By ACC Delen
Out of quarantine, I walk the familiar streets, shop in familiar shops, spend time with people I’ve known for years. It should be like slipping my feet in well-worn shoes…comfortable…familiar. Yet, it is not.
Eight months ago, the streets were empty and cold. Now, its hard, concrete covering is pounded by millions of people daily, bearing testimony to a life that must go on. The shops were closed then, some are open now, while others forever shuttered. The business owners having folded under the pressure of rising rent and lack of customers…the expats that remain outside the iron curtain. And the people? Well, they are welcoming…happy that I’m back. Excited to know the details of my journey back and eager to share stories of their own. Two very different experiences which both could only imagine but never truly understand.
The Overseas Filipino Workers in China sing very similar refrains. Aware of the thousands of their countrymen repatriated back to the Philippines with no safety nets and the government not being prepared to offer anything but temporary solutions, OFW’s in the Middle Kingdom count themselves fortunate that they still have jobs. They may not be able to go home for Christmas or even in the coming year, but at least, they still can support their families who at this point have more need for their remittances. At least.
On the other hand, those on the outside who can’t wait to come back (more than 400 of them I personally know of) also have very similar refrains. The gradual reopening of China’s borders is welcome news but the cost of a one-way airline ticket to bring them back is more than they could bear hence the caveat in one of the few English websites catering to expats here. Foreigners CAN come back to the Middle Kingdom IF they can afford it. The biggest hurdle once visa is granted is the flight back then the 14-day hotel quarantine as well as required CoVid tests that one must pay out of pocket.
As one Filipino netizen observed in a group chat, the cost of a ticket these days is enough to open a small-scale business in the Philippines. Yet none in that group thought of staying behind and opening a business…becoming his/her own boss so to speak. The main reason? They still believe that the grass is greener beyond the fence.
Case in point: two good friends made the observation that a 170 thousand to 200-thousand-peso single plane ticket is a less risky venture than a newly opened business in the Philippines. After all, with a stable job in a good company, one can recoup said amount in a few months. An observation that I find a bit disheartening because the reality is, the Philippines could be better. If there is one thing that half a year back there taught me, it’s that the country is NOT poor. Far from it. It is rich with resources that go to waste because we don’t know how to sustain it. It is rich with talented people who leave our shores because we don’t know how to keep them. It is rich with opportunities that fly out the window because we don’t know how to recognize these. Most of all, the Philippines is rich with greedy and opportunistic individuals whose only mission in life is to bleed the country dry because WE keep on voting them into office. Is it any wonder then that OFW’s in China and most likely any part in the world would rather spend their hard-earned money on plane tickets and be away from their loved ones than set up a business in their native land? You tell me.
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