Where to Send Help for Typhoon Ondoy's Victims

For those who have extras on anything is badly needed by our fellow Filipinos in Metro Manila. With the devastation of Typhoon Ondoy, Metro Manila was messed up and so many people suffered from the wrath with water levels up to the second floor of houses. If you want to send donations and help please do so and feel free to use the details below. Any help is very much appreciated especially relief goods, food, blankets or money to mobilize the volunteering teams.

The government has three designated drop-off points for relief goods intended for typhoon Monody’s victims.

These are the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) center at the Batasan complex in Quezon City, the DSWD National Capital Region (NCR) office in Quiapo, Manila and the DSWD National Resource Operations Center in Pasay City.

Telephone numbers are: DSWD in Batasan – +632951-7119 and +63918-421-9780; DSWD NCR – +632-734-8634 to 25 and +63915-291-3722l and DSWD National Resource Operations Center – +632852-8081 and +632-734-8622


Other Help Alternative Methods:

1. “To those who can, donate to Red Cross thru txt. Send RED (space)<5,25,50,100> to 2899 (Globe) & 4483 (SMART) (Still for Typhoon ONDOY)”
2. “Volunteers and donations needed at: [1] Red Cross (QC Hall Compound – 24/7), [2] Ateneo (Cov Courts – 6am-12mn), [3] Sagip Kapamilya (13 Examiner Street – 24/7) will be at examiner tomorrow, come help if you can!”
3. “Relief drive for UP Communities start at 7am tmrw at Church of the Risen Lord. Relief drive in Ateneo College Covered Court until 12midnight tonight and will resume tmrw 7am. We need volunteers. Pls share food, bottled water, and blankets. Thank you. – UP USC 09-10″
4. “Office of the vice chancellor for community affairs accepting donations of relief goods (canned goods, medicines, cooking utensils, soap, cleaning implements, blankets, water, etc) starting tomorrow. pls help by disseminating this info. we also need help with receiving, packing and distributing of relief goods. pls contact 928-2947.”
5. “La Salle Greenhills relief operation from 9am – 9pm until friday. Any donation is appreciated! You are all welcome to come join us and help.”

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'Til death do us part

GONEGOSYO TODAY
The Official Newsletter of the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship

Thursday, January 15, 2009 The Philippine Star Business
by Joey Concepcion

Last week’s column, again, elicited a lot of response from many people. These are even the people who I thought would not read my column entitled “10 reasons why we should be happy in ‘09”. In fact, students even posted it in their personal blogs and social sites.

Anthony Pangilinan sent me what he thought should be the 11th reason. He wrote: no. 11, God still loves YOU Joey! Corruption is another 11th suggestion, which is a negative thought. Of course, there are still a number of people who believe that under this PGMA administration, the Philippines will not move forward.

Last week, the Philippines raised 1.5 billion dollars, being one of the four countries that were able to do so after the crisis. The other three are Brazil, Columbia and Korea, but the Philippine bond is the only one holding up quite well. This means that the Philippines has a great future, or else, it would not have been over four times oversubscribed.

This present financial crisis has more effects than the loss of financial properties. Just recently, a German billionaire committed suicide because he has lost what he has created and earned. This billionaire was even one among the 100 richest people in the world and holds the record for Germany’s fifth wealthiest. After this death, another business tycoon committed suicide in Chicago. He was one of the tycoons in America’s real estate industry. Even last year, the founder of the hedge fund Access International Advisors was also found dead and had apparently committed suicide. Reports say that he lost as much as 1.4 billion of his investments. The thought of being poor makes the rich decide to end their lives. This is why the financial crisis that the world faces today has hit the rich very hard. But, even though these people may have lost a lot, they are not even close to being poor compared to others.

Lately, I have been visiting my father-in-law Jose Orosa, who has been confined in St. Luke’s Hospital. He is now in the ICU. His cancer, which started in the colon, has now spread all over. It is just a matter of days or weeks. As I look at a dying man, it makes me think of how others can take their own lives, when people who have been given their death sentence due to terminal cancer are still trying to fight for their lives.

It is a challenge to think about what is more important. This is a big challenge, as when we are brought up, we are told to succeed in life. Mostly, we achieve this through material wealth, because in the physical world the things that we can touch are the ones that make more sense. It is all about the cars that we drive and the houses we live in. In this very competitive world, we start school and we are supposed to excel. Our grades become the measure of our success. As we mature and graduate from school, our measurement of success is the wealth and fame we have achieved. It is all about how big our negosyo becomes, etc. But, life does end.

My father in law was a workaholic, unfortunately. Even until his last days prior to an operation that should have never been done, he was still busy. His children, all five of them, love him very much. They are not embarrassed to show the affection they have for their father. In the spiritual world, all these material wealth and power don't mean anything. As we get older, the realization becomes clearer for those who are open to embrace the more important non-material things in life. For those who have taken their lives because of wealth loss in this financial crisis, they have given up to the pressure of what this physical world demands.

As I write this column, it does not mean I am able to succeed in beating the temptations of this world. It is maybe through this process, as we see people move on to the spiritual world, when this realization becomes more real. When we get married, the priest would say “Til death do you part…” I wonder how many people really understand this and what it means to part with relationships and material things in the world we know. In pursuing our negosyo challenges in life, we should remind ourselves that these are all temporary things. For those who are fortunate to have a good life, maybe it is a bigger challenge. But, for those who have less or nothing, maybe it would be easier. But, as we all strive to move up in life and become successful, we should not part with the belief that being successful is being happy and contented. It is all about staying healthy, being able to help others, and above all, having stronger relationship with our Creator.

***

Go Negosyo receives the People of the Year Award from People Asia, a magazine owned by The Philippine Star. Annually, they recognized people who have contributed to the Philippine society. This year, Go Negosyo is one of the awardees. This goes to all the entrepreneurs who gave their time, effort and support in inspiring fellow entrepreneurs in the micro, small and medium group. The only way our country can move forward is through the creation of more negosyantes who will employ people. An enterprising Filipino culture is what we need. Thank you to The Philippine Star for helping us inspire this nation of Filipinos and continue to light the candle of hope.

For feedback, email me at gonegosyo@yahoo.com or through SMS at our new hotline 0918-9656333. For free business advice, visit www.gonegosyo.net .
Click here to read more Ask Go Negosyo articles.

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Ten reasons why we should be happy in 2009

Thursday, January 8, 2009 The Philippine Star Business
by Joey Concepcion

Upon reading all the columns these days, there is nothing but bad news about 2009. Not that I disagree with many of the views, but I think things will be different. The Philippines will be far better than many other countries. Here are 10 reasons why I think we should be happy in 2009.

1 – We (Philippines, Inc.) have a unique business model, which is now more Service-based, through the export of manpower services and the migration of Filipinos to countries like America, Canada and countries in Europe. A lot of Filipinos continue to be one of the best performers in different industries, especially in the fields of medicine, construction, domestic service, among the many services provided. Many Filipinos, especially in America, take on two jobs and work very hard. Many of them even own the nursing homes in America. This is an industry wherein many Filipinos really excel. This strength comes from many generations of respect for elders. For example, the mano po tradition is still commonly practiced up to now. When a Pinoy eats, he never fails to say “Kain tayo!” and offers his food to be shared. These simple gestures show the many generations of respect. Our yayas who leave their families to take care of our own children are, in a way, traini ng for many who plan to go to Asian countries to do the same with higher pay. These OFW remittances will continue, which contributes to our GDP. In a way, this is the same as the oil that the Arabs have, or what durable products China has for exports to America. This is also now greatly affected as Americans have slowed down on consumption. Even though other countries, especially China, is well known for their export of hard goods, people will always have the option to put off buying furniture, toys, appliances or their other products. But, services are different because these are always needed. Our country’s export of services via OFWs, call centers and BPOs is very unique. Compared to This service is hard to replace, as Filipinos have the passion to serve and a natural advantage in communications skills especially when abroad. Even here in our country, a call center operator would make 300 dollars a month. This is just equivalent to three days wage of an American working in a call center. With the crisis in their country, they would have to relocate here.

2 – In the years to come, we will be entering a low interest regime, with the Americans taking interest rates to almost zero. This will force other countries to lower interest rates. If Japan has had low interest rates for nearly 15 years and if America’s economy will remain sluggish, we could be looking at low rates for quite some time. This can lead to our advantage. If our central bank will not lower rates, we may see a stronger peso this coming year or at the very least a much more stable peso. If interest rates are lowered, this will benefit a lot of entrepreneurs and would be also good for business. The peso may slide to the levels of 50, but this will also be good for the exporters, OFWs, call centers and BPOs.

3 – Oil has come down from the highs of 145 levels. As I have mentioned in my past columns, when oil was at that level, it was caused more by the hedge funds pushing oil beyond its real demand. Within two months, we have seen oil collapsed to a low of 30s. Now, it has recovered to high 40s. Assuming that oil would average between 50 and 60 for the year, this will still be a big boost for the tourism industry, as air travel will become cheaper. Our logistics cost in transporting products, being a country with seven thousand islands, will go down. The cost of power will go down, helping the consumers and the negosyantes with plants running at lower energy costs. This will also prevent an excessive conversion of farm lands to be used for alternative fuel, which should be discouraged. Instead, this option should be managed, so that irrigated and productive land will be used to make us self-sufficient in terms of producing rice.

4 – We will see inflation come down very fast. Commodities have come down, from the price of steel to raw materials and food like skimmed milk, wheat, oil, soybean, corn and others. By the beginning of the second quarter, when most of the companies that hedged would have been consumed, we should see prices come down. Another possibility would be no price increase this year. In fact, our company RFM has already reduced the price of our pasta. It is now one of the lowest in the market. Even our milk, hotdogs and corned beef are priced lower; as we are already taking some losses since the replacement cost have come down. This is going to be good news for the consumers.

5 – Philippine election spending will start early as usual. I expect this will be happening sometime midyear, as we will definitely have elections in 2010. The excitement of the 2010 elections will be felt very early. This spending should filter through the economy as early as the third quarter this year.

6 - Manny Pacquiao will beat Ricky Hatton. This will give the Filipinos greater pride. There will be more of the Collezione C2 shirts with the Philippine map to be worn by Filipinos, and less of the polo shirts. We will see a proliferation of proud Filipino shirts with the Philippine flag as its banner. All these lead to building the nationalistic spirit. This is also something that is very important to our country.

7 – The year 2009 will be the last full year of PGMA in office. I am not saying she has done a bad job. In fact, she has prepared well our country for the global financial crisis. This last year of her term, many of those running would want her to already finish her term. This year, we should see her stay in office, with less of impeachment noises. If we are able to weather this global crisis and PGMA is able to deliver economic growth, this will vindicate her as she finishes her term.

8 – The political drama will unfold. Many Filipinos look forward to this. Who will PGMA endorse as administration candidate? Who will Manny Villar pick as his running mate? Will Mar marry Korina? Will it be Loren or Chiz for president? Will Vilma Santos run for vice president?

9 – The world avoids a depression.

10 – GOD STILL LOVES THE PHILIPPINES.
***

For feedback, email me at gonegosyo@yahoo.com or through SMS at our new hotline 0918-9656333. For free business advice, visit www.gonegosyo.net .

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