By Daisy CL Mandap
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George (foreground) has spent much of his time with Card HK,
giving financial lessons to fellow OFWs
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If medals were to be awarded to overseas Filipino workers
who have made their stay abroad exemplary, two veterans from Hong
Kong would be among the first to get one.
One of them is George Manalansan, who is set to go home for
good next month, after 38 long years of working abroad, the last 26 years of
which he spent working as a family driver in Hong Kong.
The other is Ching Baltazar, who resettled back in the Philippines two years ago, after spending 32
years working as a domestic helper in Hong Kong.
What sets these two apart from their fellow OFWs, especially
in Hong Kong, is how they have managed to avoid the debt trap, which, given the
ease with which FDHs here are able to take out loans several times their
monthly salary, makes this indeed a feat.
Not only that. Both have managed to save a substantial part
of their monthly salary not only to improve the lives of their family members,
but also to have a nest egg after their retirement.
The two disclosed their formula for success during a live
interview with The SUN last night, Sept 16.
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| Jo (5th from left) and her JC Catering Services team with TV personality Pauleen Luna-Sotto |
They were joined by Jo Campos, another Hong Kong veteran who
went back home in late 2017, also after 32 years of being an OFW.
Although she was frank in admitting that once during her
long stay in the city, she did get enmeshed in debt, Jo said she wised up in
time, and vowed never to go that way again.
While she did not save up as much as she could have, given
her long stay in Hong Kong, Jo, who is single
like Ching, has no regrets. She says she decided to indulge herself while
working hard, and in the process, built happy memories with friends that she
treasures to this day.
But Jo has not done badly after going home for good. She managed to set up her own company, JC Catering and Food Services, that quickly became known as a caterer to the stars.
For George, resettling back home had been in the cards for
sometime. He set Sept 5 this year as the date when he would return to his family in
Pampanga, as that would have been his last day at work.
But in November last year, he suffered a slipped disc while
carrying a heavy sofa, and amid the pain from that experience, he started
thinking he did not want to go home incapacitated and unable to enjoy
retirement.
He told his employers he wanted to go home, but fate
intervened when the domestic helper he was working with had to leave home for
an emergency.
His employers prevailed upon him to stay until February, but
the coronavirus outbreak happened, so he decided to stay a bit longer. He has
agreed to stay on for another month after his contract ended, but will not
agree to any more extension.
Apart from his desire to reunite with his wife and three
children, George says he also wants to give himself a new leash on life, or tap
whatever other talents he may have, after being an OFW for more than half his
life.
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George with his family during one of his vacations to his Pampanga hometown
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Asked how much he thought an OFW should save before deciding
to go home for good, George said it differs from person to person because of
their varying needs. But ideally, he said one should have been able to buy a
house, sent his children to school, and saved up enough money to start a
business, and live on.
“Kung pang tong-its lang naman, ok na,” he says jokingly.
In truth, he has prepared exceedingly well for his retirement. He
and his wife, who also used to work as an OFW in Hong Kong,
already have their own house in Pampanga, and his two eldest children have
finished school, and are now both engineers. His youngest is also about to
graduate from college.
What’s more, he has put away enough money to start his dream
construction business with his children. And even if this venture does not
yield immediate profit, George does not have much to worry about as he has
invested in SSS, Pag-IBIG Fund, and a life insurance.
Ching also had her mind set on her retirement goals from the
time she came to work as an OFW. Asked how she managed to stay away from the
lure of loans, Ching put it simply as: “Kung noong nagtatrabaho ako sa
Pilipinas na kakarampot ang suweldo ay napagkakasya ko, bakit kailangan kong
mangutang noong mas malaki na ang kita ko?’
(If I managed to save from the little that I was earning back in the Philippines, why should't I be able to do the same thing with a higher income?)
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With her future firmly secured, Ching now finds joy showing off her plump produce
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But Ching exceeded the expectations of even the best financial
planners when she decided to put away 30% of her monthly salary in preparation
for her retirement. Due to her thrifty and unpretentious nature, Ching who is one of a few "Bagong Bayani" awardees in Hong Kong, even
managed to send a few nieces to school from what was left of her salary each
month.
Thus, just a few years after working in Hong
Kong, she managed to invest in an apartment block from where she now
draws much of her spending money. She has also bought a house in her hometown
in Cagayan, and in Laguna where she now lives.
Not one to idle her time away, Ching also helped set up Balikatan sa Kaunlaran Hong Kong Council in 1996. The group has been giving free livelihood training to OFWs for the past 26 years, with her at the helm until she decided to go home.
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Ching's last public event for BSK had all the top Consulate officials as guests
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She decided to retire when her last contract coincidentally
ended on her 65th birthday in February 2018, which meant she was by
law, automatically entitled to long service pay.
Ching and George both went on to join Card Hong Kong
Foundation where they eventually became trainors in financial literacy. But the
training that they got and eventually shared with fellow OFWs just fine-tuned
what they had been practicing all along.
For Jo, Hong Kong is still
a home away from home, a place where she would want to keep going back to. “I
miss Hong Kong,” was among the first things she
blurted out during the interview.
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Jo, seen here with the late Consul General Bernardita Catalla
(2nd from left) and her friends from The SUN, enjoyed the good life in HK
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But she is herself settled back in the Philippines,
having set up a successful food and catering business with her chef-niece - until the coronavirus took hold.
In an instant, Jo, who just turned 60 years old, was
relegated to spending much of her time indoors, cooking meals for her extended
family and chatting with friends online.
But if there was one thing that her OFW experience had
taught her, it was resilience, and Jo, like George and Ching, would always draw
strength from that to make sure they indeed get to spend the rest of their lives back
home, for good.
