A Typical Day At FICCO?

Ever wondered what awaits your average bank client in Cagayan de Oro, on a typical banking day, but most especially after the hiatus of a long weekend? Which the previous Holy Week weekend was.

Lines and crowds galore, whether it be in the elegant premises of the big commercial banks with strategic branches scattered around the city, or in the tiny modest lobbies of the biggest multi-purpose credit union in the entire country, FICCO.

Granted that FICCO also has 19 branches and 5 satellite offices scattered throughout the province of Misamis Oriental and in some contiguous neighbors, the scene at its main office yesterday noon could be characterized as representative of the other branches smartly positioned thereabouts. Clients huddled and milled about, awaiting their numbered turns to do their specific transactions and thus be freed and able to get on with other mundane businesses. Serious dads and moms, some with petulant or antsy kids in tow, clutching either their share capital passbook, or deposit passbook, or the bright yellow passbook for loans which in my estimation outnumbered the rest.

The entire multi-storey concrete building of the main office is adequately air-conditioned, but when you crowd in an unusually large number of people, the temperature starts to rise, not only with regard to that in the room. But also in the mind of each individual member when his or her wait starts to heatedly exceed an almost interminable hour or so. Though by and large the mood was that of quiet patience and resignation, it was not difficult to feel the growing impatience, as one saw a kid slouched in one of the comfy couches, slumped and dead to the world in her deep sleep, and the mom dotingly doing her level best under the circumstances to make her feel comfortable.

I had purposely chosen to experience what it was like being part of the crowd under those trying and stressful conditions. We came in almost 30 minutes past noon and did not see daylight again till almost 2 p.m. And I can surmise that the rest also suffered the same fate, in a manner of speaking. Though I definitely have noticed in Cagayan de Oro that that would be equal opportunity suffering because in every bank office one goes, milling crowds are the daily fare, and the “take a number” process is the inevitable bullet to bite.

That long arduous wait gave us sufficient time to reflect on several things, aside from and over and above what one could read on the bulletin boards and pasted-on communications on the walls. BTW, I was mildly taken aback reading a letter from Xavier U president, Fr. Villarin, exonerating one Mr. Isagani Daba from any claims of fraud perpetrated on a certain university fund. Then I realized that Gani, who I know personally from way back, is or was an officer of the university and is also currently a director of FICCO.

Anyway, back to the serious stuff. Now that I have gratingly made my point about the daily crowds in bank offices and have mentally translated that to countless man-hours lost for those who sit and wait for long periods, unable to do any productive work. Unfortunately, I did not see any in the crowds I have seen reading textbooks, doing home or house work, or even clipping nails. Yes, many fiddled, toyed, and played with their cell phones, which is quite ubiquitous even in these unlikely gatherings. Thus, the dire prognostication. Though a sobering thought would have been that at this point in time, the over 10,000 members, or even half of them, of this main office did not collectively decide to converge as one.

Cannot any thing be done to greatly curb or even eliminate these tiresome but more importantly, economically disastrous, losses in man-hours which a beleaguered country such as the Philippines can ill afford?

Especially from motivated groups such as these whom we may impute regard highly value-laden and productive activities?

They obviously value banking services, don’t they?

Aside from giving ear to traditional time and motion studies that have earned great kudos from business past, credit union management may well serve to look at how to marshal the services of other staff members when crowds start to swell out of hand. In this particular instance, one could easily see that other staff members in the building, easily recognizable by their neat uniforms, were leisurely sauntering about among the waiting horde, obviously attending to their own duties, though unrelated to tellering and cash operations and thus, with not much or none at all impact on the gathering crowd that was not subsiding in number.

And I could have brought this urgent matter up to the sitting general manager, who is also a personal friend. Unfortunately, he was out on his lunch break and would not be back until 2 p.m.

And as a final general observation, one can readily recognize this great economic waste in many other areas of city life, such as in unnecessary congestion in traffic, where the losses extend beyond to just man-hours but leap into losses in precious scarce resources – unnecessary wear and tear of vehicles and unproductive use of expensive gas and oil.


Hopefully, some things positive ensue from this whiny piece.

Anything Goes: On The Last Phases Of A Two-month Trip

I hate it when people obligatorily inquire what I have been doing on my extended vacation to the old homeland. For one thing, it has been everything but a vacation; it never was planned as one and all those trips back over these many years never were nor did they develop into anything other than harried working trips.

I am no workaholic, neither am I obsessed with work. But simply because of pressing realities, I have been constrained to take those trips, including this one, to attend to business that required my presence and decisions.

Still, without meaning to random incidents and activities manage to insert themselves unobtrusively into the trip timeline, to spice up a bit what otherwise would be a very serious, somber, and boring succession of business activities that had to be attended to and resolved.

Thus, related hereunder under no specific chronological and/or priorities order, are certain interesting recorded trivia during this trip, enlivened with some pictures.

18th Century Residence














This plaque is prominently and permanently plastered close to the corner side of the building which fronts our old home site in Cagayan de Oro, which family dwelling was earlier demolished to make way for an awkwardly towering three-storey concrete commercial building, made taller by a mezzanine and a partly-roofed roof deck. This historical landmark plaque recognizes and details the importance of this ancient building built in the late 1800s by a local Chinese resident who used imported stone masonry from his old hometown in mainland China, Shipped in the dark and damp hulls of trading ships plying between China and the Philippines, cut stones made of coralline served as the main component of the Chinaman’s residence in what was then a very remote part of the archipelago, in the island of Mindanao. The present building reveals very little traces of the original building since it has over time been plastered over with new materials and has been resourcefully incorporated into a larger and more modern multi-storey commercial building.

The text on the plaque is in the Pilipino language, which I assume does not sit well with the local residents who speak a different dialect, Bisayan. And much like dredging old wounds, it speaks about the heroic deeds of some “revolutionaryos” who fought against the foreign invaders in the early 1900s, and the latter would be the Americans who occupied the entire archipelago after imperial Spain lost the Spanish American War. And morosely reveals that many of these unfortunate “revolutionaryos”, hapless casualties of the resultant war, were buried in the back of this old house on supposedly unmarked graves.

Mountain Grandeur














Pictured here is the tallest crest on the Kitanglad range which sits majestically on the plateau of a province called Bukidnon, which in the dialect means, mountainous. At over 9,000 feet it is proudly ranked as among the top tallest mountain ranges in the entire country, maybe overhauled only by Mount Apo, another tall monument in Davao, way further south in the same island. When the US armed forces still held sway locally, it had maintained a sophisticated tracking system on its peak, euphemistically referred to as a weather station. But now the peak is dotted and punctuated with many commercial pylon structures, though its sublime heights continue to exhibit an almost surreal atmosphere. Nature’s way of obliquely providing cover for many of its grandeur?

We have been quite fortunate that we bought some farmlands that lie just below the foot of this awesome natural wonder. Atop 1100 meters, we are blessed with the cool climate of a temperate country and yet it is no more than an hour away from the jungle-like city bustle toward the north.

Mountain Retreat














And tucked in a cozy ridge liberally planted with green cool pines is the story-book actualization of a mountain retreat – a new subdivision quite unlike many urban development. It has big lot cuts ideal for truck gardening on the side. Aptly named Mountain Pines, its big clubhouse from nowhere is pictured above. And we share our dream images of the stately Kitanglad range with its prospective residents.

A Timely Reminder and A Cause For Hope














Now, what the heck are gravestones, locally referred to as lapidas, doing in this entry?

When one has been away from a place for too long, it is not unusual for stray thoughts to wander into the distant past – of close relatives dead and gone. A quick visit to the local cemetery, or what are now called memorial parks, helps to soothe these aching thoughts. A timely and apt reminder also of one’s oncoming mortality.

But on a more hopeful note, a helpful revelation about how one generation has improved much in terms of lifespan, both expected and actual, does elevate one’s time-worn pulse a bit. My paternal grandfather died at age 54, my father at 57, his younger brother at 55, an older sister at 48, and a cousin died at childbirth.

But my generation has not only set the bar of life higher but many have hurdled way past above it. Hooray!

What This Blog Is All About

Quoting from a much appreciated invite received from Editor Cheri of the Tracy Press, the main community paper of the City of Tracy, of which I am glad to be a resident:

“If you send me something like that (the name of the blog and your name and town) along with a 50-word-or-less description of your blog, I’ll add it to the page.”

Somehow, my initial attempts at complying have been stymied by a stubborn inability to reduce to 50 words or less what this blog is all about.

In starting the blog, I had initially declared that I suffered from a deep-seated urge to cram and savor as much of life as I could in a short lifetime, dipping my puny fingers in much anything that caught my fancy, and in matters that I could decently understand, and that in turn I could tolerably gather together and maybe imaginatively write about.

And true to form, my harried attempts at writing have been all over the place, at times defying any logic at archive classification.

And I say that much like real life, the disparate parts go beyond being capable of any neat and easily understood categorizing. And that much like real life, it will always appear as messy and much clutter.

But attempt I should, based on the parameters laid down.

Finally, I came up with this:

The Ignatian Perspective –

While its title may betray the impression of writings adhering strictly to the admirable tenets of the Jesuits founder, the reality has been one of free-wheeling musings on varied subjects that hopefully people value and want to read about – family life, immigrant perspectives, spirituality, and some politics and economics.

And the spin-off blog, Hobbies and Pastimes –

A little menagerie of revealing and at times, amusing, bits and pieces of activities that litter and lend a bit of color and interest to any typical life. And along the way, a little bit of self-discovery.

Some Somber Uninvited Thoughts

During moments of quiet introspection, I unerringly am guided to plan for another expectant trip back to the old homeland, strongly prodded by some kind of homing device pointing my wander-struck ken toward that familiar destination.

While every trip provides revealing and refreshingly new insights about the ever-changing old homeland, especially with regard to how sadly different it is from a first-world country like the US, many other things remain static and unchanged over time making the requisite adaptation to local conditions easy and trouble free.

However, certain uncontrollable issues like the weather and the environment continue to be irksome challenges that grudgingly have to be seriously dealt with each time, unfortunately needing for one to expend the self-same vigor and dedication in sufficiently jousting with these fortuitous vagaries.

On the more unpleasant negative side, however, I am personally experiencing an unsettling sense that has stubbornly bothered me and which rears its ugly head every time I begin to seriously interact with the local people and unobtrusively observing how they go about doing their workaday mundane business.

It is not a pretty picture and does not bespeak kindly of a serious part of the pervasive attitudes of the local citizenry. This attitude is revealed more in personal interaction rather than in media.

No doubt the typical Filipino looks up to the US kindly in more ways than typically imagined. The US is not only regarded as a possible source of economic salvation for many, but its social and political institutions are typically adulated with respect and deference, regardless of how the vocal local minority may prognosticate otherwise.

Many serious discussions about politics, society, education, and even entertainment, are more likely premised on how things are done or regarded in the US, and then how the local milieu has adapted and/or deviated from such “standards”. Filipinos would like to see their kids being educated in American schools, their employment with American companies where the dollar’s exponentially higher purchasing capabilities badly overhaul those of the dismally meager local peso.

In a manner of speaking, in a country that is now terribly debauched with pernicious economic hardships, many dream of finding themselves in the US, should the first available opportunity unexpectedly shows up allowing them passage.

But what many, in my personal estimation, possessing such attitudes and dreams may fail to comprehend and take into account is that there are consequent duties and responsibilities associated in turning these hopeful plans into realities. That, for example, going to America and living there to earn a living requires more than just being able to physically transport oneself to the place and start earning and availing of its perceived bounties. Important considerations requiring essential changes in attitudes and behavior, like being earnest about learning and obeying laws and acceding to the demands of culture of the host country, whether with regard to petty traffic rules, immigration requirements, or social demeanor expectations; where in the old homeland unfortunately many of these are renowned for their being mindlessly disregarded rather than their being adhered to by its ordinary citizenry. While no country can boast of having all their citizenry strictly comply with its laws, the US does distinguish itself from a country like the Philippines for its earnest commitment and regard in the application of the rule of law, regardless of station, race, status, etc.

Another critical issue that appears prevalent is the typical Filipino’s limited grasp of the bigger picture, learning to think beyond the tight circle of one’s family’s dreams and interests, and extending that to the health and well-being of an entire country.

The typical Filipino with dreams of immigration, especially to the US, finds it easy to imagine himself or herself immersed in hard and at times back-breaking work when he/she finds that doing so promotes the narrow interests and welfare of the family. But rarely does that solicitude, for example, extend beyond, into thoughts like how one’s actions, multiplied by many, may adversely affect the general welfare and interests of the host country.

To illustrate, a prospective Filipino visitor may not hesitate to hide his real intentions about going to the US, most especially with regard those that may be in contravention with the restrictions imposed by a visitor’s visa; like that the stay is only for a very limited period, and that employment is not allowed while under the auspices of such a visa. But once on board, many will not be burdened much in soliciting and accepting employment or even overstay if doing so works for the family’s welfare. Thus this justification trumps other equally critical considerations and makes the violator feel personally justified. After all the family’s welfare is being ameliorated, they would advance.

May we be able to find the answer to all these in how the typical Filipino views the oft-resorted one-world concept? That the entire globe is one big borderless place where everybody is free to fluidly move about and pursue his and his family’s welfare? After all, many citizens of other countries feel justified espousing such causes – one government and one world for all.

Unfortunately, these hopes are expressed by those who ordinarily come from beleaguered countries which cannot provide adequately, whether in job opportunities or good living standards, for many of their own citizens. Their hapless citizens are then compelled to seek their fortunes outside the confines of their own homelands.

While many may be fiercely nationalistic and ethnically patriotic about a homeland that has essentially failed them, they express no qualms laboring under a foreign country with a foreign government. Neither are there honest desires to integrate and assimilate in societies where, in a some real sense, they are said to be parasitically exploiting for their personal ends. Since they are not really invested in working toward insuring the economic and/or political health of the host country.

Like drowning men flailing and desperately clutching to each shred of life-giving buoyant straw, one must learn that sooner than later an entire country can only carry so much inert weight before it too begins to be weighed down to the level of the distressed countries from whence these new residents came from.

And then nobody will be any better.

Let the light be on each one of us.

Illustrating The Indomitable Human Spirit

For many years, Vicky C. toiled tirelessly to keep a family fed and sheltered, doing odd jobs as they were made available to her. Cooking for other families, cleaning houses, and caring for the disabled or the elderly, using skills and expertise borne out of many years of trying to keep pace with the almost-unending needs of a growing family of several children. While the grueling years may show unmistakable signs of wear and tear in Vicky’s physical looks, still it cannot be denied that she has kept her family together and sufficiently cared for.

But the persistent urge to succeed in life and to try to give her still struggling family more in life than it has been used to, Vicky thought and tried of every possible way to bring this uplift about. In the process, she had to have realized that her depleting ability to care for her family, converting essentially manual labor in exchange for resources for her family, would not last for long. So she started focusing on economic endeavors that would generate revenue that would more than keep her family’s soul together. Entrepreneurship that has proved for many to be key to improving one’s lot under a capitalist system.

She had reminisced about the times the family had when they were settled in another city and both husband and wife were employed in a thriving bakery shop. The husband had worked as baker while Vicky tended to cashiering; and they had thought then that the family was on its way to some real progress. But as fate would have it, the bakery burned down and with it, the family’s hopes were also dashed to cinders.

Before long, the family found itself in a another city in Mindanao, in Cagayan de Oro City, with the family trying to parlay what experiences it had collectively acquired to support the family. But as expected when one’s enterprising efforts are bereft of the main lifeblood, capital, Vicky and her penurious family did not garner much headway, consigning Vicky to taking on whatever jobs were available.

Vicky came to our lives as a caregiver for my disabled mom who had spent over a decade in the US with us. Realizing too late the disastrous effects drastic change in climate may have especially on the elderly, one of my mom’s legs had to be amputated due to problems of circulation. Thus, she was back to the old homeland for proper caring. Vicky stayed on with the family till my mom died several years ago, taking on miscellaneous odd jobs. As a cook for which she had special skills, cleaning house, and taking an 8-hour shift caring for my mom who had given up on moving about on her own.

It was then that we learned of Vicky’s commendable plan for her family. While the odd jobs did provide some measure of care for her family, they offered no long term benefit and their ability to provide was inversely proportional to her ability to do tedious physical work.

While compassion and good wishes could ease a bit another person’s lament and problems, nothing beats real concrete assistance to start a needy but motivated person on his way toward resolution. And we know the one direst lack of the needy is the ability to raise capital funds, beyond just to spend to keep family alive. And we also know that mainstream institutions designed to provide assistance for such persons have practically closed their doors, arguing about bad risks and the absence of proper collaterals.

Sensing the noteworthiness of Vicky’s dreams and believing in her integrity and resoluteness, we started helping her out, at the same time that we also did with the two other caregivers who lost jobs when my mom died. And in the ensuing several years, Vicky would prove that she was made of sterner stuff, as the two others simply made themselves rare and never once getting back to us to explain how the “loaned” funds did for their little endeavors. We have come to accept their failures and continue to have compassion and good wishes for them.

Over time, Vicky, her husband, and a couple of her kids, having eventually “borrowed” 70,000 pesos, started crystallizing their bakery business. Humbly starting with a home-made oven with the husband cooking and making deliveries and Vicky helping out in the sales, their entire house has become a beehive of activity. From the funds provided, the business was able to purchase a good-size professionally made oven, construct a little store shed to display bakery products and complemented with a meager selection of her own cooking and some soda products, and even rent the neighboring unoccupied building now in turn leased out to roomers and housing her bakers now numbering six.

Can we consider Vicky’s plight as more than just a turn for the better, like a success?

Well, the acquired high standards of polite society may squirm a bit in judging her strides. After all, their house premises which are also the bakery’s place of business are still dark, dilapidated, hot and humid, and would be considered dirty by most health standards; though improvements are slowly being introduced. Some walls are now hollow-blocked and the floor having being upgraded from simply being made of dirt.

But one must feel in this case that the greater, more enduring and laudable changes and/or manifestations have been inside the persons involved. Documented solely by a signed hand-written piece of paper, the “loan” with no interest is slowly being retired, commencing from the middle of last year. The installments have reduced the total amount to 80%.

Though far from liquidation, there is earnest optimism that eventually the borrowed funds will be completely retired, giving credence to the experience-proved truism that the needy by and large only need to be given the opportunity; and that outright charity or pure dole-out is typically not the answer.