Don’t get me wrong.  My trip to Manila last Feb 2015 was not all disappointments.  It was mostly a laid back trip with just running errands, celebrating my birthday, spending time with the family and eating nice food especially desserts, as it is very rare to find nice desserts in SG.

Errands Completed:

1. COL account application for my nieces and nephews in preparation for the Mutual Fund being offered in COL. We went to COL office in Tektite to physically open the COL accounts for the kiddos.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of people applying for a COL account versus when I applied last Dec 2011.  Also there was a seminar room filled with people attending a training.

The first time I went there was to open a COL account and seek the help of a Customer Relations Officer as I was a bit lost on how to start as I only attended a financial literacy seminar less than a month before I went there and I didn’t had time to ask my finance mentor nor do a research.  My intent was to just get it done and I felt going to the office was better to interact with an officer there who will assist me.

This visit in Feb 2015 was no different as I couldn’t assist in filling up the form as I am not familiar with the ITF process.  Surprisingly, Lhiz is the one who helped me then in 2011 and again in 2015.  I really appreciate the good customer service she provided especially as we already submitted 4 but pending 2 more because my sis-in-law was still caught in the traffic jam.

It was another pleasant surprise to see Floi Wycoco, President and Founder of The Global Filipino Investors, in the COL office helping his friend to also open a COL account. 🙂

2. Banking transactions:
   1. Application for a replacement of my ATM Card. Had to fill up a form to request for a new ATM card and return 3-4 days after to get the new ATM card, I felt initially irritated that I had to go back to the bank to get the ATM card but later on the irritation became as a blessing in disguise as I was able to link my friend’s COL account to my Account to help her in funding her COL account.
   2. Application for linking my Savings Account to the COL account of my nieces and nephews. Had to fill up a form listing all the 6 COL accounts and was reflected in the Internet Banking 4 days after.
   3. Application for linking my Savings Account to the COL account of my friend. Her COL account number was only available a day before I had to go back to BPI to pick up my ATM card.  Had to fill up another form but the funny thing is it was reflected in the Internet Banking on the same day.
   4. Making deposit transactions. Sharing my blessings to 2 groups with great advocacy in promoting financial literacy
      1. to teachers (via FFFF)
      2. to communities, esp to housewives, plus they give away a piggy bank (via TGFI)

Happiness and Satisfaction in Simple Things:

1. Celebrating my birthday with a simple children’s birthday party with a Mocha cake from Goldilocks, Chickenjoy from Jollibee, Lasagna & Carbonara from Greenwich and Coke & Sprite from a neighborhood sari-sari store.
2. Manong Security Guard in Rustan’s Makati parking area who gave me a reserved slot and assisted me by giving signals while I was parking.
3. Very good Customer Service at Watami Restaurant Glorietta branch. Maybe partly because it was not peak period so the employees were letting Thirdie run around the restaurant and helping to watch over him which made it easier for us to eat.  Thirdie was so charming that he even got a free ice cream.  I think he will break a lot of hearts when he grows up 🙂

Some people were not happy with my blog post last week.  It was not meant to shed a bad light on the PH and I know that PH has come a long way.  It was more of a wake up call for us to strive for continuous improvement, challenge our current processes and benchmark with the best.

Why would we benchmark with non-performing countries?  We should benchmark with the best-in-class or centers of excellence in order to raise our standards and excel more in our services and processes and this will be more to our advantage esp with the onset of the ASEAN Integration.

I remember in one of my 1:1 with my boss, she told me that when I return to the PH for good I will have a hard time adjusting.  During that time, I told her I don’t think so but my recent trip to the PH made me think twice.

I wonder when will PH progress to the level of advancement like SG?  It will happen but in order for that to happen, we need to be investing in the PH to help our country progress and we can do this by helping TGFI’s cause in promoting COL as they have a tie-up in the advocacy for spreading financial literacy to Filipinos worldwide.

This experience also made me think that the government should have programs for the re-integration of OFWs who have decided to be permanently based in PH maybe through emotional support, financial literacy programs and assisting them if they want to pursue entrepreneurship.  Hopefully, by the time I retire and go back to the PH for good, these programs would already be available.

My sentiments in my last blog post may have been taken negatively by some people but what I wanted was for the companies to do more self-reflection and self-assessment for improvement opportunities.

Also, as an OFW on vacation, time is very precious to us.  So, any waiting time that is cut down is a very big bonus to us.  We will have more time to spend with family and friends, visiting local tourist destinations, eating Filipino food and shopping for cheap clothes. 🙂