They shall return

The United States Embassy, according to the US Non-Immigrant Visa Chief Joseph Tilghman, processes an average of 1,000 B1-B2 tourist visas per day or approximately 300,000 per year in the Philippines. Of these, 10 percent upwards to 20 percent get denied. After 9/11, they have been able to substantially cut down the number of TNTs because of thorough computerized cross-checking. If a tourist stays over one day the number of days given by the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) upon arrival, his visa is automatically cancelled the next time he visits the United States with no questions asked. What’s worse is that the overstaying tourists chances of getting back to the US in three to five years are nil. Consul General Dave Donohue told us that an average of 35,000 new immigrant visas out of a total of 150,000 applicants are processed every year. Most of these Filipinos have been petitioned or have been claimed by relatives living in America. To safeguard against terrorists and/or non-entities slipping in, the INS has tightened up with biometric measures like finger and eye prints. Now you can’t even smile or make ‘pa-cute’ in your passport photos because the biometric camera has to identify your eyes. There are a lot more stringent measures being contemplated by the Dept. of Homeland Security so much so that a lot of people are getting turned off about traveling to the US. The silver lining in the cloud, though, is that more and more Filipinos living in the US have just decided to spare their relatives from all these hassles and just come in droves to visit. At P56 to $1 it is also so much cheaper to shop in Manila.

While balikbayans, tourists, and OFWs are flocking to the country for the holidays, most people who live here like you and me are just dying to escape the stresses caused by the holiday traffic, pollution, firecrackers, madding crowds, and the accumulation of godchildren. We just want the Christmas season to be over with as soon as possible. Already, the hotels are fully-booked by tourists, OFWs, and balikbayans who don’t want to impose on their relatives.

I know of so many friends and former classmates of mine who have migrated abroad, mostly to the US over 20 years ago, are now just dying to come back permanently. They have come to realize that the quality of life in the Philippines is still much better because as they say life seems to have passed them by. Many of them look much older because they have to hold down two jobs, take care of their children, and on weekends have other pressing matters to attend to like pressing their clothes. Having come to Manila for a vacation in the last couple of years, the lure of this country is beginning to grow on them. They are now seriously looking to retire in the Philippines one day because it all boils down to the kind of lifestyle the country can offer. Also, real estate has become such a bargain for them. As I have always told people, the two countries that you should never burn your bridges with are – your country and the United States. These are the two places that you will most likely or more often than not will want to visit no matter what happens. All things considered, if the Philippines could just be more stable – Filipinos would rather stay home.

So what does that tell us? It is really Filipinos who are the most likely to invest and spend here. It also means that all these people yearning to make it abroad will in the end ultimately return and enjoy the fruits of their labor in the company of kith and kin. Even before they board the plane for a journey that will take decades, more often than not they have all the intentions to come back lurking at the back of their minds. The Asian hospital is a good example where US-based Filipino doctors led by Dr. Jorge Garcia, who has lived abroad for many decades, set up this world-class hospital. They are getting the best of both worlds practicing here and living at a slower pace.

We really should find a way to attract more of the estimated $40-Billion worth of Filipino-owned wealth held abroad. And most of these don’t necessarily all belong to the Super-rich Pinoys. A lot of these have been earned over the years by hardworking people who have done well abroad. Given the right kind of atmosphere, they are willing to plough their funds into the Philippine economy. The best foreign investments to attract are the foreign-based Filipino millionaires. The government and the private sector should just find a way to make it easy for Filipino-foreigners to invest in the long-term and become the new FDIs – Filipino Direct Investors.

This country has also a strong pull for those foreigners who have lived here and spent time with the Filipinos and their warm culture. A lot of these foreigners have now since come back and retired here. Most say that living on an island is their ultimate dream. A lot of Japanese and Koreans are looking for investment opportunities and retirement enclaves. There also are many Swiss, Italians and Germans who have bought resorts and married Filipinas to be able to own property here. Let’s face it, it is tough to lure foreigners who have only heard about the country through CNN, instead we should lure back the Filipinos living abroad and foreigners who have strong ties to the country. In Peter Hamill’s book about the lure of New York called Downtown, he quoted William Faulkner, who said "I will die here in spite of and not because of." Similarly for Filipinos, in spite of and despite of – they shall ultimately return because to them like many of us – this is home.

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