Balikbayan solastalgia / rekwerdo na Pilipinas

A TRIP TO BOHOL

A good friend Ian Gill writes from my old 'Second Home' the Philippines:

"The guide took me aside and talked about the “apparition.” He pointed to the wall of Bohol’s Baclayon, one of the Philippines’ oldest stone churches. There, he said, is the face of Padre Pio (the Italian mystic and priest who is said to have appeared with the stigmata of the crucified Jesus).

I could see nothing except dark weather stains on the gray wall. The guide asked me to take a photograph. When I looked at the digital image, I could make out a picture of a bearded man, said to resemble Padre Pio. Judge for yourself from the attached photo!

Bohol is a laid-back, often overlooked province in the central Visayas. Up till a few years ago, its impoverished people hunted and killed dolphins. They also snared and stuffed tarsiers – the tiny endangered primates – to sell to tourists.

Thanks to the eco movement, that’s largely changed, which made our short holiday more enjoyable. Scores of “spinner” dolphins – which leap into the air and twirl – surrounded our banca during an early morning ride with two ex-fishermen. They jump from nowhere and only for a split second, so photographing them is a challenge!

The tarsier, with its bulging eyes (bigger than its brain or stomach) and human-like fingers is easier to photograph and very photogenic.

The kids enjoyed seeing Bohol’s unique Chocolate hills – turned green by the rainy season – but were disappointed they weren’t edible.

A stay in Bohol is very reasonable. For example, a two-hour river cruise through the “jungle” costs only $10, and includes lunch plus singing and dancing (including the tinikling, where dancers hop between bamboo poles in imitation of the tikling bird).

The better homes in Bohol are built by foreigners, including many Germans, and their Filipino wives. It was a German who reportedly discovered the “apparition” of Padre Pio."

My Filipina Sweetheart & our Loss of Innocence

I LOVED LEA - 1988

Lea Salonga-Chien (born on February 22, 1971 in the Philippines) is a Filipina singer and actress best known for her musical role in 'Miss Saigon', for which she won the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, and Theatre World Awards.

Lea started as a child star in the Philippines, making her professional debut in 1978 at the age of seven in the musical 'The King and I' by Repertory Philippines. She began her recording career at the age of ten with her first album, "Small Voice", which received a gold certification.

A song on the album, the duet "Happiness", marked her first recording collaboration with her younger brother Gerard Salonga, who would, years later, work with her either as musical director or creative director in her concerts and recordings.

Her second album, "Lea", was released in 1988. In addition to performing in musical theater and recordings, Salonga hosted her own musical television show, "Love, Lea", and was a member of the cast of German Moreno's teen variety show 'That's Entertainment'.

My older boys Matthew and Peter (then 8 years old and 5 years old) adored her TV show, "Love, Lea" - and I have to admit that I had a bit of a crush on the 17-year old star as well. Matt, Pete and I used to watch the TV show together in the den of our house, 1462 Dasmarinas Avenue, Dasmarinas Village, Makati, Metro Manila.

Years later in 2000, while working for the Asian Development Bank as a consultant, rather than as a member of staff, I was able to see Lea perform in the Philippine run of 'Miss Saigon'. I wasn't disappointed - the story of Kim and Tam brought a tear to my eyes - and the old spark between us was still there!

LEA’S SUNNY TRADEMARK SONG

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow -
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun!

Just thinkin' about
Tomorrow,
Clears away the cobwebs,
And the sorrow
'Til there's none!

When I'm stuck with a day
That's gray,
And lonely,
I just stick out my chin
And grin,
And say:

“Oh
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow”
So ya gotta hang on
Tïll tomorrow
Come what may.

Tomorrow!
Tomorrow!
I love ya
Tomorrow!

You're always
A day
A way!

DARK DAYS - THE HONASAN COUP

In December 1989, expatriate life in Manila’s smart-set Makati villages was torn apart by a major coup d’etat run by a young officer Gregorio Ballesteros Honasan II (born March 14, 1948), better known as Gringo Honasan. It was always clear that Gringo was a puppet of a shadowy political gangster, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile.

The coup against the government of Philippine President Corazon Aquino began on December 1, 1989. At the onset of the coup, the rebels seized Villamor Airbase, Fort Bonifacio, Sangley Airbase, Mactan Airbase in Cebu, and portions of Camp Aguinaldo. The rebels set patrols around the runway of Ninoy Aquino International Airport effectively shutting it down.

From Sangley Airbase, the rebels launched planes and helicopters which bombarded and strafed Malacañang Palace, Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo. Three hours after the fall of Villamor Air Base Aquino go on air to address her people, said that "We shall smash this naked attempt once more".

At that point government counter-attack began. Seven army trucks headed for the Channel 4 TV station, and fierce fighting occurred there. Ramos and Renato de Villa monitored the crises from Camp Crame, the Constabulary headquarters.

With loyal forces hard-pressed by the rebels, Aquino requested US Military assistance, at the behest of her military commanders and was granted. 120 marines, part of 800 U.S. contingent stationed at Subic Naval Base were deployed at the grounds of the US Embassy as a defensive measure.

American help was crucial to the Aquino cause, clearing the skies of rebel aircraft and allow loyalist to consolidate their forces. While many mutineers surrendered, Aquino declared: “We leave them two choices; Surrender or die”. Government F-5 jets went to the skies and challenged rebel planes, and culminated with the destruction of the rebel T-28 Trojans.

Government forces would recapture all military bases save for Mactan Airbase by December 3, but rebel forces retreating from Fort Bonifacio occupied 22 high-rise buildings along the Ayala business area in Makati.

The government claimed the coup was crushed, but fierce fighting continued through the weekend, with Camp Aguinaldo was set ablaze by the rebel howitzers.

The occupation of Makati lasted until December 7, while the rebels surrendered Mactan Airbase on December 9. The official casualty toll was 99 dead (including 50 civilians) and 570 wounded (in all probability these are considerable understatements).

The United States military supported the Aquino government through Operation "Classic Resolve" involving the use of U.S. airpower from the USS Midway (CV-41) and USS Enterprise aircraft carriers and F-4 Phantom II fighters from Clark Air Base.

The U.S. Air force jets retook the skies for Aquino. The U.S. planes had clearance to "...buzz the rebel planes at their base, fire in front of them if any attempted to take off, and shoot them down if they did".

As is typical of Philippine politics nothing was resolved because none of the issues were clear cut and none of the political actors were clean cut.

Cory Aquino’s successor, President Fidel Ramos, granted Gringo amnesty in 1992. Honasan entered politics and became a senator from 1995 to 2004 and again since 2007.

The coup was pretty personal for those who went through it. I remember being in my son Peter’s bedroom (he was nearly 7 years old by then) watching government forces strafe the rebels with rockets from an abandoned building at the junction of EDSA and the South Super Highway.

One colleague received a bullet through the ceiling of his home office and the wife of another witnessed the casual shooting of civilians in the street by right wing members of a Gun Club who used the turmoil as an excuse for sociopathic carnage.

All travel was very hazardous and ADB advised everyone to forget coming into work - we stayed at home together as the the tension hung and mounted. Finally, we decided to take the back road out of Dasmarinas Village to Alabang. The escape was succesful and we were taken in as refugees by our wonderful friends John and Lynne Cole - spending a good deal of time watching the kids in the swimming pool and chatting.

I decided to return alone to Makati as the coup drew to a close, being worried about our 'girls' Celia and Delia and the safety of the house from looting. No problems there - the house was, as always immaculate, and there were smiles all round.

However, I did see the rebels 'surrender'. This consisted of marching up McKinley Avenue with their weapons. They looked like a bunch of insolent, over-grown schoolboys who were being placed on detention by an ageing schoolmarm.

The innocent sun never came out again for me in the Philippines. I was struck forcibly by the awful realization that – ‘relaxed, appealing and sweet’, as the Philippines could be - I could not protect my sons.

LEA IN MANHATTAN - 2010

“At Home with Disney and ‘Miss Saigon”, by Stephen Holden from the New York Times(14/3/2010)

‘A bright, utilitarian voice that sweeps across continents as it conjures the aspirations of the inner princesses in millions of nice young women from Manila to London: no, it’s not Celine Dion, but Lea Salonga, the demure 39-year-old Philippine star whose autobiographical show, “The Journey So Far,” opened a three-week engagement at Café Carlyle on Tuesday evening.

Ms. Salonga is the vocal personification of what might be called the Broadway and Hollywood international style, which embraces Disney songs, Rodgers and Hammerstein ballads and the anthems of Schönberg and Boublil. Hers is a talent groomed to express inspirational generalities that please most of the people most of the time without taxing their emotions. Beyond an eagerness to please, impersonality is its signature quality.

The show-business history Ms. Salonga related in the agreeable tone of a friendly saleswoman helps explain the formation of such a sensibility. A child star in the Philippines, she made her professional debut at 7 in “The King and I” and starred in the title role of “Annie.”

That track led her to the role of Kim, which she originated in “Miss Saigon” in London in 1989. Back then she was so innocent, she recalled, that the director, Nicholas Hytner, had to demonstrate the onstage love scenes step by step. She later played both Éponine and Fantine in “Les Misérables.” Her voice has been heard in “Aladdin” and in two “Mulan” movies.

Backed by a functional quartet under the direction of Larry Yurman, Ms. Salonga touched many of these bases on Tuesday, with some forays into Philippine music. Like most singers who rely on various degrees of declamation, Ms. Salonga was most appealing when she relaxed and sang a sweet, low-key rendition of “Someone to Watch Over Me,” accompanied by a single guitar.

Especially in an intimate space like Café Carlyle, the cliché applies: Less is more’.

[“The Journey So Far” continues through March 27 at Café Carlyle, 35 East 76th Street, Manhattan; (212) 744-1600, thecarlyle.com]

Asian Development Bank - Coming to do Good / Staying to do Well

Our arrival in Manila in 1984 was marked by incessant typhoons and Matt becoming severely ill with food poisoning – I have vivid memories of 18-month old Peter standing up in the back of filthy taxis try to play with the grime on the shelf under the back window as we went back to the Regent Hotel, leaving Matt and his mother in Makati Medical Centre.

In time though we established ourselves and became part of the ADB’s thriving, lively and often amusing expatriate community. Initially we lived at 110 Cambridge Circle, North Forbes Park, and then moved to 1673 Dasmarinas Avenue, Dasmarinas Village.

The boys were lucky to have a wide range of young friends from ADB families (including the Roberts, Cole and Gordevich children and the late Charleson family offspring Christopher). There was always something going on it seemed, with pantomimes, Xmas parties for the children, Halloween Trick and Treating, Little League Baseball and general good times around the swimming pool.

Sunday evenings were marked by hamburgers/steaks and ice cream at the Seafront US service club or pizzas and pitchers of Mountain Dew at the Pizza Hut in Makati. Our favourite holiday break was a weekend at Punta Baluarte in Batangas Province (a 2-3 hour drive from Manila via Tagaytay). Here there were two swimming pools and lots of opportunities for games and videos.

To her great credit, Dianne managed to develop a reasonably satisfying lifestyle working with the Episcopalian Church children’s clinic and the ADB Women’s Club. My non-work interests included being on the Board of Governors of the Brent School (we used to drive up to Baguio for meetings – on one occasion to discuss the behaviour of the headmaster – an Englishman, who was shot at while at his desk and burnt in effigy by the staff at the school gates!).

I also joined the Men’s Hash and spent many happy hours half-lost in the scrub at places like Susannah Heights and San Pedro. We actually organized and ran the 1990 Interhash, hosting about 1,800 visitors from all over the world to three days of solid running and partying.

At work, I was able to publish some substantial research work while I was with the Economics and Development Resource Centre (my good friend Malcolm Dowling was also there). I then moved on to the Strategy and Development Policy Unit as a Senior Development Policy Officer, where I was involved with a wide-ranging review of the Role of the Bank in the 1990s. My overseas assignments included India, China (lecturing for the Agricultural University in Nanjing and the Agricultural Bank of China in Tianjin, accompanied by Dianne), Thailand, and Malaysia (see insert for recent description of life in Manila).

[Biographical note for the Asian Development Bank Association of Former Employees (ADB-AFE) Magazine prepared mid-2005:

In 1983, I was working as a Project Planning / Development Economics Lecturer with the Project Planning Center at the University of Bradford, UK, in the aftermath of 6 intensive years of consulting in the Middle East and Nigeria. Having ‘settled down’ in my home country England with my New Zealand wife Dianne, we soon added sons Matthew and Peter. When an opportunity came up to undertake an ADB consulting assignment on behalf of the University, I was fascinated to find myself in Manila walking every morning down a humid Roxas Boulevard from the Regent Hotel to the Bank.

I soon found a friendly environment, working with very interesting people such as seniors Dr Satish Jha, Dr Kedar Kohli, Dr Frank Tacke, Dr Takase, Brien Parkinson, and rising stars like Shoji Nishimoto, Tom Crouch, Graham Walter and Malcolm Dowling. It was Brien Parkinson who suggested that I should apply for a job with the Economics and Development Resource Centre, and who subsequently acted very kindly as a mentor.

When a large brown envelope arrived from Manila with ‘an offer’, I managed to persuade Dianne that Manila was nearer than Bradford to Auckland and that it might be exciting to become expatriates for a spell. We arrived in Manila in August 1984 in the middle of a series of savage typhoons. Within a week, Matthew was laid low with severe shigellosis and Dianne had to spend the next week sleeping at his bedside in Makati Medical Centre. I took time out to look after 18 month old Peter at the Regent Hotel [which was to burn down some 6 months later with considerable loss of life].

However, we did eventually pull out of what seemed to be an early nightmare and settled into a good life built around the Bank [with Dianne contributing substantially to the ADB Women’s Club], the British School, and Holy Trinity Church [where Dianne helped organize the children’s feeding and medical program]. However, I am sure that Dianne won’t mind me saying that apart from ‘maids, mangoes and massage’, she remained a doubtful convert to the Philippines.

I was, as they say, ‘rapt’ with having access to the Bank’s marvelous resources, including its diverse and entertaining staff members. At EDRC, my colleagues included the exceptionally bright younger selves of ‘Yoshi’ Yoshida, Ifsal Ali and Mohammed Qibria. There as part of that company, I was able to develop a book on Evaluating Rice Market Intervention Systems, with assistance from Dr Peter Timmer of the Harvard Institute for International Development. This may have been the first of what has become a wide stream of similar publications.

The communications section of the Bank was almost non-existent at that time and I remember packing up several large boxes containing copies of my book and dispatching them to the Annual Meeting in Vancouver with the instruction to give copies of the book away. Imagine my chagrin when the boxes were returned to me with great ceremony – unopened! I was also able to indulge my interest in applying Semi Input-Output Analysis to calculating Shadow Prices for Social Cost Benefit Analysis – not surprisingly, it never caught on!

The delightful contrasts in character and style between nationalities were neatly illustrated by the 2 Chief Economists under whom I served – both very impressive men in their own way. Burnie Campbell was an ex College Gridiron ‘jock’ from the Dakotas who placed a copy of ‘Essays in Idleness’ prominently on the small table in the break out area of his office. When he was superseded by Dr Kohli, the reading material was changed to feature a copy of Fortune Magazine that had put a portrait photograph of ADB President Fujioka its cover to match its lead article on Asian ‘movers and shakers’.

In 1988, I moved to the Development Policy Office where I was again lucky to interact with people of the caliber of Paul Dickie, Werner Schelzig and Kunio Saito. At that time, I also got to know Marion Bond who was one of our consultants on the Blue Ribbon Study ‘The Role of the Bank in the 1990s’. Paul, Malcolm, Marion, myself and our much loved and sadly missed friend Lai Ah Hoon used to frequently lunch together at Seafront or the Manila Club.

By the late 1980s, Manila in all its color and drama had begun to take its toll on the family. The excitements included the People’s Power Revolution, several impressive earthquakes and typhoons, the ‘Honasan Coup’, and the volcanic eruption of Mt Pinatubo. I remember watching from Peter’s bedroom as Government forces shelled the rebels held up in Makati during the Honasan episode. I also began to feel that I ‘had come to good, and was staying to do well’. It was time to put the family first, downsize my savings rate and move on.

In 1991, after spending 7 years with the ADB, we moved to New Zealand, where I joined the Ministry of Energy, as Unit Manager, Resource Economics.

My marriage to Dianne broke up in 1993 but we remain good friends. She is a very successful businesswoman in her own right, having set up a consulting group on building construction and disputes resolution.']

Picking up the story again .... However, as a family, we had suffered a good deal of insecurity during the People’s Power Revolution that deposed President Marcos and brought Cory Aquino to power, the abortive but bloody Honasan Coup (I remember being in Peter’s bedroom watching Government forces strafing the rebels in Makati) and the Gulf War in which the British and International Schools became potential targets).

It was therefore with relief to all (despite the loss of tax-free income) that I was able to take up an appointment as Unit Manager, Resource Economics, with the Department of Energy in Wellington in 1991. Nevertheless, the Philippines touches all that live there – not least for the warmth and simplicity of the ordinary people.

We grew to love people like Carlito, our driver, Inday the masseuse, and our maids Amparo (Parang), Celia and Delia.

It is a place of vast contrasts in wealth, wacky humour and constant insecurity – there is never a dull moment. Visitors are told, if they complain, ‘the Philippines spent 400 years in a Spanish monastery and then 50 years in Hollywood as a US colony – what do you expect?’ To this extent, I have to admit to missing it when I left – and I got quite teary and misty-eyed when I first returned in 1999 as a balikbayan (home-comer) to undertake consulting assignments with ADB. As the old adage goes ‘God wanted Jesus to be born in the Philippines – but they couldn’t find three Wise Men – and they couldn’t find a Virgin’!

WORK ASSIGNMENTS DURING THIS PERIOD

Asia Region Asian Development Bank 1991 Development Economist Evaluated problems and alternative approaches surrounding the preparation of meaningful ex-post evaluation assessments for projects by the ADB

Asia / World 1991 Development Economist / Senior Development Policy Officer Evaluated and compared the comparative disbursement profiles for ADB and World Bank projects across the entire range of development loan sectors

Philippines Asian Development Bank 1990 Development Economist Evaluated macro-economic and sector adjustment problems and the success of associated policy initiatives and responses for the Philippine economy, with particular emphasis on the transition of the economy 1985-90

Philippines Asian Development Bank 1989-90 Development Economist / Policy & Institutional Development Specialist Member of Secretariat for comprehensive review of the role, functions and structure of the Asia Development Bank in the 1990s by a high level international panel of experts, including Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen

India Asian Development Bank / Economic Development Institute of the World Bank1990-1 Development Economist / Policy Specialist ADB Manager of Regional Technical Assistance project on the Policy Innovation in Rural Poverty Alleviation in South Asia (in collaboration with EDI).

Myanmar Asian Development Bank 1990 Project Manager Led research, compilation and drafting of the Myanmar Country Strategy document, covering policy reviews of key sectors and recommendations for sector restructuring, policy reform and future collaboration with ADB

China Asian Development Bank / Nanjing Agricultural University / Agricultural Bank of China 1989 Development Economist / Training Manager Managed / presented 2 courses on basic price theory, agricultural pricing and policy implications of marketing through Public and Private Sector entities - for middle level managers (follow up to SEARCA course)

Philippines Asian Development Bank 1988-91 Senior Development Policy Analyst Monitored ADB policies, procedures and provisions for project and structural adjustment loans, including formal comparison of ADB and World Bank approaches to disbursement

Philippines / Asian Region Asian Development Bank / South East Asia Agricultural Research Council 1989 Development Economist / Training ManagerManaged / presented course on Agricultural Pricing and policy implications of marketing through Public and Private Sector entities - for middle level managers from SE Asia

Asian Region Asian Development Bank 1984-7 Development Economist Monitored ADB projects through the project sequence, with special focus on the design and evaluation of ADB's portfolio of agricultural projects. Conducted special investigations on application of techniques such as risk analysis.

Lao PDR Asian Development Bank 1986 Development Economist Re-evaluated and restructured ADB's Lao PDR Agricultural Support Services Project - rice milling capacity, pump irrigation from Mekong, agricultural implement factory

Philippines Asian Development Bank 1986 Development Economist Evaluated differences between market and real resource cost prices for the Philippine economy using advanced shadow pricing methodology

Thailand Asian Development Bank 1985 Development Economist Conducted review of the ADB's agricultural lending policies in Thailand as part of Country Programming

Asia Region Asian Development Bank 1984 Development Economist Evaluated alternative approaches to the use by ADB of risk analysis in the appraisal of project loans