Things are getting brighter

With the imminent victory of Noynoy Aquino and Manuel Roxas (Yes, I believe they will win), I can sense the beginning of a brighter future for our country, that is, if both of these politicians are true to their word to stamp out corruption and not be corrupt themselves. Sometime ago, I opined that it would take centuries or decades before we could sense a bright future ahead for our country. That was before Noynoy came into picture and before Mar opted out of presidential contest. But now, it could be shortened, for the seeds will start to be planted come June 2010 when they take the reins of government.

Assuming Noynoy wins, I can sense that he will start a crackdown on corrupt officials from BIR to customs to LTO. Together with potential cabinet members of his party like Florencio Abad, Cesar Purisima, Dinky Soliman and other honest former government officials, an honest government is in the offing. A leadership by example will guide the whole of government to righteousness. No matter how endemic the corruption is, the beginning of its cure is forthcoming.

A study conducted by World bank and several entities pointed out that the Philippines is losing an estimated 200B pesos every year due to corruption. Come to think of it, assuming the 1 million government employees alone pocketed 10,000 pesos a year in any form of "raket", that will translate to 10B-peso loss already. Assuming each of the 250 congressmen pocketed his/her 20% of the 70-million-peso pork barrel, that will translate to 3.5B-peso loss. Assuming each of our beloved 24 senators pocketed 30% of his/her pork barrel of 200M pesos, that will translate to 1.44B pesos. The total of these alone is already 50B pesos, not to mention yet that my figures are conservative, the stolen IRA allocations of each local government units (Remember Ampatuan?), the jacking up of prices for government projects, the tax evasion, the lost income due to smuggling, the wasteful spending of excess budget, and many others. Overall, this could reach to an amount the World Bank has been saying all along. The 200B pesos lost due to corruption every year is already enough to wipe out our budget deficit that Noynoy presidency will inherit from GMA's. Such amount every year is enough to bring our infrastructure at par with the other tiger economies in the world.

One program that Noynoy and his team is going to implement is an honest-to-goodness crackdown on corrupt government people, tax evaders, and smugglers. Hopefully, they will walk the talk.

Furthermore, there could be another reason for us Filipinos to be optimistic this year: global economic recovery, remittances keep on increasing which might reach US$17B, BPO revenues which could reach US$13B, tourism receipts which could reach substantial revenues from an expected 4 million foreign arrivals, and revenues generated from responsible mining. Although these seem to be unsustainable, at least in the time being while our own labor-intensive factories are still weak, we can still have some blessings to count on, and be grateful that money is still coming into our shores to bail us out at least from the onset of financial crisis. There is still no substitute however for a very strong manufacturing sector in order for us to be truly progressive. We are a 90-million-strong Filipinos and it only takes a very honest leadership to empower us and mobilize our energies in stamping out corruption. With the use of Internet, we can embarrass and expose the crooks to the world.

Ooppps, it's time to go back to reality now and stop dreaming. :-)

Close to five months in Madagascar

I arrived here in Madagascar last Sept. 2, 2009. In the next few days, it will be my fifth month of living and working here. Madagascar has a less-developed economy when compared to ours. It was a former French colony, hence, French is its second language. The national language is Malagasy.

I came here to work as a Database Administrator under Sherritt International, a Canadian firm which is into partnership with Sumitomo, Kores and SNC-Lavalin to put up the so-called A m b a t o v y P r o j e c t (sorry I have to put more spaces in between because I don't want that people in this project will be able to search my blog when they start Googling that word). The project is to be touted as the largest nickel mining venture in the world with a pricetag of US$4B. Currently, the project is still in the construction phase and will start production come January 2011. There are three project sites: the head office which is in the capital, the mine site which is four-hour drive from the capital, and the refinery (where I work now) which is a ten-hour drive from the capital (or a 45-minute travel via chartered plane). Yes, the project has its own chartered plane. Luckily, when I came, I didn't have to travel by land. That's part of the contract where I will be transported by air to and from the refinery site, where I am now. By the way, it's not only me that work in this project, but a thousand Filipinos as well, most of whom are in construction.

I work here as a consultant or a contractor whichever you may want to call it. My contract is two years, and after such duration will it be my option or the company's option to extend my term. But I don't think, I would like to extend (but I'm not totally closing my doors of course). I'm sure after my contract here I can go somewhere else since my occupation is in demand wherever.

I live in a camp where everything is provided. The room assigned to me is just fine although the internet connection sucks bigtime. Nevertheless, I still appreciate it when comparing with some fellow Filipino workers who have to contend sharing one big room with the others. Well, it depends on the function and position actually. Managers and above are allocated single room.

Outside the camp, life is pretty much simple. I may say it's boring for me - no cinemas, no malls, no SPA's, and most of all no excitement. That's how I perceive this place to be. Other Filipinos love it though. It is very much similar to our remote provinces back home. I don't think I can live with such place, but not when I am retiring because of old age.

Anyway, I'm not here to savor every place in Madagascar. I'm here to work and be expert with my chosen career. Here I am coming from a telecommunications industry and now working in a heavy industry. This is the beauty of working in IT particulary Oracle database administration. You can be part of any industry. My next goal is to work in a banking industry, specifically any global bank.