6 months of operations, so is now the right time to go on that trip to Italy, or buy that new truck, or purchase the beach house property you’ve been dreaming of? Nope. It’s not a good time. Small businesses generally go through real irregular patches of sales with new highs and new lows (often in successive months) during the first few years of operation. Just because you’ve had good sales early on doesn’t mean you won’t hit a bump in the road. More often than not, you will feel the effects of competitors who will begin to fight to win back the market share you have taken from them. You’ll need to stay sharp and have a good reserve of cash or they just might take back the customers you have just fought to win over. Try to delay your urges for instant gratification and wait a few years before making major purchases. You just may need those extra Pesos to stay in business and keep your cash flow positive.

Relying on Peter to pay Paul. Many small businesses underestimate the amount of cash they will need to keep operating day-to-day in the first few years of business. As a result, many are forced to rely on their early sales to finance operations and get working on secondary orders and subsequent sales. This is natural in the early stages or your business operations, but it becomes a real problem and can be a dangerous strategy if you constantly rely on this method later on. If you don’t find ways to put money away after each sale, you could quickly find yourself with no cash at all in an economic downturn.

Hooked into buy now — pay later schemes. Now, there are times when you should take advantage of buy now — pay later special offers. If you are making an investment in a key piece of equipment and are offered an interest free payback period, then taking advantage of this offer is a shrewd business move. But it is not a wise move if the equipment is not essential, or will serve only as ‘window dressing’ for your small business. Remember, purchasing unnecessary equipment can crimp the cash flow of your business.

Wanting to ’Keep up with the Jones’. One of your competitors is introducing a new product or service and you feel like you should offer it too or be left out. Another competitor has renovated his shop and the new look is drawing in lots of customers — should you follow suit? Resist the urge to follow others! Stick to your business plan! You can always add your new products and services when you are ready. And you too will need to renovate some day in the future, so do it then and not just because your competitor is doing it now. It is easy to think you need to follow the herd. Try to go against the herd when you can, especially if doing so doesn’t seem to cause you any financial pain. You shouldn’t abandon your business plan just because someone else is doing something different. Be a leader, not a follower!

Hoodwinked by inflation. This one is tricky, and really has nothing to do with what you do or don’t do at all! Inflation is something that can cause real problems for everyone in society if it gets out of control. That’s precisely why it is a major concern of the central bank here in the Philippines, and with central banks all over the world. Inflationary conditions have major implications for small business owners because inflation can wipe out the purchasing power of your savings over time. If the returns you are receiving on you savings are not growing at a rate that is faster than inflation, you are actually getting poorer over time! If you anticipate needing to make capital expenditures in the future, make sure your savings are put in an investment vehicle that at least mitigates the effects of inflation. In other words, don’t leave your cash in the safe. Talk to a financial adviser and see how they can help you grow your money over time and outstrip inflation.

This column was a bit longer than most that are written in the Small Business File, but the concepts and mitigating strategies really can make a difference for those trying to understand how you too might protect your business from potential cash shortages in the future.

Socialization

Yesterday, Thursday, I had a little lesson in socialization.  Instead of my normal Bisaya language lesson, Bebe (my teacher) and I took a trip to the Bankerohan Public Market in Davao for a little social interaction with some local folks.  It all started last week during my normal langauge class when Bebe and I somehow got into a conversation about Filipino snacks.  She was telling me how she enjoys the snacks at the Public Market, and I suggested that maybe for our next class we should go visit the Market and have a snack together.

During our conversation, Bebe set some ground rules for such a visit.

1. We were not to drive a car to the market.  We could only go if we were to ride a tricycle.
2. I was not allowed to speak English during the trip, only Bisaya.

Well, I was agreeable to this, so yesterday, we took the trip yesterday.

Bebe showed up at my house at 3pm, and we caught a tricycle from my house to the market.  I guess that is about one kilometer and a half or so.  Bankerohan, I believe, is the largest public market in Davao, it covers several square blocks.   During the ride to the market, I had a nice conversation with the Tricycle Driver, Joshua.  He told me that he was 23 years old, married with two kids.  He emphasized to me that he and his wife decided to stop with two kids, because life would be easier if they didn’t have too large a family, especially on a driver’s wages.  Good choice!

At the market, we went around to a number of stalls, selling all kinds of goods.  We would stop at these booths, and Bebe would ask me the names of the different products in Bisaya.  I knew almost all of them.  I can only recall one product that I could not name.  I knew that it was called “Ampalaya” (bitter melon) in English, but didn’t know the Bisaya name, so Bebe had to tell me.  I had to talk with vendors, ask prices of products, even negotiate a little bit – all in Bisaya of course.  It was fun to meet the vendors, and have some small talk with them.

After our trip around the market, we were getting hungry (and thirsty), so we went to the area of the market where they had little snack shops.  These places were like little eateries with bar stools all around the outside.  We sat down and ordered.  We each had Putomaya, a sweet rice snack, and cup of tsokolate (hot chocolate – Filipino style).  It was quite good.  After only a few seconds, we started conversing with a man sitting next to us.  His name was Jun, and he worked for the City Mayor’s Office.  Nice guy, and he really got a kick out of it that I could speak Bisaya.  He asked if I could also speak Tagalog, but I just laughed and said no.  Anyway, the conversation with Jun must have gone on for a half hour or so, covering all kinds of topics, and yes, it was nearly all in Bisaya.  A couple of times I had to use a little English for things that I just had no idea how to say, but that was not the norm.

Off and on during my conversation with Bebe and Jun, the girls working in the eatery would talk with me too.  It was interesting to see them at first, when they realized that I could speak Bisaya, their eyes were just glowing, and they listened to the conversation intently.  I really had a lot of fun.  When I spoke with these girls (ranged in age from around 18 to 25 or so), they all started asking me if I was married.  Yes.. I am, I told them.  Next question – “do you have any friends who are looking for a wife?”  Ha ha… I got a kick out of these girls, they were fun to talk with also.

After enjoying our snack, and finishing up my conversation with Jun, I decided to pay our bill.  Because of his kindness, I bought Jun’s snacks too, and even purchased an extra ten pieces of putomaya to bring home for Feyma and the kids.  Even paying for 3 people, and ten extra snacks to bring home, the total bill was P131, very inexpensive!  Bebe and I hopped on a tricycle and headed back to my house.  I really had a lot of fun on my little market adventure, and talking with these folks in Bisaya seemed so natural once I got started.

As I explained in an article earlier this week, when we were in GenSan at the wedding, I finally was able to make a family conection with many in Feyma’s family because of my newly acquired language skills.  Again, during this trip to the market, I changed from being the foreigner visiting the market to just a regular guy.  Honestly, I never felt like I was being treated differently from the other people there.  The people at the market at first, I am sure, thought of me as “the foreigner” but their guards went down when they heard me speaking Bisaya, and they treated me no differently than the others there.  It was quite a unique feeling, something that I had not experienced on previous market visits!

Try Durian

One of the surprises in living in Mindanao is that this Island is full of fruits, some I have never heard of before.

One of these is called Durian which reminds me of a scene from the film Alien where the husk is removed to show a milky coloured substance with a high pong factore. I have tried it several times and its just not for me, however on a recent visit to my friend Rick he offered it to my friends Steve and Migs!!!

Show some pride, Pinoy!

You know, one thing that I noticed since the first time that I visited the Philippines back in 1990, and all through the years is that when you enter the house of most Filipinos, it is very clean!  Even the most poor of people who have not much more than a shack display the utmost of cleanliness.  It always made me feel good to see this in Filipino households.

If you accept my statement that Filipino households are kept very clean and sanitary, I wonder how we can reconcile that with my next statement…  Did you ever notice that if you go to the beach here, or some other “nature spot” there is trash everywhere?  Certainly, this is not true at every tourist spot, but it is true at many, maybe even most.  You go to the beach and there are wrappers from potato chips, coke cans and that kind of stuff littering the scenery.  What was once a beautiful natural spot is suddenly a garbage dump!  Why?  Is there no pride, or sense of urgency to keep the environment clean?  It appears not.

It is so unfortunate to see this.  Another thing you will often see is that the water itself is filthy dirty.  Here in Davao, I have been told that raw sewage is dumped directly into the Gulf, and because of that the water in Davao Gulf is not suitable for swimming.  You pretty much have to go over to Samal Island to find clean water that is good enough for a swim.  Sometimes, if you are in a particularly bad spot, the water in the sea is visibly littered, and even smells bad.

If a kid has a bag of chips, or some candy, is it hard to put the wrapper in a garbage can?  If the kid is careless, why can’t the parent tell their kids to clean up their mess?  Honestly, I find it quite disgusting, and disheartening when I see kids throwing their trash on the beach, in the water or on the streets.  I often want to say something, but it’s not my place to tell other people’s kids to clean up their mess.  Or the adults, for that matter.

One of the sad things is that the country is constantly begging for more tourists to visit.  I have contact with a lot of tourists who visit Davao, and I hear from them often about litter, dirty beaches and such.  Wouldn’t it be easy to just clean up after yourself and keep things pristine?  To me, that should be the goal.  How many people are unemployed, hungry for food, can’t find a job?  Put them to work cleaning up the environment of the Philippines!  Why not?

Take some pride in your country, Pinoy!  Clean things up!  Keep it that way!  I love the Philippines, but they really need to address this issue!

A jewel for the eyes

Today’s Guest Blog is from Jason Dance.  Jason intends to write a few guest blogs in the future for the site, and I’m sure we’ll enjoy them all.  Welcome aboard, Jason!

Most people coming to the Philippines usually visit some of the well known places such as: Manila, Cebu, Boracay and Davao among other big names. What about the lesser known places where Filipinos hardly see any foreigners? Well, for all the expats in the Philippines or for the undecided minds wondering where to go; let me describe to you a small island in Samar called Santo Nino!

The first three words that come to my mind are “Peace and quiet”. I have never been to a place that gave me such a clear mind. It is located in Samar and 1 hour by boat from Calbayog. The only way to go there is by boat! The boat leaves once in the morning and departs once from Santo-Nino back to Calbayog. If the sea seems wild or a storm is brewing, the captain of the small boat will not set sail. On a side note, Calbayog is a very small cozy city with charming surroundings!

On the island there are no hotels, hostels or anything like that! My wife and I stayed at her aunt & uncles place. Everyone on the island knows each other…well almost. If you thought Filipinos are warm loving people the people there are 10 fold! They don’t really rely on electricity during the day because there is no electricity. The only time it comes up is from 5h30pm until 11pm. It’s usually during that time that people are at their homes doing their things together as a family. My wife’s Lola from mamas side and Lolo from tatay’s side are some the eldest people living in Sto.Nino as well. If you thought Filipinos sometimes stare at you well let me tell you that most of them have never seen a young white person before especially one as young as me. I am only 26 years old for those of you who are wondering.

We only spent two days there but it was such an amazing time! We went to the beach that was crawling with young one’s playing around and just being plain kids. Something that’s hard to see in the western world now. The beach is a long stretch and it’s a real eye gazer when you look out to the sea and you can see Calbayog but vaguely. The sand is not as nice as per say Boracay but it’s the sense of being at home that makes it look as white. The ocean water is clear as the sky unlike the port at Cebu where we live. At the Sto.Nino port, kids are in the water with bamboo guns that shoot water. I jumped in and the kids started to shoot at me until Anna my wife threw me one, so I could join in the action.

It was actually fiesta time…PERFECT TIMING! A fiesta is in simple terms a really good party that you will never forget! My wife’s uncle killed a pig for the occasion, which is extremely painful to hear especially when you’re sleeping and its 5am. There were groups of teenagers playing music and dancing in a circle at the beach. People were bringing there belongings by boat with family members of course. There was lechon for everyone, people gathering to drink beer or Tanduay, gossip and dipping our warm bodies into the ocean wondering if there where any sharks?!? There are but so tiny that they would never do anything. The weirdest thing you can encounter are people staring at you much of the time. It takes some getting used to especially if you’re travelling in less travelled areas such as Samar.

We explored the surroundings with Anna’s two childhood friends. Once we left the small city, there were lots of coconut trees and well mostly just good old nature! Many of the people that do live there are poor, but that never stopped them from being happy and to live their lives to the fullest. Most of the land has not been exploited, so you will mostly see trees everywhere. On several occasions, we saw children in some of the tallest trees I have ever seen. They were playing around but also getting some coconuts. We had the occasion to visit my tatay`s mothers grave site. His father built a shrine to commemorate his love to his wife. It is gated but anyone wishing to visit need only to open the gate as it is not locked. I was amazed of how white it was but mostly where it was built. The shrine overlooked Sto.Nino and the ocean itself!

I cannot say how fortunate I felt to have been there with my wife. I will always remember those 2 days in relative peace. For the record, I am the youngest foreigner to ever visit Sto.Nino! How can you forget such a place even more so when you’re in the books!

I made the right choice!

You know, there are dozens of widely used languages here in the Philippines.  Sometimes it seems that every time you make a ride to the next city it’s another language in use!  Well, I am exagerating a little bit there, but honestly, there are at least 70 or 80 languages in general use.  Thus, when I decided to study a language, it was not an automatic decision on what language to learn.

For me, the choice came down to Tagalog or Bisaya.  Tagalog is one of the national languages, the other being English.  However, in the region where I live, Bisaya is the most widely spoken language.  I chose to study Bisaya for a number of reasons.  A lot of foreigners I talk to tell me that Tagalog is the right language to learn, because people all over the country can at least speak some Tagalog.  I always felt, though, that Bisaya was the right way to go for me.

This past weekend, I got confirmation, and now I know for certain that I made the correct choice.

You see, Feyma’s family speaks Bisaya.  We have been married for more than 18 years now.  Over that 18 years, one bone of contention that we have gone through regularly is that I never felt part of the family.  When Feyma came to the States, my family welcomed her with open arms, and she really was an integral part of my extended family.  As a matter of fact, I often joke that if we were to be divorced, I think that my family would hold on to Feyma, and leave me to go on my own path.  But, when it came to her family, I always felt that I was an outsider.  I didn’t like the feeling, either.  The only person that I felt accepted me was Feyma’s Mom (I am not including her Dad, because he died shortly after we were married).  When it came to her siblings, though, I really felt an outsider.  This is one of the reasons that I have tried to develop close relationships with my nieces – I wanted to get that “family connection” with the next generation.

As I told you yesterday, over this past weekend, we went to General Santos, where Feyma is from, and attended a niece’s wedding.  When we left GenSan, I told Feyma that for the first time in 18 years, I felt accepted by the family.  The reason was, because I can communicate with them now!  No, I am not 100% fluent in Bisaya, but I’m probably 80% there, and I can hold a good conversation.  This past weekend, though, I put the skills that I have developed in Bisaya to good use.  I really made an effort to talk with people, and just do the best that I could in speaking their language.  It really paid off.  In particular, Feyma’s oldest brother, who only has an elementary school education was like my best buddy, and in the past I don’t ever remember speaking to each other!  I felt so good coming home from GenSan with these newly developed family relationships under my belt.  And, it all comes from spending the time and effort to learn how to speak their language!

When other foreigners tell me that they think it’s best to learn Tagalog, I ask why they think so (I’m genuinely curious).  They say that it’s because most people can speak at least some Tagalog.  Well, to me, do you want to speak to most people?  Or do want to speak to the people that are important to you?  Here in Davao, yes the people can speak Tagalog in most cases, but if you go down to the Public Market and walk around, you won’t hear that much Tagalog… what you hear is Bisaya.  And, in my case, when it comes to being able to develop family relations, there is no choice!

Don’t take me wrong, I am not saying that people should not learn Tagalog.  What I am saying is to look at your local situation and look at your family situation.  Let’s face it, if you live in Cebu City, it’s a waste of tim to learn Tagalog, unless you intend to travel to Manila a lot, because most Cebuanos despise Tagalog, and learning it is not going to be helpful to you around town.  What does your family here speak?  I strongly believe that you should learn the language that the people who are important to you speak.  If it turn’s out that Tagalog is the right language for your situation – Hey!  More Power!  I am not anti-Tagalog, I’m just saying that it’s not the automatic choice, or should not be.

Just my thoughts… but I was really on cloud 9 being able to finally become, and feel part of the family.  I am so happy that I made the effort to learn the language!

Samal, Global Crises, atbp

Hi, I am back from a week’s time out on Samal Island. Sure, I stayed in my favourite resort, the Paradise Island Park and Beach Resort. First time I came here was  in 1982… . I don’t wanna give any promotions for this place, but I still get the service here I love to enjoy during those holidays…:and,  great food, affordable prices, very clean surroundings and a wonderful beach… .

While staying there I was informed about a comment of Tourism Council President Araceli Ayuste, of the Island Garden of Samal, the official name of this island-city: “We don’t want this island to become the next Boracay because we know it can become much better than Boracay,” Ayuste said. I can only strongly agree. I also don’t want to see Samal Island becoming too crowded and ‘over-commercialized’. I love, what Ayuste added: “We don’t like to see our island’s natural resources over-exploited by many investors!”

Many foreigners who visited Samal as tourists in the past fell in love with the island  and ended up as foreign expats and permanent residents. One of them is my friend Ulrich Kronberg, editor and publisher of two German sail boat magazines based in Hamburg/Germany. Uli runs his company by internet from the island. This time he is back in Germany to attend another tourism fair.

This and that… - as my friend Bob Martin entitled one of his last columns here in LiP… .

Crises!!! Even hanging out and relaxing on Samal Island during the last week, one can’t avoid to receive all these “dramatic financial news from all around the globe”.

Before heading to China President Gloria Arroyo asked the congress to pass a law quadrupling bank deposit insurance to boost confidence in the banking system amid a global credit crises. The maximum insured deposit guaranteed by the state-run Philippine Deposit insurance Corp. never satisfied me and many other expats and Filipinos. 250,000 Pesos shall be increased to one million Pesos (about 20,800 US$).

The Philippines’ banking system seems to be stable. The increase was felt necessary to help underline confidence. As Arroyo spokesman Jesus Dureza stressed: “There are no bank runs now!” Now… .

This is that… .

When relaxing on Samal Island, Boracay came again along my way. Headline : “GREEN VEHICLES CURB POLLUTION IN BORACAY”... .

The use of electric-powered vehicles has received the green lights on the resort island as part of efforts to curb air and noise pollution in this (world-famous) Philippine tourism spot. Two “e-cars” and six “e-bikes” imported by the Malay Municipal Government from China arrived over the last weekend and were taken on a test drive on the island to encourage resort and hotel operators to have their own fleet of e-vehicles.

Of course, e-vehicles are cheaper to operate compared to gasoline-powered models. The price of a brand new e-car ranges from 300,000 Pesos to 700,000 Pesos. These vehicles will also reduce toxic emissions and noise pollution, which have been largely blamed on regular motorcycles - not only in Boracay, as we all know, living in the Philippines for good or coming here as tourist.

Boracay’s charms indeed had been made fragile by a host of environmental threats over the past years. And, I am pretty sure, not only there… .

This and that… .

While writing this post it rains cats and dogs. Another ITCZ or rain system with low pressure hits Mindanao/Davao… . I love it… I am looking forward the cooler season… .

Evaluating Life

A week or two ago, I wrote a column of miscellaneous items, one of which was about a visit from my niece, Sweet, and her fiancee, Heart.  They were to be married soon, and I was one of their Primary Sponsors (Ninong).  This past weekend was the wedding, and Feyma and I, along with all 4 kids went down to GenSan for the event.  It was really a great weekend, and turned out to be much more special than I realized it would be.  In fact, attending the wedding caused me to re-evaluate my life, my family, and our family history in many ways.

You see, Sweet, my niece, was one of the flower girls at our wedding in 1990.  Not only that, she and Heart were married at the same Church where Feyma and I said our vows.  Both of these factors brought back a flood of memories to my mind as I sat there watching the wedding ceremony.  Mostly very good memories, with a few not so good sprinkled in for reality.  When I first saw Sweet being walked down the aisle by her parents, I felt quite emotional.  A tear come to my eye, because to see our flower girl approach the alter for her own wedding, it made me realize how far Feyma and I have come along our respective paths in life.  We were both still young when we were married (although Feyma moreso than I).  I was 28, and Feyma was 21.  It was the first marriage for each of us.    Thinking of the family that we have now, it was just a special feeling.

Another thing that was really inspiring to me is that our oldest son, Chris, was a groomsman.  For those who are new to the site, you may not know that Chris is mentally retarded, he is a “special child” as they call it here.  In the States, I doubt that Chris would have ever participated in a wedding in his life, as what he did this past weekend.  With me being a Ninong, and Chris a Groomsman, we sat fairly close to each other during the wedding.  When I would look over at Chris with the other Groomsmen, it really made me proud of him.  For the first time in his life, Chris wasn’t different from the others.  He was “one of the guys” so to speak.  He was treated no differently than anybody else.  Chris is nearly 17 years old now, and it was very fulfilling to see him more as a “regular person” than ever before.  In addition to that, our youngest son, Jared was the ring bearer for the couple.  It was also his first time to ever participate in a wedding before.

This whole event really made me evaluate where I am in life, where I still want to go, and of course made me think about where I’ve already been.  I couldn’t ask for more than I have when it comes to family.  I love Feyma with all my heart, and am so happy that I found her.  The wedding was Saturday, and Sunday was Feyma’s birthday, and it was a milestone birthday this year.  I’m not going to say how old she is, but it’s up to her if she wants to reveal that.  Having attended this wedding, which so reminded me of our own wedding really made her birthday more special to me – it made me realize just how special she is to me.  When it comes to the kids, I feel so blessed in that department too.  We have three boys, Chris, 17 years old; Aaron, 12 years old; and Jared, 8 years old.  In addition, we have one girl, Jean who is 12 years old.  I love all of my kids dearly, and seeing them participate in the wedding really gave me a warm feeling in my heart.

The first time I came to General Santos City, when I married Feyma, Sweet was the niece that really warmed up to me.  I have lots and lots of nieces, but of all of them, Sweet was my buddy.  She would sing for me, perform, read poems to me, etc. when she was only 5 years old.  Over the years that I lived in the States, I always looked forward to seeing Sweet again during my return visits to the Philippines.  After we moved here permanently, there was a little incident that happened between Sweet and Feyma and I, which drove a bit of a wedge between us.  It made me very sad, and for a number of years we didn’t speak with each other.  This is one reason why I was surprised when she asked me to serve as their Ninong.  At first, I was not sure that I was the right person to be Ninong, because of the incident that we went through.  However, on the advice of my Bisaya teacher, Bebe, I decided to go ahead and do it.  I put the incident behind me, and I love Sweet as much as ever.  Truth is, I never stopped loving her, but it was just hard to get past the incident.  I’m glad, though, that Bebe convinced me to put it in the past, that was good advice.

I wish Sweet and Heart nothing but the best in their married life together.  If, 20 years from now they can look back and have the same feelings that I have right now, they can consider themselves to be a smashing success.  I hope that is the case.

By the way, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish Feyma a belated Happy Birthday!  Don’t worry, I gave her a special day, but it is only belated here on the LiP Site!  Honey, you are the best thing that ever happened in my life, and I hope you know that!  I love you with all of my heart.

Intramuros Video

Over the last few weeks I have been coming across some videos related to the Phil. and I am going to share just a taste of those with you over the next few articles.

This short clip is from Manila a couple of weeks ago where I met up with fellow LIP man Migs Bassig and some friends who took myself and my friend Steve who is visiting from the UK for a long hot walk.

Mayor Rody

Here in Davao, our Mayor is Rodrigo Duterte, commonly known as “Rody”.  Mayor Duterte is a law and order man, sort of a Dirty Harry (which is a nickname that he does have) for Davao City.  Let me just say that no matter who you are, you would never want to do anything to end up on the wrong side of Mayor Duterte.   Have no doubt about that, because being on his wrong side would not be a comfortable, or likely a safe place to be.

Duterte was Mayor of Davao during the 1990’s too, and then he ran up against term limits and could not run for re-election again.  At that time Duterte ran for Congressman from Davao, and won quite easily.  He served one term in Congress and returned to Davao again.  All of the national politics bores him, from what I have heard.  Anyway, he returned to Davao, even though he could have easily been re-elected to Congress, because he loves the City.  As soon as he could, Duterte ran for another term as Mayor of Davao again.  During Duterte’s campaigns for Mayor of Davao City, he generally gets 70 to 80% plus of the vote!  He is quite popular in the City.

Last year, Duterte was elected to his final term as Mayor of Davao.  He is again up against the term limit, and he has kind of made it clear that he won’t be seeking any terms in the future, and there have been rumors that he suffers from a number of health problems.  During the last election, Mayor Rody’s daughter, Inday Sara Duterte became the first female Vice Mayor of Davao in history.  Inday Sara is a tough law and order lady, perhaps even tougher than her father, and she is expected to be our next elected Mayor here in Davao, keeping the Duterte dynasty in power, even beyond her father’s time of serving the City.

One thing about Mayor Duterte, he is not known for mincing his words.  Duterte says, and does exactly what he feel like, without regard as to how it will be taken by people.  Mayor Rody has his own TV show, which is called “Gikan sa masa, Para sa masa” which translates to “From the masses, for the masses.”  It is a weekly show in which he talks about local happenings, kind of gives his word on laws in the City, politics, etc.  At one point in the show, letters from citizens are read, and the Mayor responds.

Last Saturday, I was watching the Mayor’s show, and one of the letters came from a local woman.  She wrote in and told the Mayor that she gave birth to triplets in September of this year, and she doesn’t have money to buy milk for the kids.  Often, when a letter along these lines comes in, the Mayor will give assistance to the writer, but you just never know for sure what he will do or say.  When the Mayor responded to the woman who needed milk for her babies, I was shocked.  He said:

Madam, you may want to consider a tubaligation!  Just check with the City Health Office.

Wow, it floored me!  In the Philippines, birth control is a very touchy subject, because the Catholic Church fights it stringently.  Mayor Duterte didn’t mince any words on this issue, though!

I like to watch Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa, because it is 100% in Bisaya, so it gives me a chance to practice listening and understanding the language.  Another thing that is entertaining is that since Duterte doesn’t mince his words, there are times when it seems like every other word is “bleeped” out by the censors, because it is not appropriate language for use on TV!

I am sure that in the comments a lot of talk will focus on some rather controversial things about Mayor Duterte.  That’s OK, and it is probably deserved.  As for me, sometimes I feel that the Mayor goes a little far, and from time to time I get to the point where I don’t care for his actions.  But, overall, I like the man.  For one thing, he turned Davao from being a very dangerous place where there was a lot of violence some 20 years ago, into what is often called the safest city in the Philippines.  For that, I thank Mayor Duterte.

photo credit: Keith Bacongco